   
|
||
 September 1,
2005
A New Kind of Home-Theater
Speaker System: Mirage's Uni-Theater
 A few years ago I had
had it with surround-sound speaker systems and basically ditched the idea of owning one.
Two things bugged me to no end. First, the space necessary for a traditional home-theater
speaker system is great. Five speakers and a subwoofer take up quite a bit of space in a
modestly sized room. However, the main reason I was moving away from surround sound was
that I’m an audiophile at heart, and I just wasn’t satisfied with what I was
hearing from the front channels of most systems. Most center-channel speakers didn’t
match the left and right speakers (and a good number still don’t). So I went back to
a stereo pair of speakers for home-theater use, one on either side of my TV. I lost
surround sound, mind you, but I didn’t care. At least I had good, consistent
sound from all -- both -- speakers.
My opinion changed, though, when in 2002 Mirage sent me the innovative and funky-looking Omnisat 6 system for review. This comprises five identical speakers called the Omnisat, which feature Mirage's Omniguide technology that disperses sound over 360 degrees, and one LF-150 sub. With that system, surround sound was back in my room, and I was ecstatic. Finally, I had a cohesive-sounding system, and with identical speakers in all positions, I had uniform sound behind me, too. That small system was splendid, and as a result of the Omniguide technology, its sound had spaciousness that I couldn’t have imagined from relatively small speakers. I used the Omnisat 6 contentedly for two years. At less than $2000 for the whole shebang, it was an incredible value. However, while I really enjoyed that system, it didn’t solve the other concern I had: space. As I've mentioned, positioning five speakers just isn’t all that practical if you’re space-limited, and so many speakers positioned around a living room is not exactly attractive if you’re décor-conscious. No wonder, then, that there’s a trend in home-theater systems toward attractive, high-quality, spacing-saving speaker designs that deliver good sound and looks and don’t take up much space at all. Enter Mirage’s Uni-Theater, three speakers -- left, right and center channels -- in one slim, sexy extruded-aluminum chassis that can be mounted on the wall above or below a plasma or LCD TV, or, by using a stand that’s included, placed on top of or underneath your standard TV. Its price, $999 USD, might seem steep to some for a single enclosure, but when you consider that the Uni-Theater is actually three speakers in one cabinet, all mounting hardware is included, and it’s built to the same high standard as the rest of Mirage’s Omnisat series, its price can be considered quite reasonable. Thus, the Uni-Theater combines radical technology with high style in a single package that, if nothing else, is certainly unique. And if you want to go to a full six-channel system, you can simply add another Uni-Theater behind you. Six channels, two enclosures -- now that will please many.
Underneath the grille are a total of nine driver modules: three Omniguide modules positioned in the far left, far right, and center, and six passive radiators. Each Omniguide module has a Mirage .75" Pure Titanium Deposit Hybrid tweeter and a 3" Titanium Deposit Hybrid woofer. Two passive radiators augment each of the Omniguide woofers to extend the bass. Each speaker section (an Omniguide module plus two passive radiators) is internally isolated in this jam-packed enclosure. One interesting feature, though, is that Mirage has angled the left and right Omniguide modules outward a touch, mostly likely to disperse the sound further to each side of the speaker’s enclosure, which makes sense because the Uni-Theater isn’t likely to be placed on either side of the TV. Setting up the Uni-Theater is dead-simple, particularly because it’s an all-in-one design, but also because Mirage's Omniguide-based designs tend to make speaker placement less of an issue. In normal situations, the Uni-Theater will be oriented so that the drivers are facing up. However, like the original Omnisat, if you want to mount the Uni-Theater up high -- for example, if you want it above your wall-mounted TV instead of underneath, or you’re placing it atop a fairly tall TV -- you can simply flip the Uni-Theater over so the drivers face downward. On the back is a boundary compensation switch, which you set depending on whether you mount the Uni-Theater on the wall or out from the wall, on top of the TV or down on a stand. Of course, the Uni-Theater is magnetically shielded. Like the other Omniguide-based speakers I’ve heard -- the original Omnisat, the smaller Nanosat, and most recently the Omnisat v2 FS -- the Uni-Theater produces a soundfield that defies its size. And just as with the Omnisat 6 system, the center of the Uni-Theater sounds identical to the left and right channels, with no awkward changes in tonal balance as dialogue or sound effects pan across the screen. The Uni-Theater is refined-sounding, too, like the rest of Mirage’s speaker designs, something that isn’t the case with most of the high-style speakers on the market today. However, unlike with, say, the Omnisat 6 system I had or the v2 FS that I recently reviewed, where it was possible to place the left and right channels quite far apart -- albeit, at the expense of floor space -- the lack of space between the Uni-Theater’s left, right and center means that channel separation, while there, isn’t nearly as distinct as when you have three separate speakers spaced widely. This was apparent to me when I watched and listened to Vera Drake, an incredibly moving movie with a sprawling soundstage. The soundstage still sprawled, but it was simply not as wide as it can be. In terms of bass extension, I consider a subwoofer mandatory with the Uni-Theater, which isn’t necessarily the case with the identically priced Omnisat v2 FS. The differences in bass depth and output were apparent when I switched from the v2 FSes to the Uni-Theater while my wife was watching CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The deep bass rumble that I could hear readily through the v2 FSes was stunted when the Uni-Theater took their place. Is the Uni-Theater right for you? That depends on what your needs are. If size, appearance, and convenience are priorities, then the rather radical Uni-Theater might have your name all over it, and you’ll be glad that this new trend in home-theater speaker design has arrived. …Doug Schneider Manufacturer contact information: Mirage Speakers Website: www.miragespeakers.com
|
||
|
The Uni-Theater is just
over three feet wide and about five inches deep. It weighs 18 pounds. The
extruded-aluminum cabinet comes in either brushed silver or brushed black -- it looks
gorgeous and certainly gives the speaker luxury appeal, a far cry from the flimsy, plastic
speakers that I see so often on dealers’ shelves. A metal grille covers the drivers,
but it is still transparent enough to let you catch a glimpse of what’s inside.