Majority Everest 5.1 Review

Design

• Completely wireless and hybrid surrounds
• Wireless subwoofer
• Good build and unassuming looks

There are few price-point surprises when it comes to the materials deployed for the Everest soundbar component. The cross section is oval, lending a softer domestic look, rather than plumping for the hard corners of some competitors’ models.

It’s also formed from a black plastic shell, but the steel and curved front dot-matrix grille is well-machined. At 90cm in length, it makes a good bedfellow for a 55-inch or 60-inch display. I’ll come to the surround speakers below but note that the soundbar can extend to 124cm when these are twist-locked onto the ends.

The sub is pretty much soundbar combo standard fare with its 25cm height and matte black paint job over an MDF frame. Its 5.25-inch driver is down-firing while the front side brandishes a typical passive reflex port for extra oomph. It connects automatically to the bar over Bluetooth once both are powered on, and it’s good to see that all the components in the set have discrete on/off switches.

While the sub has a hardwired power connection, neither of the surround speakers do. And this is one of the key features of Everest. These neat 16.8cm satellite speakers can either screw with a 45-degree twist onto the well-made steel feet, or they can bond onto the main soundbar with the same action after removing the endcaps.

Their circumference is naturally identical to the bar section, so they look like part of the same seamless housing. This is useful if you want to get the surrounds out of the way after bingeing on a movie and wish to revert to, say, music streaming.

The Bluetooth surrounds are also completely wireless. They require neither a permanent AC power nor a data/speaker cable. Charge them up and then let them do their thing for up to four hours. Again, this is a great feature for optimising their location on a whim. That they don’t have to be forever shackled to a power outlet is a surefire bonus.

The remote control is a little busy for my liking – there are too many closely located buttons prompting easy errors. It’s plastic, perhaps obviously, but along with sound mode and input selections, it does allow you to adjust the independent levels of the bar, sub and surrounds.

The sub can become overbearing with some sources, so I did find myself reaching over to tame its excesses. You also have a basic complement of four rubber button controls on the top of the unit if the remote goes AWOL. The white LED display behind the soundbar’s grate is both easily readable and defeatable; the latter minimises distraction from TV viewing.

Features

• Bluetooth 5.0 streaming
• 300 watts power output
• HDMI ARC

The Everest tops out with Dolby Digital 5.1. The literature states that ‘Dolby Audio’ is the decoding feature, which itself encompasses unwrapping for both matrix and discrete surround sound sources.

There’s a healthy set of inputs on recessed back panel of the soundbar, including HDMI ARC, optical, line-level RCA, 3.5mm and USB (for file playback). Majority includes a set of RCAs and a 3.5mm cable in the box. The company also thoughtfully includes a comprehensive and excellent manual in English. This is such a departure from the usual and sometimes irritating quick start guides in multiple languages that most manufacturers throw at punters.

Majority doesn’t share many of its product specs in detail. However, they do make it clear that 300 watts of total RMS power is shared between six circular (not racetrack) 2.25-inch drivers in the soundbar, two 2.25-inch drivers in the surrounds. There’s also one 5.25in driver in the subwoofer, as mentioned earlier.

I’ve no reason to dispute Majority’s claim to a frequency response of 70Hz to 15kHz, particularly in a world where many manufactures would dare not boast any numbers less than the customary 20Hz to 20kHz. Given these numbers, the sub can produce quite a punch and the satellites some respectable musical performance.

I found streaming from Tidal over the Bluetooth 5.0 connection perfectly reliable and usable, although remember you will need to pair from your phone or tablet.

Sound Quality

• Impressive surround sound
• Clear, if slightly shrieky voices
• Excellent subwoofer

While surfing broadcast TV channels, the Everest has no beef with negotiating dialogue, which after all is the reason that many of us plump for soundbars in the first place. This was so much the case that the soundbar managed to lift the soundscape quite confidently over my TV’s built-in speakers.

I should stress that this is a rare occurrence during my normal experience with budget soundbars. It doesn’t hide from the fact that the Everest promotes a rather shrill and raspy top end. But as the sonics are nevertheless biased towards that extremity, voices are nudged towards detail and clarity.

This vocal reliability translates into movie content too. The scrappy amateur ‘found footage’ look of Cloverfield (4K Blu-ray) is mirrored with intentional distorted dialogue. Nonetheless, what is decipherable is more than compensated for.

And most surprising and enjoyable is the impressive and wide-cast surround envelope that Everest can disseminate around the room. Not only does the soundbar manage to breathe out to the sides, but the surrounds draw your attention towards the front proscenium. It’s helped on by a sub which, while hardly articulate, lends some convincing rumbles when the kaiju ransacks Manhattan.

Even during the Morocco motorbike chase in The Adventures of Tintin, the Majority proves it can dispense some forthright directional cues from front to rear, and side to side. As the bike lurches and speeds through the narrow streets, it’s clear that the system can fish out all the necessary and discrete cues from a 5.1 source.

While the surround immersion is impressive, there’s no getting away from the fact that the Majority is a budget model. There’s a characteristic thinness to the soundstage that plagues so many products in the category. It’s just that to my ears the Everest does everything it should for the price.

Music streaming is also a perfectly acceptable experience. Stuart Copeland’s Our Mother is Alive from the Rumble Fish movie soundtrack manages to pick up on the details of the frenetic percussion. There’s also the bounding thud of timpani into which the sub seems happy to inject some life.

It would be preferable if the Majority could get to grips with more midrange clout, but for some casual tunes in the living room, the soundbar can easily step up.  

The Everest hardly exhibits textbook acuity for interpreting soprano voices either in the Wedding Anthem from Stephen Oliver’s Nicholas Nickleby score. They all get a bit edgy and harsh, but there’s a pay-off with the assured organ accompaniment providing a backbone.

Should you buy it?