Is BIC an upgrade from Bose?

[johsti]

By destroyed do you mean it doesn't work, or cosmetics?

I ordered my DV64's through amazon, and one of them showed up with the corners smashed in. What vendor did you order yours through?

I set them up anyways, and waited for my replacement speaker to arrive. Amazon sent me a new one in a couple days, and I swapped the ups guy the old one for the new one.

 

[deemic]

Hi,
Yep, I ordered mine through amazon also. The problem was cosmetic, yes.... but the corner was completely destroyed. Like a hammer was taken to it.... I have to say, I'm not thrilled with the way the cabinet more or less "crumbled". I mean its not like it splintered it literally crumbled. I hope these sound as good as I've been reading, because the cabinet build quality is definitely suspect in my opinion. It was too damaged to even stand up on its own. I did look inside the gaping opening at the bottom of the speaker cabinet where it was damaged and noticed, for what it's worth, that it can indeed use some polyfill as has been suggested earlier.
On a more positive note, the speaker overall (the good one) looks decent, the grills are well built and mount nicely into the cabinet, the woofers and radiators seem solid and the tweeter is well..... a soft dome tweeter.
Can't do much more with it until the new one arrives. And pray the replacement isn't subject to the same shipping and handling abuse.

 

[jaxvon]

Part of the reason that the speaker crumbled would be because it's made of MDF (like most speakers). MDF is esentially "cardboard on steroids". It's used in home speakers because it doesn't resonate much, but it isn't the most hearty material. Pro sound speakers usually use high-ply baltic birch plywood because it stands up to much more abuse than MDF while being less prone to resonance than normal plywood or hardwood.

 

[johsti]

Wow, that's pretty bad. That's the free super saving shipping for you.

The cabinets are made of MDF just like almost every other speaker out there. MDF will crumble and not splinter.

Try and seal up the cabinets with something (towells, tape, socks ??? I don't know).

Aren't you tempted to at least try them out?

 

[deemic]

Thats what I love about this place.... you learn something new everyday. So let me get this straight... MOST speakers are made out of that material???? O.K. I have to laugh at myself then, because the first thing I said when I saw it all crumbled like that was "cheap *** chinese piece of sh*t!!!!!!"
I really had no idea. So does that mean most mid-fi/hi-fi speakers would fall apart the same way if they were subject to something like that??

Yes, I was soooooo very tempted to try em out anyway. But I'm so damn uptight and anal about symetry and aesthetics that I know I would've just slammed em all day long about how they sound strictly because I KNOW one of them is broken... know what I mean? It'd be like trying out an amplifier with a blown left channel , you just can't really do it justice until you know you have it set up properly.

 

[jaxvon]

Waiting sucks. But yes, most speakers are made of MDF and would act the same way if rammed by a forklift. Here's an example:

The above is a speaker from AVI, a newer Hi-Fi manufacturer from the UK. Their website can be found here. The speaker pictured is the Trio, which goes for about $7500/pr here in the US. And guess what it's made of? MDF.

 

[deemic]

Part of the reason that the speaker crumbled would be because it's made of MDF (like most speakers). MDF is esentially "cardboard on steroids". It's used in home speakers because it doesn't resonate much, but it isn't the most hearty material. Pro sound speakers usually use high-ply baltic birch plywood because it stands up to much more abuse than MDF while being less prone to resonance than normal plywood or hardwood.

So.....Klipsch, Polk Audio, Infinity and the like all use MDF for their speaker cabs?

 

[jaxvon]

So.....Klipsch, Polk Audio, Infinity and the like all use MDF for their speaker cabs?

You betcha. They might use a thicker MDF than BIC, and they definitely use a nicer veneer, but its main structure is MDF.

 

[deemic]

Hmmmmmm......

