Excellent sound quality, never boomy like every other sub iverver heard. I had this set to the lowest setting it had and it still had to much output.

Couldn't find anything to cry about! If you're looking for an accurate and even sounding sub, this is probably the only one you'll find that will play music on par with what an audiophile would know to be a flat response. There is no artificial boost or big bump before sharp roll off to offer the illusion of high bass output or deep bass for those who don't understand that loud is not deep. It easily reaches much lower than 90% if subs with larger drivers and higher rated output amps. The funny thing is once you open up a 1kW sub and look at the amp section you'll find a tiny piece of shit amp that I wouldn't expect to hit anything over 50 real watts. This amp looks like a real 150W RMS amp should look like. The design (isobaric) has been my go to design in car audio bass for 25+ years and I'll swear by it as the best way to get the most accurate output out of even the cheapest drivers. These 2x 8" drivers are not overly high excursion, not even cast frames, no double stacked magnets, they're not lying or trucking you into anything they can't deliver. They are a rarity in these times, nobody is making true isobaric home subs. Until you hear bass reproduced without huge distortion and uneven frequency output, you won't realize just how awful most subwoofers actually sound. Once you do hear it, you'll end up turning your sub off until you find one that can reproduce accurate bass. There is no going back to loudness over accuracy. That big booty sound may have fooled most early Audio Video surround buyers who were looking to get loud bass for their systems, but now that people have finally realized that sub bass is not as easy to do as it seems. Timbre matching is never considered when buying a sub, 98% of buyers look at the specs and believe it, buying whatever goes the loudest without ever thinking of how it will actually integrate with their system. Unnatural, uneven output was often (and still is) often purposely used to cover up the lack of ability to cover the lowest tones (accurately or even at all). Since a sub is made to fill in the lowest tones that your speakers are unable to reproduce, they only need to go as loud as the rest of the system. If you can tell that there's a sub bring used then you're not using it correctly in the first place. I found this sub had too much bass to blend with my Mirage M series floors, C center and M bookshelf's which has a low sensitivity rating. Even at the lowest setting I could tell as soon as the sub kicked

I just bought this sub a few days ago to replace a cadence xsub-12, a very good 12 inch sub for the money. The cadence was good for HT, but always a little boomy and hard to blend for music. As music is my main focus, this was not acceptable for me. In looking for a new sub, my requirements were:

1. Musicality - fast, stops and starts quickly, blends well with bookshelf speakers
2. Could reach down to at least 25hz, preferable a little lower
3. Could serve double duty as a HT sub as well
4. Was very economical (preferably under $250)
This sub certainly meets my requirements! Because it is sealed, has two (2) eight inch woofers, and is bipolar it is very fast and musical and blending in with my polk rt7s was a snap. The stated specs rate in down to 22 +/-3db, and although I cannot confirm these measurements, it does seem to go a little lower than my cadence (25hz) and other reviewers have confirmed these specs. 2nd requirement meet. As for home theater, this sub can put out plenty of bass for a small to medium sized room and can cover the vast majority of special effects. I do notice that the very lowest notes (10-20 hz) were left out on the rare scene that includes info that low. However, if you want this and a musical subwoofer its going to cost you a lot more than 220 shipped even on the used market. Overall, all my requirements are met and I feel that this is an extremely musical subwoofer that can pull double duty in a smaller ht. If you are looking to save some cash and do not mind going used, then I highly recommend giving it a look.

Beauty, finesse, easy to place,solid

Driver will bottom in extreme cases,don't listen that loud!

Well, I have had my second one for some time now, and boy am I tickled. I also bought the bps-400 a few months back. With this set-up my system not only sounds stunning in every way, it looks incredible. The 150 can rock the house just fine, especially in pairs, but the 400 is perfect to roll the bass over your body, whether it be for dvd-a or dvd. Every time I have friends over to watch a movie, they always ask how much my stuff cost. After the movie they realize it was a bargain. The cleanliness of the bass from the two 150's is awesome. I audition stuff all the time for pure enjoyment, and to keep up with the good stuff. I have yet to find another sub under 1000cdn to match the musicality of this sub. The two 150's cost me the same as the 400, and the 3 of them cost less than some subs I have heard. Would make an excellent lfe sub in a smaller room. Check this one out.

