B.I.C. Venturi Speakers, Are they any good?

[captainclock]

Hello, a friend of mine just recently was given a pair of B.I.C. Venturi Speakers by a friend of his who had also given him an early 1980s vintage Dual Turntable with an Ortofon cartridge installed on it, anyways I'm wondering and asking you guys for my friend whether or not these speakers are any good or not. They are 3 way speakers with a midrange horn, a paper cone tweeter, and a large 12" woofer, which all three speakers are protected by a fuse on the back of the speaker (as you'll see in the pictures) and they have the adjustment knob (I can't remember what they're called now, some letter followed by the word pad, but I can't remember what the letter was now) and the adjustment knob can be switched off to allow the speaker to adjust itself automatically (assuming that the crossover circuitry has some sort of auto correction feature built into it that does the same thing as the adjustment knob does when its being used.) Anyways I have a couple of pictures of the speakers in question that will be posted below for you to see.
I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say about these speakers as well as my friend as he's not as well versed in vintage electronics as you guys are or I am which is why he was happy to know that you guys could tell a little more about the speakers on here.

Thanks,

Levi

 

[janikphoto]

Not bad, just not the best ever. I'd rate them along the same lines as Coral, some Sansui, Utah, etc.

 

[captainclock]

Not bad, just not the best ever. I'd rate them along the same lines as Coral, some Sansui, Utah, etc.

OK, well the only brand I'm familiar with is Utah, when it comes to speakers (as I happen to be a proud owner of a set of Utah's from the 1960s) but as far as the other brands goes I'm not familiar with them and thus I'm not familiar with their quality I know about the Sansui Brand and that they made lots of TOTL gear (e.g. the DB-8080 and the DB-9090 stereo receivers) but I'm not as familiar with their speaker offerings because I didn't even know they made their own speakers, and I've definitely never heard of Coral before. So it might help if you would use some names I might be more familiar with like Fisher, or Voice of Music, or Magnavox or Zenith etc.

 

[janikphoto]

Several of the brands you just listed also offered some decent mid-fi speakers. Picture that you're comparing cars... they'd be a Hobda Accord. A nice car, but no Mercedes or Ferrari. However, the main thing is whether you enjoy them or not. Speaker sound is very subjective.

 

[blhagstrom]

BIC Venturi formula 4.
They were some of the best in the late 70s.
I have an article in a magazine rating them along side some of the other great speakers of the day.

I bought a set new in 1975. All the grills were foam and rotted away. The switch and adjuster never did much or anything that I could tell. Best used sitting on the floor so the bass port has the floor to reflect the bass wave.

They have excellent bass, so so mid and tweet.
The Biconex mid horn tends to be blown a lot.
The fuse pops because you cranked on them and then stuck a car fuse in and kept rocking.

I've never seen a Coral or Utah that could hold a candle to them, but I've haven't seen any good Utah or Coral.

They are more in line with Cerwin Vega but much stronger cabs.

They will rock!

 

[janikphoto]

Yes, as mentioned above, they are known for having ample bass.

 

[captainclock]

BIC Venturi formula 4.
They were some of the best in the late 70s.
I have an article in a magazine rating them along side some of the other great speakers of the day.

I bought a set new in 1975. All the grills were foam and rotted away. The switch and adjuster never did much or anything that I could tell. Best used sitting on the floor so the bass port has the floor to reflect the bass wave.

They have excellent bass, so so mid and tweet.
The Biconex mid horn tends to be blown a lot.
The fuse pops because you cranked on them and then stuck a car fuse in and kept rocking.

I've never seen a Coral or Utah that could hold a candle to them, but I've haven't seen any good Utah or Coral.

They are more in line with Cerwin Vega but much stronger cabs.

They will rock!

That's good to know, I'll let my friend know about them. As far as I could tell the speakers still had their original fuses still intact which means that they should still be good yet, I would guess that the mid and highs will wake up if the crossover caps are replaced? Also these speakers still have their foam grills still intact yet, and they aren't rotten at all which kind of surprised me.

 

[blhagstrom]

They cannot be original foam grills.

I saw some NOS in the sealed box that the grills had crumbled into a pile.

 

[captainclock]

They cannot be original foam grills.

I saw some NOS in the sealed box that the grills had crumbled into a pile.

Well the foam grilles on these speakers had a square pattern all across it and when they were pulled from the speaker they didn't act like they wanted to crumble, unless the original owner bought new foam grilles for the speakers at some point in time within the past 20 or 30 years (which its very unlikely seeing as the speakers were made in the 1970s and foam speaker grilles went out of style in the 1980s) then I would have to tend to think that these grilles are original and just happen to be survivors.

 

[likebike23]

My cousin gave me a pair of Venturi Formula 2's and they rocked hard. I wouldn't say they were smooth at all, just lots of bass and loud. I had to trash them because I couldn't get the mold smell to go away. I did save the woofers and L pads for another day. Bummer because I would have found a use.for them

 

[janikphoto]

I've seen old foam grilles that have survived. I'd think the heat, humidity, and amount of sunlight they are exposed to will be a determining factor. The boxed pair may have been stored in an area without a/c possibly?

 

[the skipper]

Personally, if one were GIVEN a pair of speakers, I'd be more concerned how they sound to me than what any/everyone else thinks. Some people gonna like 'em, some gonna loathe 'em. Who you gonna believe?

 

[captainclock]

Well The reason why I approached you guys on here about these speakers is because like I said before my friend is a noob when it comes to electronics or audio so he doesn't know the first thing about what or how a stereo receiver or a set of speakers is supposed to sound like or what makes something good vs. bad quality (he inherited from his inlaws a set of Bose speakers and a set of Paradigm speakers both of which I've heard are pretty decent speakers, but the stereo receiver that came with those speakers was quite a bit less impressive as the speakers because it was a little 10 watt per channel Akai Receiver which wasn't nearly enough power to even barely wake up those Bose and Paradigm speakers, so then he ditched the Akai and upon my advice picked up a nice 80 watt per channel Technics receiver from the Salvation Army for $15 all to find out that the tuner was busted on it so then he has the broken Technics as a parts unit and he bought the same exact Technics reciever from ebay for about $120 and its in perfect running order including the tuner, and anyways most of the stuff he does know about electronics and audio is mostly stuff I've taught him and stuff I've told him about from here, but other than that he's pretty much helpless when it comes to figuring out what's what in the audio/electronics world (he doesn't even own a cell phone that's how bad he is with electronics.) But anyways that's why I posted about these speakers on here and wanted to know a little bit about what he had because I wanted to let him know whether or not he had good speakers because he was trying to decide if he wanted to install them in his stereo system or if he should just donate them to a thrift store.

 

[Djcoolray]

One word....

Adjustability !!!

The speakers and receiver together are going to put out a consistent sound and that's where an EQ comes in !!! It takes quite a bit of reading to understand how to set up an EQ to control the signal before it gets to the speakers.

 

[2manyspkers]

L - pad
I would put the speakers in between the average Bose and the average Paradigm ( since I didn't notice the model numbers you said he has)
I would play them against the others and see what he / you think sound better and take it from there...really what sounds best to your ear is the deciding factor.

 

[chazvintage]

Hey now this speaker series is legendary in it own rite and uneducated diss to made by the uninformed but, I digress. If you went into any decent bar or club in NYC in the 80's you were most likely slamming your nog to some bics and expressly the venturi line. Piezo cuts thru the mud of any structured the bass hits tight and hard and that fusing system was a Godsend to low techs maintaining them, made to rock hard, harder than a chunk of fishscale blow, by the hours my ears were ringing for after bright lights big city bolivian marching orders were followed lol............

 

[captainclock]

L - pad
I would put the speakers in between the average Bose and the average Paradigm ( since I didn't notice the model numbers you said he has)
I would play them against the others and see what he / you think sound better and take it from there...really what sounds best to your ear is the deciding factor.

That's because I didn't say what models the Bose and Paradigm speakers were because I didn't know what models they were, I saw the model number of the Bose Speakers but don't remember what they were, but the Paradigms I didn't see a model number anywhere on them that I could see anyways (although I probably didn't know where to look though either) I have some pictures posted below of speakers that are similar to the Bose and Paradigm Speakers that he currently has on his stereo setup. The Bose Speakers he has currently look kind of like the ones pictured below except that they have an oak veneer finish on them instead of the black matte finish like the ones pictured below and the speaker grilles for the tweeter and the woofer come off seperately instead of in one piece like the ones pictured below. The Paradigms he has look very similar to the ones pictured below (it doesn't have the removeable grille) and they had wall mounting brackets on the back of them when he first got them (which I removed them because they were pretty much useless in his place as he has very limited wall space for mounting speakers on walls.) I hope this helps.

 

[the skipper]

Cap, you're WAY overanalyzing this. Exactly what Paradigm/Bose speakers they were doesn't matter, If you really want an answer, "looks like" doesn't make it if you really wanted an exact answer/opinion anyway. You need to provide a model number.

But, it doesn't change the fact that what YOU hear is what's important. You don't need classes or years of experience to know which sounds better TO YOU!!!

Don't get so hung up on some imaginary "pecking order" which is only peoples opinions.

 

[pustelniakr]

Mid-fi but presentable.

Enjoy,
Rich P

 

[captainclock]

Cap, you're WAY overanalyzing this. Exactly what Paradigm/Bose speakers they were doesn't matter, If you really want an answer, "looks like" doesn't make it if you really wanted an exact answer/opinion anyway. You need to provide a model number.

But, it doesn't change the fact that what YOU hear is what's important. Don't get so hung up on some imaginary "pecking order" which is only peoples opinions.

OK, well Actually all I really wanted was a little information about them like when they were made how they compared to other speakers (are they crap not worth his time trying to use in his system or were they something that he should try out in his system) and what's the best mounting position for them for maximum effectiveness (because I know certain speaker designs are better placed either on the floor or on the wall or on a shelf or in a corner) I realize how they sound is subjective but I was mainly concerned about quality and how they stacked up against other speakers that are actually considered decent quality speakers vs. speakers that are of known crappy quality, because I was basically telling him (before I posted on here) that they looked like higher quality speakers because of how they were designed and I wanted to make sure I didn't tell him something that was incorrect (maybe instead I find out that the speakers were the crappiest quality speakers out there that were disguised as high quality speakers, and then I would of had to of eaten my words so to speak).