Incredible soundstage, reasonably deep bass, superb spacial accuracy.

A little bright.

After searching for speakers that will be "the last speakers I ever buy", I decided to audition a pair of Mirage OM-7 speakers at Tweeter, Etc. I was totally amazed at how dead these speakers sounded. I then auditioned speakers ranging from US$3,000 to US$21,000 from Sonus-Faber and Vienna Acoustics. My ABSOLUTE favorite were the US$21,000 Sonus-Faber Amati, but c'mon now!

What was particularly noteworthy with the Sonus-Faber Grand Piano speakers was the absolute clarity and spacial accuracy they produced. Listening to acoustic tracks from Stevie Ray Vaughn and Celine Dion on SACD, you honestly felt you could reach out and touch them. With Celine, as she sang, you could visualize the way she was forming words with her mouth. Pretty amazing!

Now that I have them home and after a full four hours of break-in (I know, report back in 96 more hours of listening), they seem bright in my home theatre. It could be the flat, bare walls are more active than Tweeter's drop ceiling listening room. It could also be that I need to break them in a little.

One final comment. Even though speakers of this quality were obviously designed for critical two-channel audio, they perform quite admirably in a 7-channel home theatre environment. Driven by a Denon AVR-5800, they show no signs of stress, nor do they bring undue attention to themselves. Playing stereo in Denon's 7-channel stereo mode, you can definitely tell where I sunk my $$$, but in movies like "The Haunting" and "Titan A.E.", even when set to "Large" (they have ~30Hz extension), they deliver on cue.

I am almost completely satisfied with these speakers. I'll give it another month and report back if the brightness doesn't tone down by then.

Similar Products Used:

REVIEWED products by Mirage, Sonus-Faber and Vienna Acoustics.
CONSIDERED products by Mirage, B&W (Nautilus) and Sonus-Faber.

Solid, smooth bass, attractive finish, clean highs

A somewhat harsh midrange with some music, less than stellar soundstaging

Last week, I spent 3 hours at the local hi fi store auditioning these speakers. I listened with a wide variety of music, from Pink Floyd's Animals, Windham Hill samplers, Barry White, Guns and Roses, Beethoven's Piano sonatas, and John Williams classical guitar. The following day, I went back, and listened some more.

Here are my notes :

Playing Rock - soundstaging, while good, was NOT great. Speakers seemed very very sensitive to proper placement, and required several FEET from the back wall to really put the vocals front and center. The speakers never quite 'vanished' for me, as Martin Logans, Aerials, or B&W's do. For Jazz and Classical, the soundstaging was slightly better, although orchestral music still sounded a bit 'directed'; i know quite a bit about orchestral placement, and the soundstage was not great.

The mids of this speaker, while clean and airy, sounded a bit 'biting' and harsh with brass-heavy music. Horns had a 'blaring' quality which I found to be very tiring. They also sounded 'boxy' at times, but this seemed to vary with different music. According to the salesman, they had been thoroughly burned in, so this wasnt the problem.

The highs, on the other hand, were excellent. They were tonally neutral, maybe in part to the silk tweeter. They were clean, airy, and my favorite thing about the speaker.

The lows were solid, deep, and satisfying. They had some nice slam to them, were tight, and were clean and well defined.

At higher volumes, the mids problem extended to other instruments, until everything sounded harsh. The equipment used was top notch , and when we switched to B&W 803's, the harshness was gone.

At lower volumes, these speakers were excellent. The mid range problems were much less attenuated, and the bass still had sonic impact.

It seems to me that people either love these speakers, or find them a touch unpleasant. I think I must fall into the latter category; while they do sound good, and have some excellent qualities, for the price they are not a good value, in my book.

Similar Products Used:

Thiel 2.3, B&W 803, Dynaudio