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Author Topic: Mirage Nanosat  (Read 544 times)

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ultrabike

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Mirage Nanosat
« on: June 13, 2015, 08:19:45 AM »
I bought these given nice reviews, and broad range of positioning options since they are omnis (safe from little destruction engineers running amok around the house.) They were also on sale for less than $500 including sub.

My impression of these is that in-room they don't sound half as bad. Seen plenty of frequency response plots and impressions of these and their now discontinued siblings around the interwebs. Going by measurements it would seem like these are overly warm and uneven. I do not feel they sound that way in my room.

My problem with them is that these have a 0.75" tweeter and 2.75" woofer in a sealed box. So, the advertised 110 Hz extension is a pipe dream. The sub that comes with it is advertised to go to 120 Hz. That I believe. I know the nanosats and the sub have a non-negligible gap because I'm missing some stuff in my music. It's not something that is severely missed in movies or an obvious coloration.

A competitor to these would be the the Energy Take 5s and the Orb/Gallo stuffs. I did not like the Gallo stuff. Too bright. Annoyingly so. The Energy Take 5s on the other hand are pretty nice IMO. The ports on those might help quite a bit with low frequency extension and help cover what I'm missing with the nanos. However, those are not omnis so more picky on positioning options.

Anyhow, these are not purfect (distortion around 400 Hz + 3kHz and some bit of unevenness), but again not bad IMO, and are indeed omnis with all the goodness that comes with it. Subjectively I like them (minus the 200 Hz wimpy extension.)

Pretty plots:

0 degrees (horizontal)



45 degrees (horizontal)



90 degrees (horizontal)  p:8



Overlay (blue 0deg, green 45deg, red 90deg)



*EDIT: Above plots are at different mic degrees horizontal, not vertical.

These also work fine off-axis vertically which is hard for most other types of speakers.

NOTE: The distortion issue and depression at 3kHz might have to do with the crossover being too low for the tweeter. The nano-sats are crossed at 2.7 kHz. The similar prestige nano-sat is crossed at 3.5 kHz which may avoid this problem.
« Last Edit: June 13, 2015, 02:54:58 PM by ultrabike »
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cel4145

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Re: Mirage Nanosat
« Reply #1 on: June 19, 2015, 01:09:45 AM »
Quote from: ultrabike on June 13, 2015, 08:19:45 AM
My problem with them is that these have a 0.75" tweeter and 2.75" woofer in a sealed box. So, the advertised 110 Hz extension is a pipe dream. The sub that comes with it is advertised to go to 120 Hz. That I believe. I know the nanosats and the sub have a non-negligible gap because I'm missing some stuff in my music. It's not something that is severely missed in movies or an obvious coloration.

Yeah. Always seemed like Mirage was being overly optimistic about frequency response with the Nanosats. Did you get the regular Nanosats or the Prestige? Did it come with the Prestige S8 sub? I have the Prestige S10 sub, and it's pretty decent sounding for the price.
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ultrabike

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Re: Mirage Nanosat
« Reply #2 on: June 19, 2015, 05:27:47 AM »
I got the original Nanosats along with the 8" Nanosub which did not even have crossover control (the paper said it made things easier... yeah right). It was a deal I got from a nearby store that closed down.

I know of a coworker that bought two Prestige Nanosats for his surrounds and loves them. From what I've gathered the Prestige series solves a crossover issue, which I can guess is the distortion showing off around the crossover due to pushing the tweeters too low. But I haven't heard the Prestige ones themselves.

Based on specs and appearance I can guess the Prestige series would also have the same upper bass gap since the Prestige Sub goes only up to 120 Hz. A Pioneer sw-8mk2 might go a bit higher, and even w/o knowing that I did felt the Pioneer sounded better. The Prestige Sub is supposed to go down to 26 Hz, but I honestly doubt it. This sub can solve these issues at either end:

http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/vtf-1mk2.html

The crossover only goes upto 90 Hz, but it's defeatable and can be controlled externally. Then it goes flat all the way from 30 to 200 Hz and still has juice down to the low 20's. It's a bit more expensive though.

I still feel these are pretty good for what they are. I read a lot of stuff and measurements that put all things Mirage as complete warm uneven failures. That's not what I'm hearing or measuring at all. Well, at least the nanosats, the larger OMD stuffs may be too warm but I didn't spend time with them much. The Nanosats were often compared against the Orb thingies. Those are very bright and likely don't have near the huge sweet spot these have allowing for more flexible installation.

EDIT: Dunno about the Prestige S10, but that does look pretty nice. Nice to have two ports. May be able to tune the bass by blocking one ala Hsu.
« Last Edit: June 19, 2015, 05:46:34 AM by ultrabike »
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