Teufel Columa 200 review

It’s immediately clear that Teufel’s Columa 200 is a set of speakers to be proud of. The angular design, wood-grain finish and high-quality construction all ooze class. You’ll definitely want to keep them on display rather than hide them among your furniture.

The subwoofer has the same stunning wood finish, so it would be a shame to hide it in a corner. It’s fairly compact for an active sub, but still weighs a hefty 15kg. There are volume and power controls around the back, but you’ll need to use your amplifier’s settings to do any serious tweaking.

The satellites themselves all use binding post connections for regular speaker wire. Teufel doesn’t include any in the box, so you’ll have to factor this into the price of the unit – along with the considerable £50 delivery costs (like all Teufel speaker systems, it’s shipped direct from Germany). At least you’ll be able to position them anywhere in a room with the right amount of cable.

Being column speakers, each satellite is ideally positioned at head-height. This made movies incredibly immersive, with each gunshot, explosion and tyre squeal in Casino Royale beaming directly into our ears. You would get a similar effect by wall-mounting a regular set of speakers, but positioning these ones away from walls reduces reflections to further boost audio fidelity.

Bass from the subwoofer was enough to rattle the furniture in our test chamber at barely higher than the medium settings; some people may find that the set is too bass-heavy, but with some tweaking we managed to find the ideal balance for watching movies. Speech was clear from the horizontal centre speaker, without being overwhelmed by the other satellites. Positional audio was fantastic, adding to the realism of dramatic surround effects.

Music sounded equally superb, with the full frequency range coming through clearly. Bass notes again were slightly too strong at the default settings, but turning down the subwoofer didn’t reveal any weaknesses in the satellites.

If you’re after a set of quality speakers that can match fantastic audio with superb styling, the Columa 200 is difficult to beat. With excellent sound, gorgeous looks and a confidence-inspiring twelve-year warranty, it’s well worth the asking price.