Mirage Speakers - Page 6

There's some OMD 28 comments here

FWIW, I just returned a set of OMD-15 speakers and the OMD-C1 center after an audition.

I felt that the build quality of the speakers was fair, but not great. One of the speakers had a crack in the high-gloss finish, and both speakers blew a fair amount of loose fiberglass out of their bottom ports. The tweeter assembly, which as you know is mounted above the midrange driver, was not centered over the driver on two of the three speakers. I don't know if it was enough to affect the sound. I also found that the glossy finish scratched somewhat easily.

None of those things was a total show-stopper (except the crack, which would have required an exchange), but overall they didn't give a good impression of the attention to detail.

All that being said, the speakers actually sounded pretty good! Their imaging was good, they had decent bass for their size, and their highs were good without being shrill. Did they sound as good as the M1s in my living room? Well, no, of course not. But they were not bad. They were better in many ways that more expensive speakers that I heard.

It was a narrow decision whether to return them, but in the end I was ruined by auditioning a set of Aerial Acoustics speakers. Much more expensive, but I liked them better.

Mike, very lethal threadkiller post there. Not very inspiring work done by Mirage on those speakers, at those prices the workmanship ought to be much better.

I notice they stopped responding to questions in the Mirage Owners Forum:
http://www.miragespeakers.com/v2/forum.php

I wonder if they've given up, or are thinking about starting a real forum with comments not just from the Mirage guy.

Yeah, that certainly wasn't my intention. To be fair to Mirage, I ended up buying a set of speakers that cost 5x as much (Aerial Model 9s and a CC5 center). If the Mirage center had been up to the challenge, I probably would have just bought the Mirages, but it is a theater after all, and the OMD-C1 really just didn't sound that good to me. Some very annoying midrange resonances and not much in the way of bass. The Aerial CC3 (3x the price) sounded much better, and the CC5 (6x the price!) is a world beater.

I almost ended up using the OMD-15s with my old Mirage MC-si, but I finally discovered what I didn't like about that speaker. The off-axis response is not so good -- the highs roll off rather a lot as you leave the center seat. The Aerial centers sound great even well off axis.

Once the Aerial center was chosen, I did actually try it with the OMD-15s, but the timbre match was of course not very good, so it was on to Aerial mains.

And, honestly, I really felt that I was getting much better commitment to quality by buying from a company that builds in the USA. I think if Mirage were still built in Canada, their speakers would really be better. Building in China has undeniable cost benefits, but in my experience there's very little to inspire the assembly workers to really take pride in their work, and that produces a product that's "good enough" but no more. (This does not reflect upon the workers themselves, but upon how the factories are run.)

Ouch JustMike, that doesn't bode well for Mirage, especially as the OMD speakers is in their THEIR statement (highest quality) line.

I still have mixed feelings about Mirage.....I almost feel that the Omni technology is a gimmick. While it does have a neat effect which does work well in certain situations, I don't really believe that's the way to go in terms of reproducing sound accurately. I have Omni speakers as my rear channels for maximum dispersion but I keep front fring bookshelf speakers in the front of my HT.

Good luck with your Aerial speakers....I haven't heard these yet but there is so much praise for them that they must be pretty darn good.

Thanks, yes, the Aerials are pretty darned nice.

Let me just say that the build quality of the OMD-15 is in no way similar to the build quality of my 20-year-old Mirage M1s. The Aerials are up to that standard.

I wish that I had been able to audition the OMD-28s and OMD-C2, which are really Mirage's statement pieces, but there was not a dealer with them in stock within 200 miles. I don't live in the sticks, either. Not a dealer in San Francisco, San Jose, or (so far as I know) Sacramento. That's a matter for concern all on its own.

Well, I think your comment suggests it's not a gimmick. It's an especially good solution for certain situations. And other than imaging, it's not fair to say it's not accurate. But it's not for everyone.

FYI, there's a new Mirage owners forum up, more of a real forum:
http://community.miragespeakers.com/forums/

I actually thought that the OMD-15 speakers imaged decently well if you were sitting in the sweet spot, and the off-axis listening was pleasant. However, the clarity of the highs, while good, could not compete with the Aerials. I put on a recording of Thomas Tallis's Spem in Alium, which is a choral piece for 32 voices. On the OMDs, you could tell that there were a bunch of people singing, and it sounded nice. On the Aerials, you can identify individual singers and (if you speak Latin) understand what each is singing.

I'd tend to think you'd want to have a reason why your situation could benefit from omnidirectional speakers - unusual layout, big seating area, multipurpose room (a living / dining / HT room) where you want sound all over the room, something.

Somebody with a classic layout in a dedicated HT room might not get the benefit of omni. Though I get the impression lots of people with that kind of setup do enjoy them.

Agreed. This is one reason that I still love my M1s in my living room. The bipolar characteristics give nice sound all around the living/dining area, without making you sit in the "sweet spot" for enjoyable sound.

Well, it's a differant kind of imaging...instead of bringing you to the recording venue, it's a bit more like they've brought the band into your listening environment.
But that discussion goes on and on....

And for me it works extremely well. To my ears there is just something "special" with the omnipolar design. I am using Omni 50's with a S8...for a small/medium size room this works better than 5.1 IMO. (5.1...I don't need no stinkin' 5.1 [please see some humor in this]).

I hope Mirage can survive this transition. It seems that when the original OMNI was discontinued they left a "hole" there for too long. Why did they not keep that line going to overlap the transition? I realize companies need to stay "fresh." But we also know that "if something is not broke, why fix it?" I see some parallels with what is happening with Buick (if anyone is interested). The popularity of their last line seemed to have a lot of life left. Of couse, this is all just speculation, and maybe not a very well informed opinion.

