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Help me identify a mystery Canadian bookshelf speaker - "Image"

lossfound

lossfound

Active Member
OK, need another speaker ID (sorry). These little guys just turned up and I've refoamed them.... they sound great!

The speakers bear "Image" brand logos on both grilles, and are marked as fabrique au Canada (thusly I assume the brand would be pronounced "im-AJ")... no other indication as to model, serial, or impedance on the back. I am pretty sure this brand had something to do with Mirage at some point for the following reasons:

Dimensions are pretty much exactly 18x9x9". Driver complement is 6.5 and a small dome tweeter. The woofer looks an awful lot like the one in my early-90s Mirage m290s, but it is a very slightly different impregnated-poly-ish material in the cone, and has the aforementioned foam surround instead of inverted rubber like my Mirages. The tweeter is a distinctly different design from my m290s, looks like a Vifa but I haven't pulled it to check.

Meanwhile, the cabinets bear a very close resemblance to *earlier* '80s Mirages I've seen in person / on eBay... but the drivers look absolutely nothing like the ones in those. They're a step up if anything.

Google / eBay / AK search is not terrifically helpful so far, not least of all due to the sheer futility of a query like "image bookshelf speaker".

Anyone have a clue what these are?

imagespeak1.jpg

imagespeak2.jpg
 
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Image Reference 1 I think built by API (Mirage, Energy etc). They had the Concept and Reference line... The Concepts were the the upper level line.
 
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Helpful, thanks, mikey. Seems that the name "Image Reference" was also used in a white-van scam, which is all I'm coming up with looking further. This is one unGoogleable set of speakers!
 
Don't know details about your particular speaks but I do believe Image are a respected brand up here. I think the "white van scam" is misdirected. Prolly not alot of resale value in them, but if they sound good then they are good!
 
Yeah, I'm just trying to assess value and figure out exactly what the model is. I'll probably be passing them on but I like them at least as much as my old 290s, which I've had forever and won't part with. I'm noticing the tweeter looks exactly the same as the one in a pair of Linn Nexus speaks I'm currently staring at.
 
Definitely not a white van speaker...the tweeter is most likely a Vifa, pull drivers and look for any markings on the crossover...sometimes there may be a model marked there.
 
Already determined they are Image from API. Just trying to get model number, I'm sure they are from the reference line, not 100 % sure if they are 1's or not
 
Not sure I'd be in any hurry passing along later model Canada speakers, as the Canadian government had a state of art speaker development facility availible to their manufacturers. Results were, some of worlds finest speakers coming out of there. The NHT brand, pretty much topped the list on every critics review's.
 
It's not PSB, take a look at Paisley Research and like I said before it has strong resemblance to the ".5"

They should sound pretty good for their size.
 
Thanks again, everybody. Mythless, I did in fact go hunting for info on the Paisley 0.5 / .5 after your first heads-up, but could not find anything as that's almost as challenging a query for the Goog. They do sound quite good. I am starting a very modest local shop for budget-challenged audio noobs and I want to be able to offer these for sale for a reasonable / market-sane price. They're good stuff but I already have too many good speakers myself, so I'd be happy to pass them on / use them to help accomplish The Greater Mission.
 
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