[Review] Omiga Audio - Digital Interconnects

Omiga Audio - Digital Interconnects

For the past 2 weeks I have been privileged to have had some very interesting sample products on loan to me from Omiga Audio for unhindered assessment and evaluation at home in my own system. Omiga Audio are a new start up company, but are backed by a parent company along with its existing in-house experitise in technical instrumentation testing and monitoring systems. The staff at the new venture have been feverishly carrying out the research and developemnt that has gone into their initial porfolio of products for well over a year now. They have been shipping products out to and made successful sales to customers in the US already.

Omiga Audio currently have 3 digital interconnects in their line up of products. More products such as mains leads, a power condtioner and analgoue interconnects are in the development pipeline as we speak, and will most likely be released later on in the year. Other services available from Omiga include a cable burn-in service using a "cable cooker" machine which is of significant benefit not only with new cables, but also for your existing cables, and a cable re-termination service whereby they'll re-terminate your existing phono interconnects with Eichman Bullet plugs. Meanwhile though, out of the 3 digital cables currently available for purchase, I've had samples of the current top of the range "Liberator", and also the mid ranking "Enterprise" cables to try out. All cables tested were XLR (AES/EBU).

System:
- Accuphase DP-90 CD transport
- dCS Delius DAC / dCS Purcell upsampler
- Pass Labs Aleph P pre-amp
- GamuT D200 power amp
- Verity Audio Parsifal Monitor speakers
- MJ Acoustics Reference 1 subwoofers
- Acoustic Zen Matrix Reference XLR (DAC to pre-amp connection)
- Townshend Isolda DCT XLR (pre-amp to power amp connection)
- Townshend Isolda DCT speaker cables
- Kimber High Current PowerKords + Russ Andrews Powerblock
- Eupen power cable
- Trichord Powerblocks mains conditioners
- Clearlight Audio RDC Aspekt equipment racks
- RDC cones
- VertexAQ Kinabalu isolation platforms

Reference digital cables (the following are all XLR AES/EBU terminated):
- Siltech "Signature Series" Golden Ridge (0.75m length)
- Acoustic Zen MC2 (1m length)

Music:
- Copland : Dance Episodes From Rodeo / Fanfare For The Common Man (Dorati / Detroit SO)
- Mahler : Symphony No. 8 (Tennnstedt / LPO)
- Chopin : 4 Ballades, etc (Murray Perahia)
- Karl Jenkins : Imagined Oceans
- Eagles : Hell Freezes Over
- Madonna : True Blue
- Various : Full On 6 (Trance Waves)
- Joe Satriani, Steve Vai & Eric Johnson : G3 In Concert
- David Hudson : Didgeralia

The Liberator is priced at just a smidge below the UK retail price of the Acoustic Zen MC2 cable. The Acoustic Zen has been the digital cable of choice in my own particular system, mainly due to it's apparent neutral and natural balance, detailed yet not stark, and smooth yet not veiled demeanour. I had previously been using 3 sets of Siltech's Golden Ridge interconnect to connect up the dCS kit, but changed the CD transport connection for the Acoustic Zen MC2 earlier on this year as the MC2 had noticeably tighter and better defined bass, a more silken and less splashy presentation to the treble and greater soundstage coherence. The Siltech appears to be a much more open, detailed and possibly wider bandwidth cables than the Acoustic Zen, at least that's what the analgoue result at the end sounds like, but the Siltech also sounds subjectively less in control at the frequency extremes or are they just showing up inadquicies elsewhere in the chain?

