Official BIC Venturi Thread - Page 10

Sad part is I will be out of town due to work when my fronts come in

I had Dave mod my DV62si's a couple months back and I couldnt have been happier with the results.

When I first got the speakers and hooked them up, they were very bright. I would almost call them harsh. I am used to the energy RC line in my living room and a pair of Jamo C403's which are both laid back and very balanced speakers. So the DV62si's were way too bright for my tastes.

So I did some research on here and contacted Dave. I sent him my crossovers in the mail after a bit of PM'ing back and forth. Dave is a knowledgeable guy (especially with these speakers) and a very nice guy to talk to.

When I got them back, i put the speakers back together and hooked them up. I was very pleased with the more refined sound. They were way too bright before and the highs were toned down to take out the harshness, but still have a nice bright and crisp sound. The vocals really come through clear and detailed.

The bass is much more prevalent now which is great. Dave warned me that the bass gets a little boomy after the mod because of the thin cabinet. I personally heard the boominess a little bit, but overall it was a huge improvement. He also forwarded me some instructions on how to damped the cabinets to reduce the boominess, but I havent had the chance to do it, and I really dont feel its required because I am very pleased with the sound as they are now.

So overall, I am extremely pleased with his mod. These sound more like my other more expensive speakers now with a bit more sensitivity which is always nice.

Thanks Dave!

I am meeting with a guy tomorrow to audition a dv52clr center channel! Hopefully it sounds good. The pictures of it look as it is in great condition. And the seller only wants $35! Hooray for craigslist.

Does anyone know when they were manufactured in the US? I thought they were all made in china but the back of this one says "designed and manufactured in the US"

I wish best buy had these in store so I could check them out

I'm looking at getting a pair of DV62SI for my front mains but want to mount them on the wall. Any ideas on mounts for these? Do they have a keyhole in the back to use?

No, they do not have provisions for keyhole mounting.



And with having their "Venturi vent/port" on the back of the speaker cabinet. And just like with any other speaker design with a rear port, mounting them close to the wall via a keyhole type mounting, would also have a bad effect on their bass output. It would be much better to get some sort of a wall mount that can space them out from the wall. And even that can have a negative effect if they do not place them far enough from the wall.

rambling post up ahead...

Hey all, this is my first post on these forums after having lurked here for a while. I must say this thread was just what I needed to read and has been very enjoyable.

I'm currently waiting for my set of BICs to arrive in the mail from Amazon after having gone about the process all backwards in a fashion that could best be described as "stumble theater research."

I had just bought a house and and have been in the process of unpacking. A couple weeks ago, literally the day after having finally heard from my old apartment office that they weren't going to charge me $2000 to replace 10+ year-old carpet after all (yay!), the front-left channel on my Pioneer VSX-816 began randomly cutting in and out. As luck would have it, the daily deal on woot.com that day happened to be a Pioneer VSX-1021k for $289.

However, my speaker setup is still the cheapo crappy Sony HTiB setup I had gotten back in 2002. Up to this point, I had never noticed just how mid-rangy these speakers were (and they stayed that way even after MCACC) , and I ended up getting the upgrade itch. Dialogue on these, um, things, sounds like people have pillows tied to their faces and the bass just isn't getting enough out. Turn the volume low enough to be somewhat usable and it's like there's nothing there at all, turn it up loud enough to hear and it's boomy and muddy to the point of people complaining about their stomachs.

I originally was looking at the Energy Take 5 Classic set of speakers but I wanted a bigger subwoofer. So, I went looking around on Amazon for a nice sub. I stumbled on the BIC F12 second after having looked at a Polk SW10. I had never heard of BIC before but noticed it had quite a few glowing reviews. After reading all 100+ reviews, I added it to my cart. While looking for an Energy set without a subwoofer, I wondered if I could piece together a set myself instead.

In the process of looking for a set of Infinity speakers I could use for a front channel (I remember how much I liked the set my band room in high school back in the 90's had) I stumbled across the DV-62si speakers. Again, lots of glowing reviews, and again after reading all of them I added those as well.

Next up was a center channel. In the process of looking through some Polks I again stumbled (sensing a theme?) on BICs. This time it was the DV-62CLR and the FH-6CLR. Both had glowing reviews, though the DV had more, but at the time of night I was looking, the FH was a little cheaper than the DV so it was added instead.

Unfortunately, with the odd living room I have (more on that in a moment) the surrounds (wired for 5.1 even though the receiver supports 7.1) had to be ceiling mounted and with an 8ft ceiling, small. Long story short (too late) I added the DV32. as all the speakers had free shipping and no tax from Amazon, they were the lowest price for me so I went ahead and purchased them.

