Mirage OM Speaker Purchase

Pasquale · 04-20-2003, 03:27 PM

I am almost ready to purchase new front speakers to replace my aged B&W 570's which have served me well but are ready for retirement.

Taking into account that for the time being I will be using a Pioneer VSX-D811S for a Receiver I have concerns if it has enough real power to drive either or both of the below listed choices. Please take into account at this time I am more interested in accruacy then in thump if you know what I mean.

I have narrowed my choices down to one of the following.

1. Mirage OM7 for fronts and OM2 for center channel. No subwoofer for time being will add one in future of needed. This is my first choice if the Pioneer would have enough power for the OM7's.

2. Mirage OM9 for fronts, OM3 for center channel and possibley a Mirage subwoofer to augment the OM9's. This would be my second choice if the Pioneer could not power the OM7's.

I would appreciate any comments from people familiar with the above speakers and/or Receiver.

Thanks, LTK

Adam.Gonsman · 04-21-2003, 01:21 AM

Pasquale,
I have a pair of OM-10's (which are precursor to the 9's) and have considered upgrading to 7's quite a few times so I'm fairly familiar with all the above. The 811 will adequately drive both the 7's and the 9's. My own personal preference is to say that the 811 may not take full potential of what the 7's or the 9's are capable of. I have never heard these speakers paired with the 811 but I know what they sounded like paired with my old Sony that was at a similar price point. They won't sound bad by any means though.

I'm not sure what your future plans are or what your current equipment is but some things I would consider:

The 7's are awesome speakers. They will give very nice impact for music, but you'll probably still need a sub to back them up for theater. If you have a seperate sub for theater already, then this is moot.

Also, I would give a serious listen to the 7's and the 9's. I've had a lot of people tell me they can't hear much difference between them or at least not enough to justify the difference in price. Personally, I hear the difference and think the 7's are justified in the higher price tag. But you might want to just audition them back to back one last time.

My last thought from my own epxerience, is even if you do end up with the 9's for whatever reason, get the C2 anyway. I've had a C3 for about 3 years now and still wish I would have opted for the the C2 to go with my OM-10's. It's a MUCH better center.

Pasquale · 04-21-2003, 07:28 AM

Adam,

Thank you for your reply. Everything you say makes sense and I will audition both speakers again.

When I auditioned them the first time I didn't hear much difference. But then again I was leaning towards buying a new subwoofer at the same time and figured the OM9's and the BPS150 together would be the better value. Later after I returned home from the store I thought I already have a Yamaha Sub why not use it to augment the OM7's and get the better speakers. My thinking was after having them for a while, if I felt the need for a new subwoofer to go along with them I would buy one. But tehn again teaming such a nice set of speakers with a Yamaha Sub seems like a very bad idea. Oh well Wensday I am going back to listen to them again.

The only problem I had with the salesman was I thought it would have been professional of him to tell me the BPS150 had been discontinued. I also thought charging me full boat for a discontinued sub was not really good salesmanship or the way to secure me as a return customer. I only found that fact out after researching the speakers on the Mirage website.

Most likely it is a foregone conclusion that in the near future I will be buy a new Amplifier to power those speakers. I just want to take my time in choosing a new Amplifer and had hoped I could use the Pioneer until I figured out what I wanted to buy to power them.

What you said about the OM2 has convinced me that the extra money spent on the OM2 will be worth it. The only concern I would have is a thirty pound speaker on top of my Hitachi 57" Projection TV and how to point it down towards the listening area, if that is even necessary.

Again thank you for your reply it helped me a lot.

Pat

paulBAW · 04-21-2003, 10:38 AM

One thing you HAVE to remember about the Mirage speakers is placement. I have always liked Mirage. But at this point I simply can't have speakers pulled away 3 ft from the way. And this is crucial or the speakers will sound terrible.

I have listend to the OM7's with a Yamaha RX-V1300, Denon 2803 and Pioneer Elite. The Denon seemed to matchup the best. Although for sheer movie impact the Elite was quite nice as well. A litle more bright and less musical.

I have a relative who owns the OM7's after owning M3's years earlier. He orginally had it hooked up to a Bryston, Moon combo. Now uses Blue Circle separates. And loves them. Placement is everything with these speakers. Large rooms and alot of room away from the wall.

Dave Getson · 04-21-2003, 04:12 PM

I have OM7's and the C3 center (wish I had the C2). The sounds great to me, combined with the FRx-S10 sub. It's small, but sounds great for both music and HT. Everything is powered by a Yamaha RX-V1000 receiver. Eventually I will go to separates, but for now, this combo works great for me. I have th same problem with spacing from the walls, but it's only temporary, and they still sound great even a foot away. I just know they'll sound better. Take a look at my setup if you want. I recommend the OM7's, but you'll need a sub for HT.

