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BIC Turntables?

hakaplan said:
Well, the 980 was near TOTL. Actually the BIC 1000 was the TOTL. I agree, the M111HE is a great cartridge. And the lift problem was with the 13/14/1500MK2.
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Hakapan knows more about vintage TT's than anyone I know.
Mabey you know why the BIC 980 sounded so good.
 
goraman said:
Hakapan knows more about vintage TT's than anyone I know.
Mabey you know why the BIC 980 sounded so good.
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That's kind, thank you, but the only reason I knew that is because I owned one. :D Doug G. knows lots more about BICS than I do, and I'm sure he has a much better idea of why they sound so good.
 
hakaplan said:
That's kind, thank you, but the only reason I knew that is because I owned one. :D Doug G. knows lots more about BICS than I do, and I'm sure he has a much better idea of why they sound so good.
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Whats odd is how some of the better sounding old Thorns looked well... not so steller but very musical.Much like the BIC.
 
Hi all,
At present i own a pioneer PL 516X and have been told on this forum it's not a bad turntable, however i am able to pick up a fully serviced BIC 960. How deos the bic compare to the pioneer? I have no idea on the performance of turntables as i have only been playing CD's for the last 20 years. i have been looking on ebay for a table but i dont really know what i am looking at LOL.

(Based in Australia) so have less to choose from, such is life.

Regards:
Handtsteel
 
Always defending BIC, just a reminder that they were the first to produce belt drive changers...although they actually marketed them as 'multiple play manual turntables" or something like that. I had a 980 years ago that replaced two gawd awful garrards that never did work and it was great. When I ran across a 1000 a few months ago, I pounced on it. It's a very cool TT, with a seperate motor for the arm movement, and cool electronic cueing. I used pretty high compliance carts on them with no problem, so the arm seems more than good enough. While they were not super high end TTs...they were FAR better than anything Garrard or Miracord or BSR etc was making at the time and IMO at least on par with the Duals of the era.
 
handysteel said:
Hi all,
At present i own a pioneer PL 516X and have been told on this forum it's not a bad turntable, however i am able to pick up a fully serviced BIC 960. How deos the bic compare to the pioneer? I have no idea on the performance of turntables as i have only been playing CD's for the last 20 years. i have been looking on ebay for a table but i dont really know what i am looking at LOL.

(Based in Australia) so have less to choose from, such is life.

Regards:
Handtsteel
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The old Bic 960 is a plesant suprise,a solid table with good geomitry.If you close your eyes and don't look at it youd sware it was an expencive table playing.
 
Heres one from google.

BIC100nocover.jpg
 
Thank you for the kind words Howard.

The reason I know what I know about BICs is that I've had a 980 since 1976 and several other models since.

Some of you other guys have made some very good remarks too.

The 1000 is, in my opinion, the best one they ever made although the 980 and 960 are both practically it's equal in performance. It's just that it's cool to have separate motors for the platter and the auto mechanism and the electronic cueing.

Unfortunately, the market, shortly after the 900 series were released, demanded that turntables look like the Japanese monolith types and BIC added plastic housings to the basic mechanism and this, of course, added resonance. Not that the "Z" series or the "VIA" series are bad, it's just that they aren't as quiet, in my opinion, as the 900s.

The key to a musical turntable is its ability to revolve the record at a constant speed and not add any noises of its own, including resonance. The engineers that designed the BICs accomplished this.

Doug
 
hakaplan said:
Well, the 980 was near TOTL. Actually the BIC 1000 was the TOTL. I agree, the M111HE is a great cartridge. And the lift problem was with the 13/14/1500MK2.
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Thanks hakaplan for the info. I did not realize there was a BIC 1000. I did not come across many retailers that sold BIC turntables.The second pair of speakers I owned were BIC. I can't remember the model number, but I remember they were 3-way, and had a separate (buss type) fuse for each driver. They clipped into the back by the wire spring clips. I want to say model 44 , but that may not be right. I sold them to a guy who hooked them up to a 300 watt amp. He blew all the fuses, then wrapped tin foil around them. He melted the voice coils or something. The cones would not move in and out. He then had the nerve to ask for his money back. I looked at the foil and said "yeah right":no:
 
BumpyJohnson said:
So, what would be a good cart for this bad boy? I have a budget of about $100.
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My 980 came with Shure M91ED which I highly recommend. I'm now playing an Ortofon I picked up and upgraded stylus to F/FF elyptical. I like it even better than the Shure.

I'd think any Shure or Ortofon would sound very nice on your 1000.
 
looking closer mine was a 960 belt drive.
I have better gear now but still you miss an old freind you have spent 1000's of hours listening to.
 
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