BIC America F12 sub anyone ? - Page 71

v1220 isn't bad by any means, it is a clone of the STf-2 from HSU which is highly regarded, the f12 fills bigger rooms better. on amazon, the v1220 goes for 197 and the f12 for 188 right now but usually, the f12 is priced higher.

And... Ordered! F12 is on its way from a amazon warehouse now. can't wait till i get my pioneer towers and my Sr-508 in.

EDIT: should be here on the 9th of may... TOMORROW!

it arrived today. the box looked a little battered but everything works. i haven't heard it yet though, waiting on my receiver and my pioneer fs51 speakers.

If you haven't heard it how do you know it works?

I don't know if the sound part works, just the powering up and stuff. I still have together some stuff in and on my small part time job salary, that cOuld take 2-4weeks.

Could I use this with my Sony htib? It's one that powers the sub thru the receiver itself. I was thinking of passing the front speakers signal thru instead of using the lfe input. This won't harm the sub or the receiver right? Btw, for clarification, this is my parent's, not my htib. I would never touch those in a million yrs. Haha.
EDIT: never mind. Read the manual. Said not to use other speakers. Not going to take a chance here. Patience is a virtue.

I've been lurking on the AVS boards for several months, looking for tips on upgrading my system. Despite some negative opinions posted here, the positive reports here convinced me that, without listening to it, the BIC F12 was the way, for me, to go. To say, "I am very pleased with it," feels like an understatement. Price & performance = satisfaction.

My F12 is combined with a Denon AVR 591, 1970 vintage Pioneer CS77 speakers in the front (3-way, w/12-in woofers), Sony SS-5000 surround towers (3-way, 8-in woofers), and an old DCM (2-way, 6.5-in woofer) center front. I ran Audyssey on the Denon; after 3 tries, including adjusting the center speaker up a couple of Dbs, I got the F12 to where it satisfies me: a strong, heavy bass. For music, I listen, mostly, to jazz and rock on CDs and radio; in that respect, my setup sounds better than ever. For TV and DVD/Blu-Ray movies, the sound is way-way better than it was without a sub. Does it have the throbbing bass that shakes the walls? It does; I can *feel* it; with the volume sitting at 12 O'Clock -- scary. Is the F12 "good"? For me, combined with the Denon 591 (with Audyssey), and my "larger" speakers in my 18X14 room, it makes me smile.

I thank all of the posters on the AVS F12 and 591 boards. I can only compare what I have now to what I had before: according to me, I now own the best system I've ever had; compared to what I've heard in other houses, none of those can beat my sound, but that could be, simply, because everyone I know could care less about sound than I do. This is my subjective assessment of this upgrade to my modest system. Thanks again to all the posters, including the negative ones; definitely, they all helped me
with my purchase decision.

Thanks for the info and personal reveiw there AlStCroix.

I also recently made this same purchase and can say that I love the new Sub. I already had a decent down firing sub but the new F12 BIC sub sounds awesome.

I also added a BIC center channel and bookshelf speakers that took the place of my old BOSE accustomass 3 system and I too am wearing a very happy face these days.

Add in the used Onkyo 805 I just purchased and I only thought I had a decent sounding system before.

Thanks for all the input you guys on the forums here have put in to my decision making purchases also!!

If anyone in the Sac area is interested, I've got an H100 (the F12 with a glossy top) for sale! Upgraded to a larger subwoofer.

How does the f12 compare to the h200?

UH OH, I expect to see some 'fanboy' comments soon, or shill as they call it elsewhere!

Glad to see 2 more are happy with their F12 purchase. I'll soon be upgrading my old rear Advents, used as surrounds, to PSB Imagine S Surrounds, they can be operated in bipole/dipole or 2 channel mode, side surround and rear surround can go into each speaker giving you 2 channels out of the one unit. Image T Towers for the front will be next. I'm sure this will enhance the already great low end I'm getting and improve my already decent set up dramatically.
ps, the F12 still has me smiling as well, for movies AND music!
OK, attack!

I'm no audiophile but can be easily swayed into purchasing this F12 if it's a worthy upgrade to what I have now, which is....wait for it....an Advent 12 ASW1200 . It's the only sub I've ever owned and it's given me deep bass and filled out thousands of games and movies over the past 6 years but I think I'm due for a decent upgrade in the subwoofer department.

Am I going to be blown away by the difference or is it something only a trained ear is going to be able to distinguish?

I purchased the F12 based on recommendations here. I was going to buy the Polk PSW10 because it was cheap and my budget is basically Nil, but I splurged and got the F12. Boy am I glad I did. Granted I've never heard a $1,000 sub, but this F12 sounds amazing. Many people said it sounds boomy, but after calibrating it with the Audyssey, it sounds amazing.

I do have to qualify that I'm new to higher end speakers. I've always heard HTiB speakers and I've been using Klipsch Promedia 5.1 Ultras as my HT speakers. Going from the dual 8" sub that came with those to the F12 is a huge upgrade.

Looking forward to replacing the rest of the Promedia speakers now.

That;s how it starts. Ir's tuff to say enough,but you'll know when your there.

I think Zippo is cut off again...

so, i've had my set up hooked up with the pioneer FS-51s for a week or so. the bass is amazing on this sub. it hits hard when it needs to and pulls it back when it is necessary. blends very well with the fs-51. the combination yields nice highs and lows and a solid mid.

