While the satellite speakers in Mirage's Nanosat system aren't actually made with cutting-edge nanotechnology, they are extremely small by any ordinary standard — less than 6 inches high and just over 4 inches wide and deep. That's even smaller than the Omnisat Micro, previously the most compact speaker using the “omnipolar” technology pioneered in the Omnisat 6 system that won a Sound & Vision Reviewer's Choice Award in 2003.

Fast Facts DRIVER COMPLEMENT Nanosat (satellite), 3/4 -inch dome tweeter, 2 3/4-inch cone midrange Nano Sub (subwoofer), 8-inch cone ENCLOSURE Nanosat, sealed; Nano Sub, ported SUBWOOFER POWER 75 watts INPUTS and CONTROLS Nanosat, multiway binding posts; Nano Sub, speaker- and line-level inputs, level knob, on/auto/off toggle DIMENSIONS (WxHxD) and WEIGHT Nanosat, 4 1/4 x 5 3/4 x 4 3/8 inches, 2 3/8 pounds; Nano Sub, 11 3/4 x 13 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches, 20 pounds FINISH Nanosat, black and silver, silver, or white; Nano Sub, silver or white PRICE $800; additional Nanosats, $125 each; MS-STB-1 floor stand, $70 a pair MANUFACTURER Mirage, miragespeakers.com, 416-321-1800

Like a megabuck system with bipolar towers or dipole surround speakers, the omnidirectional Nanosats promise to immerse you in a sea of sound from a good DVD movie or multichannel music recording — but for substantially less than a thousand bucks. And unlike most other speakers, the tiny Nanosats fit virtually anywhere: on small shelves, atop a TV with a narrow bezel, on the wall, or on slender optional stands. If you want 6.1 or 7.1 channels, additional satellites are $125 apiece.

Under the removable metal grille, each Nanosat has a tiny titanium-hybrid tweeter mounted in Mirage's proprietary Omni-guide dispersion system. The assembly looks like a Lilliputian flying saucer hovering over the small “woofer,” which fires upward at about a 30° angle. The sound is said to radiate in all directions, with roughly 30% directed at the listener and 70% reflected off the walls.

The system includes the Nano Sub subwoofer, barely larger than a cubic foot and downward-firing with a metallic front port. Large, sturdy feet keep it properly spaced from the floor. Mirage also applies some pat-ented technology here. The driver's Elliptical Surround — the flexible ring that binds the 8-inch cone to the outside edge of the frame — has expansion-control ribs designed to reduce distortion and increase output.

SETUP Mirage provides precious few setup instructions in the multilingual booklet that comes with the Nanosat system. The satellites have gold-plated binding posts and wall-mounting brackets that must be removed to use the optional floor stands.

Since Mirage designed the Nano Sub for the Nanosat system, there's no crossover-frequency control. It's already set with the right crossover frequency, which makes the system a lot easier to set up than the typical six-piece speaker system that comes with a multipurpose sub. (A standalone Nano Sub with crossover and phase controls is available separately.)

I used the floor stands for the left and right front speakers, placing them a few inches to either side of my 42-inch wide-screen TV, and put the center on top of the TV and the surrounds atop bookcases behind me. I placed the sub near the wall beside the TV.

Every sound in The Last Samurai's action-filled soundtrack came across with immediacy and transparency on the Nanosat speakers.

MOVIE PERFORMANCE The Last Samurai starring Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe would challenge any speaker system to battle. Director Edward Zwick unleashes cannons, pistols, rifles, Gatling guns, swords, spears, and arrows. Samurai on thundering horses pound down the turf, with quite a few hitting the ground from a gallop. All in all, the multilayered sound design creates a whirl of aural motion. The Nanosats put me in the vortex of the action, whether on the streets of 1876 Yokohama or in frenzied battle scenes. There wasn't a hint of boxiness or the subtle edge distortion caused by the flat baffles of conventional speakers.

If I knew anything about metallurgy, the speakers might have given me clues to the alloys of each sword from listening to their furious collisions in the movie's numerous sword flights. The Nanosats revealed more than just a clank as swords met. First I heard them cleaving the air, then the initial impact, followed by the sound of metal sliding against metal, and finally the slight reverberation after they separated. Similarly, each gunshot was more than a simple bang or crack. The Nanosats reproduced these sounds with immediacy and transparency, which is one of the highest accolades I can bestow on a speaker.

About midway through the movie, during Cruise's internment in the samurai leader's mountain camp, the soundtrack telegraphs a thunderstorm before you see it. The thunder crack on my left — spread between the left front and surround speakers — was so convincing that I flinched. The rain that followed sounded delicate and pure, and voices were natural and really seemed to come from the images onscreen.

The Nano Sub won't break any leases or damage the china. It puts out authentic bass, but you won't feel it in your gut. Turning up its level control or placing it in a corner helps a bit, but the Nano Sub is more of a woofer than a sub woofer. It does, however, spare you the phony oomph heard from many subwoofers that pretend to go deeper into the bass.

MUSIC PERFORMANCE For stereo listening, I returned to Japan almost a century later for the Miles Davis Quintet recorded at Kohseinenkin Hall in Tokyo in 1964, from a new Columbia box set. The Nanosats sounded every bit as good with two-channel music as with surround sound movies. The imaging was remarkable, and I could discern Miles's embouchure on the mouthpiece of his trumpet. Ron Carter's bass was firm and assertive, with good definition. The speakers not only resolved musical detail but also faithfully reproduced the flaws of the original recordings. For example, I could hear tape hiss and subtle print-through from one layer of tape to the next.

PLUS Wide, smooth sound field. Excellent imaging. Small and easy to position. Inexpensive. MINUS Can't play loud at the lowest frequencies.

To evaluate multichannel music on the Nanosats, I turned to Mr. Mellow, James Taylor, on the Super Audio CD of his Hourglass , but I had to tame the bass a notch. Taylor crooned straight from the center, but his brigade of accompanists were dispersed around the room. Even Clifford Carter's organ playing, which is pretty low in the mix, came through clearly. I felt naturally engulfed in the musical sound field, yet the instruments and voices remained distinct instead of fading into a wash.

BOTTOM LINE With its low price and good sound, Mirage's Nanosat system should be high on your audition list if you're interested in good-sounding home theater speakers but want to spend less than a grand. The satellites may look a little strange, but they focus your attention on the sound rather than their appearance and play loud enough to fill a decent-size room. Too bad they can't improve Tom Cruise's acting.

PDF: In the Lab