Today we will take a close look at the Omnium IEM by Craft Ears. It’s their flagship In Ear Monitor which retails for €2,499 Euro.
Disclaimer: Craft Ears has supplied the Omnium free of charge for the purpose of this review. The following is solely my own opinion. No incentive was given for a positive evaluation. Craft Ears is not affiliated to Headfonia.
Craft Ears
Craft Ears is a Polish IEM company that produces custom and universal In Ear Monitors. They started in 2019 and quickly made waves in the scene. Especially their Aurum IEM has gained a solid fan base since its release.
Here on Headfonia we have checked out their Four and Six IEMs in the past. Now it’s time to give their latest addition to the stable a look. In total, Craft Ears offers a range of five different models. With Argentum being their entry level IEM selling for €735.
Omnium
The Craft Ears Omnium is their take on a tri-brid model. Unlike most other companies in the pond, they didn’t go for a DD/BA/EST tri-brid though. Craft Ears introduced the Omnium with a DD/Planar/BA setup.
Personally, I am a big fan of planar headphones and was very much looking forward to a proper integration of a planar driver in an IEM. Although there have been many models in the past that used a single planar, a hybrid – let alone tri-brid – was not as common.
The Omnium uses a dynamic driver for lows. A single planar driver for the mids and five Balanced Armatures for high-mids and treble. The total setup is DD – Planar – 1BA (upper mids) – 2BAs (treble) – 2BAs (upper treble).
On the product-page of the Omnium we learn, that it has a rated frequency response of 8-40kHz. No variables are given here though. The impedance is twelve Ohms (with a variance of +/- 0.8Ohms from 10Hz to 20kHz). Omnium makes use of a six way crossover design and has a rated isolation of 26dB.
The Omnium is Craft Ears most expensive product and can be yours for 2,499€. You can buy it either directly from Craft Ears or one of their local retailers.
Build Quality
When looking at the build quality of the Omnium I have to admit, that on one hand the material mix is very nice. Although I am not a fan of carbon fibre face-plates myself, the mix here with the 14k Gold outlines is very nice.
The shell is made of a 3D printed body, which incorporates internal wave guides. The body of the shell is held in black and then there’s the aforementioned Gold outlining. Gold and black is always a nice combination and the carbon fibre face-plates round up the overall look.
Unfortunately the Omnium’s gold parts are also very prone to scratching and my set has developed a couple of them over the last weeks already. So if you buy an Omnium, make sure to properly protect them by using pouches or to separate the earpieces when you are not using them.
Another thing I have to mention is the angle of the nozzle. Compared to other IEMs the nozzle of the Omnium comes at a stronger angle towards 45°. This made it a little trickier for me to find the right spot to fit them. Which resulted in me going longer miles to find the right ear-tips. I had to play around to finally set on a combination that really did it for me.
Isolation is also not the Omnium’s biggest strength in my opinion.
The Omnium is a very nice and not too flashy looking IEM that is more on the bigger side of sizing. Though I could easily fit them in my ears, I assume people with smaller conchas and ears could potentially struggle.
Package
When you buy a Craft Ears Omnium you will get a moderately sized box in which you will find a transport case. It looks similar to a Pelican case, but I am not certain if it really is one. Nonetheless it offers excellent protection for your IEMs when you’re on the road. The inner parts of the box has separate compartments for each ear-piece. So you can store each piece in safety. I advise you to do that, as this protects the Omniums from getting scratched (like mine).
In the case you will find a 2-pin copper cable that’s attached to the IEMs. One very cool thing is, that the plugs can be swapped. Craft Ears even supplies two individual plugs. You will get a 3.5mm single ended and a 4.4mm balanced plug. I have solely used the balanced plug on mine.
Swapping the plugs is very easy and can be done in a matter of a few seconds.
You will also get six sets of silicone ear-tips. Three regular ones and three dual-flanged tips. They come in sizes S, M and L. Though they are on the bigger size. I have used size S instead of M, which I usually go for. Other than that, you will also get a Velcro strap to bind together the cable.
All in all I think the supplied package is good, nothing too special, but you will get the necessities. I was a bit surprised by the supplied cable, as the product page on Craft Ears’ website shows a different (SPC) cable. Not complaining though.
The part on Sound start on page two!
