I'm not a big fan of small speakers or subwoofers.
They tend to sound, well, small, and most of them squash the life out of films and music.
Thing is, people like tiny speakers and subs, so lots of speaker companies make, and sell tons of iffy-sounding 5.1 systems.
The Definitive Technology ProCinema 600 system.
(Credit: Definitive Technology)But they're not all bad, I've cherry-picked three truly exceptional alternatives from Definitive Technology, Energy Speakers, and Mirage. My complete reviews are all on CNET, but I'll run down the highlights here.
The Definitive Technology ProCinema 600 System is a six-piece package with four 7-inch tall satellite speakers, one 10.5-inch wide center speaker, and a minisubwoofer. The injection-molded mineral-filled polymer cabinets have more of a high-end feel than your typical plastic or fiberboard cabinets. Can you say "rock solid?"
The subwoofer is a conventional, matte-finished medium-density-fiberboard box. It measures 13 by 10.3 by 13 inches. Its side-mounted volume control is a convenient design touch.
The satellites are two-way designs with a 1-inch aluminum-ceramic dome tweeter and a 3.25-inch midrange driver. Ah, but the midrange driver is acoustically coupled to a 3.25-inch pressure-driven planar low-frequency radiator on the top panel (so when the midrange driver moves in, the passive radiator moves out, and vice-versa).
The passive radiator effectively doubles the bass radiating area of the tiny midrange driver. The same technique is employed on the center channel speaker; it has a pair of 3.25-inch midrange drivers flanking a 1-inch tweeter--and there's a 3.25-inch radiator on each side of the speaker.
The subwoofer's 8-inch polymer cone woofer is acoustically coupled to a bottom-mounted 8-inch passive radiator. The combined radiating area of the driver and radiator is almost equivalent to a single 12-inch woofer. This little sub kicks butt!
... Read MoreIt's the classic conundrum: everybody wants the smallest possible speakers and subwoofer, but nobody wants to give up sound quality. Then reality sets in and you hear the size constraints taking their toll on the sound.
Namely, little speakers don't make bass, and even bolstered by a subwoofer, the bass and oomph limitations become painfully obvious with action packed films like Master & Commander.
Two Canadian speaker companies, Energy and Mirage, believe they have devised effective engineering solutions to the size problem. They were in Manhattan last week to show-off their itsy-bitsy creations, and I have to say I was impressed (full CNET reviews by yours truly are in the works).
The Audiophiliac and the Mirage minis
(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)First up, Energy's RC-Micro home theater, "designed to combine high style and immense sound in a remarkably compact 5.1 speaker package." Standing just 4.7 inches high and weighing slightly over a pound, each RC-Micro SAT speaker has a .5-inch hyperbolic chambered aluminum dome tweeter and a 2.5-inch high excursion aluminum cone micro-driver.
Bass for the system is supplied by the 240-watt ESW-CS8 compact subwoofer with an 8-inch injection-molded woofer. The sats and sub played well together, so well it was hard to believe all that great sound was coming from this tiny $1,000 system, but it was.
Mirage's new ultra teensy MX home theater sat/system was, in some ways, even more impressive. Each two-way, 4.3-inch tall MX speaker can handle 100 watts. The polycarbon cabinets feel nice and solid, they're finished in high-gloss black.
Where conventional speakers only project sound forward, Mirage speakers have 360 degree dispersion. The MX sats' .63-inch pure titanium hybrid tweeter and 2.5-inch aluminum woofer fire up into "Omniguide" diffusers that create the speaker's omni-directional dispersion.
The gambit works wonders and the wee speakers really did create a room filling sound. Oh, and the subwoofer? It's an 8-inch cube constructed of medium-density fiberboard, with an 800-watt amplifier, dual 6.5-inch black anodized aluminum passive radiators and a 6.5-inch black anodized woofer.
The MX home theater is slated to launch in October with a MSRP of $1,200. The Energy system should be available this month.
Energy's new tiny sat/sub system.
(Credit: Energy)On Sale Now: $1,199.94
View the latest prices for Mirage MX 5.1
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