Terrific speakers - thoroughly engaging and fun to listen to with superb imaging and soundscape. They are tight and cohesive across the frequency spectrum and they provide excellent and responsive bottom end with good rhythm and timing. I originally thought that the tweeters were not the smoothest – not bad by any means – just not the silkiest sounding. But it was more the amp I was using at the time. The tweeters are revealing and inferior source equipment will be shown up. When matched with a decent amp the HF drivers shine. I currently use them with an Audiolab M-One. The piano gloss cabinet finish is sheer class and they are attractive and well built. Highly recommended for music as well as home cinema use.

None for speakers that only cost a tad under AUS $1000 a pair.

The Image 40s alone are very bright to the point of harsh (what do you expect from two 41/2" drivers andf a tweeter?) and have very little bass under 100Hz or so. Despite their height these speakers are much closer in sound to a pair of smaller bookshelf speakers than to floor-standers.
I bought the Image 40s to replace a pair of Sonus Faber Grand Pianos (which my wife thought were too bulky). I had always thought the Fabers were too bright but standing next to the Image 40s the Fabers sound was very smooth and silky but still they went to the auctions :)
I later added an Audio Pro B1.28 subwoofer and the sound is completely transformed, both for music (because the B1.28 truly is the "musical" subwoofer many reviewers rate it to be) and of course for home theater. Still the Image 40s can sound slightly harsh and sibilent on a lot of music, especially with rock vocals.
I also have Sonus Faber Cremonas, Avalon Arcus and Avalon Symbols that I use everyday at my office but for late night listening in an apartment those large floor-standers have too much bass and are far too large.
So I recommend the Image 40s, together with a B1.28 (because you can control the late-night bass thud!) as a small apartment system but you will not hear the music sheets being turned or the intake of breath between flute passages that you will hear with the Arcus or the Cremonas......

Beautiful sound, can play any kind of music, beautiful piano black grossy finish. suitable for both pure audio and home theater

Frequently have to clean the surface of piano grossy finish to avoid dust. Easy to scratch.

As far as I know, this has best sound under $1000. The grossy finish like piano black is superb color and the best part is that this has incredible sound stage and can play any kind of music perfecly,especially acoustic music such as classical or jazz. I compared this with B&W Nautilus XXX(I forgot the number but price was ten times as much as this)when I decided to buy, this sounded almost eaqual to B&W which is ten times higher than IMAGE40. Incredible sound with below 500 bucks. If you find this, just get this. You will understand what I mean.

Similar Products Used:

B&W 703&704