INTRODUCTION
We are proud to welcome you as a new owner of a MIRAGE subwoofer. The finest components and materials are manufactured to exacting standards and tested with sophisticated manufacturing and quality control techniques to ensure exceptional performance that is superior to subwoofers costing several times their price. This approach to the development of the OM Series has resulted in a significant improvement over other subwoofer designs in terms of performance and aesthetics.
COMPANY BACKGROUND
MIRAGE loudspeakers and subwoofers are designed and manufactured by Audio Products International Corp., known throughout the industry as “API”. A Canadian company founded in 1973, API is one of the largest speaker manufacturers in North America, supplying products to over fifty-five countries worldwide.
The API factory is a modern 165, 000 square foot research, development and manufacturing facility located in Scarborough, a suburb of Toronto, Canada. More than 280 people are employed in this state of the art facility, designing, manufacturing, and marketing MIRAGE transducers, cabinets, amplifiers and crossovers. A talented research and development team utilizes advanced computer-based design and sophisticated measurement techniques in its ongoing quest for new and better acoustic technologies.
OM SERIES
Isolation Feet
Once the subwoofer’s position has been chosen, attach the 4 provided rubber feet to the 4 inserts found at the corners of the bottom of the subwoofer. Use the provided screws to run through the foot and into the insert. The feet help prevent the transference of signal from the subwoofer to the ground or cabinet for tighter, more accurate bass performance. See Diagram 1.
Room Acoustics and Subwoofer placement
MIRAGE OM Series subwoofers can be placed virtually anywhere in your listening room without significantly affecting the stereo image of your main speakers. However, interactions between any subwoofer and a room’s acoustic properties will have some impact on the overall bass performance. Reading this section will help you find a placement for the subwoofer in your room, which will yield the best bass performance.
There is a common misconception with regard to subwoofer placement. The best position is not necessarily the one with the loudest bass, but the position with the smoothest bass. Keep this in mind while determining your preferred placement.
A subwoofer’s omni directional bass propagation allows placement
almost anywhere in the room. But, just because the brain finds frequencies below 100Hz difficult to pinpoint doesn’t mean that all locations are ideal. Because the low frequency wavelengths can be as long as 50 feet, the position of a subwoofer is hard for the brain to pinpoint, but it must be stressed that it is still a point source with sound waves radiating out from it.
Corner placement
The most popular location for subwoofer placement is in a front corner of the room, to either the left or right of one of the main speakers.There is absolutely nothing wrong with this unobtrusive location if a few simple boundaries can be respected. Start off by placing the subwoofer near a corner, which will produce maximum bass output. Slowly move the subwoofer away from the corner in small stages to find the position that yields maximum bass output while maintaining clarity.
Although a clear path between the subwoofer and listening position is not required, it is recommended to leave approximately 2-4 inches (5-10cm) of clearance between the subwoofer and walls or room furnishings to ensure maximum performance. Moving a subwoofer out from it’s typical placement in a corner can change the amplitude of standing waves and either increase or decrease the amount of perceived bass at your listening position.
Finding the Ideal Location
If the placement of the subwoofer and its effect to the room décor is not an issue, you may want to determine the ideal location where the subwoofer performance can be maximized. An effective method of determining the ideal subwoofer location requires that you place the subwoofer in your preferred listening position. Then, slowly walk the boundaries of the room until you’ve determined the spot where bass is at it’s fullest. Switch positions between you and the subwoofer and the ideal location has been located.
Stereo Placement
If you are using a pair of subwoofers in stereo, it is preferable to place each subwoofer adjacent to the main speaker of the same channel.
Remember to use familiar musical recordings with an abundance of low frequency information when you experiment with subwoofer location.
Cabinet Placement
The Mirage OM Subwoofer series was also designed to excel in custom applications. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction and this fact is exploited by an Omnipolar subwoofer. The reactive forces that the drivers apply to the enclosure are opposing and therefore cancelled. This eliminates the most common problem associated with subwoofers, a cabinet that suffers from vibration. This movement of the cabinet produces coloration to the sound. And, if the subwoofer is installed in a custom application such as in a wall unit, this vibration is transferred to the wall unit and may rattle any object within. Touch the top of any traditional forward firing subwoofer and you will feel the vibration caused by the energy generated through the rear of the driver and ricocheting within.This is the major source of coloration from single driver subwoofers. Touch the top of an Omnipolar subwoofer and you will feel virtually no vibration whatsoever. It is this quality that makes an Omnipolar subwoofer ideal for in-cabinet applications. All that is required is roughly 4-6 inches of open space in front of each driver. This will allow the sound to flow from the driver and out of the cabinet, all without a trace of box coloration or transferred vibrations.
SUBWOOFER CONNECTIONS
Caution: Do not use both low level and high level methods simultaneously. Turn off all power in your stereo system before proceeding with the installation of the subwoofer.
