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Audiolab Omnia

Audiolab Omnia

Facing the facts. Responding not ignoring. Biting the bullet. Little by little, the hi-fi industry is coming to terms with the way the overwhelming majority of its prospective customers live, and the accommodations they’re prepared to make when it comes to achieving ‘proper’ sound quality. In most cases, those accommodations in no way include finding space (and mains sockets) for multiple pieces of equipment that each represent a single link in the audio chain. To quote the American poet and philanthropist Jello Biafra, “give me convenience or give me death”.

With Omnia (which sounds like a Covid variant but isn’t), Audiolab becomes the latest ‘proper’ hi-fi brand to interpret the writing on the wall. With Omnia, Audiolab crams amplification for speakers and for headphones, digital-to-analogue conversion, wireless and physical connectivity, and a CD drive into a chassis that could, in other times, have happily contained just one of these functions. With Omnia, Audiolab wants you to have your cake and eat it too (assuming ‘cake’ in this instance is actually both high-resolution sound quality and physical discretion).

Audiolab Omnia

On the inside, Omnia is 50 watts per channel of Class AB amplification, a virtuoso ESS Technology ES9038Q2M 32bit DAC, a CD drive compatible with CD-R and CD‑RW discs, and a full MQA decoder. It’s a moving-magnet phono stage, amplification for headphones, and wireless connectivity via wi-fi and Bluetooth. It’s a piece of DTS Play‑Fi technology, which means it can be part of an expansive wireless multi-room system. It can function in ‘integrated’, ‘pre-amplification’ and ‘pre/power’ modes.

Numerous inputs

On the outside, Omnia has numerous digital and physical inputs. If three line-level analogue inputs plus phono stage, two digital coaxial and two digital optical inputs (capable up to 24bit/192kHz resolution), type A and type B USB inputs (capable up to 32bit/768kHz and DSD512) and an Ethernet socket isn’t enough to support all your sources, this is not the product for you. If you find dual-band wifi and Bluetooth 5.0 (with support for SBC, AAC, aptX HD and aptX Low Latency codecs) insufficient wireless connectivity, look elsewhere. And if you can’t scrape by with a 6.3mm headphone socket and stereo pre-outs for use with a power amplifier as outputs beyond speaker binding posts, you can stop reading now.

Still with me? Good. Controlling the Omnia is straightforward – and, if you use the exemplary DTS Play-Fi app, it’s pretty painless too. Audiolab has very sensibly integrated the Omnia into the Play-Fi ecosystem – so not only can your Omnia form part of a larger multi-room system, it can be operated by a control app that’s been properly developed at considerable expense. Stable, clear and logical, the Play-Fi app is a fine example of its type.

Audiolab Omnia

Which is just as well, because the few physical controls on the Audiolab’s fascia are most charitably described as ‘leisurely’ in their response, while the full-function remote control features too many undersized buttons with indistinct labelling. At least the 4.3 LCD display screen is a) bright, b) easy to navigate and c) allows you to select virtual analogue VU meters. To my mind, at least, this option goes quite a long way towards justifying the asking price by itself.

With a Clearaudio Concept turntable attached to the moving-magnet phono stage, an iPhone X streaming via Bluetooth, a Buffalo LinkStation 200 network-attached storage device hooked to the Ethernet socket via a Virgin Media Hub 3.0 router, and a pair of Acoustic Energy AE1 Reference Series mkIII standmounters dealing with the consequences, the Audiolab is ready to go. But this is an all-in-one device – so it seems only appropriate to start testing by using the integrated disc drive.

Sound Quality

McCoy Tyner’s Asante [Blue Note] enjoyed a luxurious CD reissue in 1998 – compact disc was still the undisputed champion at this point, of course, and Blue Note’s parent company Capitol Records gave it the full 20-bit Super Bit Mapping treatment. It’s a fine-sounding disc of fine-sounding music, and the Audiolab Omnia gets to the heart of it.

It’s the Omnia’s sheer alacrity and brio that’s most immediately striking. It fairly charges ahead, but not in a hurried or forced manner – rather, it’s as spirited a listen as the source material demands. This overall attitude is helped no end by low frequencies that are properly shaped, authoritatively controlled and full of detail – and have sufficient momentum to keep things moving at a clip. Bass sounds are full of harmonic variation, and there’s more than enough overall dynamism to pack low-frequency information with expression.

There’s similar enthusiasm at the opposite end of the frequency range. Without getting in any way pushy or uncouth about it, the Omnia sinks its teeth into high-frequency sounds and delivers them with a zeal that’s bordering on the fanatical. Again, control and detail levels are impressive, and again there’s well-controlled momentum evident.

