BIC America F12 12-Inch 475-Watt Front Firing Powered Subwoofer

The BIC subwoofer came along with the new Yamaha HTR-4064 5.1 Channel A/V Receiver and four custom modified Sony SS-B1000 5-1/4-Inch 2-way Bookshelf Speakers for main and surround, and a BIC AMERICA DV-32CLR 31/2" 2-Way Center Channel Speaker. This is a fairly modest system as home theater setups go. A couple of Batman movies, The Avengers, Megamind, a few hours of Wii and about 10 hours of TV broadcasts have been put through the system before writing this review.The F12 is connected to the Yamaha receiver with the LFE (aka line level) RCA plug using a Belkin 15 feet PureAV Subwoofer Audio Cable. Gain on the F12 is set to less than half and the crossover to max. The LFE crossover frequency on the Yamaha receiver is set to 100Hz, so that is the max the F12 will see. This works best for my particular speakers and room acoustics so experiment with different settings to find the optimum settings. Took me about two weeks to decide what the best all around settings are for my ears at various volume settings.We have "The Avengers" on blue ray, put that on and watched the last half an hour. It was pretty cool! Wife mentioned that the sofa was moving, my son was just grinning from ear to ear, and I was thinking "hmmm got to cut back on the gain to the sub...". So I guess it was a hit. LOL!The BIC does a great job with music too. Played some jazz with acoustic base, and I could hear all the nuances of the bass clearly. The twang of the string, the resonance of wood. Not muddy or just thump, but clear. Then played Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon. Great! Loved it! This is without a doubt the best audio system I've owned, so I am thrilled.I was very satisfied with the performance of the sub. This room is not very big (16 x 20 feet, w/9.5' ceiling) so gain being set at under half was just right. A clear presence without overwhelming the rest of the sound track. So many reviews only mention how well the F12 is for action movies that I was afraid that it would sound muddy or not reproduce music well. I can say don't worry, the sub does music justice! I have been listening to classic jazz for the last hour at low levels because the whole family is asleep, and the sub is still "there" and clean. And it belts out the driving bass from albums like AC/DC's Back In Black so hard you will feel it in your spine. To get the best bass I did have to experiment with different crossover frequency settings on the Yamaha receiverIf you are in the market for a ground shaking sub that does music and movies equally well, this BIC F12 is well worth the money. You will not be disappointed. But act fast, as the F12 will be discontinued soon.BTW, I noticed that the F12 would shut off automatically when playing music at low levels with the amp set to "auto" (or sometimes when watching "talk" TV like the news where there is often little or no LFE output) . This was fixed by backing off the F12 gain, and raising the LFE signal level output by the receiver. Problem solved!Update: 11/25/2012. Been running the sound system for about 6 weeks now so all the speakers, including the F12 are broken in. I found that the F12 sounds best when crossed at the lowest frequency that the other speakers can produce. In my setup, I originally had the F12 crossed at 100 or 120hz, even though the front and surround speakers play down to 80. Recently changed the receiver to cross the sub at 80hz and it sounded even better. By crossing at 120hz, I thought the F12 would make a better bass than the fronts. But the reverse is true, the F12 performs better when creating sound under 80hz, and the fronts do a fine job down to 80. So don't be afraid to cross the sub at a lower frequency than you might assume is correct.

First and foremost this sub has the tightest speaker I have ever run across. When I first got it and hooked it up there was virtually nothing coming out of it for the first couple of hours. I was about to package it up and contact the Marketplace reseller that it was bad, but I left it on and gradually over the next few hours it began being heard, and heard nicely. I have a bit less than 50 hours on it now and wouldn't be surprised if it had some more "loosening up" to go, but it sounds very nice, and doesn't need to be cranked way up to hear and feel it. I like a sub that does its job without trying to dominate the podium.I am no "Bass Head" but do like to hear and feel it and the F12 does a good job of producing clean bass. I have the crossover set at 80 and have tweaked all the speakers using my receiver's equalizer. Wouldn't say this is the best sub because it isn't, though it might be the best one in this price range, and it fits my needs well and wasn't nearly as expensive as many other subs. It represents a very good compromise of quality, performance, and price. For me it came down to either the F12 or the Polk PSW505 in this price-performance range.The rating for this sub is a solid 5 stars. My rating for the Marketplace Reseller Contractors A/V initially was a Negative 5 if that rating existed. They sent out the sub quickly and I got it within 4 days which was fine. FedEx delivered it without the usual fork truck holes that UPS provides for free so everything started out great. When I opened up the box is when I realized that something wasn't quite perfect. The bag that the owner's manual and registration card came in was all crumpled like it had been handled numerous times and it wasn't sealed. In fact there were a couple pieces of Styrofoam stuck onto the folded over tape. The owner's manual was very crumpled and the postcard registration card is so crumpled that it can't be mailed.When I checked out the sub it didn't appear to have any evidence of abuse, scratches or anything, however both of the speaker connections on the input side were loose like it had been hooked up before and then not tightened up all the way like the other connections that were still factory tight. I hooked it up to see if it was OK, and at first thought it was DOA as all I could feel was a little vibration at the cone's edge. It turned out that it took a couple of hours for the speaker to loosen up enough to start working correctly. The one saving grace is that I got plenty of that "new electronics" odor which told me that this hadn't been turned on for very long as that "new smell" never lasts too long. What I suspect is that this unit was an Open Box return as the previous owner probably concluded that it was broken when it didn't produce much sound right out of the box and they promptly returned it.Since the sub appears to be working normally now, I am on the fence about just sending it back as I have some doubts about if it is "reconditioned" and how long it may continue to work. The unit was advertised as "NEW" yet it was not. Had it been advertised as "Open Box" or "Re-Certified" and I bought it knowing that then I wouldn't have any complaint. This is the second Amazon Marketplace reseller that I have had problems with and will not buy again from one of their Marketplace resellers. I have never had any problems with anything ordered from Amazon itself that was listed as New, In Stock, and Sold by Amazon, but I cannot make that same statement for their re-sellers.Update 3/16:Contacted the Marketplace reseller after giving them a low satisfaction rating based on not getting a brand new unit and they were very responsive and wanted to make it right and had an RMA issued. In the end I decided to keep the unit I have as it is working fine and also because the Marketplace reseller is ordering on behalf of their customers through a third party wholesale warehouse. It was uncertain how long it might take to get another unit as they were out-of-stock and it might end up being another "re-pack" and I'd be in the middle of everything all over again. Lesson learned is that ordering on-line can be great as long as there never are any issues, and even though the re-seller was willing to jump through hoops there were still things not within either of our control that could have turned this into a nightmare. Kudos to Contractor's A/V for trying to make things right as they had no way to know that their wholesaler would send out a re-pack and represent it as new. I will think twice before ordering anything large or expensive on-line rather than going through a local retailer where the remedy for any problems is far more clear and straightforward.Buy this sub with confidence that it is very good for the money, however you might want to only buy directly from Amazon as they are the 800 pound gorilla and they have the clout with their suppliers to fix things immediately if not sooner.