Mirage Omni Series Speakers

[SiliGoose]

http://www.miragespeakers.com/produc...omni/index.htm

Have any of you auditioned these speakers yet? I've been interested in their design since the little Omnisat's were released. There are 2 huge threads over at AVS discussing them. I'm too lazy to read all 10,000 posts in those threads but the jist seems to be the owners are gonzo over these speakers.

I'm curious if any of you have heard them yet and if you think the praise at AVS is warranted.




-Sili

[P-Dub]

I had a chance to do a group audition of just the Omnisats back in October. What I heard was pretty amazing. At the time, Mirage only had mockups of the bookshelves, but I had a nice chat with one of the product guys. I haven't made it back to the store to do an audition, but may try and schdule sometime to do so in the near future.

I'll do my best to describe what I heard from last October. The source was a Pioneer DVD45A, going to one of the Pioneer EliteTX45(?). The material was the DVDA of the Doors. At the time I was more interested in hearing what DVDA sounded. The main demo was really for the 50" plasma display and the Omnisats. But wow, "Rider's in the Storm" was pretty amazing, I think the room wanted to listen to more stuff like that and just skip the Plasma demo.

I was very impressed with the imagining, but more so with the ease of placement. The emphasis was that placement, which is important in tranditional speakers, becomes moot with the Omnipolar technology. This was demonstrated by picking up one of the speakers and moving it from stand level, to overhead, and by walking it around a 3 foot perimiter. Was there a change in sound and imagining, I heard a tiny bit, but it was far less than what I would have expected with any traditional speaker.

I would personally love to own a set of Omnisats and hook them up in my bedroom and computer room. Then I don't have to worry about placement and sacrificing imagining. I believe this technology would work great in limited space hometheater applications. And now I really want to go audition the bookshelves, and even the floorstanders!




Paul

There are three kinds of people in this world; those that can count, and those that can't.

[SiliGoose]

So, in effect, the "tweeter" fires everywhere at once, right? I wonder why they haven't integrated the Omni's "tweater" into their bipolar line?




-Sili

[Danbry39]

DVD, etc. had a review of them a couple of months ago and it was extremely positive. Unfortunately, there aren't any that I can find in my area. My wife wants them because she loves the looks. I want to audition them because they're supposed to be a completely different listening experience. If you go over to AVS forum and check under the speaker section, there's quite a large thread dedicated to all things Omnisat.

Hey, I'm gonna try one of the new colors at HTGuide. :evil:




Keith

[Lex]

I like that color Danbry. Almost reads easier than the black on the grey.

Mirage is a good speaker, has been for a long time. Some of you don't know that I have a little set of Mirage bi-polars. A pair of M-590SI's I think it is. Pretty nice little speakers, and best of all, I only paid 400 bucks for them on close out.

Lex




Cable Guy DVD Collection

[Digital Bob]

WOW! How in the world did I miss a post about Mirage? :LOL:

It may be a bit late now, but I just had to chime in here about my favorite speaker line. The OmniSats are pretty terrific for the price. For years now that folks at Mirage have searched for a way to bring the "omni-sound" down to more modest price points.

This was important for lots of reasons; one of them being the bi-polar nature (sorry for the pun! ) of the old line. It used to be if you wanted Mirage's best you were told about and bought the Omni stuff. But if you weren't in that price range then you had to let go of the Omni talk and buy the more traditionally designed (but still quite good) FRX line. The OmniSats and the models that followed were all about changing that.

Andrew Welker is a very talented designer that studied "at the knee" of Ian Paisely. Andrew came up with a very clever way to get near omni-directional sound WITHOUT having to use more drivers. That was always the issue with lower end line. Mirage's drivers are expensive and having to double the number of them (front and back) to get omni-directional dispersion meant raising the cost of the speakers signifigantly. This innovative new approach that Andrew came up with solves this dilemna elagantly and capitalizes on the broad dispersion that Mirage drivers are famous for.

