Please Don't Laugh - BIC Venturi's

[zenith2134]

Got a pair of these Formula II's for free from a fellow who has owned em since new. They are clean and work nice, just missing the grilles. I searched google for opinions on these, and they are quite mixed. Some on AK have said they are kinda crappy, and I found another place that said they're decent quality. To me, they aren't up to the task of handling huge wattage, but they are very efficient IMO. Sound sweet enough, just not monster wattage. FWIW, these are about an 8inch woofer, small mid-horn and a 2-3inch tweet. Also has a pot on each to adjust for the different styles of music, from classical to rock/pop. Kinda neat, and these were built in Westbury, L.I. which is where I used to live.

Any opinions here?

 

[Nat]

When I heard them in the 70s, I thought they were incredibly bright and thin, but in retrospect, I bet that they might have been at the mercy of the grainy, harsh solid state recievers of the time that they were used with. I remember the cabinets being solid, and with better electronics, a lot of people have changed their minds about horns, and being efficient, they are probably nicely dynamic, so I'm not surprised that they have appeal. But I doubt if they will have deep bass -- efficiency is usually gained at the expense of low frequencies.

 

[BrocLuno]

As I recall, the BIC Venturi line was ported to add to the "thin" bass. Sounded OK on some gear back in the day. I do think they sold mostly to folks who could not afford big wattage receivers. They were well known for being very efficient.

I have a BIC tape deck and for years it was my all time favorite cassette deck - bar none (and I've owned over a dozen decks). It has only recently been superseded by my Pioneer CT900.

BIC engineers were good and they knew what they were doing. The question is does their engineering work match your needs and expectations? If so, have fun

You may want to re-cap and fool around with some poly-fill pillow stuffing to "tune" them to your setting? But they are good speakers for some systems and I bet they sound really nice with Tubes?

 

[Nat]

All of the Venturi line were ported -- actually a tunnel that was supposed to create more efficient bass than a regular port. Not sure what the actual reasoning was since (as I realised asI was writing this) I'd always assumed that the purpose of the tunnel was to exploit Bernouli's principle, but hadn't thought far enough to realize that 1: they should be called Bernoulis, not Venturis, since Venturis are related but synonomous, and 2: Bernouli's principle would suggest that the air in the tunnel ought to be lower pressure, not higher, and I'm not sure how this would play out either in the cabinet or the outside world.
Any suggestions?
Also worth noting that much of the BIC line was actually designed by Voice of Music in Benton Harbour Michigan before they went under.
I'd be dubious of adding much damping material -- it can obviate the point of a ported speaker, resulting in less bass and dynamics. But you can always try and then remove it if its not pleasing.

 

[ponderbear]

I demoed some back when I first bought good speakers. They didn't stand out as particularly bad, nor was I really drawn to them either. I've always liked the styling of the venturis, I have to admit. Seems like they are kitted out to appeal to studio monitor lovers- could they have originally been conceived as studio monitors?

 

[Nakdoc]

The problem was these were sold as "unblowable". They had lamps in series with the horns, and little windows where the deaf-eared could see the evidence of clipping distortion. They would take the speakers home and "light the lights" until the horn burned out.

 

[scootwhoman]

BIC Venturi Formula II's

I bought a pair of these in 1975 from Pacific Stereo, and pushed them with a Kenwood 25 watt per channel receiver. Not having a lot of experience with high end audio, I thought that they sounded great. Certainly I never noticed any lack of bass response, even with only 25 watts. The literature described the bass port as a 'venturi' because it was supposedly tuned to bring the back half of the bass wave out the front in phase with the next oscillation.

At one time, I was able to hook them up to roommates 60 watt per channel amp, and the speakers sounded even better. Supposedly, they were rated for a maximum of 75 watts, being the smallest of the three Venturi series at the time. All three models were 6 ohm impedance, which might have something to do with their being so efficient.

20 years later, I let a friend hook them up to his 300 watt per channel amp, and they took amazing amounts of power without distorting. Alas, while I was away, he fried them, probably while listening to them while in the hot tub in the back yard. I would really like to have them working again, but finding 6 ohm drivers is practically a hopeless task.

 

[Art K.]

I had a set when I was a kid...one of the local bakeries has a pair playing in the lobby.

 

[Toasted Almond]

The BIC "Venturi" line was part of our stock at Record World in Bay Shore, LI. The Formula 2, 4, and 6. I didn't think they were that bad. There was worse out there at the time, that's for sure.

 

[rgrjit8]

I had a pair once, don't remember the model number.

I thought they sounded fine, in a second system sort of way. Sensitive too.

I know I didn't like the grilles. They were just a piece of textured foam rubber with velcro corners. You had to put the speaker on its back to get the foam centered just right.

 

[mchico33]

Formula Six... not too bad

I was lucky enough to score a pair of BIC Venturi Formula 6's through Craigslist at 10% of market value!

Noticing one of the woofers wasn't working, I took it out to test it. Inside was a big pile of all the foam lining that had deteriorated and fallen off the cabinet's walls. Instead of leaving it there to rot, I removed it, noticed the all that was wrong with woofer was a loose connector, and put the woofer back.

This changed the tone dramatically. The speaker was much brighter. I cleaned the other speaker and, for better or worse, I'm going to leave the foam out until I can find a suitable replacement material, and replacements for the mid-cones (they were torn).

