Mirage Nanosat speakers: love at first listen

re: Mirage Nanosat speakers: love at first listen

Amanda — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:55:22 GMT

Hi Jason,

You’re right that many receivers’ auto-calibration systems are good at compensating for differences in distance. That said, a difference as large as three feet in your front soundstage isn’t ideal (it’d be less of a problem for your surrounds, where the sound is more diffuse anyhow). But do any of us have ideal rooms for speaker placement? If you don’t have any other good placement options, the Nanosats, combined with a receiver with auto-calibration, will be your best shot.

As far as the surrounds, I’d go ahead and mount them up higher too – if they’re too much closer to ear level than your front speakers, they may sound louder than your front soundstage, even with auto-calibration.

If you’ve got more questions, you can call our advisors at 1-888-955-6000, email them at advisors@crutchfield.com, or chat with them by following the link below.

chat.crutchfield.com/.../srvgate.dll

Happy Thanksgiving!

Amanda

re: Mirage Nanosat speakers: love at first listen

Amanda — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:03:17 GMT

Hi Mike,

It’s a little hard for me to give you specific tips on your system’s settings – the fact is that what sounds best for my system in my room may not be what sounds best in yours. But here are some general guidelines:

• Connect your sub to your receiver via the LFE output and set the sub’s filter to “off” so you can use your receiver’s crossover. (One exception: If your receiver only has a crossover frequency of 80Hz, a THX specification, that’d be too low for the Nanosats. In that case, you’d want to keep the filter on and use the sub’s crossover.)

• Ideally, you’ll want to set the crossover high enough that the sub will meet or even overlap with the satellites a bit, so you don’t get any midbass drop out. Mine’s at 120Hz – but again, experiment with different settings to see what sounds best in your room.

• As far as phase goes, that’s 100% dependent on your room. Try listening with it in both positions and see which sounds better to you.

Here are a couple of articles that might also be helpful:

Connecting Your Subwoofer: www.crutchfield.com/.../connect.html

Tuning Up Your Home Theater Subwoofer: www.crutchfield.com/.../0327.html

Also, if you bought your Nanosat system at Crutchfield, feel free to give us a call to get step-by-step help from our tech support folks.

Hope this helps,

Amanda

re: Mirage Nanosat speakers: love at first listen

Jason — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:05:01 GMT

Well here goes. I am looking at purchasing the Nanosat prestige and I have a question about placement.

My receiver has a auto tuning function for speaker setup. I would like to place the front speakers evenly apart up around ceiling height, upside down of course. Do you think it would be a problem if one of the speakers was about 3 feet further away from the listening position? I mean, 3 feet deeper in the room.

I would think that the reciever would compensate for this. What is your thought? Also, for the rear speakers I have 2 options. 1. I could put them up high inverted at ceiling level or closer to ear level. The room has vaulted ceilings and is open to the kitchen, but there is a small wall on the kitchen side which might pose a sonic problem. How well do the rears do when mounted high? The living room is small itself 13x13 but it is open to the kitchen.

Thanks for your review.

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This post was mentioned on Twitter by CrutchfieldBlog: Ivan wants to know if Mirage Nanosats would be a good match for his Pioneer receiver. Amanda gives her thoughts. http://tinyurl.com/njmtho

re: Mirage Nanosat speakers: love at first listen

MIKE — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:06:31 GMT

Hi Amanda,

Since you have the Nanosat Prestige with the S8 could you give me some guidance regarding if you have the crossover mode on active or bypass and what you recommend setting the crossover frequency at on the sub?

Lastly do you need to adjust the phase control at all?

I have the same system and run it through the Pioneer VSX-01 THX and primarily watch movies.

re: Mirage Nanosat speakers: love at first listen

Amanda — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:27:24 GMT

Hi Paul,

I’m a little confused by your question, but I’ll do my best to answer it. If I don’t address what you’re asking about, I’d suggest giving our advisors a call at 1-888-955-6000.

You’ll definitely want to place each speaker the way it was designed to be placed. So, for a traditional center channel speaker like the one in this system

www.crutchfield.com/.../Mirage-Nanosat-Prestige-5-Home-Theater-Speaker-System.html

I wouldn’t recommend placing it on its end (I’m guessing it wouldn’t be centered on your TV in this case either?) or on its back ( the sound will get projected backwards, towards the wall, so it’ll sound kind of muffled and muddied). But I think you were asking about this system:

signature.crutchfield.com/.../Mirage-Nanosat-5-1-Compact-Home-Theater-Speaker-System.html

In this case, the center channel is the same size as the satellites – just about the smallest center channel you can find. So if space is an issue, this would be a great choice (though you’d still need to place it upright, facing forward).

Regardless of which center channel option you end up going with, I’d recommend mounting it on the wall above your TV if you just can’t fit it underneath. You can even mount it up near the ceiling, upside-down, if you don’t like the way it looks right above your TV.

Hope this helps,

Amanda

re: Mirage Nanosat speakers: love at first listen

Paul — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:58:00 GMT

Amanda,

I'm considering buying the Mirage Nanosat 5.1 system, but I don't have quite enough room for the center speaker to stand upright. I could, however, position the center speaker on its side or back. Would that be an acceptable or appropriate way to position this speaker, or am I expecting too much of this Omnipolar technology?

re: Mirage Nanosat speakers: love at first listen

Amanda — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:10:55 GMT

Hi Rob,

The Omni CC will deliver lower frequencies than the Nano CC, and provide more room-filling sound, so normally I’d say go that route. But when it comes to sound quality, proper speaker placement can trump pretty much everything else.