To answer your question Sili about why they don't use this new tweeter on the other stuff.... well it's not really a new tweeter so much as it is a new way to mount it and mate it with the midwoofer. And they are using it on all of the newer entry-level omni line; bookshelf and floorstander. But the higher end OmniPolar's will likely retain the multi-driver approach as cost/price point is less of a concern that flat-out performance maximums.

Maybe some of you will find this belated info interesting (or not! ). But for those of us who have long been in love with the OmniPolar Mirage, we are just thrilled to have reasonably priced speakers now for our secondary systems in the bedroom... and the den.... and the kitchen.... and the workshop.... bathroom... broom closet... ... ... :LOL:

Good listening,




dB

[David Meek]

our secondary systems in the bedroom... bathroom

Cool Bob! Can you imagine the size of the bubbles that upward firing driver will make in the tub? :B




David - HTGuide flunky
Our "Theater"
Our DVDs on DVD Tracker

[Digital Bob]

:LOL: :LOL: :LOL:
Now that's something I would have expected from Sili.




dB

[Danbry39]

I really wish there was an Omni dealer in the Sacramento area. I really would find a reason to buy some if they're as good as I hear. I'm done with the HT I use, but my wife and kids could use a different one in the living room. And, all this, just after stating in another thread that my upgraditis was under control Nonetheless, this wouldn't be upgraditis, would it? It's a different system period. Not changing one I already have.




Keith

[Digital Bob]

Danbry,

I think you have touched upon one of the greatest strengths of the male gender....

The ability to rationalize and justify buying the things we really want.


And I totally agree with you, it doesn't count as um upgrade if it's for another room/system.

Have fun,




dB

[Danbry39]

Yes, and, from what I read on the boards, we're all pretty much superb at it.




Keith

[create]

Just found this forum and registered. I was an initial participant on the 'Pocket Martin Logans' thread and later the 'Omni's and Beyond' thread at AVS.
From nowhere the Omni line seems to have taken on a life of its own. There are ALOT of happy OMNI owners. Myself, I have the 250's up front and the 50's as rear surrounds. For now, running a phantom center and no sub.
The single biggest advantage to these speaks is definitely ease of placement and a virtually limitless sweetspot. They just sound great ANYWHERE in the room - even at a 90degree angle to the fronts, believe it or not! They LOVE to play loud, even ear bleeding loud causes very little loss of fidelity. Also, I've found imaging to be quite good despite the omnipolar configuration. They do need a sub, though. For pure 2 channel music they get by but for HT I'm looking at the VTF-3 right now.
Bottom line is IMO 95% of us will love them. Hyper audiophiles will find the cracks that frankly I don't notice until I look specifically for them.

[P-Dub]

Welcome to the forum.

It just occured to me that with the abilities of the Omnis, a true center may not be required. Do you think a dedicated Omni center would improve on the phantom center?

I'm still planning on doing a demo, but haven't really gotten around to it. It's great to hear from a satisfied owner of the Omni's.




Paul

There are three kinds of people in this world; those that can count, and those that can't.

[create]

Thanks, Paul!

Well, I've been using the 250's without a center channel for a few months. As far as imaging goes, it works great. You definitely cannot localize voices to the front speakers - voices sound like they're coming from the actors, no problem.
I think where I fall short is my processor. The Marantz SR8000 was great in it's time but now the DSP is a little aged. I don't think it truly is splitting the center channel to the fronts completely. The setting in the SR8000 is 'Center [NONE]' and I THINK that I just lose the center channel info. Dialog sometimes gets difficult with lots of ambient noise in the scene. My guess is that a better receiver or pre/pro would make the phantom center a real possibility.

On the other hand, I listened to a DTS setup disc last night. Basically, it was 20-bit mixes of various types of music. Snare drums, Flute solos, jazzy numbers. I have to say these speakers are really incredible. We were eating steaks on a balcony OUTSIDE and ABOVE (2nd floor) the HT room with its sliding french doors opened. Playing at reference levels, it sounded so much like a live performance that our neighbors thought we had friends over for a jam session! It really sounded like a live performance inside. Try to do THAT with directional speakers!!