donberry

way off topic and something you may or may not find useful. I own a pair of the SL3 and at one time I also had a pair of Magnepan MGIIc that I was restoring/fixing and ordered a pair of new black cloth for them. Long story short, turned out the socks fit very nicely over my SL3's. Not a perfect fit but more than good enough. Of course there's no way to have any definitive data but I am of the belief that those socks have greatly extended the life of my panels. While I do slip them off if I'm going to sit down and do some serious listening but while they do "shade" the sound a small amount, surprisingly to me, it doesn't "shade" the sound all that much so unless I am doing that serious listening I just go ahead and leave them on...... and while I don't have any data to prove anything, it would take a heck of an argument to convince me my panels don't stay cleaner because of the socks. My house gets pretty dusty and sockless, those panels surely would have needed washed quite some time ago. They had new panels installed right before I bought them, I'm guessing 8 years or so ago so without the socks, there's probably a decent chance it would be time to start thinking about replacing them but for my at the time investment of $80 for a pair of MGIIc socks , I'm not even considering washing the panels yet let alone replacing them. Considering the ease of slipping them on and off and while they may not look quite as cool with the socks on, they don't look all that bad and as I am of a mind it has greatly increased their lifespan, for me, it's an $80 investment for my SL3 I think so much of I thought I'd really stray off topic here and share that info with you

while I do agree with the - wow - I am thinking the speakers have been used before, but were wrapped in the plastic wrap to protect them during storage - which is still great as many would just sit them unprotected. I'm sure I couldn't afford them, but if I could, I would definitely be talking to the guy One thing UI didn't see in the picture was the crossover/servo module which according to reviews, is a must have. Would definitely be checking them out.....

-------to be honest, the pic wasn't mine, but mine is exactly like it. Has the handles and looks as tho it has always been kept in a cabinet actually because there was virtually no dust inside it. If they did clean it out, they did one good job as you can't tell it. Most important thing tho is she now works...

Picked up a pair of Dahlquist DQ-12 a couple of months ago and all I had available amp wise for them was a Kenwood KA-8100. Using that amp, a CJ PV2AR pre and a PS Audio Digital Link III dac, with pretty much mostly high res files, let's just say the speakers were lacking. Seemed really bright to me, not much bass and I ended up hooking up a ML Abyss sub. Better, but still not the "magic" I had hoped for and I figured the main problem was I just didn't have enough juice driving them. Picked up a pair of Mirage OM-7 not too long ago and I swapped them in for the DQ-12 - much better. The little Kenwood drove them seemingly effortlessly, very good sound in that room. It did have me questioning the Dahlquist tho. I normally try to re-do the xo's but didn't want to sink a whole lot of money into them if they just weren't my cup of tea. Enter Carver. As I disabled my M1.5t and m-500t temporarily due to an upgrade gone bad, I picked up a PM-175 to use until they got going again. Had a little problems with it also, but everything was finally working on it so today I pulled the KA-8100 and put the PM-175 in it's place. I only did a cursory listen with the Mirage speakers and you could tell a pretty decent difference with those, even tho I thought they sounded fine with the KA-8100 - the biggest thing I noticed was more bass. Not flabby or too much, but tight and just...better. Not sure what to expect as I really liked the Mirage speakers, I dragged the DQ-12 into the room and swapped them in for the OM-7. I had left the preamp on so it was nice and warmed up, flipped on the Carver and yea.......there will go. Sounds like a totally different speaker. I did expect them to sound better as everything I have ever read about them said they need some power , so while not totally unexpected, it does, or did, remind me why I always like to go for higher power amps. For the types of speakers I seem to always end up with - ML, Acoustat, Dahlquist etc, it's pretty mandatory you have high power amps to drive them - and as mentioned, this just once again confirmed that for me. I didn't give them a full blown audtion, headed in to do that in a second . It does have me wanting to get back to my other amps to get those up and running so I can give bi-amping them a try.... Just a cursory opinion that may change, but it seems the PM-175 is a pretty good bargain as they go for around $100.00. From the brief time I listened, the amp seemed to have good control of the bass, nice and tight, not "bloomy" or rolled off and enough juice to give me that midrange magic I enjoy so much. I will wait until i get the other amps back up as my track record with Carver isn't too good, but I am now interested in checking out what maybe some decent film caps in the signal path can do for it..... seems I always want to fiddle. Got the playlist set up, time for a good listen.

