Mirage FRx-3 and FRx S10 Review

Setting New Standards

Original product details

• Description: Two-way magnetically shielded vented loudspeaker and powered subwoofer
• Dimensions (H × W × D): Speaker 14 × 7 × 10 inches; subwoofer 15.5 × 15.5 × 15 inches
• Weight: Speaker approximately 12 lb
• Frequency response: Speaker 47 Hz–22 kHz, ±3 dB
• Efficiency: Speaker 90 dB
• Nominal impedance: Speaker 8 ohms
• Original US retail price (1999): Speaker $350 per pair; subwoofer $450 each
• Manufacturer at publication: Mirage, a division of Audio Products International

So, I’m speaking with Jeff Percy of Mirage deciding which speakers I might like to review, and I’m wondering what’s the best which leads to my thinking that they’ll be big, and that leads me to dreading the whole operation. For one thing, with the Mirage M3s already looming large, and assorted other audio stuff recently acquired, it would be pushing my wife’s generosity to add large speakers to the mess. Second, I wouldn’t dig it all that much myself, what with the lugging around involved and the increased clutter; I live in only a two room apartment. Maybe, I hoped, Mirage has some really kickin’ bookshelf speakers.

“What have you got that’s small?”

“We’ve got the FRx 3 bookshelf speakers, which you could use with either the FRx S10 subwoofer or the FRx S8 subwoofer,” says Jeff.

“Oh yeah? What’s the FRx 3 sell for?”

“$350.”

I was not excited. “Have you got any more expensive bookshelf speakers in the line?”

“No, the line goes to floorstanding speakers after that.”

“Well, O.K., the FRx 3s sounds good. Given the size of my space, please send the 10-inch rather than the 8-inch sub, as well.”

“Oh well,” I thought, “PHF has been getting requests to review some budget oriented pieces.” While I am generally curious about the performance of all gear at all price points, I was not looking forward to doing all of my serious listening through a $350 pair of bookshelf speakers for a period of several weeks—subwoofer or no.

I needn’t have worried.

FRx-3 Design

The FRX ported reflex speakers and FRX subwoofers differ from Mirage’s earlier 90 series in cost, cosmetics and build quality. Less costly than the 90 series it replaces, the FRX line combines conservative cosmetics with improved parts quality and construction. Using their proprietary method, Mirage bends three-quarter inch laminated MDF to form seamless speaker cabinets. The result is a tasteful, quality-on-a-budget look. Without a close inspection of the oak colored finish, you might easily think it’s wood. To reduce vibration, Mirage injection molds the driver baskets rather than stamping them from steel. These baskets are made from glass filled plastic. Mirage avoided using steel, a popular alternative, for its propensity to resonate around 100 Hz to 200 Hz. For low driver distortion the FRX midrange and bass drivers, designed and built in-house, are constructed of a polypropylene, carbon, and mica combination that provides the desired stiffness-to-mass ratio. Shielding is via a 5 oz magnet, while the bass/midrange driver uses a 12 oz magnet.

Remember the M series? This is the series that put Mirage on the map. The tweeters for that line served as the blueprint for the FRX line. Here, rather than 1-inch tweeters made of a pure titanium hybrid, Mirage created a three-quarter-inch pure metal hybrid tweeter. As Andrew Welker, designer of the FRX 3s, explained, this tweeter is integral in achieving one of Mirage’s primary design objectives.

Spread the Wealth

A top priority of the FRX line, and for Mirage speakers in general, is broad dispersion. That is, they are concerned with achieving an even frequency response over a wide listening area. Towards this end, they take measures to get their drivers operating only within those frequencies for which the drivers radiate evenly. If, for instance, a midrange driver has to produce frequencies that are substantially smaller in wavelength than the driver itself, that midrange driver will not radiate uniformly. Not only will this keep you uncomfortably stuck to one spot for maximum fidelity (i.e. a small sweet spot) but image width will also suffer. The trick is to get the tweeter to handle those frequencies that are too small for the midrange driver. This is a trick for which Mirage prides itself. A common tweeter crossover frequency would be 3 kHz. For Mirage speakers it is 1.9 kHz. This is a safe crossover point, as Mirage’s 6½-inch midrange/woofer driver doesn’t lose its uniform radiating pattern until 2.5 kHz. At 2.5 kHz the output of this driver is so low that little harm is done.

