Today (26 Sep 2009), I picked up at a flea market, a three-piece speaker system, two bookshelf speakers about I'd say eight inches tall, and a sub-woofer. They only thing they say on them is "Insignia", no model number or any other identifying details. So what are they? And what are they worth?
Okay so one of the first things I found was this link apparently Insignia is a store-brand of Best Buy. "Exclusive to Best Buy" probably means it's a brand actually completely under their control. Interesting concept for an audio-video store, make your own brand. I suppose now that grocery stores have made it common-place for the consumer to have a choice of store-brand or name-brand, electronics stores are going to follow suit. Radio Shack really led the way long ago with Tandy or something like that, but didn't they sell that brand off or close it down or something?
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| Insignia 120W DVD Compact Shelf System with PC connection |
At any rate, the three pieces I picked up are these ones in the picture at the left here, minus the receiver. Look nice don't they? And at 120W they seem like they should be fairly powerful. I hooked up the speakers and they sound just fine, and the ones I picked up show no significant damage to the cabinets or speaker covers (which are removable).
It's a little hard to see, but the speaker covers themselves are black lacquered wood, with a black metal grill. The covers attach with four metal pegs. Really, all things considered and compared to other speakers, I was surprised at how well-made these covers are. Very hardy, not flexible at all. Of course black lacquer will show deep gouges easily and never looks the same unless it's re-lacquered completely. I.E. you can't patch it. And if you've ever tried to lacquer something, you know it's hard to do perfectly.
If you take the grill covers off, the tweeter is a flat silver disk about two inches across and the woofer is a silver ring outside a rubber surround and then a white body. It's really striking looking, they should show it with one cover off so you can see for yourself. So this is a cover-off or cover-on system, either way they look good.
I'm not yet sure how much these were new, if you know please let me know. Also I need to find some for sale so we can see what the market is for these. And finally I'd like to find a user manual.