A sideways move to a vinyl copy of Promises by Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra [Luaka Bop] both doubles down on the Audiolab’s already evident powers of resolution and demonstrates an ability to express a rhythm even if that rhythm is of the glacial variety. There’s very agreeable tonal expression revealed by this recording, too – and an unequivocal endorsement of the quality of the Omnia’s phono amplification. The soundstage it can describe is big and properly organised, even when numerous musicians are contributing at the same time, and it times in the long-established and much-admired vinyl manner: smoothly and believably.

A TIDAL Masters file of Simon & Garfunkel’s The Only Living Boy in New York [Columbia] streamed via Bluetooth allows the Omnia to show off its ability to give true character and emotional potency to a vocal, and at the same time illustrates the relative shortcomings of Bluetooth as a connectivity option. That the recording is delivered in full, poised and balanced and with its painstaking production in evidence, is never in doubt. The peerless vocal performances are given full expression and – just as they are every time you hear them – the harmonies are sweet and instinctive enough to raise goosebumps. But there’s just a slight inhibition to the previously expansive soundstage the Audiolab describes, and a similarly incremental reduction in dynamic positivity. See? This is what true convenience gets you.

The comfort zone

The Audiolab Omnia has a comfort zone, though – and it turns out that rough, inexpensive and wilfully ropey recordings such as Thee Oh See’s Castlemania (In The Red Records] are outside it. Even when delivered as a fairly high-resolution file from some hard-wired network-attached storage, it’s possible to discern both the Omnia’s lack of patience with this pimply nonsense and its doomed attempts to tart it up and damp it down. Material like this doesn’t respond well to being smartened up in any way, and in the end the Audiolab just about manages to force a draw.

Audiolab Omnia

As long as you steer clear of dirt-cheap garage rock and the like, though, there are remarkably few downsides to Audiolab Omnia ownership. Its rather rustic control interface aside (and we’re not including the blameless DTS app in that, you understand), keep both the price and the extensive functionality uppermost in your mind and it’s an almost startlingly accomplished piece of equipment. Its power output may not look anything special when written down – because it isn’t – but the Omnia is resolute and deep-breathing enough to deal with any loudspeakers that can realistically be considered appropriate partners.

If you want a fine-sounding and extensive system without the whole ‘extensive’ thing getting too badly out of hand, the Omnia is more than worthy of lining up in direct competition to the likes of Cambridge Audio’s fêted (and similarly priced) Evo 75. With the Omnia, Audiolab has faced facts, bitten bullets and emerged with its reputation enhanced.

Technical specifications

Amplifier section

  • Type Class AB
  • Analogue inputs One MM phono input (via RCA jacks), three line-level inputs (via RCA jacks), one power input (via RCA jacks)
  • Digital inputs Four S/PDIF (two coaxial, two optical), one USB Type B port, one USB Type A port, one Ethernet port, wi-fi, Bluetooth
  • Analogue outputs One pre-out (via RCA jacks), one stereo speaker (via 4mm binding posts), one 6.3mm headphone socket, one 12v trigger (via RCA jacks)
  • Supported sample rates up to 32bit/768kHz and DSD512
  • Input impedance: Line level 10k
  • Output impedance (preamp) 100 Ohms
  • Power Output 2 × 50 WPC @ 8 Ohms
  • Bandwidth 20Hz–20kHz
  • Harmonic distortion (power amp) <0.003%
  • Signal to Noise Ratio >110dB (A-wtd)

Phono stage

  • Phono inputs single-ended (MM, via RCA jacks)
  • Input sensitivity @ 1kHz 3.1mV
  • Input impedance 47k + 100pF
  • Signal/noise ratio (A-wtd) >76dB
  • Frequency response 20Hz–20kHz

DAC

  • Type ESS9038Q2M
  • Digital inputs two coaxial, two optical toslink, one USB Type A, One USB Type B
  • DAC resolution 32bit/768kHz; DSD512
  • Supported sample rates (kHz) (coaxial) 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192
  • Supported sample rates (kHz) (optical) 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192
  • Supported sample rates (kHz) (USB Type B) 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192, 384, 768
  • Supported sample rates (kHz) (USB Type A) 32, 44.1, 48
  • Signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) > 114dB (A-wtd)
  • Dimensions (HxWxD) 156 × 440 × 327mm
  • Weight 9.1kg
  • Price £1,599

 

Manufacturer

Audiolab

 audiolab.co.uk

+44(0)1480 452561

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Tags: ALL-IN-ONE STEREO SYSTEM AUDIOLAB OMNIA

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