In a fit of "what am I doing" I changed my mind and tried to cancel the order. Amazon basically told me "no, you NEED these speakers" and wouldn't let me complete the cancellation request.

To complete my round of "stumble theater research" I went on a mad tear finding out whatever I could about it, and ended up here. I can't wait to get everything and set it up.

I seem to be cursed with odd living rooms. I think the reason I never really noticed how bad my previous set up was as I had an odd shaped living room. I mean, like REALLY odd, pentagon-shaped with an open side and 9 1/2 ft ceilings odd. In the house, I finally have something of resemblance of a normal shape (yay rectangle!) but still an odd setup. The room is 14' x 24' with the back door, windows and a fireplace on one wall, big opening to dining area and opening to front hall on ends of another wall, and a big skylight smack dab in the center with a ceiling fan mounted on a beam in the middle. I'll see if I can take some pictures of how it is currently and post them later.

Due to how long the living room is and where everything is positioned, I had to put the speakers in not-so-desirable locations to avoid having speakers hanging over people's heads in the traffic areas.

Regardless, I'm looking forward to seeing how everything sounds even though I know the center will likely overpower the fronts due to the horn tweeter, but at this point I'll take that if it means I can understand what people are saying in movies again. As you've already known by now, I pretty much don't know what I'm doing, but I'm having lots of fun doing it!

About to join the herd. I am upgrading my home theater around my new Sharp Aquos LC-60LE633U.

I am replacing older cambridge soundworks speakers in my 5.1.

I went with a FH6-LCR center, FH-65B's up front, DV62si's for the rear, and a V1220 sub. I know the sub and rear's don't exactly match but I couldn't pass up on the prices I found on them, figure it was more important to match the front stage.

This is all connected to a Denon AVR-591.

I'm excited to see if they live up to the hype, I will be sure to throw up a review when it's all in.

I spent several hours reading this thread; I’m so glad I found it. I am in the process of saving up approx 2K to finish out my home theater. Currently I have a 55” Panasonic plasma and a Samsung speaker bar (w/ wireless sub). I set it up this way due to budget constraints about a year ago. I’m now ready to nail down the audio portion. I am able to use my bonus room (above garage) for my TH. The dimensions are approx 20x25x8. I’m going to use this for 100% TH (0% music listening).
I started out looking at reviews/recommendations from CNET and Home Theater Magazine. They were really high on some box sets. I looked at the Take Classic and the Pro Cinema 800 (among others), but I ran across rave reviews on the BIC America Venturi line of speakers. I came on over to AVS Forums and found this thread.
I have made no purchases as of yet, but wanted to see if anyone had any feedback for me and my “want list”. I’m leaning towards splurging on a nice sub and am interested in BIC owner’s feedback on the whole set-up. Also, I have a sectional that is flush with two walls. Therefore, I’m strongly considering the M-60 in wall speakers for my rears. These would be placed behind the couch. Has anyone had any dealings with the M-60s?
Thanks for all of the info that I’ve gathered from this thread!


Here is what I'm considering:

Center: DV-62CLR
Fronts: DV64 (x2)
Rears: M-60 (x2)
Sub options: Something like the Hsu VTF-3 MK4 or Outlaw LFM-1 EX
Receiver options: Something like the Denon AVR 1912 or Marantz SR6005

what are the difference with the DV62SIB AND THE DV62SI?

I tend to stay away from in-walls. There are speaker mounts that allow you to "swivel" the speaker the change the firing-direction of the sound. In-walls "look nice" but will not sound better than wall-mounted speakers. It's a sad reality and one that can't be avoided if you want uncompromising sound quality. If you want the best sound, you will have to wall-mount or pedestal mount the surrounds.

Surround speakers are best mounted to the "sides" of the listening position, with the widest possible reflections into the room. I use a dipole-tweet based surround speaker instead of BIC's bookshelf. No matter which way you go, even with the in-wall, mount them firing from the SIDES into the prime listening area. Don't put them behind you. If you must put them behind you, mount them to the furthest extremes of the room, so as to bounce the sound off the side walls to give the impression of side firing surround.

Nothing. They are the same. The "B" indicates black finish but I have never seen any other.

Much like null0byte above, I stumbled upon these speakers and then had them recommended to me in another thread.
I live in a mid to small sized apartment. I haven't had surround sound for a while since my infinity sterling 2003 surrounds went under. I've still been using the 2003 bookshelfs for my fronts.
I just ordered a pair of the dv62si to use as fronts. If they don't give me enough, I'll use them as rears and get the dv64s.
Also got the dv62clr center. I'll hang on to my infinitys as the rears for now.

