What amp/preamp to drive Mirage m1si's ??

Aragon

Dylkno.. that was informative. chuck

I had 3si's--pretty much the same speaker. I used a Music Ref 9 mk2--Pretty nice.

keep in mind the Mirage's have dynamic limitations in the bass department starting about 100 decibels sound levels if kept lower than this you'll never notice. The woofers bottom out at about 103 decibels with heavy bass material, doesn't matter what amplifier. I used a Counterpoint SA-220 with decent results a bit dry sounding in the highs but not bright. I used a melos 200 triode stereo amplifier the dry sounding highs disappeared using this amp and learned what a sound stage with air in it sounds like because of tubes, bass was equal to the fifty amp current supplied by the Counterpoint hybrid amplifier. they can sound very layered front to back with good tube amplifiers, they[speakers] remain slightly dark in character although. Biwire for best sound also.

mejames: thanks for the response. I did also purchase Mirages LFX3 equilizer to tune the lower frequencies and or route them to a seperate sub if needed. What cables did you use. I will also bi-wire maybe vertical biamp if i can fund it.

hello I biwired with XLO type 5,later with XLO signature cables. The equalization won't fix the woofers bottoming out,I eventually crossed the Mirage over at 100 Hz to Kenerjetics ?? SW-800 subwoofer system to solve the dynamic limitations completely.

Chuck, I would like to also recommend the Aragon. I have used the 8008 balanced version, and I love the combination. I originally had the M-3's and an Aragon pre-amp (Aurum). I didn't really care for that set-up. The M-3's sounded very boomy on the bass. I upgraded to the M1's and it got a lot better. I also bought MIT speaker cables and interconnects. A lot better.I then switched to a Pass labs pre-amp, and that made all the difference in the world. The Aleph P pre-amp is awesome. You can pick them up fairly inexpensively used. (about $1,300 for non remote)