I have not listened to the Image 45s but I did listen to the previous generation (eg. Image 2B, 4B etc..) before buying my Axioms. PSB is another of the Great Canadian Speaker Companies and has been well respected for a lot of years. My first "store-bought good speakers" were PSB Beta 2-ways, >20 years ago.
The Image speakers are pretty nice products but I think the Axioms sound a bit more "neutral". A couple of Axiom reviews mentioned the PSB Images as competitors but also favoured the Axioms.
Your father in law got some pretty good speakers, anyways. I liked the 4Bs (last year's equivalent to the 45s) and I like to think their replacements would be at least as good
