# Mirage Omni 260s



## aceinc (Oct 24, 2006)

I have the opportunity to look at a pair of Mirage Omni 260s tomorrow.

Anybody have opinions on these? The owner says they are 6 years old and in good shape.

I should be able to assess their overall condition, a question I have is, what was their quality when new? 

If I buy them I would probably make them the surround speakers migrating my 5.1 system to 7.1. My thought is the surround speakers are supposed to be omnidirectional (hence all the bipolar surround speakers) and that is what these are supposed to do well.

All opinions are appreciated.

Paul


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

I looked at there site and couldn't find the speakers your looking at but the rest of there line-up looks very nice.


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## aceinc (Oct 24, 2006)

They were discontinued a few years ago.

I don't have a problem with older speakers, as my mains are KEF 105.4s.

Paul


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

Thats kind of why i figured i couldn't find them, being that they are older. I would check them out and for the right price are probly worth it.:T


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## aceinc (Oct 24, 2006)

Well they were in decent shape, so I bought them for $150.

Even though I intend to use them elsewhere, I set them up as my mains and ran the Pioneer MCCAC, using an Emotiva XPA-2 to drive them. I set that to a different memory area so I could more easily move back & forth between my KEF 105.4s and the new Mirage Omni 260s. The 260s seem to have less correction than the 105.4s

To test them I chose to listen to some Steely Dan, Not something that would really stretch the speakers, but something I know & like. This isn't meant to be a formal review, just initial impressions. The sound of the 260s seem to have more high end than the 105.4s. The bass on the 105.4s is deeper and more defined. The 260s border on harsh.

Cosmetically the Mirage is the equivalent of cheap put it together yourself furniture that you buy from a big box store, vs real furniture built by craftsmen.

In order to use these as I want I will need to buy a Rocketfish xceiver pair and move one of my XPA-2s to where my subs are. That will then free up a pair of wires for my surrounds. My intention is to use the surround amps in the Pioneer for these speakers leaving the fronts, center and rears all on the Emotiva XPs.

This will hopefully give me a chance to listen to a reasonable 7.1 configuration. I'll post my impressions as I go.

Paul


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## aceinc (Oct 24, 2006)

It appears that the Rocketfish device that I bought is not quite what I need. It will accept up to 2v input on the line in but only outputs up to 1v. Since one of the outputs goes to a power amp 1v doesn't seem to be quite enough to fully light my subs. The MCCAC has the sub at +9 when before it was -1 to -2.

I will be playing around Sunday, and I think if I move the BFD to the output side of the Rocketfish pair, I can use it to add some oomph. Of course the BFD is not aesthetically pleasing, and I will need to deal with that.

Paul


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## aceinc (Oct 24, 2006)

I moved the BFD to the output side of the Rocketfish, and I now have reasonable output levels again.

One little note, with the Rocketfish in the system the subwoofers appear to be 32' away from the listening position. That adds about 22' to the actual distance. If I did my math correctly the Rocketfish adds about 199 miliseconds to the normal delay.

One advantage of moving the BFD to where the subs are is that I am able to put the Titanic 10's driven by the Emotiva XPA-2 on one channel, and the Rytmik Audio DS15 on the other and create independent curves. 

Now that I have 7.1, what would the assembled masses recommend to listen to hear the difference between 5.1 & 7.1?

For those not keeping score, here is my current configuration;

Source: Sony BDP-370 bluray player
Processor: Pioneer VSX-94TXH
Front Amp: Emotiva XPA-2
Surround/Center Amp: Emotiva XPA-3
Rear Amp: Pioneer VSX-94TXH Rear amp.
Main Speakers: KEF 105.4
Center Speakers: DIY
Surround Speakers: Mirage Omni 260
Rear Speakers: DIY
Sub System: DIY, two Dayton Titanic 10" in .6 cu. ft. cabinets powered by an Emotiva XPA-2, one Rythmik Audio DS15.

I understand that the surrounds are not optimized as they are behind the main listening position, and the tweeter is only about 3"-6" above ear level. I was hoping that would be ameliorated by the fact that they are omni directional speakers.

I am moving the second half of this post to a new thread, as it seems as though I am hijacking my own thread.

Paul


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