Plugging a pair of Omiga Audio's Liberator cables in between the DAC and upsampler in place of the regular Siltechs, 2 things immediately sprang out at me. First was the way that percussion and rhythms just simply tightened up in focus and became more weighty at the same time. This effect not only brought about the sensation of greater visceral impact and definition to kick drums, but also more "snare impact" to snare drums and greater veriety to cymbal hits. Equally as important, and perhaps more important for some, the rhythmic impetus was always very apparent and driving when appropriate. These cables provide plenty of slam, weight and taughtness but without recourse to forcing the issue in a relentless way, or sacrificing too much of the trailing note edge. Also, these cables are not just friends of drum kits, they allow you to follow all components in the mix with ease but without pulling the mix apart in disrespect of the musical message. In fact, I'd have to say that the weightiness and assertive rhythmic drive of these cables without recourse to total relentless leading edge or tonal thiness is the unique signature of these cables, and as yet I've not heard any other cable which sounds similar in presentation to the Liberator (or its siblings).

Putting a pair of Siltechs back in place of the Liberators, and then substituting one of the Liberators in place of the Acoutic Zen MC2 on the CD transport's link brought about similar differences as mentioned above. Again, it was the added weight and snap to all percussive hits and the tightning in rhythmic flow that hit home (...pun intended). The Acoustic Zen is no slouch when it comes to bass definition, weight and taughtness, or so I thought, but the Liberator managed to make it sound a bit sloppy by comparison. This effect on the bass is not only apparent on the traditonal drums and bass guitar elements that are the main stay of pop/rock music, but I was also stunned to hear this same effect of added low end authority on plucked and bowed strings on orchestral music too. Again, this improved not only the pitch and textural definition of invidual notes but also the subjective time keeping of the musician's performance too.

The Liberator's lower priced sibling, the "Enterprise", as you might expect, shares the exact same musical presentation ideals and broadly similar but not identical sonic signature. The Enterprise being the next rung down the ladder in the hierarchy, is not so much a lessor cable as more another valid alternative. The Enterprise was noticeably less open sounding than the Liberator, but at the same time Enterprise also seemed to have more rhythmic bounce and flow than the pricier Liberator. The expressive and mellow timbral qualities of brass instruments such as trumpets and trombones was also noticed to be one of the Enterprise's fortes or favourtisims, as was the way it brought out the richness to male vocals or tenor voices. A trick of the slight tonal emphasis in that region I suspect, but it wasn't detracting. A case of "hi-fi" versus "music" maybe? Well, that depends on your musical tastes and listening priorities actually. For those that largely listen to less well recorded pop/rock music, then the rhythmic nibbleness and deftness of the Liberator maybe all that's required. The ever so slight loss of musical bounce and flow, but still better than the comparable competition in going over to the Liberator is made up for by the extra openness which widens up the lateral width of the soundstage and adds greater inner and upper harmonic detail to acoustic instruments and voices.

A Mk II Liberator was also submitted for evaluation. This cable again didn't seem as ultimately detailed in the upper registers as the reference cables, or even the other 2 cables from Omiga Audio, but it had yet more lower-mid bass emphasis and tracking ability than its family relations. Also, it had a somewhat uneven top end balance, a suck out in the mid treble and picking up again for the final upper reaches, so yes there was the trailing end of the air, reverb and space, but upper harmonics of upper range instruments were a bit curtailed. These cables were left plugged into equipment which was left powerd up over night and for a whole day before serious listening, so not sure if the cable would have benefited from another day of "settling in". I did find that the Mk I Liberators ceratinly becoming noticeably more open souding over a 2 day settling in period, even though they had already been burnt in on a cable cooker. All cables made by Omiga Audio receive burn-in on a "Cable Cooker" prior to dispatch incidentally.

