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710K views 6K replies 677 participants last post by  JB8812 
#1 ·
**** NOTE: Many members have posted pics of their acoustech setups throughout the pages of this thread


For anyone that is interested, I had ordered the following:


Pair BIC Acoustech HT-88 Mains

BIC Acoustech HT-85 Center

Pair BIC Acoustech HT-75 as rears

BIC Acoustech H100 Sub


I'm running them on an older Pioneer VSX-D709S... Not the best reciever in the world, but certainly not the worst either. Debating on upgrading that to the new Elite VSX92, the Yamaha RX-V3800, Denon 3808CI, or Marantz SR7002. Any comments on these 4 recievers are welcome.

H100 Review:







When i first pulled this out of the box, my first impressions were just wow. The fit and finish of the subwoofer looks far better than the majority of the ones i have seen available. This includes the competitor klipsch and even higher end brands such as paradigm as the majority of these only use the vinyl and contain seams at the corners which usually end up peeling or getting rough. The H100 has a very nice high gloss black lacquer finish on the top and bottom with the vinyl on sides and back. They strategically install the vinyl so that no seams are ever visible unless pulling off the grill in which case they are still very hard to notice. This is also true of the HT-75s which do not have a seam at any of the corners.

When I first plugged the H100 in, I experimented with locations but already knew of the best location from already having a sub. Keep in mind for this review that the room is large at 24'x26' and it is fairly open to the kitchen which is another 10'x20' or so. During the first couple of hours I had already noticed a good amount of bass coming from the sub but it wasnt what I would really call 'impressive'. UNTIL... after 5 or so hours of play, it really started to perform. Even with the size of my room, the bass started to become very full and deep and this newly impressive performance remained. From the pictures in the link you can also see how configurable the sub is by its back panel. I'm debating somewhat on purchasing another one of these subs to fill in some of the voids left due to the size of my room but if i do get another, it will definately be the H100 based on its appearance and performance.

HT-75 Review:








The finish on these speakers are also top notch. I was VERY impressed with the appearance of these speakers. As stated above, there are no visible seems, they are all consealed behind the grill and are not even noticeable when removing the grill and also have the black lacquer finish on top and bottom. The pictures that are on BIC's website and even the ones that i took myself do not do these speakers justice. The copper colored cones also look amazing. Earlier today i was at the local audio/video store looking for a new receiver and stopped to assure myself that I made a good decision on the speakers. Just for comparison, they had some paradigms (I think studio 40s) on display and i must say that I personally like the looks of the Acoustech's better. The paradigms had the vinyl seams at the corners and in a couple of places it had already become quite noticeable from rough/peeling edges although the paradigms. The HT-75s are somewhat light and could benefit from something as little as dead weight at the bottom inside the cabinet.

The sound coming from the HT-75's is very crisp and clean. The highs are crisp and very very detailed. Contrary to what i've heard, they are not too bright. I honestly did not know how poor the quality of some of my media was until playing it through these speakers. If there are any flaws in any tracks, you will hear it. The mid range is also very good, warm, and full. Vocals, and instruments sound amazing through these speakers. The only flaw that I could find with these speakers (other than needing a lower center of gravity) is its bass response. You really need to accompany these speakers with a subwoofer (my opinion for all setups really). The speakers do produce very tight very quick bass, but there is no extension of the bass. I thought perhaps at higher bass frequencies in the low hundreds of Hz would perform better through the speakers. The response was a little bit better but still lacking. I'm hoping that the HT-88s will be a fix to this problem as they will be my front speakers, and these HT-75's will become my rears. Even without the bass response from the HT-75's, the accompanied H100 subwoofer makes the combination give a great wow factor. Their seemed to be absolutely no distortion at high volume either. Overall i was very very impressed with the performance of these speakers, and i dont mean just because of the price. They may not outperform some high end speakers, but I think that the difference will be negligable or of no concern to most people.

HT-85 and HT-88 Review:






The HT-85 and HT-88 came in and they have the same finish as the HT-75's. High gloss tops and bottoms, the horn driver is -i think- the exact same driver as in the HT-75's. The HT-88s have the 8" drivers versus the 6.5's. Instead of a black dust cap like the 6.5's, the 8" drivers have a flat copper colored dust cap. I actually prefer the LOOK of the 6.5" drivers over the 8"s but i'm sure there is some reason they chose what they did. With the grille on, theres no difference in the appearance when comparing to the HT75 other than the cabinet being noticeably larger. In addition to the larger cabinet, the HT-88s are much much heaver, which I liked. They are almost exactly twice the weight of the HT-75's at 51 pounds each. These do not seem easy to tip over as the HT-75s kind of did. Now on to performance. It took several hours of play to break them in but once they were they performed very well. The highs were prominant and crisp and the mid bass drivers provided more warmth and depth than the HT-75's The sound matches the rest of the system almost perfectly. Be advised that if you are looking toward the HT-88's as a bass-y substitute to getting a sub, you might be slightly dissappointed. It may be due to the size of my room (24'x26'x14' vaulted) and they may sound bassier in a smaller room. The drivers do not seem to provide a lot of bass extension. They do provide a nice full sound and would be a nice upgrade/addition if you already have a sub. If you are looking to get a 2.0 system, then skip the HT-88's and grab a pair of the HT-75's and the H100 for practically the same price as a pair of HT-88's. That 2.1 setup provides phenominal value and you will be very pleasantly surprised with it. The HT-85 center speaker has all the same drivers and pretty much an identical sound. You can really push a lot of power through these with no distortion. The center speaker was surprisingly heavy as well for its size. Overall I'm very pleased with the entire package. I'm still contemplating purchasing an additional H100 because at VERY high volumes, the Acoustech towers overpower the sub when listening to music, again this is only due to the size of my room, most anyone with a traditional size room would be more than happy with the output, and with movies, it provides me with plenty of bass. Its just kinda nice to have the extra power in case you wanna use it.



