paradigm or mirage?

I've owned Mirage for some time now and I've listened to the Paradigm Reference series on several occasions. I have owned the OM-9, OM-C2 and OM-R2 speakers and the Omni 60's. The OM-9's did have a recessed presentationin terms of imaging and were rather laid back on the top end. The Omni 60's, and by extension the 260's, are more forward and are not as laid back in the midrange or treble.


Having said all of that, Paradigm Reference and Mirage really sound nothing alike. Paradigm's sound like a really good set of conventional speakers, with all that that entails. I found the sound that they produced to be quite good for two channel, with razor sharp imaging and a decent soundstage. I didn't really care for them for home theater, I found all the speakers but the dipole surrounds to be too easily located by my ear instead of blending into a cohesive sound field.


Mirage, on the other hand, are almost impossible to locate by ear alone and have a sense of space that is really unique to this type of speaker. I have found that by playing with the amount of toe-in with the speakers you can actually get fairly decent imaging out of the speakers, although it will never be razor sharp as with conventional speakers, it will at least sound natural and instruments and singers will have their place in the sound field.


But I am speaking from the standpoint of someone who loves omnipolar sound. You may not care for it at all. If you do like it then almost nothing else will do. I am anxiously waiting for Mirage's new stuff to come out later this year (and for them to update their website!).