Teufel System 8 THX Ultra 2 review

With any new speaker system, any self-respecting home cinema enthusiast will reach for the action movie. Hellboy 2 (on Blu-ray) in our case. Our immediate reaction is that the System 8 failed to wow us. It just wasn’t quite separated enough and lacked a little impact. The soundstage was also a little bright and lacking in real direction. First impressions can mislead, though, and this is exactly our summary after listening to over 40 hours of material through the System 8s.

Where the Teufel System 8 speakers excel is with musicality and integration, not high action. After 60 minutes of careful calibration and the addition of two my old Kef 3001 satellites in the Surround Rear Left/Right roles (for native 7.1 playback) the system hit new levels. We upped the sub and rear levels slightly and the soundstage became more extended as a result. Beauty and the Beast (Blu-ray DTS HD Master Audio 5.1) and Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (DVD DTS 5.1 EX) sounded incredible. The sheer fact that we’re working through our back catalogue again with a smile on our face shows what these speakers can do for your films.

Movies really do become more enjoyable and involving. The THX Ultra spec also ensures that this set works at very high levels without distortion but in a home this is only of use for the occasional show-off demo. That said, once we got the set-up right we started to enjoy action sequences presented in the THX way rather than the over-obvious “boom, boom, let’s shake the room” approach of old. If you want bass slam, it’s available by the bucketful from the 500W powered 30cm bass drive of the S8000 Teufel sub, but in THX mode the LFE channel is seamlessly interwoven into the overall soundstage. Turn up the sub level and you can feel the bass in your chest if you want to. Ultimately, don’t be a complete slave to the THX standard, feel free to personalise it to your own tastes.

Sub-extension is clean, beautifully presented and works down to the required THX 20Hz (-6dB) levels. Running a low frequency sweep test, there were no obvious peaks or holes and the sound stage stayed utterly joined-up at the front. Impressive.

Our only niggle is that we couldn’t persuade the sub to auto-powerup with our amp but it took only minutes to programme it into an all-in-one remote. As the speakers ran-in, they lost some of that initially off-putting tightness in the mid-range. The centre speaker especially delivered dialogue with cracking clarity. Our first impressions of the rears only improved: they continued to deliver rich, dynamic effects with a huge range of material. Their dipole nature also meant they functioned well when sitting alongside the viewing area. Handy if you have sofas in an L or U shaped seating configuration around the screen.

In its current guise, the System 8 speakers may be a tad too big with the lights on but this is one hell of a cinema system. With the lights off and the projector on, the performance is incredible with DTS HD Master Audio material, but they also perform exceptionally well in THX mode with older Dolby Digital 5.1 material from Sky HD and DVDs. You could argue that THX is made for the original 5.1 spec and this shows.

We have become spoilt by the rich, detailed and entirely convincing sound the Teufel System 8 speakers produce. We’re not convinced that THX is for everyone but we’re utterly sold. They bring out the cinematic soundtrack of any film from Fanboys through to Fellowship. And they do it with style, presence and utter clarity.