So how do the new comers from Omiga Audio compare against the reference cables, the Acoustic Zen and the Siltech. Well, we've already discussed, the Omiga Audios can comfortably embarras the reference cables which cost roughly the same or more in the case of the Siltech in the bass region. The mid-range seems to be as open, natural and transparent as the references, even the costly Siltech perhaps sounded a smidgen thick or coloured in comparison to the others, so not a bad job. Finally, the top end and this may be the clincher for those who want every last drop of harmonic and inner detail, as well as spaceioussness and airiness. The high resolution Acoustic Zen and Siltech cables definitely make the Omiga Audio cables sound a bit more shut in or less extended up top ultimately. In practical terms, the loss of top end openness meant that massed choral forces sounded smaller and less spread out than they should, female vocalists less breathy, orchestral strings losing a bit of their bite, or hall ambience being curtailed. By way of compensation, all the Omiga Audio cables never suffered from "digitistis" artifacts, and a big big bouns for me, they rarely sounded sibilant with vocals, yet the diction and expressive sense was always clear. All this smoothness at the top without sounding obviously dull or lacking in brilliance, a difficult balancing act to achieve, but seems well judged here.

A fine result then. These cables from Omiga Audio, in my opinion, would seem to fill a currently void niche in the market place, for people who want to enjoy every disc in their music collection regardless of recording quality, but at the same time demand a detailed, lively, upbeat and visceral presentation when the music demands, or flowing and lyrical at other times.

It should be noted that none of the components in my system are noted for being overtly forward or bright sounding. So therefore, the issues I had with that last ounce of top end openness may turn out to be the best thing since sliced bread for those with brighter or more explicit sounding systems than I have, or those who are less fussy about ultimate detail retrieval.

For more information on Omiga Audio: http://www.omigaaudio.co.uk

 

Just out of interest, do the cables come pre "cooked" as part of the cost? Were the ones you used done?

Also, is there a trial period?

Cheers

MO

 

Hi Mo

The Omiga Audio-Enterprise and Omiga Audio-Liberator come pre cooked. The Omiga Audio-Endevour does not to keep the costs as low as possible. It can be ordered cooked for a small fee of course.

The cables Henry had borrowed were completely representative of how customers receive them.

Cheers

 

Timpy, the fact that both yourself and my Big Namesake have the Omiga web address as your own suggests a joint venture of some sort! Good luck with it.

 

Hi Tones

Thank-you very much sir.

Indeed we have a joint venture going. We wrote an announcement on GH when we started about 4 weeks ago (been developing interconnects together for a little while before that, and spent a lot of time playing on our own so as to speak even before that). That announcement has since disappeared into the ether (perhaps we should write a new one), but for now we have just both declared it in our profiles.

Omiga Audio is a division of a company called Omiga Technology Ltd. OTL does System Integration, hardware and software solutions etc, and I am a Director of that. Omiga Audio became a seperate division due to it's (not entirely related ) interests. The upshot is that WM gets to walk the corridors of OTL and frighten the customers.

Cheers

 

tim,
can't you lock him in the basement with his workbench and a couple of clump hammers that way he can hammer on the a/c / heating ducts in a frenzy :drum: and occasionally moan and / or gibber. that way you can tell your customers that if they don't sign up with you then you'll send your 'special' employee round to sort them out by strapping the meadowlarks to each ear and giving the b/c a bit of a work out :JOEL:. - just kidding tone :duck: .

cheers


julian

 

Tone lent me an Enterprise last month and now I've got a Silver Enterprise on loan (well it has silver Eichmann Bullets on it - don't know if it's different inside) - will be testing it next w/e and attempting to do a write up

Michael.

 

Ju, man!! how did you suss our special sales technique so quick, the other one, is we have GrahamN and that Organ music he's so fond of in the 'Back room' so yes we covered all the bases :WMarrives

 

ahhh tone, i used to be a crack ninja middle manager dealing with low programmer types, upper management and sales and marketing b*st*rds so i know all the tricks.. this is number 153, suggestion of man-beast in the cellar, the pincer movement of deafaning organ pumper in the warehouse is an origional wrinkle though, albeit resulting in a classic pincer movement...sun-tsu would be proud, grasshopper.
cheers

julian

 

It's not so bad now to be fair. He's been trained to use the facilities and can be lured away to enjoy (tolerate?) a Densen / Kaber combination at a push (just).

