spent my o-scope money, Mirage OM-7 review

[donberry 44]

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. 

[compwaco 1,129]

Congrats! I am a fan of Mirage speakers. The OM-7 are quite nice. I have a pair of OMD-15 that are one of my favorites.

[PMAT 2,061]

Those look amazing. Oops..... Nice review. $300 is nothing for good sound.

[Gene C 1,753]

Welcome to the forum donberry! We still like photos here...

[kve777 6,904]

Nice! Glad you found something you enjoy so much!

     I've been a Mirage Omnipolar fan for about 10 years, when the Omnisat's came out. I have 7 Mirage Omnipolars in my living room system. Two more at idle. They really do fill a room seamlessly, like do box speaker can.

[donberry 44]

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

[PMAT 2,061]

Send the picture police Number One. Dondoobie thinks we all know what a Mirage 7 looks like 

 

By the way, thanks for backing me up Number One. 

 

 

[Gene C 1,753]

Ohhhhhh, so that's what they look like.

[donberry 44]

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....