I wanted to give my initial impressions on my modified BIC Venturi Speakers. I'm using DV64 towers as my mains, DV62CLRS center, DV62si bookshelves for surrounds and an SVS PB10 all running through a pioneer 1015. I love multi channel music, so I decided that I better have all of them modified. The crossovers were sent to Ed last Thurs., and I received them Weds. morning. Ed was very prompt to respond to my questions thorough emails and even answered the phone when I called him for another round of questions. He notified me when he received the crossovers, and when he shipped them back to me.
I've owned the BIC center and bookshelves for a little over 2 years now, so I've really had an opportunity to listen to them with a lot of sources and in different locations. You can say that I'm pretty familiar with the way they sound. The DV64's were purchased several months ago, but have the same tweeter and drivers as the other speakers. They all match very well together.
The BIC's sounded good before I modified them. If I mostly watched movies and TV, I may not have modified them because I was happy with the way they sounded. Listening to music with these speakers was not satisfactory for me. They are bright, but more than that, they were sloppy. What I mean by sloppy was it seemed like the mids and the highs were tripping over each other. The sound was very harsh, and basically gave the textbook definition of listening fatigue.
When I received the modified crossovers in the mail, I immediately put the speakers back together and listened to them for about 8 hours on thurs. and probably another 6 hours or so on Thurs. I went through just about every song that I thought would test the speaker’s abilities. Right away I noticed a huge difference with 2 channel music. I turned the sub off and set the DV64's to large. I also listened in direct mode which defeats any eq or distance settings. My sloppy bright towers have become a pleasure to listen to. I can't believe I only have a little over $300 into these speakers. They are much warmer and detailed. The mids are no longer trying to compete with the highs. I never complained about the bass before, but now it just sounds better, more controlled. Everything is much more balanced, and I experience none of the listening fatigue that I experienced before. I used to have to run the towers with the sub, and eq to get any enjoyment out of 2 channel music. I'm very happy with the way they sound now.
Honestly, the difference to me is huge. I should have done this much sooner. A good friend that has listened to my setup many, many times was over last night and I had some music playing. He asked "are these your new speakers, they sound great"?
I laughed and told him they were the same ones. He couldn't believe it.
I've read so many reviews that say the same thing I'm saying right now, that I became skeptical. I only read one review that stated that they preferred the unmodified BIC's to the modified ones. The reviewer stated that the mods took away the airy sound and it didn't image as well. I know everyone is entitled to their opinions, but I can't disagree more. I listened to Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots in the hi-res dvd-a 2 channel mode, and the imaging was phenomenal. It sounded like the flaming Lips were right there in my living room (I'm sorry, but I don't know a better way to say that without sounding cliché). Also, I never had a problem with the 5.1 mixes before, but now they sound even better.
I haven't found one negative aspect after the XO mods. The speaker can start to get compressed at very high listening levels, and I mean very high listening levels. I would never listen to anything that loud for any extended period of time anyways. This could also be a result of amplification, and not so much the speakers. Also, the speakers are not the prettiest. They are big black boxes.
I believe these BIC's are a true giant killer, especially with the mods. I can now understand why some people go so far to say that they were unlistenable out of the box. Compared to how much better they sound with the mods, I can kind of agree with them now.
As far as movies go, I haven't really spent much time watching movies. I watched half of Master and commander last night as well as some weird psychological thriller movie my wife brought home called the Machinist, and they sounded great. I would expect that the modified speakers will excel at movies as well.
One thing to note, these speakers are bright out of the box, but that doesn't mean that the mods take away the high end. The high end is still dynamic and, well, bright if the source calls for it. Everything is just more balanced. The highs are there, and the mids are much better, more pronounced. Everything just sounds more natural, and the whole listening experience has become much more enjoyable.
If you are in the Bay Area, and are considering these speakers or modifying your BIC's, feel free to contact me. If anyone has any of Ed's speakers (the EFE DIY's or the T series), I would love to check those out. I now know what he can do with lesser quality components, so I'd love to see/hear what he does with some quality components.