But how does Mirage get their tweeters to perform at 2 kHz to 3 kHz? By surrounding the tweeter with cloth, its higher frequency vibrations are reduced, thereby helping the tweeter reproduce lower frequencies. This also addresses the problematic 19 kHz to 30 kHz resonance frequency of metal dome tweeters. Even though these frequencies are out of hearing range, research has shown that such vibration can cause distortion within frequencies that are audible. Mirage also surrounds their tweeters in ferro fluid to keep them cool; producing lower frequencies requires more power and, consequently, produces heat. And, the fluid’s high viscosity provides mechanical damping to help the tweeter with the longer motion demanded of it. Nothing magic here really, just basic physics.

FRX S10 Design

Mirage’s latest 10-inch sub employs a built-in 100 watt MOSFET amplifier, designed and constructed in house, and an active crossover network. Active equalization gets the sub to work the depths. As Mirage explained it, smaller subwoofers work better with small speakers, so they recommended I use either the 10-inch or 8-inch model with the FRX-3. They also make a 12-inch model. According to Mirage, the quality of the bass is similar throughout the line. The 10-inch will perform lower (−3 dB at 25 Hz, according to Mirage) and louder than the 8-inch, and the 12-inch will perform lower and louder than the 10-inch. For those frequencies covered by all three subwoofers, at output levels common to all, bass quality is the same. All three subwoofer amplifiers incorporate a limiting circuit to prevent overdriving. At a particular volume level, the subwoofer will simply refuse to play louder. The 10-inch model is the only one of the three that is shielded. It uses a 28 oz primary magnet, and a 12 oz secondary magnet to provide shielding.

The back of the 10-inch sub includes a volume control and a low pass filter. Spring loaded speaker level inputs and two line level inputs are provided. One of the line level inputs bypasses the sub’s crossover and the other passes through it. You would bypass Mirage’s crossover when using an external crossover, as found in a surround sound processor. As for the spring loaded inputs, I hate them and I wish that any brand that says they care about quality would stop using them. They won’t secure terminated ends, forcing one to use bare wire. Bare wire oxidizes and doesn’t sound as good as fresh wire. Furthermore, the grip on the bare wire isn’t very good. It pulls out easily, increasing the risk of a short circuit. Of course, spring loaded speaker terminals are par for the course at this price point. So, playing the hand I was dealt, I inserted one prong of each cable’s spade lug into the spring clip, with difficulty, until they all stayed, and then tiptoed away for fear that my breeze would knock them out of place.

Quit your whining and LISTEN, before I have to come over there and…!

I gave the FRx 3s some time on their own, first. Well actually, very much time on their own as I let them break in for a weekend before any serious listening. (Mirage did guarantee me, however, that they were broken in at the factory.) I used this break-in time to figure out the best placement. They wound up pretty much where the Vandersteens are in the accompanying photograph, which is pretty much where my Mirage speakers live. Specifically, the FRX 3s were on the 13-foot short wall facing in to the 26-foot length of the room. (The ceiling is 10 feet high.) Measuring from their top centers, the speakers were 76 inches apart, with the left speaker 36 inches from the left wall (sheetrock on wood studs) and the right speaker 46 inches from the right wall (sheetrock on wood studs on brick), and both speakers were 82 inches from the front wall. Speaker bottoms were 27 inches from the carpet, which rests on a woolly pad over a hardwood floor. Audio Products International’s spiked speaker stands provided support. The speaker platforms were spiked.

I prefer the woofer

Having optimized the speakers’ positions, I critically listened without the sub. I was struck by musical images. Wow. These imaged as well as bookshelf speakers are accused of. Of course, I was also struck by many flaws, but none which I would expect a $350 bookshelf speaker to escape. Indeed, what Mirage has achieved for $350 makes these speakers a treat. Add the sub into the mix and there’s no question. But more about that later. On their own, the FRX3s were not guilty of nasality, brightness, chestiness, or any other obvious anomalies. The frequency response within the range of human vocals sounded convincing. Music was a bit thin sounding, of course, but that is to be expected from a speaker so small. On bright recordings, or those with aggressive midrange, the cumulative effect of the lean presentation and the recording could be a bit much. “Secure Yourself” from the Indigo Girls’ self-titled album is an example. Here is a top-heavy recording to begin with. I felt the sound was annoyingly thin without the subwoofer.

