This is a review and detailed measurements of the Harman Kardon Omni Adapt+ wired and wireless streamer. It is on kind loan from a member and costs $200.
I really like the look of it:
The back panel shows attractive set of options:
A chunky USB adapter comes with it but as you read below, I was able to also power it using the USB hub in my monitor.
What is cool is support for Chromecast. If it works it means good compatibility especially with my favorite music player, Roon.
Manual is cryptic, short and in multiple languages. Had to watch a video just to find out which app to use with it (out of nearly a dozen apps the company produces). The app seems to be designed to look for 'speakers' and it took me a while to see the option for this device.
Note: our company, Madrana Digital is a dealer for Harman products. So read whatever level of bias you like in my comments.
Harman Kardon Omni Adap+ Measurements
I started with testing analog audio out and streaming my test signal using HK control app on Android with the device powered with its own adapter.
Distortion level is rather low at -98 dB but performance has dropped due to high amount of mains noise which I could not impact whatsoever with grounding. So I am assuming it is leakage within the included power supply. To test that, I powered the unit using my monitor USB hub and that indeed improved the situation:
I am unhappy about low output of just 1 volt instead of 2 volt we get from standard DACs. And SINAD of course is nothing to write home about at 88 dB.
I switched to using Toslink input to see if eliminating the network makes a difference. It sadly produced horrible results:
The spurious output changes with sample rate so there is clearly something butchering the digital bits when using Toslink input.
I then moved to Toslink output and that surprised me with its full 24 bit transparency:
So you can pair a DAC with this thing and get excellent performance. That is, if you use their own app. Switching to Roon player which properly recognized the device as supporting Chromecast protocol, produced horrid results:
Same results were produced with analog output as well (not shown). There is some clocking error and or resampling going on, causing severe modulation of the streamed digital bits. This unfortunately rules out usage for many of us in a hi-fi setting where we want to use our own favorite apps and such and not HK's.
Conclusions
We have excellent connectivity and good looks. The DAC performance is "OK" and typical of what we see in this class of consumer device. Toslink output is excellent. Sadly you can't take advantage of this hardware using Chromecast, at least with Roon as a client. I guess even if you could, and could find the original Chromecast, it would do the just much, much cheaper anyway.
Overall, I can't recommend the Harman Kardon Omni Adapt+.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
I really like the look of it:
The back panel shows attractive set of options:
A chunky USB adapter comes with it but as you read below, I was able to also power it using the USB hub in my monitor.
What is cool is support for Chromecast. If it works it means good compatibility especially with my favorite music player, Roon.
Manual is cryptic, short and in multiple languages. Had to watch a video just to find out which app to use with it (out of nearly a dozen apps the company produces). The app seems to be designed to look for 'speakers' and it took me a while to see the option for this device.
Note: our company, Madrana Digital is a dealer for Harman products. So read whatever level of bias you like in my comments.
Harman Kardon Omni Adap+ Measurements
I started with testing analog audio out and streaming my test signal using HK control app on Android with the device powered with its own adapter.
Distortion level is rather low at -98 dB but performance has dropped due to high amount of mains noise which I could not impact whatsoever with grounding. So I am assuming it is leakage within the included power supply. To test that, I powered the unit using my monitor USB hub and that indeed improved the situation:
I am unhappy about low output of just 1 volt instead of 2 volt we get from standard DACs. And SINAD of course is nothing to write home about at 88 dB.
I switched to using Toslink input to see if eliminating the network makes a difference. It sadly produced horrible results:
The spurious output changes with sample rate so there is clearly something butchering the digital bits when using Toslink input.
I then moved to Toslink output and that surprised me with its full 24 bit transparency:
So you can pair a DAC with this thing and get excellent performance. That is, if you use their own app. Switching to Roon player which properly recognized the device as supporting Chromecast protocol, produced horrid results:
Same results were produced with analog output as well (not shown). There is some clocking error and or resampling going on, causing severe modulation of the streamed digital bits. This unfortunately rules out usage for many of us in a hi-fi setting where we want to use our own favorite apps and such and not HK's.
Conclusions
We have excellent connectivity and good looks. The DAC performance is "OK" and typical of what we see in this class of consumer device. Toslink output is excellent. Sadly you can't take advantage of this hardware using Chromecast, at least with Roon as a client. I guess even if you could, and could find the original Chromecast, it would do the just much, much cheaper anyway.
Overall, I can't recommend the Harman Kardon Omni Adapt+.
----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/