Mirage speakers $30. How did I do, what do I do?

They are worth doing much more, you can source replacements.

If you don't want them, I have a retired friend who would be glad to drive down and get them from you. We have three owners here in town who would love another set of these.
Thanks. That is encouraging. Will keep working on them and won't set the out at the curb before contacting you.
 
Argh. These things are a lot of work. Staples, staples, staples. I got the sides off. One was loose and popped off without much effort. About half the plastic fasteners were broken. On the other side I put the claw end of a mini crow bar (the thin steel type) in the joint at the top and hit it with a hammer. Top of the side came loose. I took off the bottom and did the same to get bottom of the side it loose (must disconnect wires to get bottom off). Then I sharply pulled. Side off with no damage to the fasteners. After untying the sock and removing about twenty staples I can see the mids. To get at them will require removing more staples down the sides. Two rows of twenty staples each side (about 80 total). Won't have to remove all to get at the mids.

Surrounds on the mids need to be replaced. On the front the surround looked good but dented when I touched it. Back surround on mid is hanging half off.

Before pulling any more staples, I'm going to put a little sound into them to check that each driver is working. If not, it might not be worth doing much more.

I will say that I am VERY impressed by the construction quality and the materials. The cabinet construction of these vs. my JBL L100T is like comparing a current BMW 5 Series with a 65 Ford Mustang.
I'm thinking those staples were added by someone who couldn't figure out how to get the socks back on without wrinkling the fabric. Mine were just held on by the pressure of the top and sides. The surrounds on the mids were deteriorated on mine as well- I found it pretty easy to refoam these myself. Amazing speakers. A note on power- I have mine hooked up to an ancient 40 wpc Realistic tube amp and it seems to do the trick just fine in a pretty big room.
 
Last edited:
Just noticed a guy has the M-5si locallly, how do they compare to the 3si?
The sizes in the Msi series scale pretty well with room size so the M5's will need a moderately large room to sound good. If they're too close to the walls you'll find they get tinny sounding because of the extra reflection of the rear facing tweeters. That's why the M7's sound better in a small room as they only have rear facing mid units. Given ok placement each speaker will have very similar sonic properties if scaled to the room properly.
 
'm thinking those staples were added by someone who couldn't figure out how to get the socks back on without wrinkling the fabric. Mine were just held on by the pressure of the top and sides. The surrounds on the mids were deteriorated on mine as well- I found it pretty easy to refoam these myself. Amazing speakers. A note on power- I have mine hooked up to an ancient 40 wpc Realistic tube amp and it seems to do the trick just fine in a pretty big room.

Ok thanks. That is great info. I haven't gotten to these yet at some other projects jumped in front.
 
They sound really good with a quality amp, if you can afford one. A Bryston, an Aragon, or a Pass makes them work at their peak. You want at least 200 watts a channel.
 
They sound really good with a quality amp, if you can afford one. A Bryston, an Aragon, or a Pass makes them work at their peak. You want at least 200 watts a channel.
Interesting, I notice no difference between my 200 watt amp and the 40 (before driving the smaller amp too hard, of course). As an experiment I just AB'd them in my room and nope, can't say I hear a difference. Weird. In theory, why would a higher power amp yield better sound than a smaller amp at the same loudness?
 
Wow!!! I recently picked up a pair of Mirage M7si speakers and feel those sound good. Your M3si speakers look like they must sound great. Enjoy them!!!
 

Attachments

  • IMG_4243.JPG
    IMG_4243.JPG
    34.8 KB · Views: 18
Your M3si speakers look like they must sound great.

I'm embarrassed I haven't gotten to work on them yet. Been very busy with work. Then a couple of days ago my little portable army speaker project came up. Playing with these for last couple of days.

IMG_0009.jpg

Just A/B'd them with my Altec 14s and no comparison, but they were respectable in a McGregor v. Maywether kind of way. The Jensen's in the army cans are an impressive 63 y/o full range 8" speaker. I enjoy listening to music on them.

I think the army speakers jumped to the top of the line as I just finished watching the last season of the walking dead. I'm keeping them by the door and when the apocalyse comes, I'll throw them in the truck with a little amp and the rest of my survival gear (which I've yet to assemble).

M3si, next weekend.
 
Wow!!! I recently picked up a pair of Mirage M7si speakers and feel those sound good. Your M3si speakers look like they must sound great. Enjoy them!!!


Nice find. I guess you know they can sound even better, for music at least, quite a bit further out from the back wall. I know that is not always practical which is probably why Mirage stopped making speakers like that. We had a pretty low percentage of people who would even consider buying something that big and placing that far out in the room!
 
Back
Top Bottom