Do speaker wires matter

Lowrider - this is the first time I’ve hooked them up (both sets of speakers). I used the same speaker wires for both.

OP, what did your system sound like with your previous speaker cables?

You do have an amp/speaker mismatch but I'm curious.

Berner- they’re in a carpeted finished basement. Ceilings are 6’10” with 2 ducts running across and covered with drywall at about 6’1” height l. The basement is about 40ft x 25 not sure of square footage. There is alot in the basement to interfere with the sound as well ie. Furniture, drum kit, DAW on desk with monitors etc... cluttered.  I do keep the speakers about 2 ft away from the wall. 

There is only 1 red and black on each speaker. 

I currently have my Marantz going into 2 JBL HLS810 bookshelf speakers and they sound much clearer than the Mirages in terms of hearing the highs.

And if your speakers each have two sets of binding posts you have to have separate jumper wires between the two red and two black binding posts (on each speaker) or biwire them ie run 2 left and 2 right speaker wires from the amp to the two sets of binding posts.

I still have M3sis and they do have advantages ie type of sound which mostly can’t be gotten with sealed/ported box speakers.
Firstly the foam surrounding your drivers may have gone bad. You can inspect to see (I have directions somewhere how to take them apart).
You will need a more powerful amp. When I bought mine 30 years ago I was recommended a 75 W class A amp (worked well). Mine has several db more sensitivity so you’ll need more than that. Least 100-150W. High current solid state might be ideal. No clue about class D for this situation.

I’m sure you know these must be placed away from back wall, so hope you have a big room.  

Marqmike- thank you.

Yogiboy-I don’t believe so. Only 1 left and right/speaker if I’m understanding you correctly.

Not nearly as well as good room acoustics.

Are the ones that you have the bi-wire bi-amp version?
Here is a review!
https://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/689mirage/index.html

Those M1's were fun speakers. You may really enjoy them. They are not finicky but they do need good current going to them to do them fair.

I also wanted to mention that I do own a Crown Base model PB-2 I used for my sound system for live music. It’s maximum output is 400 wpc into 4 ohms at 1khz with no more than 0.1% THD. (I have no idea what most of this means)

Would using the Marantz as a preamp and going into this be an option or would you advise against it?

Thank you stereo5. Will try that out!

Mike - the speaker wires are a little over 9ft.

Start with a more powerful amp first and use the wires you have.  Later on, if you are enjoying what you hear, only then would I look into speaker cables.  

Thanks so much for the feedback! So it’s sounding like if I were to get my hands on the proper amp and speaker wires to go with these speakers, they would sound infinitely better?  If so I would like to consider it. As I had mentioned before, there is sound coming out of the highs, mids and lows - just not too great. It’s sounding like I still wouldn’t at least hear the quality of these speakers at a very low volume with this amp because of how little the power it has to deliver. Just confirming that before opening up the speakers, taking out the tweeters and sending them off to be sweetened or rebuilt.

i am very new in this world so please excuse my ignorance.

I appreciate all of your insight and knowledge. 

Ive never taking a risk like this in picking up speakers like these, or any for that matter. A friend suggested I do it. He knew the previous owner who is sadly no longer with us and they wanted someone to take them. I went for it and am hoping they don’t need to be repaired, but if so I will probably look into it.

Those were very nice and highly regarded speakers back in the day.  I remember a time I was looking seriously at M3's.  Your amp, as the other reasonable people on this thread have already told you, is seriously underpowered.  If the M1's are really 83dB, then you will need some muscle, but it should produce very good results.  Worth dealing with the speaker cable, but start with the amp, anything else will be a probably ineffective bandaid.

I'm with MC on this one. So many good higher sensitivity options. 

The last thing I need now are more speakers (famous last words) but when I do I'm going to finally try Tekton. Or giant Tannoy. First world problems. 

Speakers. Your amp is fine. Just need speakers with another 10 dB sensitivity. 93dB and you will be fine.

Want to save yourself a lot of time, money, and headaches? Never even consider anything less than 92dB. Just cross it off your list. Too many fabulous sounding 95dB+ speakers out there to be killing yourself trying to solve a problem so easily avoided.  

And yes, speaker cables are huge. Every bit as important as every other component. Its just right now you have other priorities, like finding a good Tekton, er I mean high efficiency speaker.

Yup.  Mismatch of amp capabilities and speaker needs.  Speaker cables aren’t even a rounding error at this point.  You need either a new amp or new speakers. 

I agree the Marantz is probably underpowered for these speakers.
How long are the speaker wires?