actually, no, this is what they look like ---- in someone else's house of course and I braved it and pried off the grills...fortunately they were just held on by plastic pins.....now I just need to see inisde the woofer end to see why these are so heavy....

yea, yea, yea on the pictures. I thought of that when I posted lol....To be honest, I figured they look pretty much like any other pair of OM-7 so didn't really feel the need. How about they look just like this except the room they are in is not as nice lol As for enjoying them, to be fair to my other speakers, I really enjoy them to , they just each bring something a little different to the table I guess. Will say I am not used to having a speaker like this that I can drive with a 80 watt amp - that's kind of nice. I'm sure they will sound a whole lot better tho if I ever get my Carver amps going - maybe the m1.5t on the woofers and the m-500t MKII on the high end.........lol I just read a review on the OMD-15- the guy loved them, not having heard some of their speakers, said it was his favorite pair by Mirage discounting some that were in the 10K and 20K range. Described them as well balanced, not as colored as past ones (mine are a tad on the warm side, but is how I like my music anyway) and highly recommended them. I looked them up after reading that article and saw u could get them new for around $1500 a pair. Seems like they might be one heck of a bargain..... of course I'll just force myself to use what I have and in a few years pick them up for $300 a pair lol - joking.....well, sort of

I posted this on AK but thought I'd post it here also as this is actually my favorite board. Was planning on getting an o-scope so I could get back to fixing my amps, but unfortunately/fortunately a pair of OM-7 caught my eye I have an addiction. Even though I still haven’t given my new to me Dahlquist DQ-12’s a proper tryout, perusing CL I saw a pair of Mirage OM-7 for sale that piqued my interest. I didn’t really know much about them but a quick google search gave me some reviews by Stereophile and Soundstage. Though I always read reviews like this with a grain of skepticism, if they were close to what the reviews said they were, they seemed like they could be the answer to my family room speaker woes. My family room is a large rectangular room, maybe 24x14 or so. Due to the way it is set up and where the speakers usually need to go, it isn’t the ideal space for “better” audio listening. If the wife isn’t around, I can make my SL3 or whatever speaker I have set up in there work, but even then it isn’t an ideal space. Not to mention with most of my speakers you have that one small sweet spot. They will sound okay out of the sweet spot, but especially the SL3, if you are on one side of the room, let’s just say it’s not the sound you would hope for with a speaker like that. So maybe the OM-7 was the answer I wasn’t even looking for. A speaker that gave me high quality sound despite not having the ideal setup and would sound good no matter where I was in the room. So I emailed the guy, offered him $100 less than he was asking ($300) and was kind of surprised when he accepted to be honest. The next day I drove down to pick them up and the biggest surprise to me was how heavy these things are. All of the weight is where the woofer is and I do not know what the heck they have down there, but it is heavy. They are the heaviest speaker I own now, which surprised me. I need to look up what is actually in this thing as I find it hard to believe there is just one woofer inside it. Looks wise they are right up my alley – they could pass for a hybrid esl speaker in a way. These have the cherry wood trim and though there are some expected flaws as they are now a fairly old speaker, they seem to be very well built and definitely solid. But the only thing that really matters to me is the sound. For space and appeasing the wife reasons, right now for an amp I just have my KA-8100 in that room. As I always seem to get very inefficient speakers, normally I just use this amp for a pair of DCM TF-400 or a pair of HPM-150 as it’s only 80 watts per, so I was curious how these Mirage were going to work with it as they were supposedly a fairly efficient speaker. To round out the gear I have my Conrad Johnson preamp mated to the KA-8100 amp section and a PS Audio Digital Link III dac. For the source I have a usb 3.0 external drive in with the gear and just bring my laptop over, using a M2Tech Hiface spdif to usb converter to connect the laptop to the dac. Music wise, whenever I am checking out new gear I pretty much always use 