“Omnia” means “prepared for all things” in Latin. The 40-year-old Italian audio brand Sonus Faber tries to live up to that with its new Omnia all-in-one wireless streaming speaker. It joins the fray in a fast-growing market for compact but premium systems.
The Omnia has built-in support for practically all streaming sources and you can hook up almost any audio-related hardware to it.
Did I mention it costs two grand? Well, there are reasons for that price point.
Sonus Faber Omnia: all-in-one wireless streaming speaker system
With the Omnia, Sonus Faber takes on the likes of the Naim Mu-so 2 and related offerings, and the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin — other new or updated premium one-box speaker systems.
The Omnia packs a lot into its compact chassis. It’s designed to stream like a champ and provide plenty of potential physical connections. It features built-in support for DLNA, AirPlay 2, Google Chromecast, aptX HD Bluetooth, Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect.
That gives you easy access to a wide variety of streaming services as well as your libraries of local or networked music. However, Sonus Faber does not make an Omnia control app. Instead, the company suggests you use the native service apps you already know.
Not just streaming; connect to record players and more
The Omnia looks the part with a classy wood and cloth grille featuring a touch-control top panel.
In addition to all the streaming, it works with external sources, such as a TV, turntable or CD player. They connect through the device’s rear-panel HDMI ARC socket and a line-level and phono adapter dongle.
Inside the Omnia, seven drivers power 490 watts of amplified sound. The drivers include two silk dome tweeters, two paper pulp cone midrange drivers, a long-throw aluminium cone woofer and two side-firing cellulose pulp membrane drivers.
The drivers work with the company’s Crescendo processing technology. It’s designed to create a wide and immersive stereo soundstage from the unit by manipulating the speakers’ phase behavior.
The Sonus Faber Omnia is available in walnut and black finishes and should be available for purchase in March.
Price: $1,999
Where to buy: Audio Advice or Sonus Faber
