General Asylum: REVIEW: Audio by Van Alstine, Inc. Omega IV DAC Processors by Jim Willis

I have owned this unit just shy of 3 months, and now feel comfortable writing a review. I prefer extended listening tests; for some reason I can rarely form a better/worse opinion in less than a month.

I use a Harman Kardon 720 as a transport only. I compared the DAC to the HK720 alone and a previous Audio by Van Alstine (AVA) Omega CD player (modified magnavox).

It might be best to start with consideration of the HK720 alone. In a word - unlistenable. It has the characteristic sound of a 1-bit DAC. Sounds a bit like my car CD player, but without the road noise and 200 Hz rolloff to mask the deficiencies. It truly has the capacity to shrink soundstage to what an offshore all-in-one system provides. Sounds best on badly mixed, badly recorded POP, and brings tears to ones eyes when well recorded acoustic is playing.

The AVA modified magnavox was a unit I enjoyed for 11 years. Cheap and rugged, and satisfactory until compared to the Omega IV. By comparison, it is slightly harsh at the top, but not offensively so. It has a bit of a wild and unruly sound. To my ears, it is better with alternative and rock, and more boisterous jazz - like big band (mono recordings). The soundstage is fairly wide, and imaging is acceptable but not great. Bass is reasonably controlled and tight.

The Omega IV is a delightful unit, and has led to a rather passionate music buying spree. It performs brilliantly on classical music and on acoustic jazz. The soundstage is huge. One of the first things I noticed, in comparison with other units, was that it seemed like my listening position was raised up a bit from the performers, and there was much more front-to-back soundstage (depth). A very eery feeling, at first. The imaging is outstanding and very precise. The hifi disappears completely, and all that is left is the performance.

The bass is very tight and well defined. The highs are clear and hash-free. The mids are very slightly warm. All in all tonally very good to outstanding.

It is pretty detailed. I find I am able to hear lots of things that I was unable to hear on other units. This is a mixed blessing. It is fairly forgiving when it comes to analogue tape hiss from older recordings. But it is brutally unforgiving of poor recording, poor engineering, poor mixing, etc. It may not be a good choice for POP lovers.

It is completely non-fatiguing. My listening time has gone up to about 3 hours a day. My wife is not happy - this means that my routine is (1) come home from work, (2) eat dinner, (3) listen to music, (4) go to sleep. Dammit. I'm also averaging almost 2 new CDs a day, now, and I'll be broke soon.

It seems to sound best with classical. Before getting this DAC, I was mainly listening to jazz and world music. Now it is 90% classical. It could well be that I was just ready to mainly listen to classical and this is all a coincidence. But in any event, it loves Herrewege's Bach vocals and any performance by Gergiev.

Caveat - I don't get out much to do listening tests. There's not that much near where I live. So this is a pretty damn subjective review.

REVIEW: Audio by Van Alstine, Inc. Omega IV DAC Processors Review by Jim Willis at Audio Asylum