Hey Dmastri, in what way do you find Mirage floorstanders deficient? Can you articulate it beyond your "but Mirage? C'mon!" comment? What may be self-evident to you is not apparent to many of us.
The Mirages I recommended list at $2500/pair but are available right now at the OP's target price with return privileges and full factory warranty. They use cloth surround titanium dome tweeters and titanium-coated midrange and bass drivers. The enclosures are curved and tapered to avoid in-cabinet standing waves. Their crossovers, phasing, and dispersion patterns are based on at least three decades of research into psychoacoustics and room interactions. The Mirage M1, their initial bipolar design that started their bipolar/omnipolar/omnidirectional evolution, was a Stereophile Class A speaker. The second generation version was the personal choice of Brent Butterworth when he was editor of Home Theater magazine. And when Chris Martens of The Abso!ute Sound recently reviewed the OMD-15's big brother, the OMD-28, he bought the review pair and made it his reference.
Furthermore I listen regularly to a pair of the Mirages I recommended in a setting and application nearly identical to the OP's, and they fill the bill better than pretty much anything I could imagine at that price point.
I don't know why you think that Vandersteens are somehow several levels above Mirage. Vandersteens have always been good at imaging and phase relationships, of image focus, but Mirages have long been good at timbre accuracy, linearity, bass extension, and interacting with the room like live performers.
The Vandersteen 2Ce has a sensitivity rating of 86 dB and recommended amp range of 40-150 watts/channel. That's a pretty limited dynamic range and not so suitable for such a large listening space. The Mirage OMD-15 has a sensitivity rating of 91-93 dB, power handling of 250 watts, and can be biamped as well.
The Mirages I recommended list at $2500/pair but are available right now at the OP's target price with return privileges and full factory warranty. They use cloth surround titanium dome tweeters and titanium-coated midrange and bass drivers. The enclosures are curved and tapered to avoid in-cabinet standing waves. Their crossovers, phasing, and dispersion patterns are based on at least three decades of research into psychoacoustics and room interactions. The Mirage M1, their initial bipolar design that started their bipolar/omnipolar/omnidirectional evolution, was a Stereophile Class A speaker. The second generation version was the personal choice of Brent Butterworth when he was editor of Home Theater magazine. And when Chris Martens of The Abso!ute Sound recently reviewed the OMD-15's big brother, the OMD-28, he bought the review pair and made it his reference.
Furthermore I listen regularly to a pair of the Mirages I recommended in a setting and application nearly identical to the OP's, and they fill the bill better than pretty much anything I could imagine at that price point.
I don't know why you think that Vandersteens are somehow several levels above Mirage. Vandersteens have always been good at imaging and phase relationships, of image focus, but Mirages have long been good at timbre accuracy, linearity, bass extension, and interacting with the room like live performers.
The Vandersteen 2Ce has a sensitivity rating of 86 dB and recommended amp range of 40-150 watts/channel. That's a pretty limited dynamic range and not so suitable for such a large listening space. The Mirage OMD-15 has a sensitivity rating of 91-93 dB, power handling of 250 watts, and can be biamped as well.