Subwoofer placement

Haven’t you been bombarded with the belief that subwoofer placement doesn’t affect performance? To anyone who has experimented with their placement, however, this isn’t always true. Low frequency response in a particular room is very dependent on where that low frequency driver is placed. If you want to avoid a boomy sound, or a weakened response which would require pushing the subwoofer too hard, you must find that position in the room that provides optimum low frequency performance. In addition, there is directionality to concern yourself with. Subwoofers are often used as woofers, not simply as ultra-low-frequency playback devices. For instance, subwoofers are commonly being used to reproduce anywhere from 45 Hz to 100 Hz. We can tell where these frequencies are coming from. If you’re going for the best imaging and cohesiveness of the overall presentation, your bass guitar or kick drum or tuba had better not sound like it’s coming from elsewhere in the room.

Indeed, while seeking out the optimum position for the FRX S10 I became reacquainted with this very matter. I could hear this sub apart from the rest of the music. It wasn’t well integrated with the FRX 3s. After moving it around, I found that the subwoofer performed best when placed between the FRX 3s. (I had found this placement similarly ideal, some years ago, using Martin Logan CLS speakers with a Kinergetics subwoofer.) With the sub centrally located, the bottom end was most solid and the imaging most focused. (Of course, operating this woofer as I did, at 55 Hz and lower, made placement for directionality more of an issue than if I were running it more as a subwoofer, say at 35 Hz and lower. Setting the crossover at 55 Hz, however, sounded best with the FRX 3s.) Now, the subwoofer would disappear if only I would believe. Hell, you’ve got to suspend disbelief for playback systems anyway. Any system will fall under the scrutiny of the nit-picker. As long as the flaw isn’t in your face, the mission is accomplished.

Ahh. Everything’s juuusst right.

With the FRx S10 placed between the main speakers I heard much of the fullness and richness that music has to offer, without annoying boominess or muddy sound. Indeed, I found it remarkable how well the system maintained rhythm at loud levels. Chicago’s “Introduction” stayed quick and sprightly even at very loud levels. Of course the bottom-most bass, below around 40 Hz, wasn’t much present—there were only hints of that. While I’ve found that this lowest bass is usually not a great loss in terms of connecting with the music, there are exceptions. I listened to “Hey Foxymophandlemama, That’s Me” from Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy and it was like hearing a different mix of the song. Without the quality of bass I’m used to from the Mirage M3si speakers—they’re down −1.5 dB at 32 Hz in my room—the music was robbed of its emotion. This funky piece is largely defined by its bass line, which simply wasn’t served properly by the FRx S10. Similarly, James Brown’s “Sex Machine,” from Love Power Peace, did not shake my funky bone. Nor was this bone set to bouncing from any other material I tried. This response costs money, though: much more than $800. Perhaps the most pertinent fact is that the FRx S10’s bass still sounded as good as that produced by some of the best similarly priced floorstanding speakers.

Still, I could imagine that for one who never critically listens, the sub would not be missed. The FRX 3 bookshelf speakers do enough suggesting in the lower regions that a non-listener could get by without the sub and be none the wiser. Not to say the FRX 3s are fat—they’re not. Of course, if you’re reading this chances are you care enough that you’d appreciate what the sub brings to the performance. Certainly, for the audio enthusiast, once you hear the sub you must have it. I did most of my listening with it. I would take it out periodically only to gauge what it was contributing. Consequently, the comments that follow apply equally well to the speakers without the subwoofer, except where bass at around 55 Hz and lower is concerned.

Dude, I’m getting great visuals!

Image specificity was excellent. One dimensionally speaking (i.e. left to right), images could be just about anywhere. On “Introduction,” from Chicago Transit Authority’s self-titled album, the percussion instruments, horns, and vocals all were impressively separated in the mix. Front-to-back image placement I couldn’t say I heard on anything I listened to. With my eyes open, maybe. With my eyes shut, no. (How much of the depth in recordings do we imagine because we think we know where the players may have been standing?) As for the dimensionality, or palpability of the images, this was decent. Yet, it’s the extent to which this speaker system can image within the one dimension that impressed me most, and it’s what makes this system among the best I’ve heard in this regard.

Snap, crackle, and pop

Dynamics were very good. At low to loud levels, the music had convincing transient attack. While sitting at the keyboard for instance, writing this review, the first sound of the shaker on Patricia Barber’s “A Taste of Honey,” from Café Blue, made my head turn. Bass string plucks, piano, drum, whether it was a large dynamic peak or a small one, were all impressively recreated, contributing to the sense of presence. Track 9, again from Café Blue, grows in loudness as the song progresses. Listening loud to start with, as the drums in the left channel got even louder, the FRX system stayed right along with it, keeping their cool and not compressing the dynamics. The cymbal crashes did compress at very loud levels, however. Similarly, “Introduction” maintained well-proportioned dynamics at low to loud levels. At very loud levels though, the cymbals took on a bottled-up sound and the acoustic guitar got lost in the mix.

