• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

Bic RTR EV15

Schnick

Schnick

New Member
Does anyone have a pair of these? I just bought a pair and I'm just blown away by them!:banana: Crystal clear highs and base that you can feel. Now I've never had anything but hand me down speakers and yard sale speakers, I cannot believe what I'm hearing in songs that I've listened to all my life like songs from Pink Floyd's dark side of the moon, or playing In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins.

I found this forum a month ago and decided I needed to start spending some money on my equipment. I don't have a the budget for high end equipment but I wanted good quality sound in my 4000 sq foot work shop.

I joined this forum with a Sherwood 4109 driving a pair of Jenson 3150's and ended up with a NAD T163 tuner, and a NAD 2200 amp (kijiji find, both for $200) driving the BIC EV15's and a pair of BIC RTR 1530's. I wish I had just bought two pairs of the EV15's, they blow the 1530's away!

I'm not sure how what I have compares to some of the big dollar setups some guys have but I'm hooked for sure! This is an addiction!
 
Register to hide this ad
Ha! I just looked up the EV15. The EV stands for eviction series. It has a red 15in woofer and big ass horn tweeter. I'm sure it works great in your shop.
 
Schnick said:
Does anyone have a pair of these? I just bought a pair and I'm just blown away by them!:banana: Crystal clear highs and base that you can feel. Now I've never had anything but hand me down speakers and yard sale speakers, I cannot believe what I'm hearing in songs that I've listened to all my life like songs from Pink Floyd's dark side of the moon, or playing In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins.

I found this forum a month ago and decided I needed to start spending some money on my equipment. I don't have a the budget for high end equipment but I wanted good quality sound in my 4000 sq foot work shop.

I joined this forum with a Sherwood 4109 driving a pair of Jenson 3150's and ended up with a NAD T163 tuner, and a NAD 2200 amp (kijiji find, both for $200) driving the BIC EV15's and a pair of BIC RTR 1530's. I wish I had just bought two pairs of the EV15's, they blow the 1530's away!

I'm not sure how what I have compares to some of the big dollar setups some guys have but I'm hooked for sure! This is an addiction!
Click to expand...

Good call on ditching the Sherwood, I had a 4109 that I recued my grandmother from and it was probably the worth amp I've ever heard.
 
Those are some big boy BIC's at 72lb each. That is a nice amp to drive them too. BIC's are usually decent for the price. Many older models available used too.
 
I do not have a pair of them but I do want to buy a pair one of these days and from what I have read they have great specs and do not cost an arm and a leg.
 
here are specs for your bic ev15s

Power handling: 225 watts RMS, 430 watts pea
frequency response: 24 Hz-20 kHz (+/-3 dB)
sensitivity: 95 dB @ 2.83V 1W/1m
impedance: 8 ohms
dimensions: 43" H x 17-1/2" W x 12-1/2" D
biampable
 
I'm very impressed with the both the EV15's and the 1530's but the 1530's protection circuit kicks in now with the NAD amp when I turn it up, the Sherwood actually sounded pretty good with them but I couldn't turn it up or it would overheat, it's rated to run two pairs of speakers at 16 ohms or one pair at 8 ohms.
I think I got a pretty good bang for my buck, I paid $210 a piece on Amazon (sold by Parts Express) and they shipped them for $10 for the pair! I couldn't get them direct from Parts Express shipped for that price, possibly an error but they honored the sale.
I noticed the spec's are very similar to Cerwin Vega's SL-15, but I don't have the budget for them, which is why I went with the BIC's
 
Last edited:
faber12 said:
Those are some big boy BIC's at 72lb each. That is a nice amp to drive them too. BIC's are usually decent for the price. Many older models available used too.
Click to expand...
You're right they're big! Good thing I have a scissor lift in my shop, I've got them mounted 11' up on the wall (can't have them any lower or they'd be in the way and get damaged) and I wouldn't want to carry them up a ladder!

I'm a little disappointed that the amp only has two terminals for connecting speakers, I'm using 12 ga wire and didn't like having to twist the wires together to get them under the binding posts, I wonder could use banana plugs and stack them?
 
Fun while it lasted

I own a pair of the Eviction 15's as well. Mine were bought used in like new condition. For months they were hooked up to my vintage Sansui G-7700. The sound was clear and concise with detailed highs and mids. The bass was somewhat disappointing for 15" woofers, which at first reminded me of my first automobile sound system: amp, speakers, subwoofer with box, and head unit all for something like $176 from an advertisement in the Pennysaver.
Anyway, the BIC speakers sounded great minus my bass heavy admiration. Then one day one of the speakers woofers failed to produce sound. I called BIC. I emailed BIC….no response. I contacted them a week later…no response. Again. Finally I received a email stating to fill out a warranty form and a copy of proof of purchase. Since I bought them used without a receipt they said I was basically SOL.
Now I have a giant black door stop. And one giant working speaker.
So I removed the woofer to peek around hoping to find the problem. Nothing out of the ordinary. I opened up the working speaker. It was different inside. The crossover was glued on vertically but the other non-working speaker had its crossover glued on hortizontally. Closer inspection I noticed the copper coil was loose.
Why are the speakers assembled differently?
Im awaiting BIC's email response.
 