24 bit high res recordings. I listened to various artists, some of which were Diana Krall, Rare Earth, The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac and though not a doors fan, I do like Riders in th Storm and threw that in there also. This is a really long prelude to say that the Stereophile and Soundstage reviews pretty much nailed this one. 1st, 80 watts seems more than sufficient to drive these to more than a large room filling sound. I never went rattle ythe windows loud, but the KA-8100 handled the speakers seemingly with ease. I will be interested in how they sound with a higher power amp, say around 200 wpc, but if the KA-8100 is all they ever see, I won’t have a problem with that. Of course the best thing about these is what I was looking for in the family room, a good sounding speaker that sounded good pretty much anywhere. The OM-7 do this extremely well. A few times I tried sitting to where I was basically in front of one of the speakers yet I was still getting a good soundstage. If I tried that with most of my other speakers, I would basically be hearing the one speaker. I got up and walked around the room and even went into the kitchen and good sound followed me everywhere I went. I like these speakers. Do they have the pinpoint imaging of my SL3, no, not even close. But what they do have is a decent soundstage no matter where I am in the room. As one of the reviews said, I think, it was like listening to the whole band instead of just zooming in and being able to listen to just one instrument. Basically they really do emulate the live sound very, very well. As for the detail, transparency etc, they surprised me how well they did those things. I was expecting them to be okay, but not really wowing me that much. Not sure I can say I was wowed, but it only took a few songs to make me really happy I bought them. Turned out I did need another pair of speakers after all. The biggest fault I will say they have is they seem a little too relaxed in the upper midrange and lower high range area. They still sound very good, but they don’t have the detail in that range as most of my other speakers. It’s there, but it is like if it could be pushed forward just a hair they would be perfect. Don’t get me wrong as they are still way better than a whole lot of other speakers many speak highly of. One thing I don’t think I will have to worry about is them ever being too bright. The bass is really good, not what I was expecting at all. Maybe it was because they are sooo heavy and all of the weight is where the woofer goes, but I was expecting a boomy, exaggerated bass. Instead I got real tight bass that was not exaggerated at all but just sounded clean and tight. Needless to say, I really like these speakers. I would guess some would be put off by “omni-polar” speakers as they would be expecting room filling sound with no detail – that’s not the case at all. Are they as accurate as my esl speakers – no, not at all, but they are wayyy better than most box speakers I have heard that cost a whole lot more money. Actually, that is one thing I love about “older” gear. These ran in the neighborhood of $2200 in 2003 and I picked them up for $300. I have no doubt that there are more than a couple of people who will say I overpaid for them , even at $300. But seriously, if I went to whatever decent audio store and found a speaker that was as good as these are, I have no doubt that I would be looking at well over the $2k mark and probably more like the $3k-3.5K area, excluding magnepans as I am a Maggie fan . yes, they are not pristine, but could be with not too much work. But sitting in the room, unless you get up close and start inspecting them, they could pass for an almost new speaker but the most important part is the moment they started to play, you would be captivated. There is only one thing they do extremely besides the anywhere in the room imaging part and that is they just sound so darn good musically. I might be able to sit there and nitpick things apart like maybe well my SL3 mids are better, I wish the mids were a bit more forward etc, but instead I am just too busy enjoying the music as one thing you can’t pick apart about them is they are just so darn musical no matter what I put on – and is one of the few speakers I really enjoy that an 80 watt amp seemingly handles with ease. That’s a pretty big deal itself for me. Worth every penny lol……due to where they are and it looking like I will never finish my garage to get an audio room, these OM-7 are going to get a whole lot more playing time than my SL3 – and that’s saying quite a bit.

