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Bronze Member Username: TobiasPost Number: 30 Registered: Oct-05 | I am newish to this forum and a newbie in general to home audio. My current system consist of the following: Mirage Omni Center Channel - 250W Omni Series 60 Front x 2 Omnisat Micro speakers x 2 Hsu Research VTF-2 subwoofer These speakers are paired with a Yamaha RX-V657 receiver and a Panasonic 50in. plasma TV. I have attached photos of the room, which is very large and spacious. We moved last year and now we live in a town house where the living room, foyer and dining area are all on one floor. This makes it tough to do room treatments and as a result, I am thinking about upgrading or changing my system. By that I mean adding two floor standing speakers with greater power, speakers that are better suited to the kind of room we have. My questions are these: (1) Do I have to stick with Mirage or is it OK to add a different brand speaker? (2) If it is OK to add a non-Mirage speaker, which ones would you recommend? I have been looking at Mirage V2 FS (for Mirage) but also Polk Audio RM40T; Athena AS-F2.2 (I read on one of these threads that Athena speakers do not match well with Yamaha receivers - true or not?); Klipsch FS-1; Yamaha NS-777; Infinity Primus P360 or 362; Infinity BETA 50 or 60; etc. (3) You will notice that all of these models are tower/floor standing speakers which I prefer for their design and power. (4) In your opinion, should I keep the Mirage Front speakers in addition to these floor standing ones or replace them? Any and all advice from experienced audiophiles most welcome and appreciated! http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q74/DonatoFoto/Picture001.jpg http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q74/DonatoFoto/Picture002.jpg http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q74/DonatoFoto/Picture003.jpg } |
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Silver Member Username: Nickelbut10Post Number: 609 Registered: Jun-07 | Well IMO, I do not like the sound of Mirage, Polk, or Athena. Just my opinion though. Try to stay away from the Big Box Store crap. Find yourself a good Hi-Fi dealer, go from there. Start with your source and work your way up from there. Source being your DVD/CD Players and such. I do like the Infinity stuff, it is under rated and does sound pretty good. Also in your price range, look at Paradigm, Klipch, MOnitor Audio Bronze,PSB and im sure there is more. For Receivers, well not sure what your price range is. But get yourself a good relationship with a local Hi-Fi dealer and start doing some demo's of different equipment. Get an idea of what products you like. Cheers. |
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Silver Member Username: HuronPost Number: 259 Registered: Mar-07 | Don, your question 1, omni speakers are of mirages omnipolar design so no they shouldent get mixed around, but there are a lot of people that do mix the rears around, not all of us have the money to upgrade everything at the same time, if you want towers and you dont want them mirage then so be it, put your omni 60 in the back witch will disperse the sound good and will keep up with bigger speakers than the micro`s, you will have to match the center with the front speakers of choice, if you use the omni`s for the rears and dont plan to upgrade them anytime soon then try to match up the same materials in the tweeters and midranges, like if the tweeter is aluminium dome design, or if the drivers are fiber glass composite I think kevlar and carbon fiber might match, you wouldent want to match these driver materials with polypropylene or aluminium materials I wouldnt think, |
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Bronze Member Username: TobiasPost Number: 31 Registered: Oct-05 | Thanks Nick and Angelo. Well, the Omni 60 Bookshelf speakers have a pure titanium hybrid tweeter and polyprophylene titanium deposit hybrid woofer and so does my Omni CC. The Omni 550 that I am looking at now has an aluminum dome tweeter and fiberglass composite woofer. The Omnisat V2.FS have titanium tweeters and woofers. So does this mean that I cannot use the Omni 550 Tower Speakers with the Omni 60's or Omni CC? What about the Hsu subwoofer? Should I replace that with a Mirage Omni S10 or can the subwoofer be from a different brand? This gets complicated and a little confusing. I would have never even given a thought to the material that makes up the tweeter/woofer when choosing speakers from the same company! } |
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Silver Member Username: HuronPost Number: 260 Registered: Mar-07 | on lower frequecies it not as important, so dont worry about that, and mirage will problibly tell you that the titanium and the aluminum are close enuogh, unless the tecnoligy is to far off, the polyprophylene titanium deposite hybrid (wow say that ten times) and fiberglass composite woofer, time to call mirage, wow I had know idea that mirage was using such exotic materials |
