Andrew Marshall’s original Imager design was quite straightforward: a circular neoprene ring that surrounded the tweeter and absorbed energy that would otherwise have been radiated along the speaker baffle and re-radiated milliseconds later at the listener when it reached the edge. The design was sound, and 5000 pairs were sold with not one consumer complaint or return, and a plethora of praise for the improvements wrought with normal direct radiating box speaker designs. Speakers just imaged better, with more depth! (At right you’ll see the new, oval Imager)
However, it was pointed out by a major Canadian speaker designer that reflections off the inside of the Neoprene ring caused slight peaks and dips in frequency response (2 dB or less) around 10 kHz. The solution? Make the new Imagers oval in shape, so that the frequency of these minor reflections would be staggered between 8 and 12 kHz, and therefore unmeasurable in their interaction with the directly radiated sound of the tweeter
That’s just what we did, made them oval in shape, but there’s more! Marshall researched the available Neoprene compounds, and found one that was softer and more absorptive in the audio frequency range, and therefore did not reflect as much energy. The result is a much improved version of our famous Imagers: Imagers II. You can have the wider part of the oval at the sides, or top, it doesn’t matter. Self-adhesive, Imagers II are easy to fit to your speakers, and need never be removed (if you do decide to remove them the special adhesive WILL NOT leave any kind of residue on your speakers). They’ll deepen the soundstage and control side-wall reflections while also eliminating baffle diffraction.
Bafflegab? Hey, it’s good physics: the more your speakers are a point source, the better they’ll image. And that’s the truth! Imagers II are priced at $9.99 a set, but if you order 2 sets, they’re only $15, and 3 sets (which should cover a home theatre system with a spare) are only $19.95.
Imagers: a tweak that works…5000 happy audiophile customers can’t be wrong!
ORDER HERE:
1 SET $9.99 (2 Imagers) |
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2 SETS $15.00 (4 Imagers) |
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3 SETS $19.95 (6 Imagers) |
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May 22nd, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Can you tell me if these Imagers work on a speaker that is in a D’appolito
configuration? Like my Castle Conway 3’s?
AM Replies:
They should, but it depends on the actual spacing of the tweeter and its 2 woofer-mids. The Imager needs about 1/2″ at top and bottom of the tweeter outside it, and overall Imager dimensions are 2 5/8″ x 3 3/8″. You can mount them either horizontally or vertically depending on how much space you have.
And the fact is, they will be especially helpful with such speaker designs because of the greater interaction between the closely spaced drivers.
April 29th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Can these defractors fit into my Proac R1S tweeters ( type Scanspeak D2010/8513). By chance I need to remove its rotten foam dampers pads anyway (size outer-diameter 9.3 mm inner diameter 3.8 mm) which are in a 3mm recessed space surrounding the tweeter domes.
Thanks
Paul Yahya
www.freewebs.com/komkris2000
February 3rd, 2010 at 5:24 pm
Hi there
I’d like to know how I would get a hold of your reference test cd.
Thanks in advance
Zahir Harris