BIC DV62 CLR-S or VP100/150 as center

This is my first post in this forum. I am in a process of putting together a system that includes:
M60
Hsu VTF-3
BIC DV62 CLR-S as center

The Axiom, Hsu, and BIC are all top-rated in their own categories at audioreview.com.

I know you are partial to Axiom products (rightly so), but I also know you are open-minded, because of your obvious preference of the Hsu sub over Axiom sub. I am curious to find out if any one of you have any experience with the BIC ($99) as center. Yes its price is so low, it is so ridiculous and equally enticing. But, like I said, it is top-rated.

Your comments are very much appreciated. Thank you.

I'm curious to know about BIC DV62 CLR-S as well - although regardless of its reviews, anecdotal or otherwise, most here will of course recommend that you go with a center that is the same brand as your mains for timbre-matching.

I read a pretty interesting account of the BIC center from a guy at the slottweak who described his love of the speaker (as a main and center) and his efforts to tweak them. He claims great things for the center as a main, for what it's worth ... but mind he was not comparing it to any hifi speakers of note, at least not as I recall (have to re-read his account). Still, like you I've been curious to know why some people who seem to have good taste have so many good things to say about a few of the very reasonably priced BIC speakers. The DV 62 and this center are actually the only two they seem to like, but BIC also makes an outdoor speaker that's inexpensive and perhaps worth a look.

Slot tweak dude's account of using BIC DV62 CLR as main and center

Info and opinions on BIC are hard to come by in the hifi world, perhaps due to past perceptions. Awhile back I put up a forum post on Audioholics on this same general (BIC) topic AND NO ONE responded, despite 75+ views. So if anyone has a comment, please add it here or there.

Some of BIC's larger designs are dubious, with multiple passive woofers. And they do not publish feequency specs with a +/- 3Db disclaimer, making it impossible to compare them on that basis. Like many people, I also cannot audition them without ordering them, since there are no dealers in my immediate region. Yet these two very economical speakers (the 62si and DV62 CLR) do inspire some devoted listerns, and they don't seem to be the Better-Sound-Through-Research company's Koolaid-drinker variety.

Anyone have reality-based opinions on these?

Birdman

I know that Hsu's new Ventriloquist system was a joint venture with BIC. BIC designed the center and satellites, I believe. When I heard the prototype last year, they were some of the best sounding "mini-speakers" I'd ever heard. 'Course, it helped to have a Hsu sub filling in the low end.

Thanks for the tip. It led me to this press release/interview on the Hsu/B.I.C. collaboration from last year's Computer Electronics Show:

BIC AMERICA ADDS ACCLAIMED HSU-DESIGNED SUBWOOFERS TO LOUDSPEAKER LINEUP January 9-11, 2003

This doesn't tell us much about the B.I.C. bookshelves, but it's interesting. Doesn't seem Hsu would partner with a chump.

Anecdotally (i.e., with no evidence whatsoever), the Ventriloquist system does not appear to have been a smashing success. It probably sounded too good for the HTIB set.

Birdman

Hi Mozoneman,

Years ago, the horn-loaded BICs we tested at Sound&Vision magazine in Canada (I was the editor of that mag for many years) were pretty awful--very colored with peaky uneven frequency response--but no worse than many other horn-loaded speakers of that era from Klipsch and others.

That doesn't mean that the newer BICs are bad, although if they still use horn-loading, it usually means the speaker will not be accurate and smooth. They will play very loud of course, with very low distortion. Those are the two advantages of using horn-loaded drivers but you give up accuracy and smoothness.

(This is not a universal condemnation of horn designs. If careful parametric EQ is used in a bi-amped or tri-amped system, horn speakers can sound quite good. You are hearing huge horn speakers, equalized to correct their inherent flaws, every time you go to any big Dolby Digital/dts/Sony SDDS/THX commercial movie theater.)

Regards,

I don't think they're horn-loaded anymore, based on the spartan info on their Website. But the paucity of detail on the BIC Web hardly inspires confidence.

Birdman

Interesting question. I had one of those BICs, Consumer Reports tested them and liked them, so I bought one from ubid.com. I also bought a Merak MC6H (made by Axiom) center channel - 2x6.5" drivers and a big center horn tweeter. The Merak blew me away - absolutely embarrassed the expensive Infinity CC3 I was using as my main center at the time. The Merak also blew away the BIC. I never heard the Axiom centers, I use a Merak MC6H in my office system (with 4 M22 like Michaura M55s) and a giant Klipsch KLF C7 in my main HT system (pair of M60 like Michaura M665s up front, QS8's on the side and M2s in the back. Love the horn center channel speakers. Someday, I'll probably try a VP150.

Alan, Birdman, and SPDS,

Thanks for your opinion...
I went back and checked audioreview.com again. At the "Main Speaker" category, the Axiom M80 was top-rated (4.97/5.0) from 31 reviews, whereas at the "Center Speaker" category, the BIC DV62 was top-rated (4.87/5.0) by 70, yes it is 70, reviews. Yet the biggest surprise to me is the apparent lack of familiarity of the BIC DV62 from this forum.

What gives? audioreview.com was innundated by the BIC "cult" who overwhelmed the "Center Speaker" category, or was it because it was so cheap that most of the market avoided it?

I am very new in this field, and just want to know. Maybe i just order both the VP150 and the BIC. If the BIC loses, then I just sell it back on ebay and take a small loss. Still hard to believe how those 70 reviewers could be wrong?

You must take those reviews with a grain of salt. If you look at the reviews for Cerwin-Vega, they seem to have a cult following with many, many good reviews. But if you read between the lines you can tell that many of them are written by teens and/or folks who just aren't aware of whats available beyond Best Butt and Circuit Pity.

If you run a home test, you shouldn't have to sell back the BIC's via eBay. Just confine your purchasing to an online retailer that takes returns. I think etronics has a 30-day return policy -- I know I've seen the BIC's for sale somewhere with a return policy. Though granted, eBay may be just as easy to deal with.

It would be surprising (shocking) if the VP 150 didn't blow away the BIC, but it'd still be interesting to learn what they sound like.

Birdman

Mozone, it's just that some lines of speakers are wildly inconsistent from one model to the next, in part because the companies don't do controlled anechoic measurements coupled with double-blind listening tests as Axiom does.

I recall a press demo in the '90s of four new bookshelf speaker models from a huge mainstream US speaker manufacturer (not Bose). Each model sounded entirely different from the next. There was only one that was relatively uncolored and natural, and it wasn't the costliest. At the time, I recall thinking, "Don't they listen to these blind before they put them on the market??" The truth of the matter is that many companies do not, which may explain why BIC may have produced a good-sounding center through sheer chance.

I've not heard it, so I can't tell you.

As to some of the Merak horn-loaded models, they were pretty good, but didn't have the same neutrality as the better Axiom non-horn-loaded speakers.

Regards,

don't refund, if it's not as good, treat it as a rear channel. Its cheaper than one M2