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...

First, let me proclaim that I am not an audiophile by any definition of the term, an neither I have much hands-on experience with quality subwoofers. On the other hand, I do enjoy quality sound, have a pretty good idea of what to expect from quality equipment and have some technical background in relation to audio processing/mixing, as well as 5 years of piano lessons behind my back. I've bought F12 because of many positive reviews I had come across, because it was cheap, but mostly because I just couldn't stand the sound of my Polk PSW108 any longer. The latter was one of the boomiest subs I've ever owned, had no clarity/definition to speak of, was barely audible below 40 HZ and, most importantly fo me, produced a lot of chaffing noise through its front port at any but the lowest volume. Before, I had a similar issue with a Klipch double-firing sub from the Promedia set, just not as pronounced. From online sources I gathered that this issue affects many subs, some higher end Polks included (namely, the PSW505, F12's chief rival). I understand perception of such things varies among people, but to me the port noise of PSW108 was sufficiently irritating to not even consider the PSW505. F12, on the other hand, was claimed by many reviewers to be free of port noise, and here I am happy to report these claims, for the most part, are justified. There IS some barely audible air-pumping noise that can be heard at high volumes, but it is not nearly as distracting as in other subs I owned, and mostly contained in the lower frequencies. With port facing the wall, I can't hear it at all. In fact, while in "music mode", the sub behaves more like a sealed model. Classic: organ, contrabass etc. sound much more realistically without any timbral augmentations from a flapping bathroom sink stopper I experienced before. New age, techno, industrial: maybe not as punchy and defined as would have liked, ideally, but very good nonetheless. Only once during my music listening tests have I encountered a sound which seemed out of place, and that turned out to be loose power cord flapping against the cabinet during the magnificent low D in BWV565. Secured it, everything was fine afterwards. In short, I am very pleased with F12's musical capabilities. Speaking of movies: I am not a huge movie fan, so I don't think I am qualified enough to judge. If, for proper movie enjoyment, a subwoofer is expected to break glasses, shake the coach with its owner and help wall cracks to propagate, then I am afraid F12 comes a bit short. Honestly, I didn't buy it for that, and I don't like loud noises. At 150W RMS to a 12" driver, even theoretically the F12 can not be super loud anyway. Don't get me wrong: with cranked up volume it is perfectly capable of shaking walls and causing peculiar sensation in the stomach, it's just not that kind of over-the-top nauseating loudness some people would expect from a subwoofer this big. A bit on a technical side of things. Some reviewers have mentioned F12 has a low frequency cutoff at 32Hz. This is not true with my unit. I didn't notice any significant change in response at 32 Hz. By my measurements (not very scientific, but easily reproduceable) the F12 has a peak response at about 90-100 Hz which steadily goes down from there to about 22 Hz, after which there is a cutoff. Still, there is some significant response down to about 16 Hz. My unit stops responding at about 8 Hz. Below that, I can't really tell whether is can't respond at all, or the shortcomings of my equipment/audio source come into play. Regardless, I believe this is a VERY good result for a $200 sub. It gets even better, if your receiver has parametric EQ for the sub channel. If you can increase volume at lowest frequencies and adjust it where needed so it blends seamlessly with main speakers, you might achieve an almost flat response at sub frequencies down to 25Hz and good response down to about 20Hz, thus getting the best sound possible from your system. BTW, mine is based around Onkyo TX-NR686 which has five adjustable points at sub channel, and is capable of what I just described (though of course I'd preferred if it was adjustable down to 16, not 25 Hertz). I don't want to waste time writing about things you can read elsewhere (looks, connectivity, crossover, proper placement, reliability issues etc.) So far, I am very happy with my purchase -- I honestly didn't expect F12 to be of such high quality for the price. I can only cross my fingers and hope the amp doesn't burn very soon ;) Thanks for reading. UPDATE (7/24/2024): after 5+ years of ownership the amp neither burned nor degraded in any way. The speaker cone once suffered a powerful leg kick by my toddler but, surprisingly, survived. Overall, the sub sounds just as good as before and I don't feel like I need/want to upgrade it anytime soon. At this point I can confidently say it was money well spent.