If the customers are a problem, there's the option of a lashing with some "Omiga Audio - Spitfire" analogue interconnects in 3m lengths.....that'll be an experience they'll never forget, bearing in mind it's unique level of (in)flexibilty.

They're pretty safe overall, although the language can be interesting when WM's challanging the soldering iron to a dual outside in the car-park .

Cheers

 

I didn't catch the price of your interconnects, have you mentioned it anywhere

 

The price of the Omiga Audio interconnects, or the price of the ones I was comparing them against?

See here for info from Omiga Audio:

http://www.omigaaudio.co.uk/digital_signal_transmission.htm

UK Retail price of the following cables I used for comparison (they were my own personal i/c's):

Acoustic Zen MC2 (1m) - £280
Siltech Golden Ridge (0.75m) - £415

 

Henry, have you had the chance to compare the Omiga Liberator with the Townshend DCT300?

I've saved enough to upgrade(again) my ics, and am just deciding now which. Problem is, there are no stores here who sell the brands I'm thinking of trying out, so no chance at all to audition them first before buying. Will have to gauge my decision on somebody else's experience if not the reviews
Unless of course the stores there have a 30 day trial policy.

The townshend, for what I gathered is a hands down choice for many including the mags. Just out of curiosity, how does the omiga compare to this?


regards

 

Osama,

Townshend have a sale or return policy if you buy from their website I believe:

http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/townshend.audio/

I can't find the DCT300 as a digital interconnect on their site, but if the digital is identical to the analgoue DCT300 then I could perhaps do a comparison for you as I have DCT300 as analgoue interconnects in my system.

Bear in mind that all my interconnects are XLR, so this could affect the results if you wanted a single-ended shoot out instead.

I'd contact Omiga Audio to see what their policy is regards trials/sales.

Where abouts do you live?

 

Hi Henry. Sorry for the delayed reply. I had to go out of the office early yesterday for something important. I do my browsing in the office

I was thinking you might've by done by some chance a comparison also between the RCA version of Townshend and Liberator. I'm really curious about the Liberator. One other cable I'm thinking of is the JPS Superconductor.

I'm working here in Saudi Arabia but I'm not from this place. Hi-fi here is not as varied as there in the UK. Cables for one are very limited. You can get mostly just the usual WHF cheapie favorites. But the likes of Townshend & Omiga, you have to order them outside.

I believe the DCT 300 doesn't have a digital version, just XLR.


regards

 

I think there may be a little confusion here. The liberator is a digital interconnect cable and the Townshend Isolda DCT is an analogue cable. As yet AFAICT Omiga do not make any analogue inteconnect cables.

Cheers, Robbo

 

I read in their site they have an RCA for Liberator (in fact for all the three models) that sells for £ 249.00.
I presume this is for a one meter lenght.


regards

 

Omiga Audio, do Make both single ended and balanced versions of all Their Cables (the Liberator comes with Silver bullets as standard and is cooked), Both Digital and Analogue, The website is going to be added to this week, along with some images too. WM

 

Does anyone else not think it's amusing the way that we talk about Omiga Audio as if it were just another hifi company when most of us know full well that it's WM and timpy?

Henry saying things like "I suggest you contact Omiga Audio..." and Tone, referring to yourself in the 3rd person "Omiga Audio make...".

For the benefit of others who don't know you can I suggest that you (Tone and Tim) make it clear in your posts in relevant threads (like this one) that you are Omiga Audio. Otherwise there are people :knight: who might suggest there was a conflict of interest

Michael.

 

AHA! Supersleuth Michael got you there Tone and Tim.

Yeah he's right.Why don't we just be frank and honest here Ok, fine. If you have something to promote or sell, and it's worth every claim that's made about it, including unbiased and honest judgement by others, then go ahead, by all means sell it. Disguising to be other than yourselves might only make things look not too good. It's always best for others to see the clarity of your intentions everytime

Well, if Omiga is indeed better than the competitives, then why not be proud enough to announce to the whole of Forumdom the glory of owning one and who make them?

regards