Mirage Loudspeakers OMNI 5.1 specifications Mirage Omni series

Product Review Page 2 of 10

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

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

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_10_2/mirage-omni-speakers-5-2003.html 5/5/2003