Now I just need to find some new cabling.

Send all of your DV62 crossovers to Dave1027 if you plan on using them for music at all. He does a great mod to make them a lot more balanced and a lot more musical.

If you are only going to use for HT, the stock crossovers may suit you fine if you can deal with the brightness of them.

That DV-62CLRS is a bit larger than I thought it would be. Do you all think it's sturdy enough to hold my TV on top of it? Is that a major problem sound wise?

they are sure pretty sturdy, i guess it depends on the weight of the tv. I assume it is a flat panel lcd or plasma. I would be more concerned about the unstable mounting on top of center speaker. if you have children they could topple over the tv.
the DV62clrs is thick and blocks the remote sensor on my panny plasma. but it is only a minor issue when turning on-off as the dir tv box and denon receiver is used otherwise

So I've had my dv62sis for a couple weeks now. Nice improvement over my old infinitys. My first impression was that the bass sounded horrible. After about 8 hours it cleaned up. Now I'm not an audiophile by any means. The bass is very tight and I think it sounds great with electro-rock type music, which I listen to quite a bit. Jazz sounds great as well. Hip hop and rock leave some room for improvement, I'm not experienced enough to really decide why. I'm still wondering if I need to bother modding the crossovers.

The biggest difference to me when Dave modded the crossovers was that the high frequencies were turned way down. Before the mod, the highs were so bright I could barely listen to them and quite unpleasant to listen to. After the mod, I would still consider them bright and forward sounding speakers, just more balanced with better response on the low end.

Supposedly he has a new and improved mod since he did mine. When I have the time, I'll send them to him again and report back on the new mod.

I really love that people want to keep trying to improve an already nice speaker, but I think you all should read this:

http://www.slottweak.com/bic/bic.htm

It's a year long story of a man back in 2003 who tried to improve on the DV62CLR center channel of the Venturi series. His story convinced me that for the vast majority of people, the "stock" crossover if very likely the best sounding crossover.

With one exception. Passive crossovers of lower quality parts have been found to "drift" from their intended crossover frequency when driven by high powered amplifiers. So, if you are running something like a clean 200-watt amp to the Venturi speakers, then I think it's a smart idea to improve the quality of the crossover parts to try and keep that crossover frequency from drifting. If you are just using a typical 100-watt rated amp in a receiver, then it's very likely not going to be necessary to tinker with the crossover. It may even sound worse than the stock version.

Also remember that in today's era of "auto-calibration", when you take a listen to these "post"-processing, you will find that there is no need at all to add a crossover to try and correct for a "bright" sound. Remember that the BIC crossovers were likely developed in a laboratory where they tested the speaker for a "typical living room" size. BIC mostly likely tested them in a smaller, softer room than what you are listening to them in. Larger rooms tend to sound brighter. Today's sound processors can easily correct for what you are hearing.

Now, if you aren't adding any processing and listening to a pure, unchanged output, then yes, it's very possible to tune a custom crossover to give you the "sound" you are looking for.

Very interesting article. Of course sound of speakers is completely personal preference. From my personal experience and preference, the speaker went from almost intolerable due to the emphasis on the high frequencies to a sensitive, bright, dynamic speaker. I am used to the energy RC line and Jamo C line which are both known for their laid back, warm sound...which may explain why the level of the treble hurt my ears, and others may disagree. But that is my personal opinion, and I would recommend Dave's mod to everyone to get more balanced sounding speaker if they are not happy with it.

Dave and I have had several conversations about his mod and the effects on the sound of the speaker. I will let him disclose the details of his mod if he feels so inclined.

Again, its just my opinion and I have stated it. I'll post another review after I have a chance to hear his newer mod just for information. Besides that, I'll give it a rest

I edited in an extra piece of info on the last post regarding sound processing. If you are using a powerful amplifier on these, then definitely look into after market crossovers. A nice home theater receiver sound processor might just fix the issue you're hearing which is most likely an acoustic correction.

Bottom line is that the Venturi line are nice speakers and worth tinkering with regardless. The low price gives people the freedom to tinker without fear. If it sounds good to you, go with it.

I guess I should at least provide the listening conditions under which my reviews have been conducted. I listen to them in my 14'x12' bedroom powered by first a denon dra-375 (60 w/ch), and next by a denon dra-635r (80 w/ch, but I would say this one is very conservatively rated). They are both stereo receivers. Neither of these have any automated sound processing, just knobs for bass level, treble level, and dynamic volume.



