Teufel Theater 100 Speaker Package Review

Teufel Theater 100 Home Cinema Speaker PackageAlthough new to the UK market, Teufel have built an enviable reputation in Germany and Europe over the last 30 years for creating quality speakers at competitive prices.

One of the ways Teufel achieve such good value is by selling their speakers directly to the public. However, this does have the downside that it is often difficult to experience the speakers first hand, so we were very keen and pleased to review one of their most popular packages, the Teufel Theater 100 home cinema speaker system.

It is clear from the pictures that the Teufel Theater 100 speaker system isn’t a lifestyle system – it is a mid range package designed for those of us who are more demanding, and don’t mind sacrificing a little bit of style for improved performance.

Getting Hands On With The Theater 100

Whilst unpackaging the speakers it is immediately obvious that not only are they better looking in the flesh but also very well built. Everything from the rear binding posts to the substantial front grilles feels like it has been carefully designed and put together. Coming from a country that excels in quality, we should perhaps not have been surprised, but the exterior finish and build of the speakers is impressive, with good quality materials giving a real air of class and making them appear more expensive that they actually are from the outset.

Teufel Theater 100 Center and front SpeakersThe everlasting appeal of these smaller ‘black box’ speakers is that they always seem to shrink into the background and rarely dominate a room. This is especially true with the front speakers which at 26cm high by 16.3cm wide by 18.8cm deep are compact, and smaller than the rear dipole speakers which are 26cm high by 21.4cm wide by 16.3cm deep (measured as if they were mounted on the wall).

The centre speaker is a more attention grabbing with its distinctive top mounted tweeter unit drawing the eye a little, although we were pleased to discover that is very solidly mounted and not flimsy or breakable as we feared. The subwoofer is as big and heavy as it looks, and the solid plinth and thick rubber baffles hint at a speaker that means business. All the speaker grilles are removable and reveals a high gloss finish with silver cones that offer an attractive alternative look to the speakers.

Great Build Quality, But What About Sound Quality?

Overall first impressions of the Teufel Theater 100 are very good, and whilst build quality can get you some of the way, the sound quality is where it really counts. Firstly I’ll start at the back because this is where I was most impressed. The rear dipole speakers are switch-able meaning you can use them as a traditional monopole speaker to direct sound directly to the listening area, or with a flick of a switch on the rear of the speakers, return them to dipole mode to provide a wider sweep of surround sound. We had the speakers mounted to the wall so the the dipole setting was preferable for us and they really gave a pleasant and engaging experience, and true to form, it was difficult to pinpoint exactly where the sound was coming from. The lower frequency bass was particularly noticeable and gave a feel of power to the system.

Rear of dipole speaker, and subwooferWe like to leave the subwoofer switched off on the first test to make it easier to judge the lower end capabilities of the speakers, so it was no real surprise that the bass effect we heard on the rear speakers was somewhat lacking on the smaller front speakers. The clarity and range were very good though with nice sharp edges to the DTS-HD Master Audio track of Terminator Salvation. The centre speaker was similar to the fronts and lacked a little low end power, but the speech sounded realistic and clear which was perhaps helped by the top mounted set back tweeter. Switching on the subwoofer made the system reveal its true colours though. All the lower end frequencies missing before were suddenly filled in, and explosions made the 25cm driver rumble away with direction and speed. The sound never got muddied or confused during action sequences, and the speakers seemed to handle them with such ease that we were constantly cranking up the sound a little more to try and push them over the edge – they never did though, and we gave up first!

Speaker packages like the Teufel Theater 100 have been designed to work together, and the integration of the system was very impressive. Apart from running the Audyssey calibration program on the amplifier we didn’t have to touch any other settings, which is an indication of how well these speakers work straight out of the box.

What to consider before you buy the Teufel Theater 100 Home Cinema Speaker Package

All the speakers have one pair of binding posts, which means that bi-amping is out of the question. If you have smaller children, you may also find that the top mounted tweeter of the center speaker is very appealing to little fingers!

Why you should buy the Teufel Theater 100 Home Cinema Speaker Package

Home Cinema Buyer 5 Star RatingWe like speaker packages – they take so much of the hard work out of choosing by giving you a system that has been designed to work perfectly together. This is especially true with the Teufel Theater 100 and straight out of the box, you have a high quality set of speakers that performs with style, ease and surprising amounts of power. Most appealing of all though is the price. We would have been happy with a few minor shortcomings at the price range, but the Theater 100 system adamantly displays none, and this makes it a very desirable, and highly recommended system. Rating: 5/5

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