@Schnick , you still liking the Bic RtR-EV15 speakers? They're at the top of my list of considerations so far, along with 4 of the 8" RtR-830's. Fluance is another of many choices I have going.

My idea is to get a Yamaha 100 x 2 stereo integrated amp and Yamaha 100/120 x 5.1 receiver. Two 830 front mains and two 830 rears coming straight from receiver, plus center and sub. DVD player and other surround sources connected to receiver. Then have CD player, turntable, etc music sources connected to stereo integrated amp where the EV15's would be ran from. And then have the receivers main out go into integrated amp (being sure to turn volume down on integrated amp). So then all speakers could be used for movies, yet have a dedicated music amp and speakers separate. Maybe also have the 2 front main low power 830's connected to the B speaker outs on integrated amp. Ugh, sorry for the perhaps confusing ramble there.

I really do enjoy reading the reviews of these Bic budget speakers. I wish I could hear them coming from a Yamaha power source.

Some questions:

Have you ever took a gander and looked inside the cabinets with the woofer out? Any pictures?

Why not have purchased some budget PA loudspeakers such as MTX for the industrial use?

Are they tolerating high volumes well?
 
Yes I love them, so much so that I bought another pair and removed the 1530's. I'm in Canada and they usually go for $450+ each, I had them saved in my Amazon.ca wish list and was looking at it one day and they were down to $285 CDN ($216US) with shipping+ taxes so I grabbed another pair, I guess they were just checking to see if I was paying attention haha. I find the price of them does fluctuate a fair bit, I just checked tonite and they're $556CDN on the Amazon.ca site and $257US on Amazon.com,and $278 on Parts Express, that's the reason I bought my first pair in the US, even with 31% exchange it dosn't justify the price difference, we get gouged for everything here.

Now instead of the 1530's cutting out when I have it turned up the NAD 2200 I have goes into the protection mode, so now I'm searching for another 2200 amp lol!

I would think the Yamaha amp's would be comparable to the NAD that I'm using, I thought NAD was budget HIFI but what do I know? YMMV

The speakers are bi ampable so I guess if you have enough equipment you could get even more out of them or fine tune to what you're looking for.

I did look at some budget loudspeakers, but they weren't as efficient as the BIC's (Sensitivity: 95 dB @ 2.83V 1W/1m) and at the time I was shopping the price was higher.

The MTX's I looked at only came in 12", and my thinking may be wrong but I've always thought there's no replacement for displacement, (my pickup has a 7.3L engine):rockon:

I have looked inside, I didn't notice anything unusual, the mid and horn is sealed, I think I remember seeing some insulation in there, the corners of the cabinet are gusseted, the only thing I didn't like was that they're put together with what looks like hot glue to me rather than something like PL2000 construction adhesive, I guess it comes down to keeping down production costs. I had one of the 1530 cabinets crack in the corner by the woofer, probably from the pounding I gave them, it might have been a cold joint too, I just pulled out the woofer spread the opening and stuck some construction adhesive in there and on the inside and clamped it overnight, it was only one speaker and after gluing it no more issues.

I can pull one down tomorrow and take a few pic's if you like, any particular detail you're interested in?
 
That would would very nice if you could take pics, Schnick. I'm kind of looking for to see rhe quality of MDF. I'm a table CNC operator at work and can judge it pretty well. I'm also curious about the crossovers and connections. Don't break your neck trying to take pics though if you do, lol. I'm glad the mids and tweets are sealed. I figured the opposite. Yeah these speakers offer so much spec wise for the price (bi ampable, high efficiency, etc). I'd also like to see the woofer build and labeling.

Not anything on the web about the innards really. Lots of happy customers but that's about it. The web would appreciate you taking pics! :)
 
Schnick said:
Sorry about the delay in posting the pic's, I got busy with work, family, fishing etc..
Click to expand...

Hey thanks so much man. I really appreciate it. I totally understand how life gets in the way, especially with kids and other hobbies and just taking care of the house. No problem!

Interesting to finally see it. Definitely looks like they're worth their $175 price tag. It looks like the front panel is over an inch thick (I could be wrong), and to boot, the woofer is recessed. Typical smaller gauge wires in this price range. At least there's minor reinforcements... Don't see that every time. Short bass ports... Hopefully they designed it that way. And they're plastic and not cardboard.

I'm wondering how that midrange works. It says on the Bic America website that the EV15 has "one sealed back 5 1/4" wide dispersion midrange." I thought "sealed back" meant it's own enclosure. I guess not. I've never seen a speaker with a sealed back until now. Can somebody explain this a little better for me?

Anyways, thanks again for the time with the pictures! Ordering some EV15's in the new year for the living room Mains and maybe as a Center (along with some RtR830's for rears and 1 or 2 RtR EV1200 subs) until I upgrade again, and then they'll probably end up in the bedroom or mancave :)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom