WILSON BENESCH OMNIUM LOUDSPEAKER and IGX INFRASONIC GENERATOR > TAS Review

Wilson Benesch Omnium loudspeaker

Today’s Wilson Benesch has full carbon-fiber manufacturing capability in-house, which may be unique in high-end audio. The 17-employee company also has a machine shop where it manufactures virtually all the parts in its loudspeakers, down to the driver-motor housings.
But is there a material even better than carbon fiber, and one that is more sustainable? To find out, in 2017 Wilson Benesch joined a consortium of 17 European research laboratories, universities, and industries to explore a sustainable (non-petroleum-based) alternative to carbon fiber created from renewable resources such as bio-materials. This collaborative development project was called SSUCHY—”Sustainable Structural and Multifunctional Biocomposites from Hybrid Natural Fibres and bio-based polymers.” The four-year project had a budget of €7.4 million Euro’s, €4.5 million of which was subsidized by the British government.
Which brings us to the Wilson Benesch Omnium loudspeaker and its cabinet made from this new bio-composite material. The $149,000 Omnium is the company’s second-from-the top model and a direct descendant of Wilson Benesch’s $225,000 Eminence that I reviewed in Issue 294.
The Omnium is a two-and-a-half-way, nine-driver loudspeaker housed in a tall slim enclosure. It features the same design philosophy, drive units, and cabinet construction as the Eminence but in a slightly shorter cabinet with one fewer drive units. Rather than reinvent the wheel with the Omnium’s technical description, I’ll include a modified version of the description I wrote for the Eminence, as the two speakers are that similar in design and construction.
- Robert Harley, The Absolute Sound, Apr 16, 2024

IGx Infrasonic Generator: Don’t Call it a Subwoofer

Wilson Benesch takes a radically different approach to bass reproduction, not just in its loudspeakers but also in its product that most would call a subwoofer. Wilson Benesch refers to this external dedicated bass-reproduction device as an “Infrasonic Generator.” In my review system, the Omnium was augmented by two of the company’s all-new IGx Infrasonic Generators. The IGx is an evolution of the company’s Torus, a product that was a turning point for how subwoofer-averse Jonathan Valin viewed such devices (see his review back in Issue 170, March 2007).
This design is very different from a conventional woofer in which the cone is attached to a voice coil and mounted in a basket, suspended at the outer edge by the surround and inside the speaker around the voice coil with a spider that maintains the diaphragm’s alignment in the basket.

Conclusion

The Omnium has the ability to apparently disappear as a sound source. It does this through its tonal neutrality and absence of coloration, sense of immediacy and palpability, ability to throw a soundstage completely detached from the speakers, and significantly, its complete lack of the heaviness and slowness in the bass that so often call attention to the speaker as a sound source. The speaker is quick and detailed, with that speed extending all the way to the lowest bass with no dynamic discontinuity. It’s quite a trick, and one that defines the Omnium. The tradeoff is a midbass that favors articulation over tonal warmth, weight, power, and body. This isn’t a speaker with a visceral bass impact that involves your whole body in the music.
The IGx Infrasonic Generator restores the missing tonal foundation in the very bottom end and does so, remarkably, without compromising the qualities that make the Omnium so special. The IGx has none of the usual downsides of conventional subwoofers, augmenting the bass with absolutely zero compromise in the overall presentation. It is essentially invisible sonically but gives music a greater sense of tonal gravitas. Because the IGx operates below about 40Hz (in typical installations), the Omnium’s midbass is unaffected—it is still fast and lean rather than warm and weighty.
If you are considering a speaker in this price range, the Wilson Benesch Omnium should be on your short list. It takes a different approach, technically and sonically, to the question of how to create a loudspeaker that most faithfully and engagingly reproduces music.
- Robert Harley, The Absolute Sound, Apr 16, 2024

Wilson Benesch
The Absolute Sound