Mirage Loudspeakers OM-200 - Manual (Page 3)

owners manual
3
INTRODUCTION
We are proud to welcome you as a new owner of a MIRAGE subwoofer.
The finest components and materials are manufactured to exacting standards
and tested with sophisticated manufacturing and quality control techniques to
ensure exceptional performance that is superior to subwoofers costing several
times their price. This approach to the development of the OM Series has
resulted in a significant improvement over other subwoofer designs in terms
of performance and aesthetics.
COMPANY BACKGROUND
MIRAGE loudspeakers and subwoofers are designed and manufactured by
Audio Products International Corp., known throughout the industry as “API”.
A Canadian company founded in 1973, API is one of the largest speaker
manufacturers in North America, supplying products to over fifty-five
countries worldwide.
The API factory is a modern 165, 000 square foot research, development and
manufacturing facility located in Scarborough, a suburb of Toronto, Canada.
More than 280 people are employed in this state of the art facility, designing,
manufacturing, and marketing MIRAGE transducers, cabinets, amplifiers and
crossovers. A talented research and development team utilizes advanced
computer-based design and sophisticated measurement techniques in its
ongoing quest for new and better acoustic technologies.
OM SERIES
Isolation Feet
Once the subwoofer’s position has been chosen, attach the 4 provided rubber
feet to the 4 inserts found at the corners of the bottom of the subwoofer.
Use the provided screws to run through the foot and into the insert. The
feet help prevent the transference of signal from the subwoofer to the ground
or cabinet for tighter, more accurate bass performance. See Diagram 1.
Room Acoustics and Subwoofer placement
MIRAGE OM Series subwoofers can be placed virtually anywhere in your
listening room without significantly affecting the stereo image of your main
speakers. However, interactions between any subwoofer and a room’s acoustic
properties will have some impact on the overall bass performance. Reading
this section will help you find a placement for the subwoofer in your room,
which will yield the best bass performance.
There is a common misconception with regard to subwoofer placement.
The best position is not necessarily the one with the loudest bass, but the
position with the smoothest bass. Keep this in mind while determining your
preferred placement.
A subwoofer’s omni directional bass propagation allows placement
almost anywhere in the room. But, just because the brain finds frequencies
below 100Hz difficult to pinpoint doesn’t mean that all locations are ideal.
Because the low frequency wavelengths can be as long as 50 feet, the position
of a subwoofer is hard for the brain to pinpoint, but it must be stressed that it
is still a point source with sound waves radiating out from it.
Corner placement
The most popular location for subwoofer placement is in a front corner of
the room, to either the left or right of one of the main speakers.There is
absolutely nothing wrong with this unobtrusive location if a few simple
boundaries can be respected. Start off by placing the subwoofer near a
corner, which will produce maximum bass output. Slowly move the
subwoofer away from the corner in small stages to find the position that
yields maximum bass output while maintaining clarity.
Although a clear path between the subwoofer and listening position is not
required, it is recommended to leave approximately 2-4 inches (5-10cm) of
clearance between the subwoofer and walls or room furnishings to ensure
maximum performance. Moving a subwoofer out from it’s typical placement in
a corner can change the amplitude of standing waves and either increase or
decrease the amount of perceived bass at your listening position.
Finding the Ideal Location
If the placement of the subwoofer and its effect to the room décor is not an
issue, you may want to determine the ideal location where the subwoofer
performance can be maximized. An effective method of determining the ideal
subwoofer location requires that you place the subwoofer in your preferred
listening position. Then, slowly walk the boundaries of the room until you’ve
determined the spot where bass is at it’s fullest. Switch positions between
you and the subwoofer and the ideal location has been located.
Stereo Placement
If you are using a pair of subwoofers in stereo, it is preferable to place each
subwoofer adjacent to the main speaker of the same channel.
Remember to use familiar musical recordings with an abundance of low
frequency information when you experiment with subwoofer location.
Cabinet Placement
The Mirage OM Subwoofer series was also designed to excel in custom
applications. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction and this fact is
exploited by an Omnipolar subwoofer. The reactive forces that the drivers
apply to the enclosure are opposing and therefore cancelled. This eliminates
the most common problem associated with subwoofers, a cabinet that suffers
from vibration. This movement of the cabinet produces coloration to the
sound. And, if the subwoofer is installed in a custom application such as in a
wall unit, this vibration is transferred to the wall unit and may rattle any object
within. Touch the top of any traditional forward firing subwoofer and you will
feel the vibration caused by the energy generated through the rear of the
driver and ricocheting within.This is the major source of coloration from
single driver subwoofers. Touch the top of an Omnipolar subwoofer and you
will feel virtually no vibration whatsoever. It is this quality that makes an
Omnipolar subwoofer ideal for in-cabinet applications. All that is required is
roughly 4-6 inches of open space in front of each driver. This will allow the
sound to flow from the driver and out of the cabinet, all without a trace of
box coloration or transferred vibrations.
SUBWOOFER CONNECTIONS
Caution: Do not use both low level and high level methods simultaneously.
Turn off all power in your stereo system before proceeding with the
installation of the subwoofer.