【Compact Speaker Search for Tiny Rooms】
QUAD｜Wharfedale｜JAMO｜audiopro｜EPOS
AUDIOPRO IMAGE12
The Image12 is the successor to the Image11 from Swedish company audiopro, which has come up on this blog more than a few times. When the Image12 first came out, I had picked up second-hand impressions from various reviews, and honestly found myself holding back, with a vague preconception that it might be inferior to the Image11 I was using at home — perhaps a bit V-shaped in its tuning. But when I happened to encounter one in a shop some time later and gave it a listen, it sounded surprisingly — or rather, considerably — better than I had expected. There is apparently a sense of V-shaped coloration to the tweeter, which is said to be “too good and unbalanced against the woofer,” but that is surely only a matter of the speaker being brand new, and I have a feeling it might transform quite unexpectedly with some run-in. After all, the predecessor Image11 also gained weight in the lower frequencies through burn-in, and the initially top-heavy balance improved considerably.
In fact, there are moments where I wonder whether, once properly run in, this might actually surpass the Image11 in sound quality. Well, it is hard to say anything definitive without a direct comparison, but at the very least, the engineers at audiopro’s headquarters who built this speaker must have thought so — which is precisely why they made the model change.
The cabinet is some 2cm deeper than the Image11, the tweeter is a new design, and the woofer is magnetically shielded, so the Image12 shares very few components with the Image11 (mine is the standard version and therefore unshielded), amounting to what is essentially a complete redesign. The crossover point dropping from 3.6kHz to 2.8kHz is slightly concerning, but the frequency response has been extended to 50–25,000Hz versus the Image11’s 80–21,000Hz. Guaranteeing 50Hz from a sealed speaker of this size is quite a feat. Internationally, it has received five stars from Britain’s What Hi-Fi? and a Best Buy from Home Cinema Choice (note: reviews could not be found on either publication’s official website). There is also, rather casually, a silver version available over there. With a tweeter featuring a grey aluminium die-cast frame integrated with a silk dome, I actually think the silver suits it better, so it is a little disappointing that only the black version is imported here. With a price increase coming from the 15th of July, I find myself wondering whether I should secure one before then — especially when I already own the ALLROOM SAT as well, which rather begs the question of just how much I love audiopro speakers.
AUDIOPRO EVO 10 DC (DESIGN COLLECTION)
While we are at it, there is also an audiopro speaker that has not made it to Japan: a model called the EVO10 Monitor Speaker. Described as an ultra-compact monitor speaker, it is priced at a somewhat lower £130 compared to the similarly sized (though the Evo10’s depth is a considerable 190mm) Image11 and Image12 (£180) and the ALLROOM SAT COLLECTION (£200). Looking at the images, the black version appears to have a wood-grain finish rather than the piano finish shared by the Image series.
There is also the Evo10DC, a white Design Collection Series model (£160). In terms of specifications, the frequency response extends to 48Hz–35,000Hz. It is fitted with what amounts to a super-tweeter — extending a further 10,000Hz beyond the Image12’s aluminium die-cast frame tweeter — capable, it seems, of handling SACD as well. Sensitivity is 88dB with an impedance of 8Ω (the Image11/Image12 are 4Ω), which suggests it should be easy to drive. The crossover frequency of 4,500Hz also means the woofer alone covers the full breadth of the piano’s range, bringing it close to full-range territory — and that earns considerable points.
It is not entirely clear where this sits within the audiopro lineup, but if it sounds better than the existing models, or offers a different kind of appeal, it is certainly something I would love to see the Japanese distributor bring in. The availability of a white model is an added bonus. It does become a touch pricier at an extra £30 just for the colour, but I would absolutely want the white.
【Compact Speaker Search for Tiny Rooms】
QUAD｜Wharfedale｜JAMO｜audiopro｜EPOS
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