 Mirage
LF-100 Subwoofer
Is this a great time to be into home
theater or what?
When I first became interested in hi-fi, you had two
choices if you wanted deep bass reproduction -- you could buy speakers the size of
refrigerators, or you could add subwoofers the size of coffins, and an external
crossover, and an extra amplifier.
None of which, incidentally, tended to be cost effective.
Advances in materials technology and amplifier design have
put bass within reach of those of us cursed with budgets -- you can still buy even more
bass with large amounts of money or real-estate, but it really is remarkable what you can
get for, say, $300 these days.
Like, for example, Mirage's LF-100, which looks good,
sounds good, and rocks.
Exalting those of low degree
The LF-100 is designed for small- to mid-sized systems in
small- to mid-sized rooms. It's pretty mid-sized itself, placing an 8"
Titanium-Deposit Polypropylene-Hybrid woofer into a 9.75" by 15.75" by
10.5" cabinet. That's small enough to mount on a shelf or some place equally
unobtrusive. The subwoofer is designed to sit on either its 9.75" or 15.75" side
-- the LF-100 comes with four adhesive "eye-shaped" feet, which have compliant
rubber dome insets to decouple the speaker from whatever it is sitting on.
The LF-100 is a handsome little critter, finished in matte
black. A large oval, titanium-colored inset on the grille houses two large circular
controls (volume and high-frequency control). Between them lies a small dipswitch that
switches phase 180 degrees.
Behind the grille, there are two flared ports above and
below those controls, and that nifty 8" woofer. The woofer is powered by a 1"
voice coil and a 20-ounce magnet.
Inside the cabinet is a 100W class-A/B MOSFET amplifier,
capable of delivering 400W peak power.
On the rear panel is a handsome, curved, molded frame
containing the input options. The LF-100 accommodates low-level (line-input) signals, of
course -- but, unusual for such an affordable sub, it offers both filtered (passing
through the '100's crossover) and unfiltered inputs. It also offers high-level (speaker)
inputs and outs. A dedicated AC cord and power switch also reside on the back panel.
Illumine what is low
I used the LF-100 with Mirage's always astonishing Omnisat Micros, driven by Arcam's DV88 Plus
DVD player, Anthem's AVM 20 v2.0 preamp-processor and five Musical Fidelity M250 monoblocks. My SIM2
HT200 DMF shone the light on the video end of things.
Swing low
While the LF-100 is compact and designed to work best in
spaces that are mid-sized, it ain't puny. It won't fill a big room with deep bass but,
used within its assumed area of operation, it can deliver 27Hz with impressive authority.
If, that is, you take the time to integrate it properly with your room.
We've been running a series of articles on subwoofer
placement and set-up, so it's not hard to do. Put it where it sounds the best -- just
don't try to hide it under the chaise longue.
My video room has been a complete shambles lately, pending
a move into an underground dedicated home theater (light control -- yay), so floor
space was at a premium. Fortunately, I was able to place the LF-100 in a bookcase that
sits under my Stewart GrayHawk screen. And -- even more
fortunately -- that happened to work acoustically as well, although I probably did lose a
little impact removing the floor boundary-reinforcement. Good thing the LF-100 had plenty
to spare.
A person of low taste
I have a love/hate relationship with bombast. I went to see
Hellboy at one of the better New York cinemas last week and I felt as though the
trailers were pounding away at my gut like a cheap heavyweight palooka. Once or twice, for
effect, it can wake you up, but this was more like thoom, thoom, thoom,
thoomthoomthoomthoom. It was boring.
The LF-100 moved a lot less air than those cinema subs and
I certainly never felt body-slammed by it, but its bass was never boring. It had weight
and heft, but was also extremely well-defined and fast.
Which made it great for my growing collection of
multichannel concert discs. Peter Gabriel's Growing Up Live has a superb DTS
soundtrack -- one that actually sounds like a concert rather than something cobbled
together in the studio after the video shoot -- and the LF-100/Omnisat Micros presented it
seamlessly. Even Tony Levin's masterful bass playing -- especially TL's
bass-playing.
Wowsa.
Where I found the LF-100 excelled was in precisely the
types of films I most prefer -- those recorded naturally with wide dynamic range and lots
of environmental information. Winged Migration consistently produced goosebumps,
not just for its score, but also for the way it delivered the sounds of wind, feathers,
and water, as well as honking, tweeting, and chirping. These environmental
"noises" are far harder to deliver convincingly than the soundstage stuff that tries
to fool you -- and the LF-100/Omnisat Micros enveloped me in some of the most believable
sound I've ever heard.
The LF-100 also delivered the goods on action movies, too.
(Like I said, with bombast, it's a love/hate thing -- although sometimes bad is bad). I
yanked out XXX and the big dogs. Explosions didn't have the room-shaking power that
a really big driver can deliver -- like, for instance, the Hsu
STF-3 I reviewed recently, but the Hsu is twice as big and twice as expensive.
The LF-100 gave XXX lots of sock and gave some real
bite to the GTO's Hemi-rumble. I kept asking myself all this for $300?
Murmur sweet and low
And that's really the question. If you have a lot of room
and more money in the budget, you can buy a bigger, better subwoofer -- heck, Mirage makes
an LF-150. Hsu makes several models worth checking out, too. At twice the price, you
certainly won't lack for options.
But at $300, I haven't heard anything that delivers the
natural, deep bass that the Mirage LF-100 does -- or does it in a package as easy to
integrate into a small- to mid-sized room. Does that make it a niche product? Perhaps, but
it’s a niche a lot of us live in -- and it's really nice that somebody remembered
that.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhometheater.com
Mirage LF-100 Subwoofer
Price: $300 USD.
Warranty: One year parts and labor.
Mirage Speakers
3641 McNicoll Avenue
Toronto, ON M1X 1G5 Canada
Phone: (416) 321-1800
Fax: (416) 321-1500
Website: www.miragespeakers.com
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