Teufel Cubycon 2 review

Teufel’s latest 5.1 speaker system is designed as an all-in-one upgrade that will turn any TV and Blu-ray player into a full-blown home cinema system. The Cubycon 2 has a decoder box with a full range of inputs for all your separates, games consoles and set-top boxes, but it doesn’t skimp on sound quality to do so.

Because the system doesn’t rely on a third-party amplifier, Teuful has managed to move all the speaker inputs to the subwoofer, letting you hide most of your cables with only a few inputs going into the decoder box. This takes up less room, and should keep clutter to a minimum. The decoder box is about half the size of a regular set-top box, with a two-line LCD display and oversized volume dial on the front. All inputs are on the back. The unit has a stylish appearance that should sit well with the rest of your home cinema setup.

The subwoofer contains all of the speaker outputs and the amplifier

It has three HDMI inputs, all of which support version 1.4a for 3D video playback, and there are also two stereo RCA inputs, two digital coaxial and one optical input, a 3.5mm auxiliary input and radio antennae for both FM and AM stations. There’s also a USB port here, but it’s only for service updates – you can’t play media through the decoder.

The decoder box has plenty of inputs for all of your kit

The subwoofer connects to the decoder using three stereo RCA cables, which are included in the box. These are pretty thick and it can take some planning to hide them effectively, but they’re easily long enough to position the subwoofer out of sight.

The sub’s as large as a carry-on suitcase, but is incredibly well made and looks gorgeous in gunmetal black. With a little cable management, we’d happily show if off rather than hide it behind the furniture. It’s powered, and has a separate power cable to the decoder box, as well as binding post terminals for connecting each satellite speaker. It also has power and volume controls, should you want to reduce its rumble potential.

The speakers themselves are compact bookshelf-style satellites that look like smaller versions of the subwoofer. The fabric driver covers are non-removable, but they look great. Each one uses binding posts, letting you use your own speaker wire in case the bundled spool isn’t long enough, and has mounting points for fitting to a wall.

The bookcase speakers are compact but sound great

Once set up, we put the Cubycon 2 through its paces with our comprehensive set of test discs. It coped incredibly well with surround sound video, bringing Harry Potter’s dragon confrontation in The Goblet of Fire to bone-crunching life. Out of the box, the system was incredibly well balanced, with each satellite being heard when the 5.1 soundtrack demanded it. Surround sound effects were clearly defined in Avatar too, giving real depth to the opening scenes as helicopters fly overhead and creatures rustle through the jungle. There was plenty of subtle detail, even in quieter scenes, and we were always able to hear speech clearly thanks to accurate positional audio.

The subwoofer had just enough presence at its default setting, but we lowered the crossover point slightly to give it even more rumble. At high volumes and during intense action sequences, it proved itself extremely capable at delivering room-shaking bass that remained clear and distortion-free. In fact, we couldn’t hear any distortion across the entire frequency range throughout our film testing, which is a good indication that you shouldn’t need to do too much setup to get fantastic sound.

Films sound fantastic, but music from an iPod didn’t sound quite so good

We weren’t quite so impressed with music playback from an iPad through the 3.5mm auxiliary input, though. Unlike films, audio was incredibly bass-heavy and had a weak mid-range that let the top- and low-ends dominate. We switched to a digital optical input and changed from direct 5.1 to Dolby NEO:6 Music, and that helped decrease the dominance of low-frequencies slightly, but we couldn’t reign it in completely, even when changing crossover levels and subwoofer volume. If you only use your home theatre setup for films, this may not be an issue, but we expect a £1400 system to cope comfortably with any input.

Teufel bundles a comprehensive remote control to let you fine-tune the system, and it has all the features you expect, including tone, balance and level control, as well as source selection and the all-important volume buttons. It’s a good thing you aren’t too reliant on the onscreen interface, as it’s an incredibly basic menu system that pales in comparison to many big-name home cinema packages, although it has plenty of customisable options. We especially liked the option to set alternate audio outputs when playing HDMI video sources, which could be useful if you’re running a computer through your TV.

The comprehensive remote lets you control all of the system’s settings

With its incredibly easy setup, fantastic sound quality in films and gorgeous minimalist appearance, we were impressed with the Cubycon 2. It’s not without its flaws, chiefly the basic onscreen interface and the sheer number of cables needed to connect the decoder to the subwoofer, and it lacks the Smart TV systems you would find on a big-name brand all-in-one, but it’s still a great piece of kit. However, we aren’t sure it warrants its £1400 price. You could buy the phenomenal Q Acoustics Q7000 speaker set and a mid-range amplifier, with change left over for a Smart TV-equipped Blu-ray player. If you value space and ease of use though, we can definitely see the Teufel kit’s appeal.