Similar Products Used:

pw-2200 bps-400 david 300 & 301 athena p3 & p2 infinity hps-500

Very quick, well defined bass that blends well with small monitors and planer speakers with "fast" drivers. Excellent for audio only systems. Very good for home theater.

Fairly large by today's standards, not the very deepest bass for home theater

First of all, to franko below, the model LF150 you are talking about is NOT the same as the BPS150i so your comments and marginal rating are totally invalid! My dual purpose stereo/HT system: Mains: Paradigm Reference Studio 40V2 Center: Studio CC Rears: Paradigm AMS250 in walls Subs: (Two) Mirage BPS150i Pre/Pro: Nakamichi AV-10 powers the center and rear speakers Mains Amp: conrad johnson Sonographe SA-150 powers the Studio 40s Monarchy Audio DIP Monarchy Audio 18B Delux outboard DAC Sources: Sony CD player, JVC DVD player Cables: Wireworld Supernova 3+ Toslink, JPS Ultraconductor ICs and speaker cables This is a great sub for a two channel system. Very tight and well defined bass. I have two units matched to a pair of Paradigm Reference Studio 40v2. I cannot detect any mis-match or crossover point between the subs and mains. Taking the low bass duties away from the 40s really opens up the midrange. Using Video Essentials calibration DVD and an SPL meter, it measures 3db down at 23Hz. My family room is open to the kitchen measuring 14 x 45 feet! The addition of the second sub really helped for the extra output that movies demand. For those who seek outragious bass for movies, you may be disapointed with only one sub. With two, you will be happy. For two channel this sub is a steal.

Similar Products Used:

Mirage M7Si

size, impressive specifications

cabinet vibrates more than the woofer, distortion up the yin yang terrible performanc for the price

Boy am I glad I tried this locally instead of buying over the net. Of course at tweeter it is called the LF150 I was looking for a small sub (hopefully cheap) to fill the bottom end of my bookshelf speakers in my audio room. I have a NAD c-740 receiver Pioneer elite 300 disc changer B&W 601 s2 bookshelf speakers So I only needed bass from 70Hz below Yes I went and bought 7 subs spent $2000 (but I knew most of them would go back) All of the subs were broken in with Stereophile test cd 3, track 17 for 8 hours. The mirage vibrated like it was on drugs. The woofer was uncontrolled at low frequencies. The port cuffed terribly at even moderate volumes. Of all the subs I tested it distored at the lowest volume when playing Pachbel or Pink floyd. The most musical sub was the B&W as1. The rest ranged from ok to absolutely horrible. It seems it is near impossible to find a musical sub below $400 I will keep waiting for B&W to improve their 8inch sub... If you want a speaker that just rumbles at lower frequencies...their are many more subs that will do that for half the price. I can't believe this is the same compay that makes the mirage ribbon speakers!!!

Similar Products Used:

Sony SAW-m40 $200 Yamaha SW305 $220 Radio shack RCA SW120P $130 Polk swp250 $180 Mirage LF100 $275 B&W as1 $225 B&W as300 $350

Tons of base, great looks

Fairly expensive, gets dusty fast ;)

I bought the demo model of this sub dirt cheap with the high gloss finish. From what I understand the high gloss model cost a lot more than the standard black woodgrain model. I Managed to save a fair price purchasing the demo model of this sub.

This sub is equiped with a adequate variety of inputs and outputs(gold plated) to satisfy even the most demanding configurations. I beleive placement seemed very painless due to the bipolar design. Setup also proved to be easy and quick.

The first thing I noticed was the tremendous base this sub had. This 150 watt sub has tons of base and goes way down(22hz). This sub performed very well musically but seemed to lack for HT. Overall, I have no major gripes with this sub as it just simply rocks. It plays my music with very deep tight base extension. I honestly beleive this sub rocks for music, but I can't say the same for HT although this could be due to critical placement. Highly recommended none the less!