Imagine if you were to place your center channel to the outside of your front right speaker, and a car zoomed across the screen from left to right. You’d hear it as left, far right, then back to the left – it just wouldn’t make auditory sense. Plus, all your on-screen dialogue would seem to come from somewhere off-screen, which would be disorienting. So you’ll want to place your center channel between your front left and right speakers, above or below your TV.

With that in mind, here’s what I’d recommend:

1) Consider wall-mounting your Omni CC above your TV – you can even put it up near the ceiling, as long as you mount it upside-down. You could use paintable speaker wire, or a small paintable cable cover, to help it blend in.

2) Go for the Nano CC right underneath your TV. It won’t play quite as low, but it’ll still sound great.

Hope this helps! Feel free to give our advisors a call with any more questions – 1-888-955-6000.

Amanda

re: Mirage Nanosat speakers: love at first listen

Rob — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:30:52 GMT

Hi Amanda,

I was wondering if the NanoCC would effectively replace the OmniCC. My new setup doesnt really allow me to place the OmniCC under the TV (too big) where as the size of the NanoCC would. The only other alternative would be to place the OmniCC on the other side of the front speaker?

System:

Mirage LF150 sub

Mirage Omni 250 -fronts

Mirage Omnistat - rears

Mirage OmniCC - center

What would be the better option?

1) NanoCC - under the TV

2) OmniCC - off center on the other side of the front speaker

With the system as described above.

Thanks

Rob

re: Mirage Nanosat speakers: love at first listen

Amanda — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:06:43 GMT

Hi James,

Though the Mirage speakers do fire upwards, that sound is then dispersed horizontally, so I bet you’d be OK mounting the center channel under the TV. Of course, if you’re planning to wall-mount the front left and right speakers (rather than having them on stands and in reach of your son) you might opt to mount the center channel speaker the same way. I think you’d be fine either way – these speakers do well even when mounted higher up.

I’d be concerned about putting the sub on the shelf though. Creating low frequencies involves moving a lot of air, which means it’ll cause vibrations. It’ll likely rattle the shelf, and anything else on it. So yes, I’d advise placing it directly on the floor.

Hope this helps! If you want more specific placement tips, or have any other questions, give our advisors a call at 1-888-955-6000.

Amanda

re: Mirage Nanosat speakers: love at first listen

James — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:22:45 GMT

Hi Amanda,

I have been doing research on speakers for seemingly forever, well the last 6 weeks or so. I came across your review of the Nanosat Prestige and liked what I heard. Specifically I am interested in the Prestige+ Omni s8 combination.

Here's my situation: 50" plasma mounted on swivel/tilted arm so it sits around 8 inches off the wall. My initial intent on the center channel was to mount it directly below the TV (6 inches or so), will I see any odd sound issues with the upward firing speakers essentially being under the tv? Should I look at possibly mounting it above the tv and firing down? I'm already planning on mounting the rears upside down behind us on the wall, can/should I look at doing the same with the fronts as well? My goal is to have everything mounted on a wall where it will be out of reach of my son and have it sound good.

With regards to the sub, should that go on the floor? I ask because my wife wants to put it on a bottom shelf of a shelf system to "hide" it. I'm thinking the carpeted floor might be better.

Any suggestions you have are very much appreciated.

I have the Denon 1910 if that affects your answer.

All the best,

James

re: Mirage Nanosat speakers: love at first listen

Shawn — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:26:44 GMT

Hi Amanda,

I have a set of OM-r2's(that are listed as surrounds) that i'm currently useing in a 2.1 setup. I'm looking at getting a set of the nanostats and a CC. The room they are going in is medium-small and is irregular shaped. the om-r2's are to heavy to mount on the walls and the floor doesn't allow for good stand placement. My question is. Could i use the om-r2's as front speakers and the Nanostats as rears? Any recomendations would be great.

thanks,

Shawn

re: Mirage Nanosat speakers: love at first listen

Amanda — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:55:05 GMT

Hi Shawn,

That's a good question. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar enough with the OM-R2s to really weigh in here (it looks like they're an older model, is that right?). So I think your best bet would be to call one of our advisors at 1-888-955-6000. They'll be able to get a clearer idea of what you have once they talk to you, and give you a better recommendation based on your room, what your goals are, etc.

Amanda

re: Mirage Nanosat speakers: love at first listen

shawn — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:26:29 GMT

Hi Amanda,

I am thinking about setting up a 5.1 suround setup. I currently have a set of Mirage OM-r2's+a KLH sub. I was thinking about picking up a set of the Nanostats and a center channel. My room is kind of awkward for setup( one of the reasons I'm looking at the Nanostats). Due to the awkward setup of the room(and the weight of the speaker) it makes it tough to mount the OM-R2"s as rear speakers. would it be feasible to use the OM-R2's as the front speakers and the Nanostats as the rears? What would be your recommendations on this?

Thanks,

Shawn

re: Mirage Nanosat speakers: love at first listen

Amanda — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:01:03 GMT

Hi Purnell,

If I’m reading this right, it sounds like you’ve got a receiver with Dolby ProLogic IIz processing, a new format that can add two “height” channels up front. If that’s the case, then your setup sounds fine – I’d just suggest mounting the speakers to the columns upside down, rather than simply placing them right side up on top. (For any of Mirage’s speakers, they suggest mounting them upside down once they’re above six feet.)

If you don’t have a receiver with ProLogic IIz processing, then I wouldn’t recommend adding two speakers up front, since other types of surround processing won’t be able to send the right audio info to them. Instead, they’d be better off in the back, as extra surround channels. And there’s plenty of more commonly found surround formats that can handle that kind of 7.1 setup (Dolby ProLogic IIx, for example, and Blu-ray formats like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD).

Hope this helps! Feel free to call our advisors too for one-on-one help – 1-888-955-6000.

Amanda