A common denominator in much of this is design engineer Kevin Voecks, who designed the original Mirage line all the way into the beginning of the M-1 bipolar. Early Voecks designs at Mirage also had rear-firing drivers. Then he moved on to Snell (actually worked at both Snell and Mirage simultaneously for awhile) after Peter Snell died, and he redesigned their line, incorporating the rear-firing tweeters. He has been director of engineering at Revel since 1997.
There are other companies that have used ambience tweeters as well, and it's hard to say how many arrived at this on their own or were inspired by Voecks.
I've had Mirage M5si's for 16 years. In my 2-channel LR system I use a pair of forward-biased omnidirectional Mirage OMD-15's. After getting married in my living room with live music and soon after hearing a pair of Mirage speakers with the Omniguide, I became hooked on this approach to energize a listening space with the same timbres, room energy, and soundstage of live players.
If you want to hear just what's on the recording, no more no less, sit in the narrow sweet spot with nearfield monitors. If you want something that sounds like live music filling your listening area, go with omnis, bi-polars, or at least something with ambient drivers such as the rear-firing tweeter.
There are other companies that have used ambience tweeters as well, and it's hard to say how many arrived at this on their own or were inspired by Voecks.
I've had Mirage M5si's for 16 years. In my 2-channel LR system I use a pair of forward-biased omnidirectional Mirage OMD-15's. After getting married in my living room with live music and soon after hearing a pair of Mirage speakers with the Omniguide, I became hooked on this approach to energize a listening space with the same timbres, room energy, and soundstage of live players.
If you want to hear just what's on the recording, no more no less, sit in the narrow sweet spot with nearfield monitors. If you want something that sounds like live music filling your listening area, go with omnis, bi-polars, or at least something with ambient drivers such as the rear-firing tweeter.