www.vanns.com has a closeout price on the original Mirage Omnisat speakers. These originally sold for $250 per speaker and got rave reviews at that price. Vanns has them for $79.88 each with no tax and free shipping!
That's 5 top-quality speakers for $400 shipped! If you need 7, it's $560 shipped. They are also offering 2 Mirage subs at good discounts - the 8", 100-watter is $199 and the 10", 150-watt sub is $299. Free shipping on these, too.
There's also the excellent smaller Outlaw Audio LFM-2 sub, which goes for $299+ shipping. I think this would be a great sub for this system and I'm considering replacing my current sub with this one.
Bottom line, you can put together a very good 5.1 or 7.1-channel system for well under $1000 with this closeout deal.
Following is my mini-review after having these in my room for about 3 weeks:
I just got 5 of them and they are a significant upgrade over my Boston Acoustics system - the omnidirectional nature of these makes it extremely easy to get good balanced sound even in difficult rooms.
The way these project sound is very different than most speakers - they don't provide that pinpoint imaging that many people are used to. Instead the speakers themselves seem to disappear and they tend to 'float" an image across the room. It's an intoxicating effect, but it may be disconcerting to someone who is used to razor-sharp imaging. I would say that if you like to listen to stereo music using 5.1 channel sound processing, these speakers would be ideal.
They are also excellent for home theater. For movies, you get a soundfield that is seamless and completely immersive. This is exactly what you want. You can more easily lose yourself in the movie because you don't have individual speakers calling attention to themselves.
These Omnisats have a decent low end for such small speakers (they are less than 7" tall). The 4.5" titanium-deposit polypropylene woofer goes down to 70Hz, which makes it very easy to mate with a subwoofer. The standard 80Hz home theater crossover works extremely well. These are punchy speakers, especially good with tactile sounds like kickdrum and percussion - you of course won't get the full "whump" of the kickdrum; for that you'll need a sub. But the Omnisats DO project the transient of the soft mallet striking the big drum head, giving it an eerie sense of reality that is completely intoxicating.
Vocals also are very good on these speakers. Voices are clear and dynamic. The titanium tweeters are the same ones used on Mirage's best floor-standers. The highs are totally non-fatiguing, not hard at all, yet not too soft, either. The omnidirectional dispersion pattern results in a huge sweet spot - actually there IS no sweet spot, the whole room is sweet.
At first I thought these were lacking in the midrange, but I couldn't put my finger on exactly what was missing - it's all there. I'm guessing the omnidirectional effect and slightly vague imaging was the culprit. In the end I decided these are not ear-bleeding rock speakers. The guitar solo doesn't really tear through the room and rip your ear off. They won't peel the paint off the walls. That said, most of my listening is rock and pop music, and I like the way these project the full "blend" of instruments, even if it's somewhat at the expense of individual instruments.
A few words on placement and WAF. These are small speakers, available in 4 different colors (black, white, platinum, and platinum/black), easy to blend physically and sonically into any kind of room. They are attractive if a little strange-looking, and they are easily wall or ceiling mounted - in fact, Mirage recommends that if they are placed higher than 6', you should mount them upside-down for best effect. I have my surrounds mounted this way and it works great. My wife loves the small, modern, unboxy look and the way they take up almost no space in the room.
To sum up, if you are the type of listener who likes to sit in one spot and hear razor-sharp imaging and concert-level dynamics, look elsewhere. If you enjoy music while doing other things, or have more than one person listening at a time, like to listen from the kitchen while music plays in the den, watch a lot of movies, or tend to listen to stereo music with 5.1 channel processing, these are top quality speakers at a ridiculous bargain price.
That's 5 top-quality speakers for $400 shipped! If you need 7, it's $560 shipped. They are also offering 2 Mirage subs at good discounts - the 8", 100-watter is $199 and the 10", 150-watt sub is $299. Free shipping on these, too.
There's also the excellent smaller Outlaw Audio LFM-2 sub, which goes for $299+ shipping. I think this would be a great sub for this system and I'm considering replacing my current sub with this one.
Bottom line, you can put together a very good 5.1 or 7.1-channel system for well under $1000 with this closeout deal.
Following is my mini-review after having these in my room for about 3 weeks:
I just got 5 of them and they are a significant upgrade over my Boston Acoustics system - the omnidirectional nature of these makes it extremely easy to get good balanced sound even in difficult rooms.
The way these project sound is very different than most speakers - they don't provide that pinpoint imaging that many people are used to. Instead the speakers themselves seem to disappear and they tend to 'float" an image across the room. It's an intoxicating effect, but it may be disconcerting to someone who is used to razor-sharp imaging. I would say that if you like to listen to stereo music using 5.1 channel sound processing, these speakers would be ideal.
They are also excellent for home theater. For movies, you get a soundfield that is seamless and completely immersive. This is exactly what you want. You can more easily lose yourself in the movie because you don't have individual speakers calling attention to themselves.
These Omnisats have a decent low end for such small speakers (they are less than 7" tall). The 4.5" titanium-deposit polypropylene woofer goes down to 70Hz, which makes it very easy to mate with a subwoofer. The standard 80Hz home theater crossover works extremely well. These are punchy speakers, especially good with tactile sounds like kickdrum and percussion - you of course won't get the full "whump" of the kickdrum; for that you'll need a sub. But the Omnisats DO project the transient of the soft mallet striking the big drum head, giving it an eerie sense of reality that is completely intoxicating.
Vocals also are very good on these speakers. Voices are clear and dynamic. The titanium tweeters are the same ones used on Mirage's best floor-standers. The highs are totally non-fatiguing, not hard at all, yet not too soft, either. The omnidirectional dispersion pattern results in a huge sweet spot - actually there IS no sweet spot, the whole room is sweet.
At first I thought these were lacking in the midrange, but I couldn't put my finger on exactly what was missing - it's all there. I'm guessing the omnidirectional effect and slightly vague imaging was the culprit. In the end I decided these are not ear-bleeding rock speakers. The guitar solo doesn't really tear through the room and rip your ear off. They won't peel the paint off the walls. That said, most of my listening is rock and pop music, and I like the way these project the full "blend" of instruments, even if it's somewhat at the expense of individual instruments.
A few words on placement and WAF. These are small speakers, available in 4 different colors (black, white, platinum, and platinum/black), easy to blend physically and sonically into any kind of room. They are attractive if a little strange-looking, and they are easily wall or ceiling mounted - in fact, Mirage recommends that if they are placed higher than 6', you should mount them upside-down for best effect. I have my surrounds mounted this way and it works great. My wife loves the small, modern, unboxy look and the way they take up almost no space in the room.
To sum up, if you are the type of listener who likes to sit in one spot and hear razor-sharp imaging and concert-level dynamics, look elsewhere. If you enjoy music while doing other things, or have more than one person listening at a time, like to listen from the kitchen while music plays in the den, watch a lot of movies, or tend to listen to stereo music with 5.1 channel processing, these are top quality speakers at a ridiculous bargain price.