Looks great, sounds awesome and build quality is top notch.

None

WOW, what a sub this is. Over the lat couple of months I have been running both Music and DVD's through it and have been constantly impressed with how tight and low the bass is. I was originally going to purchase the REL Strata III, but after auditioning the Mirage, I decided it was the sub for me. Now I know you can gert a sub that goes louder than this one, but I don't live in an Auditorium, so the Mirage is definately loud enough for home use. So the upshot of all this is if your looking for a great Sub at a great price, then demo the Mirage.

Tight non boomy bass, Looks Great, Easy to set up

I cant belive someone has compared this sub to a Loud obnoxious, "Boomy" Klipch sub. Obviously they havent a clue. If Loud Boomy bass is what you want at least he has found the sub for the "Audiophile Rednecks" in the crowd.

Quality of sound

I have now had this sub for about 5 months paired with Mirage M-5si, MC-si, and MBS2. This is a great sounding sub for the money. Its strength is the quality of the sound not the volume. I find that for music and 90% of movies it is a great sub. Where is falls a little short is on movie explosions, etc. What is there sounds good but you do not get house shaking bass. It simply cannot produce that with 2 8" woofers. However on just about anything else the sound is great. Soundtrack music is top-notch. Sound effects are tight and reproduced with a quality that increased the reality.

For the money if someone is looking for a good sub for movies AND music I think this is a good choice. At this price range, you cannot have it all. I think you have to decide what the priority is - volume or quality. If quality is your priority check out the BPS-150i.

Very musical, no boominess, blends excellent with my mains

none I could find for a sub at this price point

My system consists of:

Speakers: Hales Revelation 3
Amp: Aragon 8002
Preamp: Krell PAM 3
CD: Yamaha single disk
Cables: Monster M1 speaker, XLO twinax plus rca cables
Music: Jazz, Newage, Classical, Classic-Rock, Pipe Organ
No home theater! music only

The Hales themselves do a fantastic job in the low bass
region, but I wanted a more 'soild foundation' to the music.
My wife enjoys pipe-organ music as do I, so clean powerful
low bass without any 'bomminess' is mandatory.

A lot of subs play loud and low, but most of the <$1000.00
ones I have heard boom way much for my taste and are much
more suited to Home theater applications and not music.

The Rel Strata III subs are superb, but were priced quite
a bit over my meager budget. The Paradigm 1200 was much too
directional for my taste, and the bass wasn't as musical.
My previous sub was a Paradigm PDR12 which was very good
for the money, but not at the same level as the Mirages.

Subwoofer setup/placement:
The Mirage BPS150i is a true bipolar sub with 2 8" drivers
and a 150 watt amp with electronic crossover. You can drive
the 150i with line level outputs from your pre-amp, or
speaker level from your amp. I run the subwoofer from
a second pair of 'full range' preamp outputs from my PAM3.
I run my Aragon/Hales 'full range' from the first set
of preamp-outputs.
The subwoofers crossover is set to 50Hz which is it's
lowest setting.

The bipolar nature of the subwoofer causes it to just
disappear into the music. There is no sense of directonality. I had no problem with room placement.
It was much easier to place than my PDR-12 was.

Sound:
The low bass extension the Mirage gives is excellent.
It is very clean and powerful with no trace of boominess.
My already great sounding Hales now have that low end
that I was looking for. The music now has the power and
depth that was needed to really bring the music to life.

My conclusion:
From all the subwoofers I listened to, the only other sub I
would consider for pure music is one of the REL subwoofers.
The REL is my top choice for a music sub, but as the Mirage
is only 1/4 the price it is a super choice and is much
better than the majority of <$1000.00 subs I listened to.


The Mirage gets a solid 5 value rating as being a true
audiophile bargain!

The 4 stars for overall is only due to the REL as being
the best of the bunch in my opinion.

Similar Products Used:

Rel Strata III, Paradigm 1200 and PDR12