Hey guys, just wanted to share my upgrade experience from the F12 to the HSU STF-2. I finally found the sub I'm looking for, the STF-2 is a much better overall sub and is on sale right now at www.hsuresearch.com for $319. Music and movies sound much tighter, detailed and accurate than the F12, the difference is amazing. If you can afford it, it is well worth the upgrade. Good luck!

Great, see ya on the HSU thread

I have the opportunity to sell my F-12 at full and buy a new vk-12 or 200 series sub. I really enjoy the f-12 but wonder if I shouldn't pass on the chance to "upgrade"

I have 2 less than 6 month old H100's for sale in the Portland area. PM if anyone is interested.

I sold my F12's and recently upgraded to the Hsu STF-2. It is superior in every way. If you can get full price for the F12, I would take it. I enjoyed the BIC while I had it. It is a great sub for the price and I would hands down recommend it to anyone wanting to stay under $200. Once I heard the Hsu, the difference was night and day. If you are looking to upgrade to a higher end sub, I say go for it.

I'm curious what most people have their volume on their F12 set to and what the channel level is set to in the AVR?

I picked up the F12 along with some Polk Monitor 70's, CS2 and Monitor 30's. When I run the Audyssey setup with the F12 at mid range, I get a -12db in the channel level. I know you want this to closely match the other speakers level, so I've adjusted the volume down to about 25% to get the level to match the other speakers. I've also set the cross overs at 80 and 120 for the satellites and sub respectively. The sats are set to small in the AVR. When watching a movie or music with good bass I still hardly hear the F12 and get most of the bass from the M70's.

I realize that the Audyssey calibration is just reference and not preference, so I've upped the level a bit to make it closer to what I want, but I'm just curious what others have done. I'd really like to feel the rumble of the sub without needing to crank it up way past reference.

Hi everyone. Could you guys extend my knowledge about crossover frequency and frequency response.
I have. JBL Studio S38 S26 and S-Center speakers at my HT. Today I've got my BIC F12 to add to my JBLs. So now I try to figureout how to setup a crossover settings in my HK avr3600 receiver.
S38 is 45Hz-20kHz and crossover 2000Hz
S26 is 48Hz-20kHz and crossover 800, 3200Hz
S-Center is 75Hz-20kHz and crossover 800, 3200Hz

Thanks for any info

^^RTFM...pages 40 and 41 in the manual give, IMO, an excellent step-by-step procedure.

Well thanks it actualy helped alot. The only problem is the redeiver has steps for crossover like 40, 60, 80, etc and my front is 45 surronds 48 and center 75 so I setup is 40 for front and surround and 80 for center.

Gibbsman, my setup, and what I did:

My receiver is a Denon AVR591 (with Audyssey). My speakers: Front: vintage Pioneer CS77s (3-way w/12-in woofers); Rear surrounds (side, really): Sony SS5000 towers (3-way, w/8-in woofers); Center: an old DCM (2-way, w/6-in woofer), and the F12 subwoofer which was the last speaker added. The room is, roughly, 18X14.

On my first Audyssey calibration with the subwoofer, I set the F12 volume control at 12 O'clock (i.e. pointing straight up); Audyssey reported a -12db subwoofer channel level. On the next calibration, I reset the F12 volume control to 10 O'clock; Audyssey returned a subwoofer channel level of -5.0db; it set the other channel levels to Front L/R: -10.5/-9.5, Center -1.5; Surround R/L -2.0/-2.5. It set the crossover freqs to: Fronts 90Hz, Center 40Hz, Rears 40Hz. It set all the speakers to Small.

Those settings sounded good; but, I wanted a heavier Subwoofer sound and a boost in the Center level. After fiddling around with various F12 levels, I wound up resetting the F12 volume control to the 10 O'clock, boosting the AVR Subwoofer channel level from -5.0db to +2db, and boosting the Center channel level from -1.5db to +1.0db. At the +2db setting, the subwoofer is, definitely, louder, heavier; I can shake the walls, with both music and DVD movies; as far as I am concerned, it sounds good. I left all of the other settings alone.

Hi everyone,

I am new to anything other than the stock speakers on my tv but am taking the plunge with a dedicated HT room in a new house.

First here is my info
room 16x 13'10" with a 10' sloping to 8' ceiling.
denon 1910 AVR
Behringer TRUTH 3020P for C,L,R
WHARFEDALE WH-2 Surrounds

use- movies, tv sports

is the F-12 a good fit for my room, uses and equipment?
Do I run the RCA cable to the F12 AND the front L,R speaker wires to the F12(and out to the speakers)


thanks
Allen

Is anyone using two or more F-12's in there home theater installation?

I use F12 in my 17x15x9.5 room with my HK AVR3600 and it sounds very well and pretty dam loud. I use just RCA subwoofer cable from my AVR to F12 and set crossover settings for all 5 speakers. The level on a sub is set on 9 oclock not even 12 and it sounds very good. Now I need to find a good location for it. It sits in a back corner behind couch, and sometimes creates a lot of rumble for a chair. It is interesting that low frequency (below 100Hz) is hard to locate and should be ambient, but I can clearly locate it. Do I have to locate my sub somewhere else not so close to main seating position.

Hey guys, just sold my F-12 for the VK-12 for no other reason than to match my set. I know its kinda silly.

Just wanted to say that the F-12 is a wicked unit and nobody should be second guessing their purchase.

I know my F-12's new owner is very happy. If it wasn't a direct swap I wouldn't have did it