Mirage M1 si

[Luisa Sass]

I would like some feedback on the Mirage loudspeaker si series please...
specifically the M1si... I have an opportunity to purchase a used pair for
about $2800. Hopefully I can get the guy to take $2500 or so. Anyway... I
auditioned them on a bryston 4bst and threshold t3 pre. I certainly liked
what I heard. The bass is very tight... and it's smooth detailed sound even
at a very loud volume is quite impressive. The soundstage was excellent but
i'm interested in hearing from anyone with long term exposure to these
loudspeakers. The only real concern I have is if my threshold t200 can
drive the M1si at a moderate to loud volume without clipping.

[CavemanIII]

I haven't listened to the M1si for any extended period, but I am very
pleased with my M5si's . My only comment would be that they require
more attention to placement than most speakers (I'm sure this is true
for most bi-polars). Specifically, my M5's require about 5 feet from
the rear wall in order to throw a convincing soundstage. I spend
several hours almost every weekend trying to convince myself that they
sound OK without being in the middle of my livingroom, but they
allways end up in the same place they started.

I'm using a B&K AVP5000 amp (105W/ch) to drive them with no trouble at
all, but the M1's are certainly more demanding.

[David Gray]

Luisa Sass <luis...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in article
<5uh7ad$2...@jamesv.Warren.MENTORG.COM>...

I have had a pair of M3si for 2 years and I have spent a lot of time
matching these speakers with a suitable amp.I spent 1 month with the
Bryston 4Bst and I feel it is a very good amp with truly outstanding .
tried Audiolab M8000 (100watt mono blocks) Krell 100, B & K 210 Sonata
monoblocks, Classe' 150 and finally Classe' S700. I finally chose the
Classe' S700, it had bass approaching the Bryston's performance and
was far more transparent and faster in the midrange and treble. I
believe Mirage use Classe' amps in their test listening of their
speakers.

IMHO do not under estimate the watts required. I have heard M3si with
ML 331 and felt that they were unable to control the bass in the way
it should be.

[Peter Lippert]

>Luisa Sass <luis...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in article
><5uh7ad$2...@jamesv.Warren.MENTORG.COM>...
>> I would like some feedback on the Mirage loudspeaker si series please...
>> specifically the M1si... I have an opportunity to purchase a used pair
>for about $2800.

Hello Luisa,

I've got a pair of the M1si. My amplifier is a Krell KSA 100 S. Very,
very often I felt that the Speakers need a lot of more watts than the
Krell spend. In short words: the Mirage M1si need as much watt as you
can spend, probably more, to play how they are able to.

If you play them loud and you hear something like distortions, it's
not the Speaker himself or anything else, it's because of the
bipole-principle! The backward-soundwaves come short time after the
direkt sound and give you the imagination of distortions, but they
aren't.

I put a sheet of thick absorber-material behind the speakers directly
in front of the Tweeters and the midrange-Speakers, and the
distortion-effect is away!
Don't hit me, because of the Absorbent material, I'm a acoustic
consultant - for me these things are allowed ;-)

Greetings, Peter

[PSiu89449]

Peter_...@t-online.de (Peter Lippert) wrote:
>If you play them loud and you hear something like distortions, it's
>not the Speaker himself or anything else, it's because of the
>bipole-principle! The backward-soundwaves come short time after the
>direkt sound and give you the imagination of distortions, but they
>aren't.
>
>I put a sheet of thick absorber-material behind the speakers directly
>in front of the Tweeters and the midrange-Speakers, and the
>distortion-effect is away!

This is the property of both bipole and dipole. Henceforth the
required distance behind the speakers to minimize time distortion. The
exact time delay before audible time distortion being debatable, I
found that minimum of 10mS of delay being threshold of
acceptability. That being 5' minimum distance between speakers and
back wall, assuming 1mS roughly translates to 1 foot. Doing so will
allow 5mS for the back waves to reach the back wall and another 5mS to
return to the speaker position.

Placing acoustic absorbent material behind the speakers does attenuate
this distortion problem due to insufficent distance behind the
speakers, but also undermine the benefit of bipole/dipole speakers. It
will come at the expense of distroying the expansive soundstage such
speakers are capable of. When properly positioned, these large Mirages
throw an extremely deep and wide soundstage with not a hint of image
smearing and distortion. Bipole/dipole speakers need room to breath.

Best Regard
Paul Siu