So I know this is getting way off topic, but if all of these mfg's are using MDF for their cabs and maybe a few varieties of veneer such as vinyl or in some cases a real wood veneer, then there must be a very huge difference in the quality of the crossovers and the drivers themselves to account for the gigantic differences in speaker prices across the board I would think. But it really makes me wonder in a blind test if someone could tell the difference between a $1000 pair of speakers and say a $3000 dollar pair Maybe it's just me, I question everything ..... It's kind of funny.... Here I've been a speaker fanatic for years... used to read all the old stero review mags and audio mags I could get my hands on.... but I never really stopped to consider speaker construction until I had mine destroyed.... the irony just kills me. Learned more in the last week on this site than I did skimming through articles over the last 20 years. Isn't the internet just fantastic?

 

[jaxvon]

Hmmmmmm......

So I know this is getting way off topic, but if all of these mfg's are using MDF for their cabs and maybe a few varieties of veneer such as vinyl or in some cases a real wood veneer, then there must be a very huge difference in the quality of the crossovers and the drivers themselves to account for the gigantic differences in speaker prices across the board I would think. But it really makes me wonder in a blind test if someone could tell the difference between a $1000 pair of speakers and say a $3000 dollar pair Maybe it's just me, I question everything ..... It's kind of funny.... Here I've been a speaker fanatic for years... used to read all the old stero review mags and audio mags I could get my hands on.... but I never really stopped to consider speaker construction until I had mine destroyed.... the irony just kills me. Learned more in the last week on this site than I did skimming through articles over the last 20 years. Isn't the internet just fantastic?

You bring up some very important points. While MDF is used by most manufacturers, not all of them use thick MDF, nor do all of them employ bracing inside the cabinets. This is important, but it does drive up the cost of the speaker. Also, as you "thought out loud", the crossover and driver quality do go up a lot as you move up in the price range.

As far as being able to differentiate between two pairs of speakers at $1000 and $3000/pr, I know that I could do it (assuming that each presented an average value in its respective price class). I compared a $1200/pr spekaer to a $2800/pr speaker and there was absolutely no way I could confuse the two.

 

[deemic]

Let me rephrase part of my last paragraph.

I could probably tell the difference between a $1000 and $3000 set of speakers, but probably couldn't tell you which was which. Sound is such a subjective thing I don't know if I could justify even to myself, let alone someone else, why or how or in what way a set of speakers that expensive is a necessity based on the actual sound as opposed to how it fit aesthetically into my home theater except to chalk it up to personal taste.


I dont know..... I'm rambling.

 

[jaxvon]

I agree that sound is subjective, but I think you could definitely tell which one was the $3000 speaker. With my comparison (which was sighted and not level matched), the bass from the $3000 speaker was much cleaner sounding without the "one note bass" that afflicted the lesser speaker. The treble was very "crisp" and "clear" in a way that the other speaker could not match. If you're comparing speakers within a $500 window (and it's not $500vs$1000) you might have a tought time. But when you're talking about a $2000 difference wherein one speaker costs 3x what the other does, there will be a very audible difference. That said, $2000 more doesn't mean squat when you're talking about $100k/pr speakers.

 

[deemic]

$100K ????????

I couldn't imagine...... I don't think I've ever heard a set that was over maybe $5K

 

[jaxvon]

Well, these run around $120k (I think):

http://wilsonaudio.com/products/alex/index.html

These run around $300k (the Gaudi):

http://german-physiks.com/NewFiles1/Speaker.html

These run around $600k:

http://wisdomaudio.com/specs_infinite_grande.html

BTW, the Wisdom price is just for the speakers, you still need to buy amps.

 

[deemic]

Well, these run around $120k (I think):

http://wilsonaudio.com/products/alex/index.html

These run around $300k (the Gaudi):

http://german-physiks.com/NewFiles1/Speaker.html

These run around $600k:

http://wisdomaudio.com/specs_infinite_grande.html

BTW, the Wisdom price is just for the speakers, you still need to buy amps.

I've heard of those before.

Rumour has it that they are a tad bit "bright" but you can get a Ed Frias crossover modification done and it evens things out......

I couldn't resist