Mirage Omni 350 omnipolar

Well, I took the plunge on the Mirage OMD-28's today!
Could not help it, as they seem like such a great deal and they only had two pair left in the beautiful Burled Maple.

Should have them mid/late next week,so we will see what
happens.

Looks like a steal for a decent wide dispersion design at those prices.

06-30-09: Griffinconst
Do those have down a firing woofer? I thought they had one firing forward and the bass/mid firing upward under the tweeter,

Oops, my bad. I meant to say downfiring *port*. The woofers are forward-facing. The port is downfiring, with the spacers and built-in base to optimize port loading.

Some speakers (the Zu Druid comes to mind) with downfiring ports had inconsistent bass depending on how well the spikes made contact with the floor. The Mirage design takes that variable out of the equation.

Do those have down a firing woofer? I thought they had one firing forward and the bass/mid firing upward under the tweeter, which also fires upward.
I'll have to go check that. I'll let you know what I find out.

No connection with Vann's. I got all my Mirages at discount, but not the kind of discount Vann's has on some of them, particularly the OMD-28 and 550 CH. I own a model that sat between them--the OMD-15, three times the price of the 550 CH and one-third the retail price of the OMD-28. The dimensions of the OMD-15 are very similar to the 550 CH, but with higher level drivers and cabinetry. The bass drivers are actually smaller (5.5") than the ones in the 550 CH, and *definitely* reach well down into the 30's, as I play all manner of bombastic orchestral pieces on them, such as Holst's "The Planets." The OMD-15's have the advantage of Mirage's ribbed elliptical surrounds for better linear excursion, but even so, with two 6.5" drivers, a column like that, and a downfiring woofer, the 550 CH should (once broken in) provide some good reach into the 30's.

Feed 'em some good amplification via some good speaker wires. Bi-wire 'em if they have the dual terminals.

Hey John - so fess up,you work at Vann's don't you? Ha ha
I see they are rated below 35hz but don't you think that they're stretching that a tad?
By the way I'll be ordering those in the morning. The girl at Vann's said they were coming in tomorrow. Maybe I'll have them for Saturday night, on second thought, that is stretching it a tad.
Thanks for the help.

Here's the Vann's link to the cherry 550 CH floorstanders. At less than $300/pair with free shipping they're a no-brainer, easily competitive at the $800 price point they were designed for, and will given you fast, deep slammin' bass (but not thumpy one-note frat-house bass) into the 30's.

They have a small footprint and fit easily in a living space, while delivering a big sound when the music calls for it.

Thanks for the good word guys. That was the info and opinions I was hoping for.
Johnny, you answered my prior post about floorstanders under $600. I assume you think these would be a good choice and a great deal at the Vann's sale price?
I read that only black would be available in the U.S. but Vann's says their's are cherry. They look killer with the cherry sides and full legnth black grill on the front.
Thanks again.

Just an observation here:

Vanns.com has the Mirage 550 CH listed at $300/pair. This looks to be a pretty serious discount and might represent a good alternative to whatever deal you're considering on the 350 - depending on the pricing you've been offered and the relative merits of the 2 models. Johnny, do you know anything about the 550 CH?

The last thing in the world I need is another pair of speakers, but that looks like a pretty low cost of entry for a very interesting design, so...

Marty

I don't think they really take getting used to, unless you're used to a limited sweet spot, suckouts, and HF rolloff when you get off-axis. For me that was an easy thing to drop in favor of uniform power response throughout the listening area, more realistic timbres, and the same basic tonal balance wherever you go in the room (excepting, of course, the increased bass in corners and near the back wall.

You still get imaging, about as precise as you get in live music and a realistic soundstage that scales up and down according to the production and size of the ensemble. This does not come at the expense of the midrange; it doesn't sound like it's sitting in a hole, but is transparent and right where it belongs.

The two 5.5" speakers in a column with downfiring woofer works surprisingly well. Bass is very fast and clear, yet full and fairly extended. Should be good for rock. The 350s were from their budget line, now discontinued, with aluminum tweeter and less sophisticated cabinetry, but they should still do a good job for the money. Generally you'll want them 2-3 feet out from the wall, but mostly you lose some soundstage depth if you put them closer to the wall, as with most speakers.

I don't know Mirage, (I own Ohm omnis) but a few A'gon posters are enthusiastic about the current discounts on these models from Vanns.com. If the 350 is among these, you might want to e-mail member Johnnyb53 for his thoughts - he's a Mirage guy.

As for omni speakers and rock, I doubt that there's any inherent issue. MBL often demos their omnis with rock because their speakers play LOUD and high SPL rock shows this off nicely. The specific omni characteristics aren't necessarily the primary point there, but, in one track where an electric guitar solo is "hung out in space" in an impressive fashion, the omni dispersion is definitely displayed. I don't know that a ton of rock records allow this kind of trick, but there are certainly a few that do. OTOH, it's probably true that larger ensembles more frequently illustrate this benefits of omnis.

Good Luck

Marty