Following the CINEBAR 11 from 2020, Teufel is coming this year with an updated version of this 2.1 set. How does the CINEBAR 11 (2nd generation) compare to the older model and other sound bars on the market? You can read the answer in our Teufel CINEBAR 11 review.
Teufel CINEBAR 11
price
€ 399, –
Connections
HDMI-IN, HMDI 3D Arc Cec, Optical Digital Input, AUX
Wireless
Bluetooth 5.0, aptX
Soundbar output power
150 watts
Frequency range
Soundbar: 33 – 20000 Hz
Subwoofer 31 – 200 Hz
Dimensions
Soundbar: 94.80 × 6.00 × 8.30 centimeters
Subwoofer: 12.00 x 42.00 x 42.00 centimeters
Weight
Soundbar: 1.81 kg
Subwoofer: 7.66 kg
Website
www.teufelaudio.nl
8 Score 80 
- Pros
- Slim but good subwoofer
- Nice appearance
- Sound quality compared to price
- Adjust sound to taste
- Negatives
- Lacks wifi and ethernet option
- Remote control looks fragile
- Sensitive to dust and finger stains
The Teufel CINEBAR 11 is an upgrade of the same name soundbar from last year. What immediately catches the eye is that the renewed model has a different subwoofer. What can this soundbar do and what are the pros and cons of this device?
Appearance
A big plus is the design. The bar is slim, as is the woofer. This makes it easy to hide both parts in your living room. The bar is almost 95 centimeters long. As a result, the CINEBAR 11 fits perfectly with a television around 43 inches or larger. In any case, the soundbar does not look out of place in this test setup. The device is not overly present. It’s also nice that the bar is not very deep. The Cinebar is beautifully finished. This test model came in black. There is also a white version for sale. The black of the soundbar in combination with the white control buttons and the white Teufel logo looks nice.
The black version is sensitive to dust. Both the bar and the woofer suffer from this. Finger spots are also clearly visible. If you move the subwoofer or operate the bar via the buttons on the top, you clearly leave traces. In many cases this is unavoidable. Also with other sound bars.
Ideal setup
The wireless slim woofer can lie or stand. Connecting the woofer to the soundbar is very easy by pressing the pairing button on the back of the woofer. You could choose to hide the woofer under your couch or place it in the corner of your room. Somewhere next to the TV cabinet seems the ideal arrangement for the time being. The subwoofer has a Room-Placement switch. You can set this switch to three options. ‘free standing’, ‘corner’ and ‘underneath’ are possible. The choice depends on the placement of the subwoofer.
A resonance damper is included in the box. You need to place this under the woofer. This helps you to try to spare your neighbors a bit. Another handy function has been added to the soundbar to make slightly less noise at appropriate times. Especially late at night it is advisable to use the night mode. This can be found on the supplied remote control. As soon as you activate this mode, the bass reproduction is slightly reduced.
“The CINEBAR 11 can be transformed into a 4.1 system. You can add two more EFFEKT speakers to the set.
Connecting
You can connect the soundbar to your audio source in a number of different ways. First you have the well-known optical connection. In addition, it has an HDMI arc connection. (on the soundbar this is indicated as HDMI TV) and HDMI input (HDMI in) on the device. The arc connection makes it possible to control your volume via your TV. You do not have to consult the remote control of the soundbar separately for this. For example, you can hang your console between the TV and the soundbar via the HDMI input. Both ports support 4k hdmi 2.0a.
Connecting the cables takes some effort. Due to the angle of the connections and the finish of the back, a steady hand is required of you when connecting. Especially the optical connection is very important. In addition, you can still have the soundbar play audio via AUX and Bluetooth. The aux input is incorporated on the back. This is a little less convenient. In fact, you should now always leave the auxiliary cable in the device. The predecessor of this soundbar had the aux connection on the top. This is more of an aesthetic change I think.
The CINEBAR 11 supports bluetooth 5.0 and can use the aptX codec. Thanks to aptX it is possible to play CD-quality audio and make it sound almost like it. Mind you, almost. There is still audio compression, but this compression is limited. Your audio source must also support this codec, otherwise this function is of no use.
Finally, there is a micro USB connection to carry out any software updates. The soundbar can also be mounted on the wall. For wall mounting you need two plugs and two screws that you need to purchase yourself.
As said before, the soundbar comes with a remote control. This remote looks a bit cheap. It feels very light. Still, the remote is very convenient to use. On the remote control you can switch between the different output options such as AUX, Bluetooth, HDMI and optical. The different sound modes can also be found on the remote control. With this you can focus the sound on voice, music or the aforementioned night mode. In addition, you can adjust the bass reproduction and the high tones of the soundbar. The bass reproduction of the subwoofer can also be adjusted to taste. Of course you can also adjust the volume level and skip or pause songs on the remote control.
Control buttons are also present at the top of the bar itself. These are touch buttons. By pressing the appropriate icon you can turn the soundbar on or off, change the source and change the volume level. This is very useful if, for example, you are just walking past the soundbar. The bottom button is to turn on the Dynamore function. I will come back to this two paragraphs later.
Sound quality
I am pleasantly surprised by the sound quality of the CINEBAR 11. Everything you watch and listen to on TV gets more impact with the soundbar. Sports matches come to life more. As well as games and movies. The bass reproduction is surprisingly good thanks to, or perhaps despite, the slim soundbar. For example, the dull sound of someone kicking a ball sounds a lot better right away. The Cinebar 11 is a big step forward compared to the standard sound that comes from your television. In the field of music, the soundbar can handle almost all genres. Hip hop, techno and metal sound pleasant. You notice that the soundbar can also handle music where the low tones predominate.
An extra addition to the soundbar is the Dynamore function. “With Dynamore you can virtually expand the stereo paronama beyond the dimensions of the device,” said Teufel. Basically, a spatial sound is produced when you enable this option. If you watch and listen to a podcast with Dynamore switched on, the voice is more pronounced. So isolated from other tones, I don’t know if this is the right application. In the case of content that mainly focuses on voice, I prefer to turn this mode off. While watching a movie, this is indeed a nice option. This makes the opening scene of the war film Saving Private Ryan even more impressive, to what extent that is still possible. Bullets fly around your ears, you can feel the splash of the water and the explosions enter your living room even louder. All in all, a nice feature for movies and games. Although Dynamore is in my opinion inferior to Dolby Atmos.
Conclusion
With the Teufel CINEBAR 11 you get a nice-looking, slim soundbar that can produce excellent sound. Thanks to a powerful bar with woofer, you can experience movies, games and sports at a higher level and thanks to Bluetooth 5.0 with aptX support, your online music library will now sound a lot more pleasant. With this pricing, the CINEBAR 11 is a good improvement over the previous model and an excellent soundbar in this price range. This device cannot compete with the real top models on the market. For that, it lacks power and some useful features such as WiFi support. But for the launch price of 400 euros, the CINEBAR 11 is a fairly complete soundbar. Especially when you compare it to the JBL bar 5.0 Multibeam. Where the lack of a separate subwoofer is clearly a big loss.
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