picked up the speakers and they were in very good condition. Had the expected amount of dust on them so I removed the cage and grill cover and hosed those down, then dusted off everything else. Look really good with the only real cosmetic issue is it looks as though a previous owner had a cat and there are a few claw like marks on the cloth, not bad at all tho, especially for their age. Hooked them up 1st thing when I got home. Sound okay, not great, but I think it is more an equipment issue at the moment then a speaker issue, except for one thing. The one thing is I was surprised at how bright they were. I am using my Conrad Johnson PV2AR and it is not a bright preamp. I just used some gear I had set up in my family room and I think they need more power to sound their best (am hoping so anyway). 1st use gear is a Kenwood KA-8100 used as a power amp, Conrad Johnson PV2AR for the preamp and I hooked up my PS Audio Digital Link III dac, using the laptop for my source which is why I brought out the dac. Speaker placement - this is also an issue and undoubtedly keeping them from sounding as good as they should but in order to use them in this room I don't have many choices as far as placement. First listen was with a very familiar album so I could get a decent comparison - Fleetwood Mac 25 Years The Chain reissue. One thing you have to love about Fleetwood Mac is they always release albums that have excellent sound engineering and that is why I usually start with this. I started at a moderate volume and the mids and highs were very nice but lacking a tad in the bass. So before I went any further I scurried down to my room and brought out a MartinLogan Abyss sub and hooked it up. Biggest "problem" here is I didn't do anything as far as setup except plug it in and adjust the settings a tad. My ear isn't that great and I really need to use a mic etc to set it up right, but I just wanted to hear the speakers. Music back on at moderate volume, sounded pretty good with very good uimaging considering the cruddy speaker placement, but they did sound a bit bright even at moderate volumes. I started "The Chain" and cranked it up and it got really "congested" during the parts of the song when everyone was jamming. I switched gears and put on some Van Morrison Astra Weeks in the 192kHz/24bit version from HDTracks because Van the man gets a little "shreeky" in parts and I wanted to hear just how bright these were. They were pretty bright, but they did sound good - they also got "congested" again. I use the word congested when everyone is jamming and I have a hard time picking out the individual instruments. If I am listening to one of my garage systems, my deck or outside systems and normally my car system (the one in my jag is pretty darn good tho), that is pretty much to be expected, but it obviously isn't why I have wanted to listen to a pair of these for quite some time. They are sounding really good on acoustic stuff like cat Stevens, some Ryan Adams etc, but not so much on the songs where everyone starts jamming. BUT - at the moment, I am not passing judgment on the speakers whatsoever as I am pretty sure I know what one problem could be and there is a good chance it could also be another. 1. - using the Kenwood KA-8100 as the power amp. Now I was surprised at the brightness of the speakers as this hasn't been a bright amp for me, but from everything I have ever read about the Dahlquist, they really need some power to sound like they are supposed to. I have read some say the DQ-12 don't need as much, but I knew when I hooked them up to that amp that it probably wasn't going to have the juice to do them justice. I think it is a pretty safe bet that the congested problem is the amp not having enough power. I need to get them hooked up to one of my big boy amps and I have a pretty good feeling that the congested problem is going to go away. Not so sure about the brightness of them though. From my limited experience, an underpowered amp will pretty much do what the Kenwood is doing now on these, but the tone normally doesn't change that much (except for the tone of the amp, even tho an amp is not supposed to have a sound - they all sure seem to to me) So, for that, I am thinking I need to scrounge around and find some schematics or open these up and see what is going on inside cap wise and perform a cap-errectomy (needs recapped). I will be looking around for the schematics because no matter what, I am going to throw some not cheap but not uber expensive caps in them,m but I am thinking, and could very well be wrong as I often am, they also might just need some hours put on them as who knows how long they have been sitting around not being used. As I did not pick them up, I have no idea if they have been used or sitting in a garage for years. If they have been sitting unused for a long time, that could also account for the congestion, but even so I know they need more power then the KA-8100 is giving them. So, as with pretty much all of my purchases lately, the jury is still out and I am going to hold off on any type of judgment until I get them on a more powerful amp and put some hours on them, So basically, this is a really, really long non-review.

