Mirage Loudspeakers OMNI 5.1 User Manual

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Product Review

Mirage OMNI 5.1 Loudspeaker System

May, 2003

Sandy Bird

Introduction

The one encompassing statement accepted by all when starting into the world of hi end audio is, “The loudspeaker is the most important and most influential part of the entire system.” A good loudspeaker can make medium grade electronics sound astonishing, and even the best components cannot make an inferior loudspeaker sound acceptable.

Click the photo above to see a larger

version.

Specifications

OMNI 260 Floor-Stander:

• Quasi- Three Way

• One 1" Pure Titanium Hybrid Tweeter, Two 6 1/2" Titanium Deposit Woofers

• MFR: 35 Hz - 20 kHz ± 3 dB

• Crossover: 700Hz, 2 kHz

• Nominal Impedance: 8 Ohms (4 Ohms min.)

• In Room Sensitivity: 93 dB/W/M

• Size: 42" H x 9" W x 15" D

• Weight: 55 Pounds Each

• MSRP: $500/Each - Cherry or Black Ash

The overall voice of your entire system will be realized by your loudspeakers. When people start into the market, they may know this and spend time and energy getting the right speakers for their setup. However, once we get into the perpetual upgrade loop, the speakers are often the first component to be forgotten.

The legacy of the Mirage OMNI polar speaker is a long one that started over 15 years ago. The flagship of the original series labeled the M1 débuted in 1987 and is still regarded as one of the best bipolar implementation to date. This was a massive speaker that weighed in at almost 200 pounds, and its legacy is still remembered in the hi-fi world.

In the used market, which has a tendency to

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OMNI CC Center Channel:

• Three-way

• One 1" Pure Titanium Hybrid Tweeter, One 3" Polypropylene Midrange and Two 4 1/2" Titanium Deposit Woofers

• MFR: 50 Hz - 20 kHz ± 3 dB

• Crossover: 500Hz, 2KHz

• Nominal Impedance: 8 Ohms (4 Ohms min.)

• In Room Sensitivity: 90 dB/W/M

• Size: 8" H x 21" W x 10" D

• Weight: 25 Pounds Each

• MSRP: $400/Each - Cherry or Black Ash

OMNI FX Surrounds:

• 2 way

• One 1" Pure Titanium Hybrid Tweeter, One 5 1/4" Titanium Deposit Woofer

• MFR: 80 Hz - 20 kHz ± 3 dB

• Crossover: 2KHz

• Nominal Impedance: 8 Ohms (4 Ohms min.)

• In Room Sensitivity: 90 dB/W/M

• Size: 11" H x 8" W x 7" D

• Weight: 9 Pounds Each

• MSRP: $200/Each - White or Black

OM-200 Powered Subwoofer:

• Ported Opposing Omnipolar Driver Configuration

• Two 10" Drivers

• 200 Watt Amplifier (800 watts peak)

• MFR: 20 Hz - 120 Hz ± 3 dB

• Variable Low-Pass: 40 Hz - 120 Hz (18 db/octave)

• Variable Phase: +180 degrees - +180 degrees

• Size: 16 1/4" H x 18 5/8" W x 15 1/4" D

• Weight: 48.6 Pounds Each

• MSRP: $1000 Each - Gloss Black or Cherry

Mirage

www.miragespeakers.com

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put prices on a more level playing field, the M1 is still a $1000+ speaker some 15 years later. That alone should validate the technology for most of us, but Mirage did not relax, and they continued to improve on their technology. In 1996 Mirage introduced the OM series of speakers which brought the technology and the listening experience to a new level with a bipolar design in a narrow column. This new design was the first in the OMNI polar family.

I still own the OM-6, the original flagship of that series, and while many speakers have passed though my system, no speaker has been able to replace it. Like the original series it was expensive to build. It required twice as many drivers and more cabinetry work then their competitions conventional loudspeakers. That did not hinder Mirage’s progress, and people were willing to pay higher prices for the benefits of OMNI polar sound. But, Mirage still believed there was a bigger market opportunity if they could find a way to reduce the cost of the OM series. The OMNI series being reviewed here is Mirage’s first attempt at such a system and will replace Mirage's more conventional FRx

series. Lets see how they did it . . . .

The Mirage OMNI series

To achieve the same dispersion pattern as the OM series, Mirage did the most logical thing they could do, flip the drivers on end and point them straight up in the air. Since sound waves are dispersed similar to throwing a stone in a puddle, this driver orientation would give the closest pattern to a pair of speakers mounted in Mirage's OMNI polar configuration.

Now any reputable speaker manufacture knows you cannot listen to a driver in this orientation. Just look at the polar plot of any driver’s frequency response when you get more than 30 degrees off axis, let alone 90 degrees. However, that was no reason to give up. Instead, Mirage’s research department tilted the mid-bass drivers slightly forward and designed a tweeter raised outside of its mounting basket. The tweeter and mid-bass drivers can then be placed in very close proximity to one another.

Mirage then uses the bottom of the tweeter housing and a small elevated hat over the tweeter to aid in the dispersion pattern. This new combination gives an optimal off axis frequency response and mimics the dispersion pattern of the original OM series with the use of only two drivers. In my experience, this would be the closest representation of a

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point source using a mid-bass tweeter combination that exists today, which is a good thing. This new technology has been coined by Mirage as OMNIGUIDE. Of course, there is more to the research than what is explained here, and I have seriously oversimplified Mirage’s process. My point is, this is a new concept, something I have not seen before. The question is . . . does it work?

OMNI 260

The first speakers people select when setting up any audio system, rather for music or home theater, are the mains. The OMNI 260s are the flagship of the OMNI series but are not flagship in price. They list at only $500 each or $1,000 for the pair. The 260s are shielded and feature the OMNIGUIDE technology. The driver composition is made up of a shielded quasi-three way design. The OMNIGUIDE portion consists of a 1” PTHpure titanium hybrid tweeter, suspended over a 6 1/2” titanium deposit mid-bass driver. The bottom of the frequency range is augmented by another 6-1/2” titanium deposit driver and a flared port achieving a 3 dB down point of 35 Hz.

The cabinets are constructed of 3/4” MDF and covered in Black Ash or Cherry. You will not find bi-wire binding posts on any of the new OMNI series. There are people that believe bi-wire enhances the listening experience, but I have never shared that opinion. In fact, if you spend a day with Secret’s Colin Miller you would probably never bi-wire a speaker again. My personal belief is the difference is negligible. With the savings Mirage made by using only a single set of posts they arguably installed the nicest binding posts I have ever experienced from a usability perspective (image near bottom of this article). They are standard metal with clear plastic coverings mounted on a custom plastic mount. While that sounds simple, the key is they are large, easily graspable, and positioned such that they are easy to get at. I use bare wire in my home theater, as I have not gotten around to purchasing spades or bananas. Most binding posts leave nasty impressions in my finders caused by tightening them down. No

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