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I own a pair of Mirage M1Si's and am interested to hear from anyone who has modified this speaker at all. I read a quick blurb about a guy who changed IC's and interior wiring on a pair of M3Si's but he did not go into detail about how he opened his speaker (it's a vault), which is similar to my M1's. I read an article a long time ago about Gary Reber of Widescreen Review, who hot wired all his M1Si's. I sent an email to the guy and heard nothing in return. I think I have a blown voice coil in my left rear speaker's mid-range. When I took the speaker out, it looked low quality and the wire inside was thin and cheap looking. It has a "Linkwytz Reilly" crossover that I could barely see but have no idea if its IC's are chintzy or not. It looks like a formidable challenge to go into the speaker like this and soup it up but the temptation exists for the likelihood to achieve superior sound without buying another expensive speaker. Also the bottom end is a bit mushy, or soft, even though it is run by my powerful Levinson 336 which sounds punchy on other speakers. After seeing the crappy midrange speaker, I keep thinking the woofer is to blame. Any help is appreciated for hot rodding this great overall sounding speaker.
Follow Ups:
I had the 5si and 7si and recall the screw in spikes that came with the speakers making a heck of a difference in bass quality.
Probably not your answer, but who knows...
FWIW, my dealer ran the M1si in their big demo room with a CJ ev2000. Killer sound.
Hi, Rick.
I once owned M3's (and I believe the M1's to be built the same) and if my memory serves me correct the crossover is attached directly to the base of the speaker and is accessible by removing the bolts that secure the base.
I also recall using a putty knife between the covers and cab to (carefully) pry them apart. I believe they are press fitted together so keep prying until you hear a pop and you should be good to go.
WRT loose bass. I'm curious. Do you have the speakers on a solid (ie cement) floor? I remember a big complaint with these speakers was loose bass performance which stemmed from them being placed on a suspended (ie wood)floor. Also, being bipolar, they are terribly dependent on placement and absolutely needed huge space to properly breathe. I loved those M3's of mine. They were a major PITA to get setup properly but when they were dialed in they sounded awesome.
I'm no expert on Mirage, but I do build bipolar speakers so might be able to make a comment or two.A bipolar speaker should be set up with a lot of space behind it, like five or six feet. The reason is, if the additional reverberant energy from the rear-firing drivers arrives too early it can cause coloration along with degraded clarity and/or degraded imaging. If output from the rear-firing drivers arrives with about 10 milliseconds delay relative to the direct sound (corresponding to a path length difference of about 11 feet), the additional reverberant energy imparts greater richness and liveliness without the negative side effects mentioned. The same principle applies to dipoles and omnis.
Now if a speaker is placed well away from the walls, its bass response won't get much boundary reinforcement so the typical result is weak bass. I suspect this is the reason the Mirages bipoles were "voiced" a bit on the generous side bass-wise, and I suspect that often their alleged loose bass could be at least partially attributed to placement close to the walls. This is just a guess though.
Duke
Duke,
I didn't realize the speaker(s) are too close to the wall and I believe you are right in assuming they will sound off or muddy in the bass if too close. My room is small for the time being but its walls are bare with just a deep pile wool rig on the floor.At least that much I got right with reflective wall surfaces. The imaging is very good despite the improper placement. These are amazing speakers and i've read reviews of newer models from Mirage that are having problems with thin bass response. Mine are more than 10 years old and still in great shape. I do want to open them up and modify them (maybe cryoing the crossovers) but have not found the way to safely disconnect the wiring inside. It's a vault in there. The speaker components seem really cheap inside when I removed and examined one midrange. I know speakers have specific dynamic capabilities and although I want to replace one or all, I don't want to mess up what has been pre-preprogrammed into the crossover in correlation to the respective speaker. .
I recently bought M1 speakers and while auditioning them I found out that it has more to do with amplifiers than positioning. After hooking up my Crown Macro Reference with 760 watts/channel and a damping factor of 20,000 they had remarkably tight bass. Hooking up other amps of 200 watts/channel with damping factors around 100, the bass got really sloppy...kind of a testiment to the "you get what you put into them" club. The guy who owned them said," Looks like I have to buy a new amp" as he still owns the M3si models in the same room.
The Crown References, is that 760/channel into 8 ohms? My Levinson 336 is 350/ch into 8 ohms, 700/6ohms and 1400/ch into 2 ohms. The bass on some classical through the M1Si's, was just bloated and at times, muddy. I had not heard the bloated sound when I auditioned them in a high end store but they had it perfectly placed in the room with an amp that was smaller then mine (MacIntosh). Recently, I changed my outlets to Hubbel hospital grade 20 amp with a dedicated 20 amp line to the amplifier. That really tightened up the bass a lot and made the midrange open up. The Mirages have been blamed for being too laid back as well as Levinson, but the power change woke this system up. My amp has never been regarded as being too soft down low which is why I scratched my head. I think the bass in my room is affecting the speaker somewhat. Mirage says the M1Si needs length in front of it, some 6ft. placement away from back and side walls, if I remember correctly, something I do not have here. Lastly, there is a great deal to be made about power in the house! I had a Chang Reference Lightspeed connected to all my audio equipment. When I disconnected that and plugged directly into separate 20 amp sockets, my system which was too laid back and polite, just came alive. My advice to anyone building a system or tweaking it is to change the power immediately the way I did. Use 20 amp (orange) wire from Home Depot. Its cheap and a huge improvement. I never use my Chang anymore!
I'm admittedly not a Mirage expert, but I remember (vaguely from late 80s/ early 90s) that either the top or bottom panel can be removed, then the "sock" slides out and you can access the innards through removing the bass drivers.
One of the most interesting "mods" I've seen with an M1 is someone running another pair upside down on top of one pair, making two 10 feet tall panels. The sound was terrifyingly expansive and holographic.
Back in those days, I remember people replacing the internal wires with solid core to "tighten" the bass.
My 2 cents. Hope it helps
Eduardoo,
Thanks for the tip(s). I got the crossovers out but they are still attached. How do you get the wiring out to change it? Where can I find solid core wire? Are you referring to Romex? Gary Reber of Widescreen Review rewired his M1Si's with Monster cable. He didn't go into detail about how he R&R'd same which is surprising because he is exhaustingly deliberate and precise. The wire inside looks like cheap lamp cord. it would have to be an improvement to rewire with substantial after market stuff. Have you ever rewired a speaker and/or replaced a component?
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