BIC Acoustech Owners Thread - Page 131

Keep in mind that the BIC and BIC Acoustech and also Hsu Research speakers with horn loaded tweeters are a 1" aluminum dome tweeter set back in a horn. Whereas Klipsch uses a compression driver. Some ppl find Klipsch to be too bright or harsh, but the horn loaded dome tweeter is a nice inbetween sound between a conventional dome and a horn loaded compression driver. I personally like the Acoustech's sound better than the Klipsch sound.

The amp handled the speakers just fine and drove the speakers no problem. A good receiver can drive the speakers well also, but I've always felt a good amp gives it that extra oomph that a receiver just can't do alone. Anyway, I use a Yamaha RXV663 as a preamp. I don't use the BIC's anymore as they were just too big for my little room, but for a 3000 cubic ft room or bigger, they would be perfect.

oh no! i just want to save money on the surrounds department. getting it all klipsch will break the bank.

follow up question. how much of a difference regarding the tweeters with BIC America compared to klipsch? how about BIC America compared to polk audio RTiA9's as fronts? if you were to choose, what fronts would you rather go? klipsch fronts or Polk RTi fronts to be paired with BIC america surrounds?

thanks for the clarification on those tweeters. thanks for your time too.

im loving my polk SDA2a but im planning them to be purely music listening 2.1 setup.

Starkiller--1138,

your starwars dolls are so beautiful. got me drooling. we just bought an antique china cabinet yesterday, and i thought i'm gonna get that from my wife's dining room and put it on my HT/den room and put some star wars dolls too and batman, starcraft, etc......

H

I'm not telling you you can't mix the BIC speakers with Klipsch speakers. Although I'm not sure why you would want to. I have heard the RF-82 speakers from Klipsch and honestly I enjoy the Acoustech PL-89s more than the Klipsch. If you live near someone with an Acoustech setup you should ask to have a listen. Klipsch is a very good speaker and they do sound good but I think the Acoustechs sound as good or better and they are much cheaper speakers.

I would definitely go with a horn tweeter all around tho if you are considering horns as any of your speakers.

Thank you. I'm very happy with my Sideshow stuff, and feel fortunate to have aquired the collection I have. Still not done though as I have stuff boxed up still, and I'm trying to decide where to put it all.

Congrats on your cabinet. If you can, post or PM some pics of it. Always love seeing others collections.

Ok a few questions. Looking at the pl-66 surrounds and there odd shape, would you consider them bipole or what? Also how do you have them set up for as your sides. As the horn fires forward and then you have the woofer behind it. for example if you have it at 90 degrees or right to your right or left , next to you per say, would you have the speaker behind you a tad so you have the horn firing at you or having the woofer parallel and next to you? Also for those who bought the pl-89 system did you look at anything else and what brought you to the bic set up? I hate the fact I cant hear them. I wonder how them compare to the rf -82 from klipsch, I have heard its pretty close. Also how is the pl-28 center. do any of you not like it? I have heard alot of down the middle of the road reviews, but nobody seems to point out any negatives and there are negatives for all speakers so let me know please. Also how high should you put the speakers , the surrounds i mean, i know you can have them at least 2 feet above you but what about higher? And for a 7.1 For me it would be like 2 feet or so behind me for the sides and them like 10 to 12 feet if not a tad more for the rears as that is where the wall is, would that be a problem? Also how do you mount them, is you wanted to angle them at all, and not just using the to screw brackets they give you that are built in to it. Thanks in advance for the help everyone

First, in the future please avoid the wall of text.

The PL-66's are bi-poles. The manufacturer recommends that they be placed like most standard surround speakers with being 2 feet above listening position and 30 degrees behind you. This will give you more of an effects style surround experience. The tweeters should face out towards the listening position. This will have the active woofer facing each other behind you.

For Me, I like to have the speakers be closer to my listening position and be placed wit the woofer facing the front speakers and have the tweeters facing the main listening position. I also have them set at ear height as well. I prefer to do it this way because more and more movies are using the surround speakers more directionally than they used to. At first surround speakers were just for effect and music. You would hear the random gun shot or so behind you and that was about it. In most newer movies however they handle a lot more sound. There are some movies where entire conversations are held in the movie with one person being "Behind you" and speaking only from the surround speakers. Not to mention a lot more gun shots, explosions and in a scary movie, eerie sounds.

Well these are basically the two main schools of thoughts. Most people will raise the speakers, put them on the wall and use them as per dolby's standards and other will place them at ear height and use them as directional speakers like my self. In the end it all on preference. I would suggest trying both and see what you like most.

How would everybody describe the musicality of these speakers? I am about to pull the trigger today but want to see how people think they sound with regards to music. I am getting1 pl-28 and 2 pairs of pl-89 for the front and surround. Yes I like towers as a surround.

I love music as wel as movies, so I will be listening to music on them as well. I also like classical music along with rock and metal, so the speakers would get a work out. I can only imagine how the horns will Handel mozart. So what do you all think, for those of you who have the pl-89s, How do they wound on music. Also for now I will not be using a sub at all. Not a for a while anyways.

I look forward to the replys.!

^^ I would say you definitely want a sub. I can't imagine listening to music without a good sub to drive the bass. I now have 2 PL-200's and absolutely love the sound. I have a 7.2 set up and recently cranked up a few tunes and the sound is great: clear and nice. I think you'd be pleased ONLY if you get a sub.

So I know you have the bic for subs what do you have for the 7 of your 7.2, or what do you use for your 7 speakers I should say?

I have 4 of the PL-66's. The rear surrounds are wall mounted just above head-height about 3' behind the theater seats and the side-surrounds on on stands listening height but turned/angled so the are 'pointed' at the main seating position and are @3' from the main/center seat (so QUITE close to the side seats).

