BIC Acoustech Owners Thread - Page 11

Doesn't come w/ the sub. Yes, just a regular RCA cable will do. And lilmike is correct, depending on the size of your room the 88s and 85 may or may not be overkill w/ the H100.

Edit: Page 7!

cant wait to get my other speakers. I got my H-100 yesterday and that thing rocks

Well I suppose it all matters what you are comparing them to. I was trying to upgrade from some older Klipsch KSB2.1 bookshelves to the HT-88, and for clarity the HT-88 was just a downgrade to my ears. I tried to love them for about a month, but everytime I A/B'ed them with the KSB2.1s, I honestly felt like there was no comparison. The HT-88 sounds great compared to a lot of other speakers I am sure.

For the record, if you can find some KSB2.1's for cheap on eBay.. paired w/ an H-100, you have an awesome system.

Wow. I just called Acoustic sound design and they are out of the HT-75's. He said he would give me the HT-88's for the same price! I also got the HT-85 and the sub at a good price. And only $49 shipping for everything. I held off on the surrounds for now, until I figure out where to put them.

This worked out good because my living room is bigger. The 8" drive should be better.

You have GOT to be kidding me. I just freaking bought the whole 5.1 setup with the 75s. I hate you.

Although...the 88s would've been overkill for my room, and there's NO way I'd have room for that beast the HT-85 center. Holy hell that thing is huge...who has room for that?

I have the h-75 for my fronts.I'm not thrilled .wish I bought the 88's..the 75's would be great for rears.. and I also have the h-100..it's just good enough to make you want more.. not bad but wish I spent another $100 on the sub.

that ain't right.. great find..I paid the full price for my 75's and I wish I bought the 88's

Isnt fri the 13th supposed to be a bad luck day? lol. wow congrats. At that price they are untouchable in value.

I figured the 75's might have been a bit of a letdown, which is why I'm glad lilmike posted his review and that I went with the 88's and 85. There were other AVSforum archive reviews stating the same thing about the lack of mids. What dont you like about them? See if you can exchange them. It can't hurt to try.

I also figured the H100 would be great, but not amazing, which is why I went with the eD A2-300 for $315. Its not much more than what the H100 is going for, but it takes 2-6 weeks for them to build and ship the sub. Mine finally just shipped today after a month wait.

Other than 10+ year old Onkyo Towers which are the only other towers I've heard in the house, a Sony SSF-7000, and a poorly set up magnolia speaker room at Best Buy that I gave up trying to make fair comparisons with, not many. They killed anything under a grand from Best Buy. As far as bass goes, I've been waiting a month for my sub to arrive, and haven't gone crazy. It does a really nice job.

I would have to hear the RF-82's in home after 2 weeks to really give a fair comparison, but the HT-88's are the best towers I've heard so far that are under $500. If you get that same deal jordan just did, there is nothing that can touch that price.

The authorized sellers of the Bics (Acoustic Sound Design and Sound Distributors), are also authorized sellers of Klipsch. Technically, if you didnt like the Bics, you could probably exchange them.

I would like to hear eD's 6T6 towers, infinity beta 50's, and Polk Monitors, but just dont have the cash to do so, nor do I feel the need to

I just set-up my new Acoustech speakers (2 HT-88's, HT-85, 2 HT-75's, and H-100), however I seem to be having a LOT of trouble with the sub. It just doesn't have that THUMP that I'd expect from a decently sized subwoofer. What I really want is that window-rattling, floor shaking bass during explosions, etc. I honestly think I'm getting more bass from the HT-88's than the sub?!? I've upgraded from a Bose Acoustimass 5.1 setup so I'd expect the sub to be WAY more powerful. The comparison track I'm using is via PS3 Blu-Ray from Casino Royale using the uncompressed track and the scene at the end where the building is disintegrating.

I have an Onkyo 805 receiver and I used Audyssey to set-up the speakers and then manually moved the crossovers down to 80Mhz for the fronts and surrounds since I'd prefer to have the sub handle those. Based on reading the first thread post LilMike said it took about 5 hours for his sub to 'break-in' to a nice deep level. However, mine is so low right now that I don't think that after 5 hours it'll really increase enough to get to where I want to be in my 21' x 14' room.

I currently have the subs phase set to 0, which seems to produce the most bass in my room, the volume is turned up all way, and I have it switched to digital which based on the instruction manual disables the frequency setting on the sub itself and its then controlled by the receiver. Have other people had the same problems?

Any help or information would be greatly appreciated.

See what audyssey set the sub level to in the receiver, it's got a habbit of sitting it way to low especially when you have the subs gain to high when running audyssey.

Drop the sub volume/gain knob to halfway and re-run audyssey. Then, adjust the subwoofer setting inside the Onkyo after audyssey runs. It probably has it at some crazy number like -12 db. Increase it to gain the bass back.

I tried the volume gain at 0 and Audyssey couldn't even detect the sub at that level. I then finally got Audyssey to recognize the sub when the gain was turned up to halfway.