Overall, bass is very full and they have a very wide sound field, but I do here some strange phasing issues when moving left to right in front of the speakers.

If you can get your hands on an inexpensive pair I suggest you give them a listen. I just saw a pair pop up on the Orange County Craigslist for $80! I'm in Maryland so sadly I can't pick them up. :sigh:

Just my 2cents.

 

[Skibow]

Got a pair of these Formula II's for free from a fellow who has owned em since new. They are clean and work nice, just missing the grilles. I searched google for opinions on these, and they are quite mixed. Some on AK have said they are kinda crappy, and I found another place that said they're decent quality. To me, they aren't up to the task of handling huge wattage, but they are very efficient IMO. Sound sweet enough, just not monster wattage. FWIW, these are about an 8inch woofer, small mid-horn and a 2-3inch tweet. Also has a pot on each to adjust for the different styles of music, from classical to rock/pop. Kinda neat, and these were built in Westbury, L.I. which is where I used to live.

Any opinions here?

Actually BIC Venturi was manufactured in California in the 70's at least. Westbury LI, NY refers to the Headquarters of BIC Or British Industries Corp the manufacturer of the Venturi. They eventually became a subsidiary of Avnet International.

 

[Skibow]

All of the Venturi line were ported -- actually a tunnel that was supposed to create more efficient bass than a regular port. Not sure what the actual reasoning was since (as I realised asI was writing this) I'd always assumed that the purpose of the tunnel was to exploit Bernouli's principle, but hadn't thought far enough to realize that 1: they should be called Bernoulis, not Venturis, since Venturis are related but synonomous, and 2: Bernouli's principle would suggest that the air in the tunnel ought to be lower pressure, not higher, and I'm not sure how this would play out either in the cabinet or the outside world.
Any suggestions?
Also worth noting that much of the BIC line was actually designed by Voice of Music in Benton Harbour Michigan before they went under.
I'd be dubious of adding much damping material -- it can obviate the point of a ported speaker, resulting in less bass and dynamics. But you can always try and then remove it if its not pleasing.

BIC Venturi were originally manufactured in California, The BIC Record Player in Michigan
and Garrard in England

 

[Nat]

Skibow: I remember an Edward Tatnall Canby column in Audio about the entirely new line of high quality/low cost audio components that VM was going to be introducing back in the mid 70s. Because of business difficulties, no actual introduction followed, and then later BIC came out with their eponymous line of turntables and speakers which were made in the US (despite the name of the company British Importing Co.).
BIC was the long term importer Garrards (which had been big business for a long time), and whether there was a falling out between the two, or whether Garrard was collapsing, I do not know. But apparently BIC bought the VM designs and manufactured and marketed them.
I had assumed that the speakers were also VM designs, but don't have any specific information.

 

[Skibow]

Skibow: I remember an Edward Tatnall Canby column in Audio about the entirely new line of high quality/low cost audio components that VM was going to be introducing back in the mid 70s. Because of business difficulties, no actual introduction followed, and then later BIC came out with their eponymous line of turntables and speakers which were made in the US (despite the name of the company British Importing Co.).
BIC was the long term importer Garrards (which had been big business for a long time), and whether there was a falling out between the two, or whether Garrard was collapsing, I do not know. But apparently BIC bought the VM designs and manufactured and marketed them.
I had assumed that the speakers were also VM designs, but don't have any specific information.

Hi Nat
BIC actually stood for British Industries Corp. The beginning of the end for Garrard in my opinion was when Dual intorduced the 1009 as well as Pioneer with the first Pioneer Transcription player. At that time Garrard had tooled and was about to go into production of the TYPE A replacement to be known as the Type B.
Frank Hoffman of BIC would not agree to accept the Type B said it looked to much like the 1009. and Garrard retooled and much later introduced the LAB 80. To little to late. BIC also insisted on record players and did nothing to further the likes of the 301.
I once worked in the plant in England and new the Carduners of BIC as well as Frank Hoffman,
The speakers were initially made in California and the record player in Michigan.
Garrard was owned by Plessey and eventually sold to Gradiente of South America.I think about 1979 80.

Hope this info is of interest

Bill

 

[Nat]

I don't know where my brain was -- of course it's British Industries Corp. Thanks for correcting my senior moment.
Voice of Music was in Benton Harbor, Michigan, which is, I assume, why the turntables were made in Michigan. I think its just a coincidence that Heath was also in Benton Harbor.
I remember there being a rather interesting history to the founding of either Benton Harbor or VM with a sort of commune type beginning.

 

[jblmar]

In 1975, it came down to the BIC Formula VI or JBL L100s.I liked the size of the 6 but the sound of the 100s won.

 

[70salesguy]

We sold the BIC Venturi speakers at my store when I was the 70salesguy.

They sold well and I found them to be good performers.

Here's the MAIN thing : If YOU like them, that's ALL that matters! :yes:

 

[krisjay]

I have a pair of Bic Venturi V620's, they are not bad really.

 

[hifijohn]

bic venturi formula 6

bought a pair used and I was not very happy. I remember seeing the ads in magazines back in the 70's,they all talked about how the bass was very good pure but in fact it has very little bass.they are also pretty ugly its like they had tons of drivers in their warehouse that they didnt know what to do with so they threw this speaker together.eventually it just wound up in my workshop in my basement.