To Doug Schneider,
I'm considering buying a pair of Mirage OMD-28 loudspeakers. My room is an 12’ x 18’ x 8’ rectangular family room, stuffed with furniture (carpet over concrete slab). I currently have Ohm Walsh 5000 prototypes on one short wall. It has been tough to achieve solid room-filling bass in this room without subs and I've had quite a few speakers in here. The most I could move out the OMD-28s would be about 2' from the side walls and 2' from the front wall.
I have the Cary A-306 class-D amp, which delivers 600Wpc into 8 ohms or 1200Wpc into 4 ohms. Can the OMD-28s be played at lower volumes for night-time listening and still be pleasing? A user says the OMD-28 didn't provide the detail he desired for night-time listening at lower volumes. I like a full weighty sound with excellent clarity even at lower volumes when I'm not listening loud. Also, I would be sitting about 7' to 8' from the speakers. Would the OMD-28s work?
Thanks,
Emerson Foster
The OMD-28s are amazing speakers if set up properly and driven by a suitable amplifier. The distance you are away from the speakers sounds about right, but the distances to the walls might be a little close. However, you really have to try them in your room to know for sure -- every room is different due to dimensions, construction, and furnishing.
The OMD-28s need a pretty-powerful amplifier to sound their best. Even then, some power amplifiers, despite their hefty output ratings, have difficulty driving them, particularly in the bass. I talked with designer Andrew Welker about this and he found the same thing. Will your A-306 work? Based on power output, I’d say yes. But, again, you’ll really have to try it out to know for sure because power ratings into 8 and 4 ohms don’t tell you everything.
As for detail, I found that OMD-28s provided plenty. However, I almost always listened to the OMD-28s at least at moderate volume levels, so I’m not sure how that compares to the volume levels that you listen to at night. But if your amplifier can drive the OMD-28s easily and has a lot of “get up and go” to its sound, it should be suitable.
Obviously, I haven’t given you precise answers, and I’m not sure anyone can, even Andrew Welker. In fact, I’m pretty sure that he’d tell you the exact same things. There are just too many variables to know for sure. Plus, this kind of installation will require some experimentation. But if you do get the OMD-28s set up in your room, I’d like to hear how it worked out because this is one of my favorite loudspeakers in the last few years. . . . Doug Schneider