Let me add my STRONG opinion that the Venturis NEED Ed Frias' mods desperately to achieve their potential. I bought a pair of stock DV62CLR-S speakers so I'd have the choice to use one as a center or both as mains/monitors/whatever, and out of the box I did not like them. They sounded like cheap speakers; messy, undetailed, harsh, sibilant, sloppy and a little distorted. I got Ed to mod my crossovers and WOW!!! Suddenly I have a really nice set of speakers that I feel are worth a lot more than I paid for them. They still don't have the quality sound that my B&W DM602 S2s have, but then those were almost $600 new. And in some ways I actually prefer the sound of the BICs to them, especially at lower volumes (the B&Ws will handle a lot more power than the BICs). I find my BICs now to be just slightly brighter than I'd like and a touch (and I do mean a touch) cold and hard sounding compared to the warmer sound of the B&Ws, but they're nicely balanced, detailed, and very pleasant to listen to. A tweak of the treble knob or some light EQ to smooth the highs and they sound like a MUCH more expensive set of speakers. I'm really pleased with them. Vocals sound especially clean on them. In fact I'm currently using them as studio monitors paired with my Cadence XSub, which should give you an indication of how much I trust their sound and accuracy that I'm willing to mix on them. (BTW the bottom is very impressive for a speaker this size. I'm just using the sub because I need a solid, full range sound for mixing.)
Here's a little insight. I asked Ed why he put his valuable time and skills into modifying a cheap speaker, and here's what he said:
Over the years I've literally had hundreds of customer that heard about my speakers and contacted me wondering if I had any cheaper speakers that sounded good that they could afford. When they stated they could only afford $200 to $250 max, it didn't leave much room to play with unless I could find some lower priced speakers that had decent drivers. I bought and tried a number of different brand speakers until I heard the BIC's. At first the stock factory speakers sounded pretty decent, I began to stock and sell them just as is out of the box, prices ranged from $125 to $200pr.
Then in the late 1990's BIC began to have the speakers made in China and the first pair I opened up and tried were terrible in my opinion. I called them and asked why they had changed the crossovers from what originally sounded pretty good, but now the new ones were bright and tinny? Jeff White (then tech manager) told me people loved the new sound for home theater, but I said for music they were not natural sounding at all! He said they were selling more than ever before and more people were interested in HT speakers than for music. So began my modifications and a new speaker that even audiophiles would like!
Ed went on to say he still does the mods because even though he makes very little money on them, it helps those of us without the budget to afford his custom line to have a really nice sounding set of speakers for a great price. I'm a huge fan, and will definitely be buying his EFE speakers as soon as I can. But for now, I highly recommend the BICs with his mods, either the cheap mod or better yet his extensively modified versions which you can buy directly from him.
Hope this helps.