ran across this video of the last time I went fishing with my brother. Excuse the language, bit foul in places. I had to quit fishing for about a half hour after "landing" this one. I am really out of shape and my muscles felt like jello. You can skip ahead to around 2:18 to actually see it.

that would be the guy . I had always wanted to hear and try the Dahlquist and also the Alon, which he designed also. Oh to be that smart

my brother has been getting on me about coming down as I have not been there in 2 years - when I caught that 10' lemon shark, so a kill 2 birds with one stone trip. While I LOVE to eat grouper, to be honest, I get bored catching them. With him it is like bluegill fishing - drop my line to the bottom, about 30', raise it up just a tad, if I don't have a fish in about 2 minutes , reel it up and put on new bait. If I hook them, they really don't run. they head for the bottom so you are basically always pulling "up" and reeling. Sure it's fun catching the 1st dozen, but then, at least for me, it gets boring. I like to catch the fish that run. We do the shark fishing where we catch the grouper which is about 23 miles off shore. 1st time I told him I wanted to catch a BIG shark we had 3 hard hits within 30 minutes of being there, while we were catching the grouper. Language is a little coarse as I was straining pretty good - but would never admit it to my brother as we are very competitive. At the end they were just looking at it and all I wanted was that fish off the line because my entire body felt like jello - I am really, really out of shape. I have not done much research yet but I believe there are speaker upgrades for these - replacing the woofer and mids if I am not mistaken plus the xo upgrades of course. I would guess that they will be well worth the $200 having never heard a pair, I believe their claim to fame is a BIG sound stage so I am thinking front speakers for a surround system - or rears. I have a Proceed AVP preamp and plan on turning my garage into an audio / home theater room. With the Proceed I can hook up 5 different amps so 2 amps for my ML SL3 and then maybe 2 amps for the DQ-12 and an amp for whatever center channel I use. Is sort of why I collect amps and am not in a huge hurry to fix the m-500t I just messed up. I have BIG plans for my carver amps lol

I am pretty satisfied with my system(s) but I occasionally peruse craigslist to see if anything interests me. Nothing in Tennessee so bored, I check out cape Coral Fl where my brother lives. Long story real short, I ended up picking up a pair of dahlquist DQ-12 for $200. real nice guy , he sent me a bunch of close-up pics since my brother probably wouldn't even know they were speakers. Seem to be in great shape. Only thing I could see was they have been re-foamed and whoever did it got a little carried away with the adhesive on one of the woofers - shouldn't affect the sq though. \I always wanted to hear a pair of these. From what I gather, they crave power to sound their best so good thing I sort of collect power amps. So now all I need to do is drive the 740 miles to pick them up. I've been wanting to go down there anyway. My brother is a BIG time angler and I usually bring home 50 lbs or so of grouper - would be more but there is a 2 per day limit and the smaller ones taste better. So I am thinking if I only have a day, maybe some grouper and catch a 8-10' shark , then drive home with the speakers. Last time down I got a 10' Lemon shark and I seriously felt like jello when I got him to the boat. I had to quit fishing for about 30 minutes while my muscles settled down. This is the one speaker that has a tad too much adhesive on the woofer. Was easier to see on a close-up pic he sent me