I’m finally writing my review of the Bic America F12 subwoofer after listening for a few months and I can say it’s a great value. I was impressed with the packaging, large foam blocks encapsulated the sub. The user manual is above average with plenty of recommendations to get the best out of it. Connections are solid, and the dials clearly marked. Finish is high quality. I performed at least 50 hours break-in period at low-med amplitude prior to making my review, that being said I definitely noticed that the suspension is pretty tight right out of the box so you always want to do that procedure. Now on to the review. Overall, this sub has a clear purpose. There is a triangle of subwoofer characteristics including low bass, high efficiency, and small enclosure size: you can only have two. The BIC F12 is clearly and obviously designed for low bass and high efficiency, with the compromise being large enclosure size. (It’s about 15”x16”x18” with feet). Among subwoofers in its price range, it is the largest. (High end subs can get way larger though). However, in a home theater setting where size isn’t necessarily the biggest constraint, it shines. Musically it’s great. If you have the space to stuff it in a corner or wherever, you will be pleasantly surprised, and as a result, it outperforms subwoofers above it’s price range because it’s large box size affords fewer compromises to the sound. I had plenty of time to listen to it on music and movie tracks, as well as straight freq sweeps. I have it placed in a large (>1000 sq. Ft) open concept living room/kitchen. I put it on top of a sub isolation pad even though it comes with pretty substantial rubber feet. After moving it around to determine the best sound, I settled on locating the sub to fire parallel to a wall, about 1-2 inches away from the wall, but I’m seated about 7 ft from the wall so that the backside port has room to breath. This may be a problem for some locations but for my room it was perfect. For frequency response: On straight sweeps it EXCELS at 35 hz, literally shaking everything in your house, even at 3/10 on volume. 30 hz it begins a slight roll-off, but even more rumble is felt. 25 hz is hard to find on actual movie or music tracks but it’s still felt more than heard. Because of the high efficiency, you barely have to turn it up to energize your room. I never had a reason to turn it up past 4/10 because at that point it overcame the mids/highs but I have no doubt this sub could wake up neighbors down the block. However, I must say that the size of the enclosure has been well-designed to be very hefty and strong, hence the size. How does it sound: I’m impressed with the punchiness and musicality of this sub. An example music song that highlights this sub’s strengths is Reminder by The Weeknd. It’s is every bit of punchy as you would expect, but where it excels is in between the punch: where these long 30-40hz very low bass notes are reproduced with smooth energy. It’s saying, hey, I can punch you, but listen to this wave of bass! My favorite thing to listen to is deep bass guitar or live drum sets with two kick drums. This thing gets low with authority!! But the upper bass is fantastic too! On well-recorded music tracks I can hear that “thwap” from a Tom drum strike clear and accurate. I appreciate how it blends in sooo much better with the midrange than my previous sub, a true testament to how well balanced the upper bass is. Overall I would characterize the sound as smooth, and deep. I never heard any port noise or chuffing even at high volume. The speaker cone itself is transparent, as I could place this sub literally anywhere in the room, close my eyes, and I can’t locate where the sub is, but yet disappear into smooth, deep, omnidirectional bass. Explosions in movies shake my couch like there’s an explosion right in my living room! Rap and techno at high volumes rivals large nightclubs. Rock and jazz sounds fantastic, don’t even get me started on string bass. A smaller sealed sub would probably do better with heavily layered complex bass but it still sounds pretty good. The best thing I can say about this sub is that I’m hearing things I’ve never heard before and that makes me want to just listen more. I got it on sale at $250 and for that price I think it’s a bargain. Is it the loudest, lowest-playing, best sub on earth? No. But it definitely outperforms subs in it’s price class because it has a clear mission: a budget sub that is efficient, great-sounding, and hits deep low bass with authority.

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.

