Teufel Concept E review

Once set up, the Concept E produced crisp, punchy audio that gave films and games great definition. The high-end managed to avoid sounding sharp, even when playing our acoustic and orchestral test tracks, while the centre speaker coped well with speech during hectic action film sequences. DTS surround sound effects were convincing when connected over digital optical, but unless you have a compatible DVD or Blu-ray player, you’ll only get Dolby Digital from a PC through the USB connection.

Although the subwoofer didn’t dominate the mix, it certainly makes its presence felt; games, action films, and rock and electronic music produce a room-shaking amount of bass. With no separate dial on the back to turn it down, increasing the volume means increasing the amount of rumble too – to reduce it you’ll have to get off the sofa and walk over to the subwoofer. This seems like a bit of an oversight, as bass is often a personal preference, but a price paid for the incredibly simple remote control. It is possible to tweak the volume of each individual channel, which we would certainly recommend as the rear satellites could have used a little extra volume for completely immersive surround sound. Holding down the relevant channel on the front of the subwoofer for several seconds will unlock balance controls, letting you boost specific channels or reducing down the strength of the subwoofer.

When listening to music through the USB sound card, Dolby Pro Logic enables itself automatically if you’ve selected 5.1. There’s currently no driver software to give you greater control, and although you have the choice of 2.1 or 5.1 surround sound, there are no equaliser presets or dedicated surround modes. This means that if you don’t like the Concept E’s sound signature out of the box you’ll only be able to tweak it using your connected devices, assuming they have an equaliser. Some TVs and mobile devices will be stuck with the out-of-the-box sound.

At £350 plus £20 for delivery, the Concept E is a powerful 5.1 system that seems to fill a rather tight niche. If you watch most of your films and TV shows through on-demand or catch-up services on a laptop, the built-in sound card can add true surround sound without having to use an AV amplifier. Anyone that wants complete control over individual channels or the amount of bass at the push of a button may be put off, but if you take the time to calibrate the sound manually through the subwoofer control panel, you will reap the benefits. You could buy the Onkyo HTX-22HDX (£320, www.superfi.co.uk) and a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi (£64, www.dabs.com) sound card for a similar amount to the Concept E, but that setup won’t have Bluetooth. We’d prefer to get the comprehensive Concept E.