is it worth it ? well, I guess it is all pretty subjective.i used to be a "collector" when i got back into audio, buying everything I could get my hands on. After I found the sound I was looking for, i started dumping all of my extraneous stuff, just keeping a system for both my garages, a bedroom and my main system. Then, instead of collecting "new" gear, I started restoring what I had. As it is all vintage gear, just changing out the electrolytics made a huge difference to my ears, but after researching what to do with my magnepans, i started playing around with more expensive film caps. unless it is in the signal path, I pretty much just use them for my speaker crossovers as I have not yet educated myself on electronic crossovers (baby steps).. Sometimes there is a dramatic difference, usually it is a more subtle difference. Seems most of the time it is dramatic, it is for the worse (boomy bass etc). But, since I have started restoring/upgrading, to me, my system has been inching closer and closer to the sound I am looking for. i always thought I had decent gear, but I never got that "I am there" feeling that many talk about. I tried to convince myself it did sound that way, but while sounding good (to me), it just always seemed lacking.I would read what others were saying about their system and i just felt mine did not reproduce sound that way.But I have found that since i quit buying every good deal that came along and started using that money to restore/upgrade, I find myself getting ever so closer to that sound and actually, I believe i am almost there. Now it is just a matter of fine tuning. So, is it worth it, depends on what you are looking for. I would imagine that if i walked into a good hifi shop and listened to the best gear they had at say $10k and $20k, there probably would not be a huge dramatic difference between the 2, just more subtle nuances - that is what i feel I get by upgrading. Although, on the magnepans, although they are torn back down while i finish the wood frames, it made a pretty big difference. Upgrade cost me about $250.00, i paid $200.00 for the speakers themselves (MGIIc's that just needed some new adhesive) and i personally would put them up against any speaker i have ever heard. I know they make better and they are not for everyone, but for me - was worth every penny as when they are hooked up, i an see Brandi carlile, Gillian, Newton Faulkner etc sitting in my room giving me a private concert (I am on a folk kick at the moment) or I can crank it and see Jimmy Paige playing that solo just for me. As for the HPM-150 - I have about $150 or so in those caps (no inductors yet as it has 3 per speaker) and while subtle, I believe them to be much more accurate, better clarity etc. While they do not have the imaging of the magnepans, I would stack them up against most every other box speaker i have heard - but again, what I like, you may not. Sorry so long just to say imo, was worth every penny. i would rather spend my time and money restoring now as I believe i now have the gear to get me where i ant to go - if they are keepers, I spen the money on them

After playing around with caps, I would normally HIGHLY recommend this is the place where you want to go with the more "boutique" cap like a Dynamicap, sonicap etc, but wow, those have some really high values. I do not have a whole lot of experience with speaker caps, but I do not believe I have ever seen anything that high. It would cost a fortune just to cobble together the 47uf cap. Curious if you have a schematic to see where that 4 or 4.7 uf goes. If it is the sole cap on the mid or tweeter, might be a good place to stick in a dynamicap if you go with the 4uf (27.95 a piece), or a 4.7uf sonicap at 11.95 a piece. As for the inductor, again, depending on how much you love that speaker, but if you plan on keeping them around for a long time, the alpha core foil inductors are pretty nice. There is a debate whether foil is better, other one highly thought of is the Solens Perfect Lay. Depending on the value you need, it is an investment though. If it is a keeper speaker, the inductors , to my ears anyway, really do make a difference. While I am sire the Ohm Walsh used good ones, the place where you do cut costs a little is the inductor and caps. I got quite a bit of flack for upgrading my Pioneer HPM-150 as many thought I should leave them stock, but collectability was not what I was looking for as I do not plan on getting rid of them. New coils and caps and while onviously not as transparent as my maggies, I am reallllly satisfied with them when they are hooked up to my main rig. But, as mentioned, it gets pricey and is something you really only want to do if they are keepers as you would have 100+ alone in the inductors. (if I only had one choice of a more expensive upgrade, I believe I would do the inductors, tho as I only will do it on keepers, I never have to make that choice)