We know Ultimea well for its super-affordable soundbars, which bring improved audio and even solid surround sound for super-cheap prices. We rate the Ultimea Poseidon D50 among the best soundbars on a budget, for example.
But the company also leans towards the high-end sometimes, and I got very interested by the unusual new soundbar system it teased for CES 2026, so I tracked it down at the show.
The Skywave X100 Dual is a 9.2.6-channel Dolby Atmos system, which is a very unusual system to get in a single home solution – and it’s doubly unusual because the setup uses four satellite speakers with a soundbar at the front to deliver all these channels, plus two beefy subwoofers. The main competitor in this way is the Nakamichi Dragon 11.4.6.
Ultimea’s booth at CES was playing Top Gun: Maverick‘s bombing and air defense scene on the system, which was perfect for me – we regularly use this exact scene for testing surround sound, and I’ve highlighted it as being one of the best Dolby Atmos movies to see what your system at home can do.
So I sat on a sofa, with two speakers at the sides behind me, two immediately to my left and right, and the soundbar and subs in front by the TV – and the surround effects are easily the most convincing I’ve ever heard for a soundbar system.
Elite soundbar setups like the Samsung HW-Q990F do a fantastic job of bouncing sound around the room to simulate side speakers, but there is no substitute for having an actual speaker firing directly to the side.
The connection between the front and rear speakers is immediately clearly better than my elaborate home Sonos surround system – missiles blast from the screen, snake right past my ear, and then whip behind me.
And the impact of the dual subs is obviously massive as well – non-directional bass just fills the space, gripping your ribcage when it wants your attention.
My only area of concern based on this demo is the soundbar at the front. I wasn’t getting the same scale of width from it during my time there, but I think that may be partly just due to how the booth was set up. The sofa was quite far from the soundbar, but with the surround speakers right next to the sofa, the soundbar may have been interfered with more by sounds from the rest of the expo.
And at the same time, there was a solid wall to my left that the soundbar could use to bounce audio off, but nothing to my right at all. It’s not really the environment it’s designed to operate in, so I’ll reserve judgment on that aspect.
What I can say for sure is that, as someone who’s used to a four-box soundbar system (soundbar, rears, sub), switching to this seven-box system has me absolutely hooked and wanting to try it out more with more movies.
And one of the best parts of this system is that I could have it at home, even in my small living room. No big home theater space is needed – the satellite speakers are all super-slim, and the soundbar is just regular-sized.
It supports DTS:X and Dolby Atmos, has 2,000 watts of total power, and has 4K 120Hz HDMI passthrough for good measure. This could be THE home theater setup for those of us desperate for real surround sound in a small space.
Now, the Skywave X100 Dual doesn’t come anywhere near as cheap as the company’s other soundbars… and yet, it’s still kind of a bargain in the grand scheme of things.
It will cost $2,200 full price when it hits retail, which I think is pretty reasonable for something with this many speaker boxes, and it’ll probably get discounts during Black Friday.
However, it’s actually going to launch with huge discounts too. It will launch on Kickstarter on March 12th, 2026, and will be available for just $899 at an ‘Insider Price’, or for $999 as a ‘Super Early Bird Price’. We never recommend products when they’re in the Kickstarter phase only, and obviously, I’m FAR from giving this a full review, but if you, like me, are a home theater nut with limited space, I think it’s worth keeping a close eye on this.
The best soundbars for all budgets
TechRadar is extensively covering this year’s CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2026 news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything from wireless TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI. You can also ask us a question about the show in our CES 2026 live Q&A and we’ll do our best to answer it.
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