Mirage Omni 350 omnipolar

I don't think they really take getting used to, unless you're used to a limited sweet spot, suckouts, and HF rolloff when you get off-axis. For me that was an easy thing to drop in favor of uniform power response throughout the listening area, more realistic timbres, and the same basic tonal balance wherever you go in the room (excepting, of course, the increased bass in corners and near the back wall.

You still get imaging, about as precise as you get in live music and a realistic soundstage that scales up and down according to the production and size of the ensemble. This does not come at the expense of the midrange; it doesn't sound like it's sitting in a hole, but is transparent and right where it belongs.

The two 5.5" speakers in a column with downfiring woofer works surprisingly well. Bass is very fast and clear, yet full and fairly extended. Should be good for rock. The 350s were from their budget line, now discontinued, with aluminum tweeter and less sophisticated cabinetry, but they should still do a good job for the money. Generally you'll want them 2-3 feet out from the wall, but mostly you lose some soundstage depth if you put them closer to the wall, as with most speakers.

Here's the Vann's link to the cherry 550 CH floorstanders. At less than $300/pair with free shipping they're a no-brainer, easily competitive at the $800 price point they were designed for, and will given you fast, deep slammin' bass (but not thumpy one-note frat-house bass) into the 30's.

They have a small footprint and fit easily in a living space, while delivering a big sound when the music calls for it.

No connection with Vann's. I got all my Mirages at discount, but not the kind of discount Vann's has on some of them, particularly the OMD-28 and 550 CH. I own a model that sat between them--the OMD-15, three times the price of the 550 CH and one-third the retail price of the OMD-28. The dimensions of the OMD-15 are very similar to the 550 CH, but with higher level drivers and cabinetry. The bass drivers are actually smaller (5.5") than the ones in the 550 CH, and *definitely* reach well down into the 30's, as I play all manner of bombastic orchestral pieces on them, such as Holst's "The Planets." The OMD-15's have the advantage of Mirage's ribbed elliptical surrounds for better linear excursion, but even so, with two 6.5" drivers, a column like that, and a downfiring woofer, the 550 CH should (once broken in) provide some good reach into the 30's.

Feed 'em some good amplification via some good speaker wires. Bi-wire 'em if they have the dual terminals.

06-30-09: Griffinconst
Do those have down a firing woofer? I thought they had one firing forward and the bass/mid firing upward under the tweeter,

Oops, my bad. I meant to say downfiring *port*. The woofers are forward-facing. The port is downfiring, with the spacers and built-in base to optimize port loading.

Some speakers (the Zu Druid comes to mind) with downfiring ports had inconsistent bass depending on how well the spikes made contact with the floor. The Mirage design takes that variable out of the equation.

07-02-09: Petewhitley
Well I bought them. For $299 what the heck. If I don't like them...in attic they go for another day.

Vann's does have a reasonable return policy.

07-04-09: Petewhitley
There aren't many reviews on this series of Mirage speakers. I guess their prodution run was brief. I have been reading reviews on the Energy and Athena speakers which use the exact same drivers (I think all three companies are owned by Klipsch) and everyone thinks they are just wonderful.

They were all part of the Canadian company, API (Audio Products International), which was also behind the Sound Dynamics 300ti. Klipsch bought API a few years ago and has been restructuring, resulted in some of these deep discount closeouts. A couple years ago they closed down Athena, resulting in fire sales on Audio Advisor. It looks like they're doing the same thing to the Veritas line in Energy, which was a fabulous line of speakers.

As for Mirage, they shut down development of Mirage's Omniguide-based $20K flagship speaker and a true high end subwoofer. Currently the OMD and Omnisat and Nanosat divisions remain, but the Omnipolar line (150, 350, 550, etc.) has disappeared from the Mirage website. That's why the production run was short. The Omnipolar line bridged the gap between "lifestyle" type Omnisats and the expensive high end OMD series.

The Onmi 150, 350, and 550 us a fiberglass sandwich woofer/mid and an Aluminium tweeter as opposed to the previous version of the 550, the Omni 260, which uses a titanum hybrid. The more expensive OMD-15 also use titanium hybrid. If I like them better than the 1B's that's saying something.

What's the 1B?

