Author: Ivan Rivera

Excellent, high-quality starter set with devil-like strong bass, and only a few weaknesses in the rest of the sound.

“Okay, you can test our fancy amplifier with your weird vinyl soundtracks, but since we prefer to sell it with our favorite entry-level speakers, the Teufel Ultima 40 MK2, you should test them too. It’s not a real one now Set, you can buy everything individually, but it’s just a couple of really cool boxes. ” Fine. Whatever. A couple of standing speakers for just under 500 euros – price per pair, not per piece! -, white now not exactly what that is about, I had such beginner pillars 20 years ago, will probably be okay. Do a quick test, don’t be too mean, because 500 euros for a pair of pedestals is really not the world now. Simply write in a friendly way with “you can do it, you don’t have to” in the corner.

No matter if you’re black or white. But with or without mesh, that’s a question.

Damn it, I should be learning from Teufel slowly. These things rock. For real and so. Far more than you have the right to do at the price. So, let’s go. And what it’s about is a pair of passive stereo boxes. Not an active set. There is an active Ultima 40 set, but since completely different components come into play, this test refers exclusively and expressly to the Teufel Ultima 40 MK2.

Fear of heights: You have to plan for more than a meter in height, but with a depth of over 30 centimeters, the Ultimas are otherwise not handy.

And as always with Teufel: Don’t underestimate what you do to your postman. They are not sent with a forwarding agent. And if you think: “Not 500 euros, how much press cardboard can there be nailed around the drivers?”, Then forget about it again. A very supple 42 kilos, 21 per box, want to be transported to the old apartment without an elevator. Sure, still MDF. You don’t get real wood for the money. But some – mostly Ikea buyers – dream of such noble things as MDF and the Ultimas also look extremely stable. As for the design: Please look at the pictures. They are standing speakers. Very conservative, no gamblers, fit into every room, every facility and every facility. Teufel likes to let it rip in the design, the Ultima 40 fall out of the concept as neglected. Although, in white,

But conservative can also be a virtue, for example when it comes to processing. The weight suggests it, but a good first impression also holds up to a closer look. These boxes have a much higher quality finish through and through than one should expect for the price. In addition to high stability, the respectable weight offers a lot of structural stability when it gets louder. You don’t have to worry about the speakers starting to rattle or swing.

The timing is coincidental – the boxes have been here for a good two months – but Teufel currently has a number of Black Friday offers, including the Teufel Ultima 40 MK2 for just under 380 euros.

Ready for bi, both wiring and amping. The hi-fi gods argue about whether this is necessary.

The technology clearly indicates where the sound is going: You will find a three-way system in the box with two classic 165mm fabric-fiberglass woofers – a current and tried-and-tested combination of materials – and a 165mm Kevlar fiberglass -Middle tone – an up-to-date and tried-and-tested combination of materials that you don’t always get in this price range. A 25mm fabric dome is responsible for the high tones and a phase plug is supposed to eliminate phase shifts, which it probably does well. The continuous load capacity is 120 watts with 200 watts impulse load capacity, the efficiency of 87 dB is impressive. It’s a 4-8 ohm box, so it should be compatible with pretty much any amplifier. The maximum sound pressure is 108dB, which is too much for long-term listening, but enough to to make a brief impression in the neighborhood. With 45 to 20k Hz, the frequency range is within the normal range for this price class. Space should be available, not only is the weight of almost 21 kilos per box impressive, they are 106 cm high, 33 deep and 22 wide. In most of the rooms they don’t exactly disappear in the background.

As far as the connections are concerned, you have four gold-plated and gold-plated s***w terminals of the simpler type per box. S***w up the terminal, thread the cable – up to 4mm – into the small hole in the s***w, s***w back the terminal. Nothing exotic, works. What is possible is bi-wiring and passive bi-amping. The latter means that you can connect two amplifiers to the Ultima 40 to feed it with even more power. To what extent this makes sense with a 120 watt box for little money is up to you. In the hi-fi community there are people who swear by it, others say it’s utter nonsense, most of them don’t seem to care.

Bi-wiring, on the other hand, means that you connect additional speakers and different pairs of speakers take care of different frequency ranges. This is a science in itself, and if you get it right, buy the right speakers and consult an expert to get everything set up correctly, you can get some interesting sound improvements. But since this is something that people who buy 400 euro boxes will probably do less often, it is one of the most effective ways to ruin the sound without this effort. I myself briefly tested it here in conjunction with a Nubert set as a second pair, without any great success, came to no satisfactory result and put it off to another day. The Ultima 40 MK2 have this feature, it is there when you want it.

Almost nice: the midrange fails.

