Early B's New Center Channel

Early B.

I bought a new center channel and it arrived today. Believe it or not, I purchased a BIC DV62CLRS center channel. You can find them all over the Internet brand new for $99. How does it sound, you ask? Sounds great! In fact, it's the best sounding center channel I've owned. I've said it many times and I'll say it again -- price don't mean a damn thing in audio.

I realize some of you are scratching your heads wondering why Early B would buy a cheap center channel for his incredible HT system. Several years ago, my first center channel was a stock BIC DV62CLR. I "upgraded" to a Polk Csi40 and noticed that the Polk and BIC essentially sounded the same, although the BIC was little bit brighter, but the Polk retailed at $400. Then I changed to an Ascend Acoustics, then to a Soliloquy C3, now back to the BIC. This BIC sounds better than all of them. With the BIC and the Tyler Acoustics in the front, my home theater system has never sounded this good. Seriously.

Actually, this particular center channel has been modified by Ed Frias at EFE Technologies. He sells his modded version complete for $160. Highly recommended. Don't take my word for it. Just read the reviews: http://www.audioreview.com/cat/speakers/center-channels/bic-america/PRD_119153_2743crx.aspx

The dialogue is the clearest I have ever heard on my system. And the center channel hasn't broken in and I haven't dialed it in yet, either. I chose BIC because of my prior experience with it and because I didn't want to spend $1,600 on the Tyler Acoustics matching center channel for my fronts. Tomorrow night I'll christen the BIC with King Kong.

thehaens@cox.net

EB

Very interesting, got me googling, reviews are solid...

Another good article...

http://www.slottweak.com/bic/bic.htm

cfrizz

But, but Early, None of your speakers match! How can it sound good??? I thought it was essential that you have matching speakers for a cohesive sound!

Early B.

cfrizz wrote:

But, but Early, None of your speakers match! How can it sound good??? I thought it was essential that you have matching speakers for a cohesive sound!

Yeah, I learned a long time ago that timbre matching is fine, but there are other ways to create a cohesive sound. In he past 5 years, I've only had one setup that was timbre matched. The other non-timbre matched setups sounded just as good or better. However, I recommend timbre matching to newbies.

Early B.

Zero wrote:

Early,

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I am in the market for a center and this looks to be the ideal solution!

edit: Do you know the mods done?

No, not sure what Ed did to the crossover. If you're interested, e-mail him at efespeakers@commspeed.net. He provides excellent customer service and ships promptly.

Holydoc

Early B. wrote:

Yeah, I learned a long time ago that timbre matching is fine, but there are other ways to create a cohesive sound. In he past 5 years, I've only had one setup that was timbre matched. The other non-timbre matched setups sounded just as good or better. However, I recommend timbre matching to newbies.

I am definitely a newbie . I highly recommend timbre matching. It just bothers me to go to a friends house and hear a sloppy cross-stage transition.

Now if you have the expertise to tune the sound of your speakers so that they emulate timbre matching, then mis-matching speakers is not that much of a concern. Of course this is not for the faint of heart or newbies like me that want an easy method of gratification.

I highly respect the fact that EarlyB has this expertise. However be cautious taking this route if you are not certain that you have EarlyB's expertise.

mldennison

early,
have to listened to any multi-channel music on these or are you using strictly for movies/tv?

Early B.

mldennison wrote:

early,
have to listened to any multi-channel music on these or are you using strictly for movies/tv?

Oh yeah, forgot to add that my setup is strictly for HT. Timbre matching is more important for music, of course, but why would anyone wanna ruin music by playing it through surround sound?:eek: