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Has anyone here had any experience with these BIC venturi Formula 1 speakers?

Many of the ones made in the last 20 years, are made as cheap as they could get away with. Imported drivers with no real crossover... The company (I think) also built many of the design acoustics speakers. The old school stuff may have been "frat house" but I wouldn't mind having a pair to play with........ They look cool as hell. The pair butch4695 re-did is fantastic work!!!!!1
 
Those definitely are the BIC Formula VI, as evidenced by the six drivers. It was BIC's flagship speaker in the mid-1970's. A friend in high school had a set and his parties rocked. I had a pair of Formula IV's for few couple years. They were fun, very good rock speaker, though not particularly accurate. Somewhat harsh in the upper range.
 
BIC Formula 6

Tom Brennan said:
IMO some of the BICs had better dynamics and clarity than many of the "respectable" speakers of the time like Dynacos, ARs and KLHs. I think they were OK.
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I agree. It wasn't that the BICs were so bad, as the Dynacos, AR, and KLHs, were so flat and dull. BICs are definetly a kind of west coast sound. They are very efficient speakers. Great for rock, not so good for Yo Yo Ma. Go and listen for yourself. If you like them, BUY THEM!!
 
I have a pair of the IVs that take up way too much storage space :yes:
They have volume, but otherwise uninteresting :dunno:
I would definitely trade for beer :beer:

Roger
 
Classic Kabuki party drunkspeakers, sonic garbage.
"Kabuki" in this context= efficiency obtained via shrieking midrange and whompy one-note bass. Taken from a Westerner/ Occidental's superficial impression of Kabuki/ Peking Opera music sounding like a catfight in a drumkit.
 
Ok

Pio1980 said:
Classic Kabuki party drunkspeakers, sonic garbage.
"Kabuki" in this context= efficiency obtained via shrieking midrange and whompy one-note bass. Taken from a Westerner/ Occidental's superficial impression of Kabuki/ Peking Opera music sounding like a catfight in a drumkit.[/QUOTPlease

Please let us know what you really think. You sound like a jealous JBL fan. Enjoy the L100. Too bad you couldn't afford the Pioneer HPM 100.
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trusound said:
Pio1980 said:
Classic Kabuki party drunkspeakers, sonic garbage.
"Kabuki" in this context= efficiency obtained via shrieking midrange and whompy one-note bass. Taken from a Westerner/ Occidental's superficial impression of Kabuki/ Peking Opera music sounding like a catfight in a drumkit.

Please let us know what you really think. You sound like a jealous JBL fan. Enjoy the L100. Too bad you couldn't afford the Pioneer HPM 100.
Click to expand...

:lmao::lmao::lmao:
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6

They are BIC Venturi Formula 6. There were at least 3 different styles. I have the odd ball ones with 4 drivers in them. I think it was the last style. The ones with the Bass/mid weirdness in the big driver is supposely whacked.

I've had 4s and 6s since they came out in the 70s. I just got 2 sets of 5s and a set of 2s. The dynamic controls on the 4s and 6s really didn't seem to do anything. The 5s had reset curcuit breakers that seem to go bad. I believe all the crossovers in my 4s and 6s gave it up years ago (to-do, rebuild cross overs, I think I actually melted the goo out of the caps).

I just heard a set of 4s today that are in good shape and working. Fantastic. The guy demoing them is a flipper and has handled good stuff and he was even impressed. I repaired the 5s after I got them (replaced curcuit breakers with autoreset type). They sound great.

I like "quality" volume rock. Think concert! They are pretty good at that. I would guess the cross overs are a weak point and maybe a lot of people have heard ones with bad cross overs. They are definitely party speakers. I used a Marantz 2275 near half volume and the parties are a thing of legend.

They sound best on the floor or up a little (2 inches).

I do know the Love them / Hate them split has been going on forever. It looks like it still going on.

They seem to be running in the $300 to $600 range for good ones.
 
I just auditioned the Formula 1s with a little Marantz 2226b, just FM radio. I'm definitely keeping these. They certainly aren't flat like the Imperial 6's I A/B'd them with, but maybe a better source would help.

I'll start a new thread with pic tomorrow...
 
Will look for your thread. I'm sure they're not quite world class :D But they look fun as heck. B•I•C did pretty ok with the 940 and 980 tables I've played here. And the T-4M tape deck, even tho it isn't quite spooling right and has crunchy dried out pinch rollers, sounds pretty dang nice. How bad could the speakers be, really?
 
Why all the BIC hating?? I had a pair of Venturi Formula 1's that sounded pretty phenomenal with the biconex horn and extremely capable woofer with rubber surround. It was detailed, rich and could reach astoundingly deep for a bookshelf.

I would be a little surprised if the higher-end Formula's were built like poo compared to the entry-level Formula 1. That really wouldn't make any sense but oh well. I did not think any of my advents (4002, 3002, Advent/2, Prodigy Tower) imaged nearly as well as those things, or was as dynamic sounding (sold them all and kept the BIC's for much longer). The Formula 1's have a quality that I can't quite put my finger on...but made them simultaneously very different than most bookshelf speakers and much more satisfying to listen to.
 
Keep your 2-ways and be happy, your Formula 1's could be the best of the bunch being the simplest, good 2-ways have their own magic. Multiple midrange drivers tend to be trouble and more drivers for the sake of more drivers aren't necessarily better, usually makes things much messier. It's difficult enuff designing a multi-way speaker that crosses single drivers in the midrange, much more doing it 3 times with multiple drivers as in the 1st example. It gives you a *loud* speaker but not likely a good speaker, it's just piss-poor design but party speakers are about volume and not refinement.

FWIW, I have a pair of Advent/2 and they were awful sonic crap. I e-Waved them and that made them my fave and best small speaker system. Stupid dual mid-tweeter design and a crappy cheap-out crossover ruined the original potential of those 2-ways.
 
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