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Create your own space

Omnipolaring with Mirage
by Tim Schuler

February 2002

It’s been more than a decade since a pair of bipolar devices has graced my listening room, though this range of loudspeakers from Canadian heavyweights API (parent company of Mirage, Energy and Athena) are described as ‘Omnipolar’, they work on a similar principle of having drivers on both front and rear of the cabinets.

The smallest Omnipolar, the Mirage OM9’s have a pair of 6.5" woofers and a pair of 25mm ‘Hybrid’ Titanium tweeters. The examples auditioned were finished in an attractive satin black and cherry veneer finish – a nice pinkish cherry, similar to our own South Island Pink Beech rather than the normal honey gold cherry we are offered. Piano Black is the premium option available at $4299.

Using a little common sense with regard to placement, I found the ideal position to be an equilateral triangle with a slight toe-in.

These speakers are indeed a relaxing listen, presenting an inviting tonal balance, warm not fuzzy, and remaining instrumentally accurate. Their most audible attribute is the scale and depth to the soundstage. With the cabinets two metres out from the wall, the sound appears to come from beyond the wall itself, most noticeably on vocal tracks but overall nothing appears to come directly from the speakers themselves, they practically disappear.

There are matching centre and rear speakers available in the range and those building a theatre system up around these models should be more than content with the front pair, adding the others as the budget allows.

Vocals are focused right down the middle, leaving a wide and deep soundstage for the accompanying music and effects. My own loudspeakers are very fussy on the seating position and you needn’t move far from the sweet spot before the whole stereo effect is gone completely. The OM9’s are completely the opposite. Moving from one end of the three-seater to the other, the stereo image stays intact.

Returning from the espresso machine at 3am during a serious evaluation (couldn’t sleep) it was quite an experience to hear Joni Mitchell still sitting on the same stool in the same place as when I was on the sofa. But I was now five metres diagonally to the left of the left speaker! Spooky cool.

The old ideal that the perfect speaker would reproduce every style of music equally well is a little limp, now that so much ‘new music’ has no actual instruments at all. We listened to a heap of varied material from Reggae to Rachmaninov and I must say that these are not fussy speakers in any way.

Speaking of reggae, one of the major points that impressed was the bass. Looking at the drivers and cabinet design does not give the impression of a speaker that would excel in this area. Actually I picked up the book to see if there was a fifth and larger woofer in there somewhere. There isn’t.

The bass delivery is not punchy, boomy, spotty-faced boyracer bass but deep, low, gutsy, grown-ups bass. The CD Chant down Babylon with Bob Marley and various artists mixed in by Stephen Marley has some great head nodding numbers I there with some typically reggae deep bass lines. (It’s probably going cheap now too, grab a copy). The literature claims a bass response down to 38Hz I suggest there is ample output closer to 30Hz.

This is the kind of speaker I’d recommend to friends who desire a relaxing spacious sound with generous bass, good detail and an attractive finish and price. The OM9s, partnered with the matching centre, rears and subwoofer, should make for an excellent theatre system also.

The coolest thing about these speakers is that they create space. Let me explain. The design requires the speakers to be out from the rear wall to allow the rear drivers to reflect and give the desired resulting scale and depth and that’s it, the depth of sound stage extends past the rear wall the width of the sound stage extends past the side walls.

Don’t be tricked into buying a bigger house. Get some Mirage Omnipolars and create your own space.

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