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Adam.Gonsman · 04-21-2003, 07:53 PM

Pat,
Glad to help.

Are you reffering to the BPS-150 or the BPS-150i? The BPS-150 is very old and has been discontinued for quite a while. If I remember correctly, it was a bass reflex sub but don't quote me on that. I own a BPS-150i and like it very much. It's accoustic suspension and is extremely musical. After looking at Mirages website, I'm a little confused as they list a BPS150 (no - in the number) as a current model. I'm not sure what's up with the model numbers but it looks absolutely identical to the BPS-150i which is listed as discontinued also. So if your salesman is trying to sell you a 150i, try and get him to give you a deep discount for it being an old model even though it seems indentical to the current one.

All that said, the 150i at least is a little lacking in impact for home theater. Don't get me wrong, it packs quite a wallup for two 8" drivers, but anything beyond a small room probably should have a single 400 or maybe dual 150's.

One solution that I've found (as I VERY much like the sound of the 150i for my music) is I run it inline with my OM-10's. This lets it back them up for 2 channel stuff and lets me keep it pefectly balanced with the speakers so the bass is not overwhelming for music. It also lets the 10's concetrate on mid base and up. I have a seperate sub (a real POS audio source sw-15 hopefully soon to be replaced by an SVS of some sort) that I leave attached to LFE on the receiver that I have set to run a few decibels hot to really give the chest pounding bass that action movies need. For Bass management, I have my mains set to large and feed LFE to both mains and the SW-15.

In my opinion, the BPS150 OM-9 combo is more than a rival for a pair of OM-7's. The downside is that means you have an extra box (the 150) sitting in your living room. The upside, is that the 150 brings along it's own amp to releive your receiver of some responsibility for the lower frequencies.

You may want to consider a similar approach and keep your yamaha just for LFE. A lot depends on how much/what kind of music you listen to verse home theater. This depends a lot on where you want the emphasis. Impact or accuracy. IT also depends on what size your room is and whether you have room for 2 subs or even need two subs. The 150 may be enough.

Also, I wouldn't worry too much about the C2 sitting on your tv. My C3 only weighs in at 6 pounds less and my 42" Mitsu RPTV doesn't even seem to notice it.

As for distance to wall, Omnipolars do like some breathing room. But not too much more than regular towers. Mirage reccomends 18" between the speaker and wall. I've found that this gives you a good place to start, but it's really more a proportional thing. The farther you sit from the speakers, the farther you want them from the wall. I have my OM-10's about 16" from the wall and sit about 12 feet from them. Also, I like to space them a little wide. It helps clean up the stero imaging of them a little as all the reflected sound does muddy up stereo a little bit.

Oh, and for what it's worth for frame of reference, I run my OM-10's off a Yamaha RXV-3300.

Craig · 04-21-2003, 08:16 PM

The Mirage OM speakers are a great value. I've had a pair of OM10s in my home theater setup for 3 1/2 years and really like them.

About the BPS150i, you can do better. I originally had a 150i for about 18 months, it really couldn't do justice to movie soundtracks. I ended up with a SVS 20-39PC and it blew the 150i away, there was really a night and day difference. I'd say pass on the 150i and get something that'll keep up with the bass in the movie soundtracks.

Pasquale · 04-21-2003, 08:55 PM

Thanks to all for your relies,

It looks like I will go with OM9's, an OM2 for the center and an OM200 for the sub. The reason I am going with the Mirage sub is I feel it was designed to work with the OM series of speakrs and will blend in the best. The dealer is trying to convince me to go with a Velodyne model that cost just a little more.

Now here is a question that might generate some differences of opinion on how I want to intergrate it.

At this time I do not use the Sub Out from my receiver to connect my present sub. I run the main speaker wires from the Receiver into the sub and then out to my B&W 570's.

What do you think about doing the same thing with the OM200 and OM9's. I turn off the subwoofer selection on the reciever and set my front speakers to large. I use the subs crossover to blend it with my front speakers. I know there are two schools of thought on how to connect a subwoofer and would like your opinions. I understand some people feel you lose a lot of the LFE information in movies but others say it doesn't make a difference

Peace, Pat

Adam.Gonsman · 04-21-2003, 09:19 PM

Pat,
I think what you describe is better for music as it makes it much easier to blend the sub with the towers for crossover. Before someone jumps in, you can make a sub on the LFE jack blend just as well, but it takes more work and leaves more room for error. Running the sub inline takes some (but not all) the guesswork out it.

As I said, this is what I do with my 10's and 150. But a lot comes down to experimenting to find what works/sounds best for your setup.

I don't know that you'll lose any LFE impact from having your only sub inline with your mains. The main argument that I'm aware of is that powered towers (mains with subs built in) tend not to have beefy enough subs to really substitute for a good stand alone sub.