I really like the Mirage cloth surround titanium tweeters, but the API group has made a lot of excellent aluminum domes as well. Also, the top line OMD-28s also use fiberglass sandwich woofers.

The online blowouts of the OMD-28s do concern me, however. I hope Klipsch doesn't shut down what made Mirage great. The emergence of their Omniguide technology was a revelation. Originally conceived for their ultra-compact omnisat satellites, the design concept took over almost their entire line of speakers, including the ones at the top.

07-04-09: Texas42
I love trying out different speaker designs and am always intrigued by speakers that have wide dispersion and room filling sound (as opposed to the 'head in a vice' accurate speakers that only sound good to one person).

I remember reading an Stereophile review of the top line Dunlavy's about 24 years ago. Everybody was raving about the detail, but the reviewers had their heads clustered together trying to get a piece of the 3-D imaging. J. Gordon Holt walked into the room, gave 'em a quick listen, and pronounced them the "world's most expensive headphones."

The Omniguide-based speakers are the result of about a dozen years of R&D into how we perceive music, how voices and musical instruments radiate into a room, and how this interaction influences timbre. I find my humble OMD-15s to be some of the most timbre-correct speakers I've ever heard. Basically, head-in-a-vice speakers place you in the recording venue, and things can get really wonky when you step out of the sweet spot. Omnipolars put the musicians in your listening room. Their soundstage is such, however, that the walls of your room will disappear. And while there is an ideal sweet spot, the entire listening area has even tonality and correct timbre.

07-07-09: Petewhitley
After listening to the great Vandersteen 1B's for the last two hours it will be a miracle if the Mirage Omni 550's beat it out. They arrive on Friday.

They're different presentations. The tonal balance should be similar; Vandy's will be more phase-coherent, making it easier to hear certain low level details and more specific individual images. Mirages will have wider dispersion, more uniform power response throughout the room, and probably more bass.

A good match for these 550's would be the Onkyo A-9555 integrated amp. It lists at $799 but if you shop around you can find it from an authorized dealer for less than $500. That amp really brings speakers like this alive--the amp's fast, clean, extended, well-controlled, and transparent. Keeps the midrange natural and transparent, keeps control over the bass, maintaining clarity and extension.

07-18-09: Petewhitley
I will say that the bass on the 550s is overloading my room, which is 25x15x8. I need to work on that one.

Take the boxes the Mirage 550's came in, stuff them with wadded up newspapers, and place them in the room corners behind the speakers. These work as pretty effective bass traps and should give you a cost-free way to see if that's what you need. If you need WAF, you could just cover them in an attractive cloth.

07-22-09: Kkm
Maybe these will improve with more break in? Also any simple tweaks that might help? ...

I'm sure they need more break-in. They need 50-100 just to get some idea of what they do, and mine continued to reveal higher and higher levels of resolution for quite a number of hours, certainly more than 200.

Also, bear in mind that every speaker has its own presentation. In one design you'll hear more tambourine, another, pedal steel, etc. The Vandersteens are phase-coherent designs, so the perspective and arrangement of the mix is its strong suit *as long as you are in the sweet spot.* The Mirages' strong suits are uniform in-room power response and a natural, relaxed feel to the tonal balance and the timbres.

I have the OMD-15s, which are about the same size and shape as the 550's, but there must be some reasons they are three times the original list price of the 550s. They are definitely not wanting in midrange clarity or low-level detail, but I'm not sure how much of those virtues hold up when you go down the line. The Omnisats maintain those strengths as well.

The Omniguide assembly is nearly an omnidirectional point source. The closer you get its perspective to a point source where you're listening, the more coherent the waves will be when they reach your ears. The speakers improve when spiked, and should pierce the carpet and engage the floor below. Also, if you jack up the rear spikes and lower the fronts as much as possible to get a slight forward tilt, you'll also get more phase coherence. Generally you'll get a smoother soundstage if you face the speakers forward, and you'll also get a better soundfield if you bring the speakers out into the room (at least 3' if possible), and spread them a bit wider than you're accustomed. You'll then discover the larger soundstage while the center stage remains with no "hole in the middle."

Since the 550's intentionally bring the room into play, you can also dramatically shape the sound with wall treatments. My OMD-15s sit in front of tall, narrow windows, and I can control the brightness of the presentation by opening or curtains and raising or lowering the pleated shades.