My levels as determined by Audyssey are listed below:
Front Left: -12
Front Right: -12
Center: -12
Surr Right: -11.5
Surr Left: -11
Subwoofer: +0.5

Even bumping up the sub to the max of +12 doesn't seem to help. I'm really clueless at this point on what the problem could be.

Try a different cable? Seems odd, especially because the receiver already has it +.5

Yeah, this is my next thought as well. I just purchased this 35 ft. cable from Monoprice so I can't say that I've tested this in any other set-up previously.

However, am I correct in assuming that this sub will have some serious window rattling THUMP if I want it?

and you have all the speakers set to small...right??..

What material are you testing with, music? What is your LPF of LFE set to?

If your HT-88's are set to full band, then you need to turn Double Bass on, or else the sub wont get any bass. Thats why the HT-88's have all the bass right now. Or, you could set your speakers to small and a crossover of 60-80. I think that is what the problem is.

I've tested with the uncompressed track of Casino Royale on BD and Live at Radio City Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds on BD using the Dolby TrueHD track, and Live Free, Die Hard on BD using the DTS HD Master Audio track.

I don't believe there is a setting for the 'size' of the speakers in the Onkyo settings, at least not that I can find. Also, yes Audyssey set the speakers to full band with double bass ON. I've tried moving the HT-88's from Full Band to 80 as well, but that hasn't helped. The LPF of LFE is set to 80 Hz as well. The chick is on the way to Best Buy to get another cable so I can test that.

This all seems really confusing. I am pretty new to speakers and want to make sure everything is working properly when I get them. What is Audyssey? Is that a speaker calibration system that comes with Onkyo receivers? I bought a refurbished Onkyo, will I still get the mic and everything?

And on the subwoofer cable, will a coaxial audio cable work? This is how I have my DirecTV DVR hooked up right now to my receiver so I can get digital sound. Once I get my new receiver I will just go HDMI though. Will this cable work for the Sub to the receiver?

I just called and ordered the HT-75's and was upgraded to the HT-88's for the same price for as the HT-75's. Good deal all around!

For those not knowing where to place the monster HT-85 center speaker, you can do what I did.

Needs: 2 L bracket type shelf pieces (home depot should carry them, they literally look like an L), drywall anchor screws, (screws+drywall anchors in one), and a drill.

The anchor screws are needed since you will most likely not find a stud while centering the speaker behind the tv. They will hold up to 50lbs, plenty to hold the speaker.

I added a piece of wood for stability, and bent the ends of the shelf pieces up. You cant even see it from the seating position. Works great.

Just to bump this a little...I ended up getting another cable and testing that with the sub, but it didn't have any affect. Once I get home from work tonight my next test is to verify whether its the sub placement, although it's about a foot from where I had my previous sub so I don't think this is the issue. After trying this, I'm going to hook-up the sub to my old Sony receiver to see if there could be a possible problem with my Onkyo 805. Assuming I have the same problem there's gotta be a problem with the sub at that point.

Anyone have any other thoughts on what I could be missing? I can't think of any other reasons why I should be getting very little output from the sub, especially when I'm cranking it up all the way on the sub and to +12db on the receiver. At that level, my windows should be getting blown out!

Thanks. I was wondering if I was the only one!

there is a switch on the sub that says dolby pro logic and something else...switch it. chances are you have it in the wrong place. When its switched the wrong way the sub doesnt work. Also I will assume your sub is placed to on and not auto or off.(auto should work but lets eliminate some variables) rerun audyssey.crossover on sub all the way up and volume 1/4 of the way.

My HT100 set on 70% of power and +6db on Onkyo 605. The bass actually is quite similar to Klipsch Sub-10, however it is more smooth and wide.

I've had the switch on digital the whole time. Based on the manual, when its switched to digital the difference is that the crossover frequency is handled by the receiver so the dial on the sub has no impact, while when its in Pro Logic the crossover frequency is handled by the sub's dial.

I've tried running Audyssey a few times and I can't even get Audyssey to detect the sub unless I crank the gain on the sub at least halfway.

Also, I tried moving the sub last night and using my old Sony receiver. Same issues. I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to diagnosing speaker problems, but from a layman's knowledge level I'd think there has to be something wrong with the sub's amp. It seems like its only operating at about 10% or so of the power it should be.

I watch a very LFE heavy scene last night from Casino Royale with the grill off and the woofer was barely moving during the entire scene with the gains on the sub and receiver cranked up all the way. I also tried turning the sub off to do a comparison of the bass using only the main speakers and they gave off considerably more bass than the sub when its on.

I placed a call to BIC last night and left a voicemail so I'm just waiting to hear back from them. The lady of the house contacted our dealer, SoundDistributor's, and they were not at all helpful. They basically insisted it was the receiver set-up, without ever really hearing the things we had tried to rectify the problem, and then just said to call the manufacturer if you think its the sub. I wouldn't normally have a problem with this, but when your repairs and returns policy says they'll handle the problem and they don't want any involvement that really ticks me off.