The setup is quite simple, you can have a look at it here, for example, in my vinyl corner, which is largely ignored by the outside world, minus the Nubert boxes, for which the devils will of course take over. The amplifier is the Teufel Kombo 62, which you almost ashamedly sorted under “accessories” and yes, even if it is not a big Yamaha or Pioneer or something from the real hi-fi area is, it is absolutely convincing in its price range and with 200 watts it also has enough power to avoid the question of bi-amping here. It is also offered by Teufel as a set with the Ultima 40 MK2, although I would even say that the Kombo 62 is a bit oversized for these speakers and as an entry-level stereo solution, for example, the small Marantz or Yamahas are more suitable, if you do not attach great importance to the digital features of the Teufel receiver. Either way, let’s go to the sound.

Do the boxes have to be the largest in a facility? Ultimas fulfill this characteristic with ease.

After a couple of hours with the two white giants in the room, a nagging voice has to be switched off: the hi-fi snob. I have been listening to music consciously for more than 20 years and even if I never drifted into the esoteric realms of the hi-fi nerds with their self-made golden ears, when I heard the differences in data transmission the CAT-5 cable came from Denon, but I’ve developed a certain standard. And no, the Ultima 40 MK2 do not meet this requirement. Or at least not completely. But: If I had got such boxes for the money to start my hi-fi journey, OMG !, I would have been happy. They are absolutely insane entry-level boxes for teens and twens and everyone who has heard over a Bluetooth roaring cube and meets some nice, real loudspeakers. In this case the Ultima 40 MK2 are an awakening experience. Admittedly, that would probably be a bit inferior normal boxes too, but the Ultimas live up to their name in their price range – and you always have to add that with Hi-Fi, of course. You are pretty much ultimate.

First of all, the general sound of the Ultima 40 MK2. Teufel is known for its bass thump and one of the reasons for that is boxes like this. It’s really impressive, and far more precise than it should be for the price, what low pressure waves are coming out of these speakers. It is not only the sheer strength that is available that ensures nightly visits by law enforcement officers if you have sensitive neighbors or if you really want to go for it. What won me over at every level was the clarity of the bass. You don’t have this dull bass pulp that makes the bowels vibrate indefinitely. When this current typical Hans Zimmer Inception hum goes through the room, you will feel it exactly as it was intended, across the spectrum of low frequencies, right down to the bottom.

Behind the scenes: both midrange and …

The mids and highs are also clean and precise, even if they are less impressive in this area than the lows. Still, and again, still impressive for the money, and definitely not a blemish. It becomes more difficult in the more complicated areas of dynamics and spatial volume for everything that does not happen below 100 Hz. If you sit nicely in the stereo triangle, then you can still do it. In a more normal, more social seating arrangement with one or two friends, it quickly becomes clear that the Ultimas don’t really manage to transport the mids and heights through the room in an exciting way. They sound very neutrally balanced, almost a bit sterile and the more, the more the angle to the boxes deviates from the ideal. In the end, this is the case with all stereo speakers, but here it happens very quickly. But more important is that the Ultimas soundstage is surprisingly small. Almost no matter what you hear, you never have the impression that you are sitting in front of a big stage. It is always clear that the sound comes from precisely these two boxes, which your ears can precisely assign, and the space-filling volume is missing despite the solid resolution of the sound.

When it comes to dynamics, too, something has to fall by the wayside. Dynamics is certainly the most frequently misused term in hi-fi, after all, it actually describes the precisely measurable difference between the loudest and quietest possible sound at the maximum permissible load. But what I and many others often think is how quickly the box reacts to the tiniest changes in sound. This is measurable, but it will be very scientific and that’s why I’ll just leave it – also because I haven’t penetrated the scientific side so one hundred percent – that the Ultima 40 MK2 are not that fixed. They can reproduce a tone very precisely and clearly, but if, for example, a certain timbre is in a voice, it may be that they miss details, simply, because the tones don’t respond quickly enough to those tiny swings in the curve. The result can easily be summed up in words: on the Ultima 40 MK2, almost everything sounds a little bit more boring than it would be if you spend twice as much or more on your speakers. Not surprisingly, I admit, but I say that as a clear relativization of the situation. The Ultima 40 MK2 do fantastic things for their money, but they can’t work miracles either.

… Subwoofers are bulky and valuable, the cable layer at the back looks neatly processed, even if the material is rather unspectacular.

Now a little bit through the media and genres to see where the Ultimas feel at home. Let’s start with games and film, although stereo in this discipline should of course not be everyone’s cup of tea. But these boxes can also be the nucleus for a 5.1 set that is gradually bought, so let’s see how it comes with such a start in stereo. Assassin’s Creed: Origins and Star Wars: Battlefront 2 are currently among the most sonically impressive games of the season, plus my beloved Prey with its idiosyncratic sound design and, unsurprisingly, everything that makes the walls shake fantastic over. You can feel the deep hum of the space station, every explosion of a tie-fighter or an X-wing, as if sound really existed in space and it’s just fun. After that had to be a round of Doom ’16 and mowing through demons is just bass rock and roll at its best. The tonal weaknesses of the mids and highs do not come to the fore here either, since they are still good enough and you usually sit ideally enough and are too involved in the gameplay to be concerned with details now To. This is more noticeable, for example, when you enjoy sailing with the hawk over Egypt in Origins and the sound of the wind around you does not fill the space as it should. But otherwise, for entry-level speakers, what kind of gaming sound would I have given back then? because they are still good enough and you usually sit ideally enough and are too involved in the gameplay to concern yourself with details now.

