Brand: Mirage Feature: Includes 5 matching satellites and a subwoofer Label: Mirage Manufacturer: Mirage Publisher: Mirage Studio: Mirage
Features
Includes 5 matching satellites and a subwoofer Small, versatile package unobtrusively fits any lifestyle Delivers enveloping 360º music and movie performances from any position Satellites finished in brushed black aluminum, subwoofer painted black with satin finish
Fantastically small, fantastically soundingthats what our Nanosat® 5.1 home theater system is all about. In fact, its your ticket to a sold out concert or movie premiere without having to leave the comforts of home.
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: Great Sound in a small speaker Comment: I am currently running 9 NANOSATs plus the sub-woofer on my ONKYO tx-sr607, and they sound amazing. I love being able to switch between the new PLIIz and the PLIIx sound fields as well as the other sound fields on the ONKYO. The NANOSATs do exactly as advertised; you get an enveloping sound environment from the omnidirectional speakers and the sub-woofer delivers a bass that is perfect for my room (18'x14'). I ordered, as an add-on to the 5 NANOSATS I already had, and paid for the original 5.1 system (with the silver and black design) and I received the newer more expensive version (all black)....no complaints here. If you are thinking of getting the NANOSATs and plan on using them more for TV and movies than music, these speakers are the way to go. Music sounds great with these speakers too, but some people might not like the omnidirectional sound for music. Customer Rating: Summary: Research and reality led me to this system. Comment: After moving into a new house, the new room that favors the HD was built with odd angles and space. My older system (JBL) was effective, but aesthetic fugly. I needed something that wouldn't have the wife disagreeable, but also not dissapoint the person actually paying for the system. THIS IS THE SYSTEM.
Was hesitant before the purchase....Never heard of "Mirage"...I set out to get a deal on BOSE. All the tech details are out there, but if you're reading Amazon reviews, like I did, you want to hear that person's experience with this well thought out purchase. I recommend highly for people in my situtation with a odd angled room...this system delivers with a soundfield that makes every seat "the sweet spot" There are complaints about the Center Speaker's performance, and quite frankly, I don't know what they are complaining about because my center Mirage works crisp and clear. I will echo another owners statement and echo it will take a time to break in (not the system, your perception of sound while watching TV) but when it does, glorious. 4.5 Stars. Customer Rating: Summary: Surround system Comment: These speakers are well suited for a second set somewhere that is not the primary entertainment focus in your household. While many reviews categorize these as awesome, unbeliveable, etc., I found them far from high performance and miles away from any of the stellar reviews found here and elsewhere.
Pros:
Nice size
Easy installation
Quality design
Attractive
Brackets included
Reasonble size sub-woofer that is well powered
Flexible setup (based on your driver config)
Cons:
Performance is lacking
Sound resolution at various volumes
Do not handle all types of music well
To me, the cons heavily outweigh the pros in this case; and, if I had the chance to audition them before buying, I would have bought another product.
Overall I would say, if you want to use these for a small scale setup in a guest room, or spare AV setup that is for the kids, these are great. If you are any kind of even semi-serious audiophile, or a music fan that knows music and enjoys a wide variety of listening, keep shopping. Customer Rating: Summary: The best for my situation Comment: I needed a speaker system for my living room. The requirement was to get the best sounding small speakers for a reasonable price, and maximum sound stage.
This particular system is omnidirectional which means that it will create the largest possible "sweet spot" and will completely fill a room <= 300 ft (i.e. my living room).
I've heard the small 5.1 system by Klipsch (Mirage parent company) (synergy quintet III), B&W (M1s), Polk (RM705), and Energy (Mirage sister company) (classic take 5):
Polk RM705: A good system, but not as good as the others. IMHO these speakers don't seem to give as much detail as the other brands.
Klipsch Synergy: I compared this system against the Polk, and it seemed to do better in terms of detail. However, they will usually cost more than the Polks.
B&W M1s: These sound great, but not better than the Klipsch IMHO. They are comparable to the Klipsch, but you will have to pay more for them (many may disagree with me here, but I'm just talking about what my ears perceived). For the price I would have expected these to at least produce a larger sound stage, frequency range, and clarity than the Klipsch. You do get a set of speakers from a name company though (just not superior sound in their class according to my ears).
Energy Take 5: The cheapest of the lot and sound that arguably is better than all of the above. I've heard these speakers in a show room, and both my wife's and my jaw fell. Incredible sound for a system just $300 on sale (including the matching sub!). However, even when the sound stage is good, the sweet spot is still small.
The issue is that my living room is arranged so that the center sofa gets the sweet spot, but the seats at the side don't. Solution:
Mirage nanosats: These sound as good as the Energy Take 5 in my opinion, but the sweet spot is gone. I have sat outside of the left front speaker and sound is phenomenal! These speakers will be about $100 more than the Energy's, but you get an obviously larger sound stage, not possible with any other speaker at comparable size, price and class. And they will play loud enough with minimal distortion in a medium room, believe me. Another bonus is that they are very forgiving in terms of placement (I have all front speakers above the TV and they still sound great! - note this is NOT possible with any of the above speakers as you will notice the sound comes clearly from above the TV).
I've seen reviews about the center speaker not having enough power being that all satellites (including the center) are the same. I disagree, I feel the sound from the center channel very clear. Other center speakers (including the ones from Mirage) may boost the mid frequencies to make speech more clear. There is a trade off, the sound will not blend as well as it moves to the other channels in surround sound effects. I feel that if the sound was encoded in a way, then I prefer enjoying it undisturbed. If I need more power on the mid frequencies for speech, I can always have my receiver do this for me instead of my speakers.
Furthermore, it is relatively easy to purchase extra sats for a 7.1 system. I do not feel the need to do so, but I have seen extra sats for as low as $50 in Vanns! As reference, I bought my system for $450 on a sale. Customer Rating: Summary: Now a big Mirage fan Comment: I bought the set of 5 sats for 250 and paired them with a 10' velodyne sub which I already owned. I previously had a nice package of speakers (mission fronts, paradigm surounds, JBL center) which indiviually sounded fine but my mistake over the years was not buying a matching speaker set as they just never sounded cohesive. I am amazed on the improvement with these Nano's over my previous and much larger speakers. Very crisp dialogue as it works fine as a center and the soundfield envolopes the entire room. They can't work miracles and go as deep as bigger bookshelfs or floor standers but they sound sweet and much larger than the actual size. For 250...you can't go wrong.
On a side note, I was shopping for a new 7.1 high end system for my basement and based my experience with the nanos, I bought the OMD series of mirage which will be disco'd and are on firesale wherever they are still available. This company makes great sound with great looks.
