Teufel are an interesting company who began trading in Berlin, Germany way back in 1979 selling loudspeaker components and construction kits. In 1990 they launched the M-Series loudspeaker, selling it directly to the consumer 66% cheaper than if they’d have included a retailer in the supply chain. This “sell direct and pass on the savings” philosophy came of age in 1997 when Teufel launched their online shop along with offering customers an impressive 8 weeks home test and up to twelve years warranty on products. Today the company has an entire international division and a wide range of audio products to choose from.

I have to admit to not having heard Teufel products before, so when we were approached to have a listen to their €99.99 (£79.99) including delivery Aureol Real headphones for a few weeks I was a little sceptical to be honest.

The Aureol Reals are a lightweight design weighing in at just 180g and this is in the main down to their plastic construction – they are however well built and feel sturdy enough. The lightness of these headphones makes them extremely comfortable for wearing for long periods and the soft fabric covered ear pads are also very cosy on the ears. The headband has nice padding on the underside, is flexible and the fit can be adjusted with simply sliding the cans on their metal rods. Being quite large the cans do cover the whole ear which I like!! They are available in white or black and I got sent the black ones.

The Aureols come with a couple of cables; a 1.3m cable with a minijack plug and a 3m cable with the quarter inch jack. This latter cable is a really useful length for listening at home whilst the former is great for use with a portable media player. Cables are easily interchangeable and slot into the left hand can via a minijack. The cables are quite thin and manageable and covered in a woven fabric that looks great and seems robust enough. There’s also a nice little carrying pouch included but the headphones are quite large and do not fold flat so portability is not as great as with some others. Drivers in the Aureols are 44mm with an impedance of 50 Ohms and a quoted frequency response of 20 – 22000Hz … the phones are open in design.

Some Music

In the house I used the Schiit Audio Magni headphone amp and Modi Dac with Foobar 2000 playing FLACS. I also used them with the HiSound Studio media player whilst on the move.

At Home

Listening to Deadmaus the bass is good, tight, deep and “pumpy” with a nice snappiness to the top end.

On to Neil Young’s “A Man Needs Maid” soundstage is agreeably done with orchestral instruments being well placed in the virtual space. Vocals are slightly recessed in comparison to the upper and lower registers, but not so much as to complain about it and overall there’s a good tonal balance to these headphones, particularly at this price point – they’re certainly very easy on the ear over long periods. There is plenty of detail in the acoustic guitar on “Heart of Gold” and the raspiness of the harmonica towards the end of the track is nicely conveyed.

With Hawkwind’s “Hall of the Mountain Grill” you get a great sense of the stereo effect and there is a good “out of the head” feel in evidence which I like a lot. Bass lines are easy to follow and there’s that nice and lively feel to the hats. Again I’d say that mids are not as to the fore as are the extremes of frequencies.

Massive Attack vs Mad Professor’s remix of “No Protection” sounds great and these phones could have been made for this heavy dub style which suggests to me that they’ll be very popular with those that listen to lots of this kind of music but don’t like the sound of, or don’t want to spend on, Beats By Dre.

Out and About

Changing the cable and plugging the Aureols into the HiSound Studio playing some more Massive Attack I’m again immediately struck at how well these relatively inexpensive headphones produce bass heavy music – it’s not flabby but well controlled and tight. You’re pretty well isolated from outside noise, but then I listen quite loud any way and these cans certainly seem to go loud without getting the media player flustered in anyway.

The beginning of Bowie’s “Five Years” from the Ziggy Stardust album has loads of detail to the drums and guitar and vocals are clear and well defined.

Conclusions

Bass and treble are to the fore in the Aureols and many will like this presentation, particularly those who enjoy modern electronic music, but that’s not to say that they don’t produce perfectly acceptable results over a wide range of musical styles…they do!

At the price I’d say they are pretty damned good value for money and if this is what you have to spend on a pair of cans then you should certainly consider them both for home and out and about. You get an 8 week “trial” period, a great guarantee and overall a well made, great sounding headphone. Some will be put off by the plastic construction, the more youthful colour scheme and the fact that they don’t fold flat for transport, but if you can live with this then they’re an excellent buy.

Author – Stuart

As we often do with products that are have possible appeal to a younger market we passed the Aureols over to our 16 year old music fanatic of a son Harry to see what he made of them and here are his findings.

After using the Teufel Aureol’s for about a week I could tell that they offered a high-quality sound and a weightless feel.

These headphones work brilliantly, the bass is punchy, even though the top end is slightly lacking, but overall the sound is amazing for the mid-range price point.

When wearing the Aureol’s it’s almost as if you are not wearing headphones.

The open-ear design means that they don’t block a lot of the sound from your surroundings and the sound leaks out of the back of the headphones, which was not a big problem for me, although it could be a problem if using these on public transport as it may annoy fellow passengers. However, if using these when on your own it would be fine.

The materials used in the making of the Aureol’s feel high quality although I don’t care for the felt ear pads. I would much rather have leather pads but this is more of a personal preference.

Overall the Teufel Aureol’s are a great pair of headphones giving you a high-end listening experience for a mid to low range price.  They are extremely comfortable and are very portable. At their price I’d certainly recommend these headphones from Teufel.

Author – Harry Smith