 
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#4 ·












HT-85:





Very large Room:


 
#7 ·
^ They sound great! Well worth the money. I would have honestly been PO'd to have bought a much more expensive brand speaker to get the same performance (in many cases less performance). I'm glad I took a chance on them. When I was first looking into buying these, I had a very hard time finding good pics and reviews of the speakers so hopefully this will help others that have the same dilemma that I did.
 
#8 ·
I also meant to mention, I put a pic in the link above for just the grill of the HT75. The reason why is that I wanted to show how good the build was on these speakers. I was very surprised to see how thick the speaker grills were. This is often a detail that is overlooked, but BIC made sure to provide a heavy, rigid speaker grill. It was details like these that made me realize the quality of product they produce.
 
#9 ·
Thanks for the review so far on these BICs. I know that BICs don't get a lot of attention here so it is good to have someone post their thoughts here. From my research, it is exactly as you have stated. Great bang for the buck speakers. BIC in the beginning was my first choice of speakers to go with but decided against it and went in another direction.


Well love to hear what you think of their new towers and center are like.
 
#10 ·
What is the ETA on the HT-88s?

Quite interested in those and the Premeir Acoutic speakers that have 8" woofers.
 
#11 ·
I should be getting the HT-88's and the HT-85 either tomorrow or thursday. I will post a review and pics by friday afternoon but possibly thursday night.
 
#14 ·
DaveOP: Yes purchased from ebay retailer. My best offfers that got accepted were the following:


H100: 200

HT88 pair: 450

HT75 pair: 250

HT85: 210
 
#16 ·
lockmart: you wont be dissappointed at all. Just give the sub about 5 good hours of play time before you really start to judge it
. Also, I had never heard any of BIC's speakers before i purchased, but I had decided to make the purchase based on reviews. Praticularly the reviews on the H100. I figured that if the subwoofer was any indicator of the quality of the rest of their line, then i would be in good shape, and i must say, the sub is an excellent indicator of the rest of the acoustech products. I'm not sure what other speakers you are running with the system, but if you are happy with the H100 purchase, then the HT-75's would definately be an awesome upgrade for you. Very cost effective.
 
#17 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by lilmike2069 /forum/post/13134500

lockmart: you wont be dissappointed at all. Just give the sub about 5 good hours of play time before you really start to judge it
. Also, I had never heard any of BIC's speakers before i purchased, but I had decided to make the purchase based on reviews. Praticularly the reviews on the H100. I figured that if the subwoofer was any indicator of the quality of the rest of their line, then i would be in good shape, and i must say, the sub is an excellent indicator of the rest of the acoustech products. I'm not sure what other speakers you are running with the system, but if you are happy with the H100 purchase, then the HT-75's would definately be an awesome upgrade for you. Very cost effective.


Any pics of the HT-88s?
 
#19 ·
today im going to be mounting the tv on the wall and i'll soon be building a component stand to sit under the tv. I think i'll make it with a painted drywall finish and wood trim so that it looks like it is part of the house. I've also got a lot of wall plates and what-not to keep all the wires behiind the walls and the connections clean.
 
#20 ·
They look amazing. What do you think about their sound so far? Specifically with rock music. Do you think they sound bright, etc?
 
#21 ·
spezzy... these get loud as s#!t. You'll definately be able to rock out with these lol. I particularly like a bright sound, I like to really hear the treble, its great for instrumentals and a good crisp sound. With that said, you will get a very crisp sound with prominant treble. They have the ability to be very bright (depending on you reciever config, EQ) but since they also have dual 8's, there is also a lot of warmth so you kinda get the best of both worlds. As I stated in my update in the original post, you wont get a whole lot of bass pumping through these but they do provide a great full range of sound, and at very high volumes with no distortion. If you want a lot of bass and want to really feel the bass drums when they're hit, then you definately need a sub. If you're worried about your receiver not allowing for a sub, the H100 will allow you to run the 2 front channels through it and out to your towers.
 
#22 ·
Well i finished hanging the TV on the wall today and took some pics with the speaker pacakage. This will also give a better idea of the room size when reading my reviews for the performance.





 
#25 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by lilmike2069 /forum/post/13134500

lockmart: you wont be dissappointed at all. Just give the sub about 5 good hours of play time before you really start to judge it
. Also, I had never heard any of BIC's speakers before i purchased, but I had decided to make the purchase based on reviews. Praticularly the reviews on the H100. I figured that if the subwoofer was any indicator of the quality of the rest of their line, then i would be in good shape, and i must say, the sub is an excellent indicator of the rest of the acoustech products. I'm not sure what other speakers you are running with the system, but if you are happy with the H100 purchase, then the HT-75's would definately be an awesome upgrade for you. Very cost effective.

Thanks, I'm getting Polk Rti-8's, Rti-4's and a Csi3 this week too! I had considered the full system from Acoustech though. It came down to being able to listen to the Polk's and loving the sound. I've read nothing but good things about the Bic sub. I'll let it break in for the first 5 hours. Their other stuff looks awesome too, reminds me of Klipsch with the horn and woofer materials. I liked the sound of those too, enjoy!
 
#26 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by NickS_ /forum/post/13141305


So wait, are you using the HT-75's as rears? Pretty good idea! How does the whole setup sound?

Yea, the HT-75's were only like 50 bucks a pair more than their traditional rears so I figured might as well. The entire system sounds really really good. I'm very pleased.
 
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