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Silver Member Username: HuronPost Number: 261 Registered: Mar-07 | the most important is the fronts and center, dont worry so much on the sub, and then like i said about the rears, we all dont have the money to upgrade all at once, |
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Silver Member Username: MccambleyBREEZY POINT, NY USA Post Number: 427 Registered: Jun-05 | Don the room looks like it needs to be redone. I hate corner setups, what's in the room where you are taking the picture from. Home theater likes a rectangular set up with the TV on the short wall. Paradigm speakers, in my opinion are the best bang for the buck and you would need to replace you front L&R and center in order to do a correct upgrade no matter what brand you choice. |
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Bronze Member Username: TobiasPost Number: 32 Registered: Oct-05 | Thanks again everyone. There is no way that our room can be changed. It is what it is and there is no way to make it rectangular. I mean, we could move the TV to where the small couch is now but that corner is not exactly a great place to view TV. As for the speaker selection, I emailed Mirage today and asked about the tweeter/woofer material compatibility, so I'll see what they say about that. I happen to like the Omnipolar technology in these speakers. The soundstage is full and awesome, and is needed in a large room like ours. It is more economical to stay with Mirage rather than switch to a totally new brand for the three front speakers. Casey, I am not sure I understand what you mean about replacing the front L&R and CC "no matter what brand you choose." Are you saying that I would have to replace them all even if I stick with Mirage or only if I switch brands altogether? Thanks. |
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Silver Member Username: HuronPost Number: 264 Registered: Mar-07 | its not just the material compadibility on the outside but the design and materials inside as well, for example my center channel is an opus, much higher quality than my diamond 9.2 fronts, even though there the same company and the tweeters are tex type, the center channel tweeter might be of better quality and sound a little brighter when you are a foot away and listen carfully, but its hard to tell because of the 3" dome midrange that ties in so well with the tweeter, the 9.2`s dont have the 3" dome mid, but from seating distance it all ties in well enough, but in the future I will upgrade my fronts, money money money |
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Silver Member Username: HuronPost Number: 267 Registered: Mar-07 | don, what casey and what I said but I problibly shuold have said it better is that you should match the center channel speaker up, that would mean upgrading it too, in my old system I had two center channels, my old big yamaha receiver had two center outs, I loved it, but it had only 35 watts for the rears, yuckky, over time I have notice that the center channel and rears are playing as much of a part in surround sound as the fronts (something that I have been trying to do all along) when I up graded I did not want to get rid of my two centers, but they dont make receivers like that any more so it was sujested to me that its best to have (one) the biggest and best center that will match the fronts, but I took it to far and now I have to match the fronts to the center, but I would rather have it this way than the other, the center is very important, and your center should be lined up at the bottom of the tv and if you raised the tv so the center would line up better with the fronts, and spread the fronts out more and maybe move the sub to the other side unless you have nabors there |
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Bronze Member Username: TobiasPost Number: 33 Registered: Oct-05 | I think I may go with the Omni 260's instead of the 550's because they are more compatible with my current system. The 260's have the same material for the tweeter and woofer as the rest of my system and have received excellent reviews. They cost the same as the 550's too. Thanks everyone for your help. |
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Silver Member Username: HuronPost Number: 271 Registered: Mar-07 | the 260`s look good |
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Bronze Member Username: TobiasPost Number: 34 Registered: Oct-05 | I just bought the last two Omni 260's from Vann's for just $199.99 each. They are a perfect match for my system and I could use the Omni 60's for Presence speakers. I'll let you know how they sound once I get them and set them up. Thanks Angelo! Molto bene, pisano!!! |
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Silver Member Username: HuronPost Number: 274 Registered: Mar-07 | thank you, Don |
