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The Short Form
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| Price $2,499 (AS TESTED) / miragespeakers.com / 416-321-1800 |
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Snapshot
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| Three channels masterfully squeezed into one horizontal cabinet handle both front and surround duties in this minimalist's dream system. |
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Plus
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| •Surprisingly good timbral accuracy •Robust sound-pressure levels •Beaucoup cool factor |
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Minus
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| •Relatively narrow sound field •Relatively expensive for "small" speakers |
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Key Features
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| UNI-Theater •($999): 0.75-in tweeter, 3-in woofer, (2) 3-in passive radiators per channel; 36.8 in wide, 18 lb OMNI-S10 •($499): 10-in subwoofer; 200 watts RMS; 14.5 x 17 x 18.5 in (WHD); 41 lb •Finish: UNI-Theater - black or silver aluminum; OMNI-S10 - black |
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Test Bench
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| The UNI-theater has essentially omnidirectional response: Every measured trace was virtually identical except for small variations. The basic shape is downsloping as frequency increases with a fair degree of roughness across the bandwidth. The subwoofer has excellent extension and bandwidth uniformity but only average overall dynamic capability, hitting max SPL of 106 dB at 50 Hz and 83 dB at 20 Hz with less than 10% distortion. - Tom Nousaine Full Lab Results |
To round out the low end, I relied on an OMNI S10 subwoofer. This is one of Mirage's bestsellers, housing a front-firing 10-inch driver, two down-firing ports, and a 200-watt-continous amplifier in a quasi-cube measuring less than 1.5 feet per side.
MUSIC PERFORMANCE To begin my music audition, I listened to the stereo orchestral score for the film The Illusionist, composed by Philip Glass and featuring his trademark repeated motifs, this time quietly mysterioso. I first focused on essential timbral fidelity, and was well satisfied. The woofers displayed a reasonably warm sound on piano and strings, with enough lower-bass extension to merge with the sub. The tweeters (crossing over at 2.7 kHz) were quite smooth on harp and percussion and had good high-frequency extension. On some particularly energetic violin passages, the tweeters were just a bit edgy, but that was a small tradeoff for what was otherwise a refreshingly crisp sonic character. Each speaker channel occupies only a small volume inside the shared cabinet, but their sound output was as loud, clean, and balanced as that from many larger bookshelf speakers. The sub, although not stressed by this score, was highly musical when crossed over at 70 Hz and nicely covered the top half of the bottom octave.
I next focused on spatial fidelity. Did the three-channel sound seem to squirt from one point? No. Was the panorama as wide as from cabinets spread apart? No. The sound field fell in between - relatively smaller that what you're probably used to with fully separated front speakers but still quite spacious. In fact, the more I listened, the more I liked it. The consolidated panorama of the UNI-Theater, combined with terrific timbral matching of the channels, produced a very listenable on-axis front soundstage. The downside, however, was a smaller sweet spot. Move more than a few feet off-axis and you're in the cheap seats.
Switching gears, and adding more channels, I listened to Porcupine Tree's In Absentia. This DVD-Audio recording has a terrific surround mix, my favorite being "Collapse the Light into Earth." First, I found the essential sound quality was very good; the beautifully reproduced close-miked solo vocals and piano convinced me to "thumbs-up" the UNI-Theater's fidelity, and the clearly audible receding vocal delays demonstrated great clarity. The strings and heavily reverberated and delayed vocals and piano in the surround channels, although not conveyed with the same spaciousness that standard speakers (or dipoles) can provide, were more than sufficiently pleasing. I think the effect was particularly good because my rear UNI-Theater was mounted high up. Unless you are a spatial-fidelity snob, these small cabinets will provide a very pleasant and musical sound field.