I like the center (I forget what model I have - but it's their 'biggest' one) though out of the 7.1 Aperion speakers this set up replaced the Aperion center was better. That doesn't mean the BIC one isn't good - it is.

ps - no screws came w/the PL-66's or any outline to help you mount them. Since these replaced dipole/bipole speakers from Aperion that the Aperion's came w/an outline to use on the wall I simply measured the distance between the holes on the BIC compared to the APerion's and used that to drill new holes.

In an earlier post in this thread I know I've listed what I have. I know it's 2 x PL-200's, 4 x PL-66's, the fronts are the PL-89's (I think that's their number) and the center is their 'top' one.

Using the pl 76 or the pl 89 with a sub ( svs nsd/2 ) would there be a sound difference or similar? This would be a whole surround system, 5.1 or 7.1

in my experience, subs add a LOT for movies, but the difference with music is only subtle

So the pl 89 plays alittle louder than the pl 76?

Then you either have some extremely nice front speakers or you have never heard a nice sub.

I have 4 PL-66's. I like my surrounds mounted high on the wall. The reason i like them mounted high is because they are not right in your ear and you can have their levels a lil louder to provide a good surround stage and not take away from the front sound stage. In the house I am moving into in about 2 weeks, I'll have the top of the surround speakers only about 2" - 4" below the ceiling which is 8' high. I'll have my side surrounds mounted about 110 degrees and have the tweeters firing diagonally forward and the rear surrounds the tweeters will be firing diagonally into the center of the room (not towards the side walls).

How does it sound compare to your Polk? Which Polk did you have?

Cowboys,
I had the tsi-100 for front left and right. After having these for 3 weeks or so, gotta tell ya these sound incredible. I thought maybe i will notice a small change and hopefully it will be for the better. Big difference- bigger sound, better clarity and a guy happy as a pig in sh** with his new sound. I would recommend highly. Now i know why people say they are worth at least twice as much and are "a great value" speaker. It's like a great name brand medicine and then they come out with the generic that has less side effects ans works just as well. Not that bic is a generic but you catch my meaning.
Let me know if u grab some.
Richw23

The PL-66s are NOT bipoles. The rear "speaker" is a passive radiator. Its job is the same as a port, which is tuning the box. In a bipolar speaker the rear speaker is in phase with the front speaker. In a dipole speaker the speakers are out of phase. In either case the rear speaker would be powered, which is not the case with the PL-66, as a passive radiator has no voice coil.
Edited by Augerhandle - 3/14/13 at 6:41pm

Not arguing with you, but what are the PL-66's then? They can't really be direct radiating or monopoles can they? The woofer fires straight and the horn tweeter is on like a 30 degree angle.

Good to know. Thanks.

The woofer and horn are not designed for the same frequencies, so what you have is an 'angled baffle' monopole surround speaker. Because they are more directional, the horn frequencies are more critical for correct placement, and give a sense of location, while the off-axis woofer makes the sound open and spacious. They are trying to kill two birds with one stone.
Edited by Augerhandle - 3/15/13 at 5:05pm

Take a look at a Klipsch Reference Series surround speaker, say the RS 62 for example. It has both tweeter and woofer drivers that oppose each other, although not at 180 degrees. It is a true bipole speaker.
Edited by Augerhandle - 3/15/13 at 5:09pm

I bought three FH-65Bs to try out across my front channels and so far I am dissappointed as my Polk Audio Monitor 40 Sounds much fuller and louder. I want to try some high sensitivity speakers with horn driver (96dbs for the FH-65B) but unless something is wrong, my lower rate sensitivity Polk Audio Monitor 40's just sound so much louder at the same volume. The FH-65Bs sound very 'thin' (hard to describe). I give the FH-65Bs a benifit of a doubt as they are not broken in yet. Do y'all find they sound better after broken in which I am hoping for; otherwise, I am going to have to return them. I did not rerun Audessey set up with the FH-65Bs yet as i did not have time. My Polk Monitor 40's were Audessey calibrated with my Denon receiver, all I did was just swap the Polk out for the FH-65Bs. When I have more time, I will rerun Audessey with the FH-65Bs to see if they sound better (I hope). I even compared the Polk and Bic with Audessey turned off and the Polk sound much louder and fuller.

Augerhandle.... Thanks for the explanation of what kind of speaker the PL-66 is. I understand what you mean and I know that the Klipsch RS62II is a bipolar speaker.

You're welcome

Tvuong - the first thing i did was run my room calibration (mcacc) on my pioneer 1021. I then put in a blu ray and it sounded much better than my polk tsi-100 which are Very similar to the monitor series. Give the bics about 10-12 hours of play to break them in. Put in a cd while you're at work or something like that and put it on repeat. On top of the break in period, run the calibration so youre system knows the difference between the speakers and it optimizes them for you. Years ago this could have taken months to do over many listening sessions or movies, now it can get it perfect or near perfect in about 10 minutes. If it doesnt sound good to you, by all means return them. My question is: did you run the setup before or after you connected your polks originally? If you never ran the calibration in the first place the polks might have sounded thin, tinny, muddy or all of the above. If not impressed then send them back. I personally am very impressed. Good luck.
Richw23

I definitely agree with richw23. I strongly recommend you re-run your room calibration again now that you have the FH-65Bs. You'll probably notice a significant difference. I purchased the bic acoustech pl28 and I ran Audyssey twice. Once when I first got it and once after it was broken in for a few months. It sounded OK after the first calibration, but when I re-ran Audyssey after breaking it in for a few months it really opened up. The mids and bass response was definitely better. By the way, the bic replaced a Polk CS20.