I'm a skeptical buyer when it comes to most purchases, so I was hesitant to pull the trigger on this sub when the reviews seemed to good to be true. But once the sub dropped to $192 and was sold and shipped by amazon (for return/defective purposes, easier to deal with amazon), I had to bite. With that said, I cannot believe the negative commentary on this sub, from even the positive reviews. I, myself, am a bit of an audiophile. My front towers in my set up were about 2k for the pair, brand new (They were basically given to me). I mention this because I noticed in a few reviews, people stated if you have high end front speakers, that retail in the $500 and up range, that this sub cannot keep up with them. I am here to dispel that as complete and utter nonsense. The F-12 is a high end performer, provided you set it up correctly. It is capable of hitting the earth shattering lows that you feel more than you hear. In fact, a lot of negative comments I've seen on this sub complain the sub cannot replicate bass frequencies in the low 20hz range and below. Well guess what? The Human ear cannot HEAR frequencies that low. Some might then argue they don't care about hearing that ultra low, sub 20hz bass, they just want to *feel* it. Well, then go drop 1k+ on an SVS or HSU sub and shut up. Trust me, you're going to *feel* deep, deep bass with this sub, as well as a nice mid-bass punch. When it comes to movies, the F-12 is very impressive and can do it ALL. While playing the opening battle scene of Saving Private Ryan, I walked into an adjacent room to my HT room, which is on an elevated floor plan and separated by a wall. As explosions were going off, I could literally feel the floor shaking beneath my feet as the sub rumbled and replicated the deep explosions with precision....and this was in another room!!! In fact, I have the sub so dialed in, that I only have the gain turned up half way and during Iron Man, when he's flying, the bass notes shake the floors, the walls, the entire room quakes. No distortion. ZERO port noise....volume cranked to face melt setting. The key to getting this type of performance is room placement (google sub crawl or sub walk) and tuning with the receiver the sub is connected to (you need to go into the settings after audio calibration and really tweak things.) Bottom line, this sub can blend in with just about any kind of system, whether high end or budget. It's all about tuning, tuning, tuning! Those that complain, aren't tuning their system correctly! Music is an aspect of this sub I haven't quite figured out, yet. When playing really fast metal (think Guttural Secrete), the kick drums ring out nice and clear, but they lack punch, as does the bass guitar. I find myself having to turn up the gain to achieve better bass performance. However, I think this is less the subs fault than me only owning this sub for less than a week and not having figured out a way to tune it correctly for music. I would also like to touch on build quality. Again, I'm very impressed with the design and construction of this sub. When I opened the box, I was surprised by how large the enclosure was. It's a fairly large box and takes up a bit of realstate, but this is a good thing. When it comes to subs, the general rule of thumb is, the larger the enclosure, the larger the bass response! The enclosure has a nice black finish that should last a long time and the box itself is very sturdy and has a good *heft* to it. The driver itself is of very high quality and seems very, very sturdy. I imagine the woofer will outlast the rest of it. Note, the surrounds on this woofer are very tight. So tight, in fact, you might not achieve good bass right out of the box as it may take some hours of play time with a bass heavy soundtrack to break it in. Which leads me to think, if I'm getting such great bass right out of the gate, I can't wait to hear how it sounds once it's actually broken in and those surrounds loosen enough to get good cone movement (more cone movement = more air movement = more bass). If I had a complaint, it would be that the sub has a rear port. Higher end models, like SVS and the like often have front firing ports. There are many reasons for this that I won't delve into, but one is that it would allow you to place the sub closer to a wall, or closer to a corner. Because of the F-12's rear port, you can't place it close to a wall (the air coming from the port needs space to move freely) if you want to achieve maximum bass. For this design flaw, I deducted a star. All that said, this is an incredible sub for the price. Really think about it. What do you really get for $200 these days? At that price, they're basically giving it away. I cannot overstate the value. If you have big money, go buy a big money sub. If you're on a budget like the rest of us, this will work with whatever existing system you're running and it will elevate the sound stage to new heights. I guarantee it.

