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Mirage M-3si project

Raynald

Raynald

Addicted Member
Picked these up from someone I used to work with in my audio days. A few cosmetic issues but pretty nice overall. The major problem is the complete lack of front tweeters. Everything else seems to work, though I discovered one of the woofers has a buzzing problem at some frequencies.

Phase one: Swapping the front tweeters around to the back. I ran into my former Mirage rep and he confirms the back tweeters are the same as the front. That will involve prying off the side panels and pulling the socks off at which point I will also pull the woofer and have my speaker tech sort it out. This will result in a full range speaker with a Bi-polar midrange which should be pretty nice.

Phase two: Find replacement tweeters. My ex-rep agrees with me that getting a perfect match is not critical, just something with similar efficiency and frequecy response. Not sure if a difference in impedence will make a big difference in such an inefficient monster on the end of a very complex x-over. The ideal might be a lower model Mirage 90 series that used a similar mounting plate. Otherwise making a mounting plate should not be a big deal. The tweeter is recessed a fair bit so I have room to work with.

Fallback plan: I now have lots of spares for my existing M-3si !

Does anyone have a lead on someone who might have some Mirage spares or at least the specs on the Msi series tweeters?
 

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I ordered tweeters from Mirage about a year and a half ago through their distributor. Seems like the easiest route.
 
Unfortunately these are from the pre Klipsh days. They bought the company, gutted it, fired everyone from what I hear. I have not heard of anyone having much success going that route for older models. Worth a try I guess.

What vintage were your Mirage?
 
Not much "off the shelf" in the M series I am afraid. API was making proprietary drivers specifically for its designs. The Energy 22's tweeter is a famous example.

The previous 60 series used something that might have been stock but by the time the big M came around, even the lower 90 series had in house drivers.

Michel, the former rep, says Mirage was very good about sending lots of spares out to dealers proactively to make sure customers did not have down time. He is convinced they are still out there, just a question of finding them.
 

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There was an audio store near where I lived, that carried the full Mirage speaker line-up, from that time period. I vaguely remember that the top book shelf models had the same tweeters as the M-1's and M-3's. I also seem to recall that the tweeter was manufactured with a vacuum vapor deposited titanium layer over a woven cloth dome.

Looking on Mirage's site, it appears that at least the M-290, M-490, M-790, M-895, M-990, M-1090 might use the same (similar) tweeter as the M-1/M-3. There's even a pair of Mirage M-790's on ebay now (not mine).

Oh yea, very nice sounding speakers and well worth the effort to restore. I liked them better than the Magnepan's that the same store carried. And if I remember when I get home, I'll get you the contact info of the store owner. He 'may' have an idea on how to obtain replacement tweeters. Finally , if possible, I wouldn't mix tweeters. That tweeter was too good to mix and match...
 
Thanks for the offer to check, we might get lucky. I know how a lot of old parts can hang around in a store for a long time.

The 90 series tweeter was different though it looks vaguely similar because the mount is a similar shape. It had a pure metal dome with a platic ring in front of it. I just sold my 290s a few months ago and I took apart the dome to pull out a kink so I have pretty good memory of those ones. Michel thinks those might work, though finding the exact tweeter would be ideal. A slight mis-match is not a huge deal as the rear ones are just for ambient reflections. Putting a different one in the front would be much more of a problem.

Here are shots I found of the 290 and 990, same tweeter:

http://images.trademe.co.nz/photoserver/tq/29/147336329.jpg

http://i67.servimg.com/u/f67/13/47/39/93/mirage10.jpg

The rear facing mid on the 990 looks like the same one as the M-3si.
 
Hey Raynald,

Just got home and looked up the contact info that I hope will help in your Mirage search. The store that I mentioned earlier was named AudioVisions. It was located in Charlottesville, VA.
The stores owner's name was Stan. Sorry, but I can't recall his last name. After Stan's brick-and-mortar store closed, he started a web stereo business called AVHifi. Their contact info can be found here:

http://www.avhifi.com/shop/help.php?section=contactus&mode=update

Maybe someone at the company can get you in touch with Stan, and he can locate your tweeters. I know that Stan used to do a lot of equipment repairs at the store, and take in a lot of used gear in trade too, so he may know some contacts that could help as well.

Good luck!
 
If you haven't already, perhaps post a Wanted ad on Canuck Audio Mart. Some months ago, one of the API engineers/ technicians (laid-off courtesy of Klipsch) posted a garage-full of odd API drivers. Haven't seen him on CAM for a while - hope he 'landed on his feet' OK...
 
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