Speaking of the cymbals, Mirage was right. I didn’t have to worry that the FRX 3 uses a metal dome tweeter. There was no obvious coloration to the sound. I didn’t hear all a tweeter should do, but what I heard was musical; nothing sounded bright, nothing sounded muffled. What it lacked was air and extension even with the grilles off, which I preferred. Also, as I said earlier, the tweeter doesn’t handle the very loud levels as well as the rest of the system, getting congested and less detailed. But again, this is small criticism for the price. As if to emphasize the point, as I write this I’m listening to Jane’s Addiction swing into Lou Reed’s “Rock n Roll” and I’m swept away. This first self-titled album, on XXX records, is a must for rock fans.

…Oh, yes! From “Rock n Roll” into “Sympathy for the Devil”… Hot! (This is not a speaker system with obvious flaws.)

I just didn’t expect this kind of performance, performance generally heard in more expensive systems. While overall not comparable to the Mirage M3si’s, my reference, imaging was more precise and vocals were more intelligible through the FRX system. Comparing this system with the Vandersteen 1b—$700 when it was available, since replaced by the 1c for the same price—I would take the Mirage FRX system in a heartbeat. It’s on another level. Going from the Vandersteens to the FRX system images spread way apart from one another and snapped into focus. I could also better hear the ambiance of the recording venue. Microdynamics, such as give acoustic instruments more immediacy, were vastly superior. The texture and detail of the presentation, compared with the ’steens, were vastly superior. Listening to Etta James’s “It’s Too Soon To Know,” the FRX system let Etta and I become intimate. I really should explore more of her work. I know only The Second Time Around.

Too good for the shelf, are you?

Damn, I was surprised! The Mirages were just as superior to the Energy C2s ($600) as to the Vandersteen 1bs—with one qualification. I preferred the FRX 3s to the C2s only when both were set up properly (i.e. on stands, carefully positioned). Properly positioned, I compared the FRX 3s with the Energy C2s, neither pair using the sub. I also compared both speakers while using the sub. Either way, I preferred the Mirages for all the same reasons I did when comparing them with the Vandersteens. Improperly positioned, however, like say on a bookshelf, where I’d guess well over half their users will place them, the FRX 3s didn’t do it for me.

When I compared the FRX 3s without the sub with the C2s without the sub, in my bedroom system, I definitely wanted my C2s to stay. Speaker placement in the bedroom is against the wall, on a shelf which is 7 feet from the floor. This system, consisting of a Sony CDP C625 CD changer, Kimber PBJ interconnect, McIntosh C-38 preamplifier, Monster M550i interconnect, and NAD 2200 amplifier, is for playing loud rock ’n’ roll music to keep me motivated while I work out. Here, I want a punchy, loud, full-bodied sound that doesn’t offend my critical ears. (Even when I’m working out I sometimes find myself critically listening.) In this scenario the Mirages just didn’t stack up with the C2s. They lacked bass energy and took on a nasty coloration. I think this latter effect is due to vibration from the shelf. As the C2s are heavier, the shelf isn’t going to vibrate as much with them on it as with the Mirages; there isn’t much else on this shelf to hold it down, except for the NAD amp, two baseball caps, and one fishing cap. There are only two shelf supports, one at either end, holding up a 7-foot shelf that is 1½ inches thick and 11 inches deep. Needless to say, this shelf is vibrating even though it’s not actually rattling. The other factor that may have contributed to the FRX 3’s poor performance in this environment would be its rear-firing port, which in this case was only a couple of inches from a wall. The C2 is ported as well, but in the front.

What I say

But you’re all audio enthusiasts so you’re going to place speakers properly, right? If I am right, and you’re in the market, audition these speakers. Even if you were going to hear only floorstanding speakers, listen to these speakers with the FRx S10 subwoofer, running the main speakers full range. You may very well hear imaging better than anything else, and an ease at loud levels that’s hard to match. And if the tweeter offends, try something different upstream. This one shouldn’t.

Reference system

Panamax MAX1500 power line conditioner → Meridian 508/24 CD player → Tara RSC Reference Generation II single-ended interconnect → Krell KAV500i integrated amplifier (plugged into the wall) → bi-wired run of Kimber Kable model 4VS speaker wire → Mirage M-3si speakers