I agree completely. I have a lot of fun listening to new speakers and seeing what I can do to get a great sounding speaker without spending much money. These are perfect for that. They are very clear and dynamic speakers that may have had a few corners cut to reduce the price, so trying to find where those corners are and fixing them is part of he fun.

If you have nice soft furniture, that size room shouldn't contribute to bright sound. Considering you're not running any processing, then yes, it's worth tinkering with the crossovers. Purist listeners often need just the right speaker to be happy with the sound. For a 14'x12' room, bookshelf models should work great for you.

Make sure you get those up off the ground. And try two different mounting heights. Try mounting the woofers at ear level and also try mounting the tweeters at ear level. I've had speakers in the past that had improved sound with raising it up higher where the woofer was at ear level instead of the tweeter.

Also, try different distances from the wall to try and effect any standing waves to your taste.

Also try setting the speakers at different distances apart and toed in to improve imaging. Stereo speakers require ideal positioning for best results.

Once you find the right place to mount the speakers, THEN start tweaking the crossover. It's important to find the right mounting position so that you have the best dispersion/imaging figured out before you start messing with that crossover.

I agree with what you are saying when you have a room dedicated to listening, or a dedicated home theater where the main use of the room is related to your sound equipment. Where in a bedroom or living room, the main use of the room is for other things, and you are somewhat limited to where you can place your speakers. I think I have found the best place for them in my bedroom that I can. One speaker is in one corner on a tall dresser and the other is on top of my desk in the corner, which is quite high as well. Both are close to the side wall and slightly toed in. They both have about 2ft behind them. When I in that room, i am typically cleaning the room or getting ready for the day, etc. and moving around, so my goal is to fill the entire room as much as possible, not focus the sound to a single listening point.

In rooms like these, i think you need to find the best locations you can (even if they arent optimal) and then modify them from that point. You may not be able to adjust them a few inches here and there depending on the room layout.

That's a tough situation. I understand your goals much better now. Still try toeing in the speakers enough so that the sound can cover as many areas as possible. Sound processing wouldn't hurt this effort as standing waves may become an issue. Pioneer's MCACC does a good job for me on standing waves on the front speakers which are close to the wall. I know you're doing the best you can given the circumstances but when you can't control the acoustics, it comes down to compensating for them through signal processing for the best results.

Since this is just my bedroom setup, I'm not looking to spend the $ on a receiver with digital processing. I love my 635r and probably wont be replacing it anytime soon. I use that setup to play around and try different speakers. I am plenty happy with my DV62si's the way they are now with that receiver. I am just interested in what Dave's new mod would sound like. If I dont like it, I can always send them back

I do have a Denon 1911 in my living room and the Audyssey is awesome for the room correction. So i agree that the processing is a great feature to use. I'm just not interested in spending the $ for this setup.

This has been an interesting discussion. Thanks Tim. Getting back on topic, thanks for posting the link above, it was a really interesting read. Who knows, the CLR-S has 2 woofers compared to the 1 in the si's. Maybe the treble is less pronouced on the CLR-S because the extra woofer accentuates the lower end?

I was thinking about trying 2 CLR-S's in a stereo setup. It would be interesting to compare them to the si's..... if anyone has compared them, please chime in.

I know it's hard to believe but just because other efforts to improve BIC speakers have not worked out so well (I have heard a so-so attempt by some other guy) does not mean all other attempts will yield little to no gain. I guaranty you would change your opinion if you heard the mod.


I agree that if you "tinker" with the values you can make the speaker sound worse but I have found that with the DV62si there is room for serious improvement. I have two thoughts on the possible reasons why the factory made it this way. One is BIC intended the DV62si to be a home theater speaker and not for music so they made it put emphasis on the highs. The bass and mids on the stock version are not that good. If you are using a center speaker then you don't need as much soundstage from the left/right. Two, they might have decided to purposely cripple it so it would not compete with their more expensive offerings.

I would think that even with sound processing, if you begin with an already better sounding speaker you'll get an even better result.

I was able to pick up a couple of additional DV62clrs and will be using them as left and right speakers. Does anyone have a recommendation for how high of speaker stands I should put them on?

24-inche stands will bring the tweeters up to ear height for seated listeners (for most people) when these are vertically standing. When mounted vertically on stands they are on par with tower speakers (these are some pretty large center channel speakers).

I'm still waiting for my new center, but these sound real nice so far with stereo music.