I'm interested in getting 2, Nanostat's for my up-coming HT. I don't want a 5.1 setup though.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-PxVfL5d...00&I=653NANOPB


I would like to pair them up with a HK receiver.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1170289629617

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/it...ures/540399825



Would either of the HK be sufficient?



Thanks,


-Nick

How big of a room do you have? The Nanosats would only be recommended in a small to medium room. You might consider moving up to the larger Omnisats

I have a pair of original M1 speakers but I don't use them in my home theater because I couldn't find a good match. Actually, I rarely use them anymore.

Why don't you buy another pair of M1 speakers and use them for surrounds with your two front speakers? Then try phantom center and see what you get.

12x10 room.. about 8-10 feet tall.

alright....I think should be ok I guess for the Nanosats and the receivers you linked.

Anyone else?

Unfortunately, Klipsch bought them so that they could appear to be a one vendor, multi-brand shopping experiance for mass merchants, the interest is mostly in the satelittes and def tech mythos knock off's, etc.......This company is trying to own the Bose alternative market.

I have recently upgrade my speakers and my old set of mirage M-590i should go. How much do you think is a fair price for the set assuming they are in good condition.
I am also selling my B&W DM600 IFS center channel. I posted on craigslist but haven't got much interest.

I'm looking for some help with purchasing a new 5.1 speaker system.
I just bought a house and my big floor speakers are just too big for my room.

I'm looking to hang my TV and Speakers on the wall. Now I'm looking for a new set of speakers for a room size of 12.6' X 14'

I have a budget of about $1000 dollars. I was looking at possibly buying the Mirage Nanosat 5.1 system. Is there a reason I shouldn't get these and any suggestion for a different set-up.

I've got a question for anyone experienced with OM-5's. Two of the eight inch drivers I believe are blown. They are making a slight cracking sound when played at medium to loud levels with bass intense music. I watched the drivers closely while playing music and it seems that the woofers are moving to much. I've tried to turn down the level but it doesn't seem to have much of an effect on the cone movement. I read in the manual that these speakers have a limiter to prevent distortion or over driving the woofers.

Does anyone know where I can find replacement drivers besides Mirage? Is it possibel to have the drivers repaired? Any help would be great

I'm looking for some help with purchasing a new 5.1 speaker system.
I just bought a house and my big floor speakers are just too big for my room.

I'm looking to hang my TV and Speakers on the wall. Now I'm looking for a new set of speakers for a room size of 12.6' X 14'

I have a budget of about $1000 dollars. I was looking at possibly buying the Mirage Nanosat 5.1 system. Is there a reason I shouldn't get these and any suggestion for a different set-up.

FWIW it looks like either a sale or a clearance on the newer model Omni 150 and 350 at Vanns.

Hi all,

I just spent a good forty-five minutes listening to the Nanosats and Omnisats v2. Time was spent listening to a range of music CDs (Mozart, David Sanborn, Yanni, PussyCat Dolls, Kid Rock) both with an S8 in the mix and without. I was just about to pull the trigger on an S8 with 2 Omnisats (the Nanosats left too big of a hole in the lower mids) and then saw this. Since I can't find a shop to listen to the Omni's, can anyone describe the Omni 350 and/or 150 sound in relation to the Omnisats with an S8? Are they worth buying at the risk of dealing with returning them?

For perspective, I'm intending on using them for music only in a roughly 20 X 12 X 8 room with one open side. The speakers will be attached to a newer, but cheaper, Yamaha receiver (V659). The system will be played at quiet to moderate volume (enough to make you speak a little louder to be heard, but not yell). The sound needs to support a wide range of music from classical to jazz to blues to rock to rap (most anything, except maybe opera and traditional country).

Thanks in advance for the info.

I'd say the buying/trying larger speakers is definitely worth the effort.

Something like the 350, you could be quite happy without a sub with most music material. Even the 150 could be run sub-less and still sound good with music that isn't too thumpy.

Mirage voices most of their speakers in a similar way, so the larger Omni's will have similar characteristics but these larger speakers will have a lot more dynamics and play more effortlessly.

I have the Mirage S12 sub which is a great match for HT, but for music, I find that music sounds better when I run my fronts by themselves, even though I spent a lot of effort making sure my sub is well calibrated (I use a fancy SMS-1 equalizer)

Has anyone actually listened to the Omni 150? I was swayed by the Vanns.com deal and have ordered them, but it's going to take a month+ for them to make it home (they need to be brought over to India.) I'd appreciate any reviews or comments.
Also, I'm looking to hang them flush on the wall at about 7 ft height, with the base side against the wall (similar to how Mirage recommends one mount the Omnisats) Any ideas on how to do this? At this point, I'm considering using strap hangers used to hang pictures, and maybe putting picture hooks on the walls to hang them on. The downside of course, is that I'd need to put holes in the speaker cabinets. Are there any other alternatives? I looked at the Omnimount, but it appears to make the speaker stick out from the wall.

I'm considering purchasing a pair of OMNISAT V2 FS and a OMNISAT V2 CC as LCR in a 5.1 HT setup. Mirage recommends the OMNISAT V2 as surrounds. However, due to WAF, I'll probably have to go with a pair of Nanosats as surrounds. Anyone have/tried this combination? How good was the timbre matching between the Nanosat surrounds and the OMNISATs?

Here's a recommendation from Owner's Manual, Page 3:

The OMNI 150 is designed to be used as a front left or right speaker, or as a
rear channel speaker.When installing the OMNI 150 bookshelf speakers to a
wall, there is an insert built into the back of the speaker, located above the input
terminals.The threaded insert is designed specifically for the MIRAGE®
Macromount bracket, which is available from your local authorized MIRAGE®
retailer. Please see diagram 4.