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38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wow, November 22, 2006
It looks like I will be the first to review Mirage's Nanosat System here. I have owned them for only a few days and don't consider them as being 100% installed yet so I will likely edit this more than once to give them full justice. I'll start by saying I had no intention of buying these. They were a bit out of my budget and I thought they would look a little obtrusive. I was visiting a local electronics store to look at Onkyo speakers and the salesperson convinced me to listen to Mirage. I was amazed! I decided to buy them but the store wouldn't budge from $799. I wanted to check if that was a good price and found them at Amazon through Crutchfield for $599 with free shipping and no tax ... too much of a differnce to "buy local". When they arrived I was disappointed that 2 of the 5 satellite speakers had their grills crushed in and the power cord was thrown in so it could have easily punctured the exposed titanium subwoofer speaker. I'm not sure if that is Mirage's fault or not because the Onkyo receiver I bought from Crutchfield also looked like a repack. Other than that, which I am still waiting to resolve with Crutchfield, the construction quality of these speakers is absolutely first-class and the sound is truly impressive. I am going from a 6' tall set of Mageplaner speakers with 2 JBL subwoofer towers to my first satellite-type system and not only am I impressed with the obvious home-theater applications of this system but how effortlessly it handles everything from subtle nuances in classical music to hard-driving crunk to delicate jazz. There are some vocals I've listened to that would bring tears to the eyes of a sailor. I have them mounted higher than normal but inverted as the manufacturer suggests. The imaging is precise like you want with home-theater yet the soundfield is as natural as a live performance when you are listening to music. The subwoofer is tight and will satisfy most bass-greedy listeners without sounding boomy or unnatural. I have the speakers connected to the Onkyo 674 receiver which I will review separately and find the two to be superbly matched. As for my concerns about the speakers being obtrusive, now that I have them mounted I think they look very classy. At $599 I doubt you will find a better-built speaker or one that can perform so impressively on such a wide variety of musical material.
UPDATE:
It took me a long time to come back and edit this, more than 6 months. Here's what I have to say now. First off, though the spreakers were bought through Amazon, Crutchfield was excellent about sending me two new speaker grills to replace the dinged ones. I have lived with the speakers through all kinds of music and movies and continue to love them. I have moved them around slightly and may do a little more of that but they are so versatile there is no hard and fast rule for placement. I am using a Bose for the center speaker and agree with some of the other reviewers that a more focused center channel as part of the package would be better. What truly amazes me is that I can be in my upstairs office listening to music and it still sounds full-range and listenable. Very few speakers could get away with that. My vote still goes for these speakers being the best value for the price and I very much recommend them.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
amazing, January 9, 2007
Let's get the cons out of the way first: I wish the system had a more dedicated center speaker. While I do not have any problems understanding speach in DVDs or similar center-channel things (as others have commented on), I have some problems placing the speaker due to it's verticality. But, it is pretty small, so it's a very minor setback.
Overall these speakers are AMAZING. Super small, I have my front speakers on the available subtle stands, and the rear speakers mounted upside-down towards the ceiling. The versatility of the speakers is endless due to the size and omni-polar direction - the sound gets reflected in an almost 360 degree angle. Anywhere in the room the sound is full and clear. The bass unit, while also somewhat small compared to others, is very powerful and crisp. There is a slight gap between the highs & lows due to the size of the sattelite speakers, but not too big of a deal.
Great sound so far with DVDs, rock, pop, hip-hop & classical music.
I am very happy with this purchase!
(also, they look really cool and I am sure to get a remark from anyone visiting... :) )
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
good system, March 16, 2008
I've had my Nanosat system for several months now, and I think I've finally spent enough time with them to write a review that does justice to this system.
Overall I would say that these speakers are a good value. They look very cool, are built like tanks, and with the sub properly located, they deliver a top notch movie and music experience. The sub has excellent, powerful bass. (people with a high pile carpet should possibly put a pad or something under the sub because the down firing speaker moves so much it will probably hit the carpet on louder bass notes) The satellites have crystal clear and highly detailed highs. I've been listeneing to a lot of old favorites, and it's almost like I'm hearing them for the first time again. I've heard nuances that I'd never noticed in the hundreds of times I've listened to them before. As far as sound quality is concerned, the limiting factor seems to be the recording quality of the movie or cd... For the first time I can actually hear a difference between DTS and Dolby Digital.
I have the Nanosat 5 system plus 2 extra nanosat speakers setup in a small (approx 12x14) room in a 7.1 configuration. The speakers are connected to a Yamaha RX-V659 7.1 receiver which I bought at the same time as the speakers, so I had no prior experience with the sound quality of the receiver with any other speakers. All of this is connected -initially with 7.1 analogue and then finally digital fiber optics - to my PC which has a Creative Labs X-Fi Xtreme Gamer soundcard.
When I decided to get these speakers, I had read tons of reviews online. Most of what they said has proved true, so I'll try not to rehash what others have said. There are a few things you may also have read about these speakers that I would like to dispell. I had heard about the 'cloud of sound' these speakers supposedly have that makes the room sound somehow bigger... Maybe I just don't have enough experience with higher end surround sound to recognize what they're talking about, but I don't hear it. They do, however, have the amazingly seamless soundfield that the speakers 'dissapear' into that people have raved about. It's something that has to be experienced to believed. Some people had written that this 'cloud of sound' made the pinpoint possitioning of sounds a little less distinct. Maybe... but to me everything sounds convincingly located and very detailed. Maybe it's just not as evident in 7.1 vs. 5.1.
A few reviews said something concerning volume with the center channel speaker. The center channel volume is fine. I've never had a problem hearing dialogue. My center is mounted a bit lower than all the others (it sits on a pedestal behind my monitor about 6" above head height while all the other speakers are mounted on the wall about 16" from the ceiling facing down), but I don't really think that makes a big difference.
Another thing that I'd read was that these speakers -need- the sub to sound good because the speakers don't have much bass. That is somewhat true. Bass without the sub is undeniably weak, but not aweful. I have a full 88 key keyboard hooked to my pc, and without the sub the speakers can cover the full piano range no problem. The real problem is this: sounds below a certain frequency may be more or less non-directional, but this sub covers much higher pitches than that. It's a fact that makes subwoofer placement very, very important. It ruins the surround effect when everything lower than a certain pitch seems to be coming from the corner of the room where the sub is, especially when that pitch is so high relatively speaking. This is definitely this system's weakest point, and keeps me from giving it a full 5 stars. I found that placing the sub behind something to break up/ disperse the sound a little helps a great deal, but the way I've solved this problem is by putting the sub under my desk basically right in front of me facing straight at me, but I realize that isn't an option available to everyone.
I have had a little trouble with the sub electronically. The sub would pop every time I touched the volume knob when I first got it, and then one day I started noticing this low grating noise coming from the sub. The problem turned out to be dirty contact points on the volume knob. I solved it by turning the sub off and turning the know back and forth a bunch to wear off any crud built up on the contacts. I haven't had a problem with it since, and it doesn't pop when you mess with the volume knob any more.
Volume on this system seems adequate for a small room, but I wouldn't put it in anything much bigger than what I have. It may be that the receiver -and not the speakers- can't handle the volume, but it certainly doesn't seem like my setup could handle much more.
If you buy these, the one thing you absolutely, positively need to know about these speakers is that they need some break in time...especially the sub. When I first got this system, I was a little dissapointed. Sure it was better than the Creative Inspire 6.1 speakers I had, but was the improvement worth several hundred more? After about 2-3 weeks things began to smooth out. The improvement was remarkable.
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