Teufel System 8 THX Ultra 2 review

The entire set arrived well-packed but occupying a sizeable pallet. Most of this is the 42kg sub, but this is quite a delivery emphasising the fact that System 8 is designed for around 100m³ sized listening rooms. The two front stereo and centre speakers are all the same S800 models. Finished in the piano black, they are designed to be wall mounted.

The S800s are fussy about the screw spacing so make sure you are DIY confident before installing speakers that cost this much. The sub is huge and nearly as deep as a sofa and about as easy to shift. Unbelievably this sub is relatively compact alongside some of Teufel’s other fridge-sized subwoofer behemoths.

The wall-mounted rears protrude a long way from the wall too and need to be fixed so that the rear-firing mid-range unit sits a couple of cm proud of the wall. In case you hadn’t picked up on this so far, THX is a size commitment. If you are using a projector you need to be prepared to lose 65cm (speakers are 45cm wide) either side of your screen unless you mount below or use acoustically transparent material. In smaller rooms, this may be too restrictive. You are also going to have live with very obvious rear speakers which need to be mounted to the side of the main listening point.

So, how do 80kilos of speaker sound? Connected to an Onkyo 875 amp (THX Ultra 2 rated) using QED Silver cable, we initially set up the System 8 using the 875’s automated Audyssey set-up. First impressions are of an absolutely enveloping sound field. The identical front three speakers and dipole rears create an almost seamless presence with the right material.

Moving up from a set of Kef 3001s, the most noticeable difference is the depth of the rear channels. A total of 10 side and rear-firing units produce a dynamic range that is a significant step up from anything else we’ve reviewed. The other change is that the bass becomes completely integrated in THX mode. No boom, rumble or obvious subwoofer action. THX presents a completely integrated sound field, much like a cinema. If you like your surround and bass more obvious then it may not be for you, certainly out of the box.