Clear sound quality. Compared them with Bose AC10 and just got more sound

None noticed so far

I am very pleased with these speakers. Seemed about the right price ($770 from Pacific Sales in Irvine Ca, plus $120 discount with the Yamaha RXV-595a receiver). I had my 25 year old son with me to help pick out the best sound and this is what he picked.

Sound, quality construction

None

I must first start out by saying that the $599 price I paid included the FRX-S8 subwoofer so I feel I got a pretty good deal.

Straight out of the box the center channel speaker had a busted binding post. Not really busted, but extremely loose and I could not get it tightened so had to take it back.

After that, all has been well.

For the money, you cannot buy speakers anywhere NEAR this good. I listened to many. I was pretty sure for a while that I wanted Bose, but the price and the fact that everywhere I went the display wasn't working correctly and I wasn't about to buy speakers I hadn't heard.

Finally heard them in a nearby mall that has a Bose outlet and wasn't impressed despite them being set up in optimum conditions.

The quality of these bottom end speakers from Mirage was very impressive. I had a friend over when I was setting everything up and he even commented on how nicely they were built.

If you're a hard-core enthusiast then these are probably not for you. But I was getting ready to shell out $1300 for speakers and for a few hundred dollars less I was able to add a very nice amplifier as well.

good, balanced midrange, very "musical," great price/perf. ratio.

none at this price.

Side-by-side with the Klipsch Quintet system, the AVS-500 have a much more balanced midrange. Although it's a home theater system, the AVS-500 sounds very nice when playing music as well - something I couldn't say about the Klipsch. If you're on a budget and can only afford one set of speakers for home theater AND music, this is the best "bang for the buck" out there.

NOTE: the price shown above was for the AVS-500 only. I also bought the Mirage FRXS-8 subwoofer for $230 and am very happy with it as well. Mates well with the AVS-500 and fills my med-large living room while not being overpowering.

I also can't say enough good good things about Mark Tozier and Kief's Audio/Video (http://www.kiefsav.com/). Great prices and truly excellent service.

Similar Products Used:

Klipsch Quintet

FRX-S12 sub top notch. Satellites:For the driver size (3.5") they pack a powerful punch; better than the very common and over-rated Bose 3.5" driver. Cabinent enclosure quality is sturdy; adds to sound clarity. Clean, Bright sound.

Since these speakers have the smaller mid-range driver, the soundstage lacks depth; most notably in vocals. (sounds come out with too much midrange and highs, not enough low range) Don't rely on these speakers for music reporduction, they are meant for home theatre. However, for the $$$ (less than $500) these AVS-500's are leaders in it's class. Add a 12" sub for another $500 and $1K gets you into shock mode on DVD's!

To understand my review, you must understand my setup:

14' x 15' room, 17' ceiling; 3500 cubic feet
Denon AVR-3300 Surround Receiver/Amp (rated 105 watts)
Denon DVD-3700 DVD player
AudioControl C-101 1/3-octave equalizer/spectrum analyzer
Main Speakers: Synergistic tripole towers w/10" passive, 8" sub, 4-tweeters
Sub: Mirage FRX-S12
Surrounds (4): Mirage AVS-500's
Center: Mirage AVS-500
I run all 8 speakers at once.

With my previous speaker system (Def Tech's) I had a Velodyne 12" subwoofer, nearly the best-in-class there is by most accounts. The Mirage FRX-S12 sub is just as clean and punchy as the Velodyne. Most amazingly, the Mirage sub does it with a 150-watt amp and the Velodyn needed a 250-watt amp (if I remember correctly). There is really alot of movement on the S12 and it keeps up with the most raunchy deep bass any DVD movie can throw at it; it doesn't lag behind or get muddy. I really can't tell them apart and I've listened to alot of music and DVD's through each. I am quite pleased at the value Mirage has put in to the subwoofer. I picked mine up for $500 or so; paid $1300 for the Velodyne. Frankly I think I wasted $800; the Mirage FRX-S12 is top notch. It completely fills 3500 cubic feet with no problem. They key to this sub is taking your time over a wide variety of music and DVD's to set the cross-over frequency to match any front speakers you may have. Don't rely on the 90mHz cross-over rating on the AVS-500's. Listen for yourself.

For the center speaker I think the twin 3.5" drivers are too small to accurately reproduce vocals. I would like to see 4.5" at least. This is the system's biggest weakness. However, they are crisp and clean and are still better than anything in it's price class. I'll probably upgrade to a larger center channel someday.

For the surrounds, the AVS-500's carry the same characteristics as the center channel, however, since less vocals and more effects are driven through side channels, they become stellar additions to any surround sound system. For effects, they are crisp, clean and punchy. For music they present too much midrange, but with a little equalization, you can tame some of it down.

I've owned Bose, Def tech's, Atlantic Tech's and a myriad of others. While I could have very easily spent $1,500 more for very little increase in performace, I stuck with the Mirage AVS-500's for my surrounds. Don't count on them being your main music drivers, let them excel at what they are meant to do best: DVD movies. Augment these little powerpacks with some quality front towers and you have a whiz-bang system for 2/3d's less than the nearest sounding speaker combo.

FYI - these are crisp, clean and bright sounding speakers; the silk-dome tweeters are active little critters! I see reviews that Atlantic Tech's are 'bright'; AVS-500's are brighter! I compared them side-by-side simultaneously; I know.

"Not many shops carry these. If they did, they would be selling less of their more expensive line speakers"...These aren't my words; they came from the salesperson I bought the Mirage's from. And he had $2,000 M&K's nearly in my house before I listened to these!

Similar Products Used:

I've sound-tested a variety (Paradigm, Def Techs, Atlantic Techs, M&Ks, Bose) preparing to spend $2,000 just on surround speakers alone. But for the money, I couldn't beat the clarity and EXTREME value of the Mirage's.

Great for movies and Dolby Digital/DTS. Impressive soundstage for a speaker this size.

OK for casual music listener not for audiophile.

I was looking for a movie speakers that would dissapear to our livingroom. I found them. You can get them white also.

Excellent speakers for movie usage and casual Music listening. I have highend Mirage M3si speakers for music in my listening room, so compared to those it is a bit of a pain to listen to music on AVS-200 speakers. ( No suprise here. You can get 18,3 pairs of AVS-200 monitors for a price of a pair of M3si speaker )

AVS-500 set beats a bunch of bigger monitors in movie usage.
I tried a set (5) of JPW Minimonitors and and the small Paradigms. AVS-500 was the best in quality, sound/size.

Similar Products Used:

JPW Minimonitors, Mirage M90