This is more noticeable, for example, when you enjoy sailing with the hawk over Egypt in Origins and the sound of the wind around you does not fill the space as it should. But otherwise, for entry-level speakers, what kind of gaming sound would I have given back then? because they are still good enough and you usually sit ideally enough and are too involved in the gameplay to concern yourself with details now. This is more noticeable, for example, when you enjoy sailing with the hawk over Egypt in Origins and the sound of the wind around you does not fill the space as it should. But otherwise, for entry-level speakers, what kind of gaming sound would I have given back then?

Somewhat unknown, but powerful stereo all-rounder: Teufel sells the Kombo 62 in many sets, including the Ultima 40 MK2.

With movies there are few surprises: Let it crash with Transformers and it crashes and rumbles and the constant bass of senseless explosions drown out with power and class that the rest of the room doesn’t fill the room as it should be. I have to admit, I really like the first film as action trash and I can always give myself the finale of the Scorpio scene if I want to let it rumble epic. The Ultima 40 MK2 are perfect for this. But if we go back a few steps and decades, it is noticeable, for example, with the excellently remastered Blade Runner, that the floating sound of the first settings on these speakers cannot reproduce the range of the sound as a more dynamic set would. It still sounds very good but also the voices, for example, are a little too direct, too neutral and, in their subtleties, a little less emotional. Are the Ultima 40 MK2 still fun? Of course, a lot, but it can only outplay its entry-level status up to a point.

Simple wiring and amping: You have no active control behind the two connections.

Musically it is a set clearly designed for thunder. Anything that has a bass will proudly hammer it out of these speakers, be it the new Dan Terminus record, Automated Refrains, with their modern retro wave sound or Giorgos Moroder’s pop symphony Dà © jà Vu. Party bass mood with high tempo or dark canyons with threatening hum, the Ultimas move forward with a punch, without breaking a sweat even at high volumes. With nothing that you can sensibly turn up for more than three minutes in a closed room, the bass begins to surrender and mids and highs, with all their minor weaknesses, pull along well enough to create a continuous party sound to cut out at a high level.

In rock and metal, tested with Metallicas and Foo Fighters last outpourings, neutrality and lack of dynamism are more important. You have a very clean, clear sound, which, however, lacks what is actually exciting in the subtleties of the sound. These genres have good bass, but they don’t just rely on them and that shows up here. If you want to take that to the extreme, you can take the 1975 Springsteen Hammersmith recording from Thunder Road, which is all about precision in dynamics and it shows why Ultima 40 is the Alpha and not the Omega of the hi-fi. But again, if you had some kind of throw-away-roaring cube before, every song, no matter what genre, is a valid eargamus that you can expect.

Teufel Ultima 40 MK2 on Amazon.de

Possible competitors: Yamaha NS 555, nuBox 483, Quadral Argentum 550.

What else is there: The price is particularly difficult, there is not that much in the mix of quality and for around 450 to 550 euros. If they are on sale, you can get two Yamaha NS 555s for around 500 euros. Very nice look, comparable performance and structure, less powerful in the depths. For 550 you get to Nubert’s nuBox 483, a very balanced and slightly smaller two-way bass reflex box, which also doesn’t quite have the bass joy of the Ultimas, but justifies its surcharge with more sound liveliness. The last set that I compared to Gemütes was the Quadral Argentum 550, especially in white. a dream in 80s technicolor. In terms of price they are pretty much the same as the Ultima 40 MK2, their bass precision leaves something to be desired in terms of sound,

PR picture of the day: You know that you should change the flat share if you don’t lock your boxes with the rest of the stuff in a steel cage because they’re just too big. are.

Devil does what devil can. For a price between the offer and discount mood in what feels like a permanent condition of 380 to 450 euros, you get a perfect entry-level box, which has all the qualities that later in life will deal with larger expenses for have new boxes refined. But as the planned switch away from small active systems to real loudspeakers, the Ultima 40 MK2 are an ideal compromise between a low, tempting price and far more sound quality than one should expect. They answer the eternal question about the big bass with confidence and, above all, with far more precision than any cheap set could ever strive for. Not only does it rumble, it rumbles just right. And even if the rest of the sound aspects are still of high quality: The magic and liveliness of the subtleties of music, that is from a certain point the limit that the ultimas have to draw for themselves and which in this price range, in combination with so much performance and power, is practically impossible to reach. As what they should be, a strong entry into the hi-fi world and the foundation for a first large home theater set, the Teufel Ultima 40 MK2 are simply ideal.