So after upgrading my AV receiver to accommodate 4K and Atmos in 5.1.2 config, my old proprietary Yamaha theatre in a box sub couldn't be repurposed with the new system. (The 6ohm satillite and center make up my current 5 system and two of the satallites will be turned into Atmos height when I can afford the RLC upgrade to Kef T301 series.). While I appreciate listening to classic rock and 80's alternative along with experiencing UHD and 4k movies, I am not a true audiophile because that is too expensive of a hobby for someone with twins in college and who no longer has a six figure income. That said, I have always had top of the line mid level audio equipment and can definitely tell the difference between poor, good, better and best and lean toward upper good to better components. I did a bunch of online reviews and auditioned several subs at magnolia and a half dozen other high end audio shops in my area. And while I loved the B&W and Definitive Technologies subs, they fell above my price range. I listened to several Polk and Klipsch subs and really didn't care for the tinniness of the Polk and while I liked the look of the Klipsch, I was hoping for a little better after hearing the other high end subs. A friend has a SVS sub that is really nice, but is at the very top of my price range. So looking at Klipsch, Polk and SVS reviews I kept bumping into BIC America F12 sub. Some were pro SVS, Polk or Klipsch, but the BIC America had enough positive reviews and I found several discussing it's warm bass and good crossover with the ability to shake your house and neighbors' while also blending nicely with more subtle lower level listening experiences. I decided to take the plunge and purchase it from Amazon solely on reviews knowing at the end of the day whatever sub I purchased was going to have to pass it's final audition in house with my other speakers. All I can say is wow. The reviews I read don't do this sub justice. While out of the box, it wasn't as warm a I wanted, I was patient and survived the break in period. I've had this sub for about 6 months and it is used daily for playing vinyl, streaming Sirius or Spotify and playing 4k movies. It blends perfectly with my satillite speakers(alough have it turned down to under 50% which can still shake my house and get my neighbor across the street out on his front porch trying to figure out what is going on) picking up the movie LFE and doing a nice crossover on the lower end bass the satillites just can't reach. But here's the best part. When it comes to electrical components, you need to use some care. In my excitement and hurry to get my new sub set up and configured, I tried to short cut the process and reach awkwardly around a cramped area where I initially placed the sub to adjust the volume which I had way too high. Getting frustrated I ended up pulling the sub out and in the process disconnected the power cord. Instead of properly turning the unit off and reconnecting the power cord, I stupidly blew the fuse. Then in my frustration, I spent hours trying to locate a replacement fuse so I could enjoy my new toy. Well I found a similar fuse but no quite the right one and when trying to get the sub up and running, I did more damage and fried something. Very sad😖. Now the happy ending. I contacted BIC America via email. They responded within 24 hours and instructed me how to make a warranty claim and emailed the proper forms...super easy barely an inconvenience. I submitted my claim and they immediately shipped out a replacement amplifier. I received it only 3 days latter, it was shipped cross country from California, at no cost to me. Lastly, I contacted them to thank them and let them know everything worked fine and to find out how to send the old amp back. They said not to worry about it and to just enjoy my new sub. That friends is great no questions asked customer service and I will not hesitate to purchase other products from BIC America. While a long review, I hope this helps some of you make your decision. The Polk, SVS, and Klipsch are all more expensive, but to my experience not noticiably better and in some cases worse than the F12. While one day I may step up to a more elite sub, BANG(Boom) for buck this is a great sub and you won't be disappointed. It isn't Best, but definitely Better and for the cost you can't do any better at twice the price. Happy listening. Cheers!

I just received my first sub of two that I ordered, got here in 2 days with super saver shipping! And all I have to say is WOW... if my neighbors haven't already called the cops yet, I can only imagine how fast the men in blue will be here when my second one comes. It easily hits lows too low for me to hear, but I sure do feel them. No muddiness that I've noticed, but I'm also not one of those rich, picky "audiophiles" tarnishing the reviews on this beast. I haven't ran Audyssey yet on my Denon AVR-1712 (still waiting for the other sub and my center/surrounds to arrive) and these are the first powered home subs that I've ever owned, so I can't say much more than I'm extremely happy. Totally worth the 188 bucks I got it for. Another thing too is, I haven't even placed it in the corner of the living room yet! The only sub cable I have is only 3 feet long and it doesn't reach. I'm impressed with it just doing its thing smack in the middle of the room set at half volume. Totally curious to see what it can really do once I get my long cables, it's placed correctly and properly configured, and, of course, when it has a good 20 hours or so of burn-in time and warms up to me. I'm a bass fanatic, and I have a permasmile right now. There's just nothing like feeling the power of a good subwoofer to me. Do yourself a favor and order this. Save some money, get your bones rattled, and spend the tons of cash you saved on a popcorn machine and Flavacol seasoning salt like I did. You and your wallet won't regret it. **QUICK UPDATE** I threw the lowest stuff I could think of at it just now. T.I. - Whatever You Like, Petey Pablo - Low, Chicane and Faithless - Cafe Del Mar, and THX Bass Tests. I couldn't crank it up past the point of where I thought the police would seriously show up. Sounded absolutely powerful and fantastic. Best money I think I've ever spent in my whole life. **WEEK LATER UPDATE** Just received my second sub last night, and it's obviously noticeable how true the burn in period has effected my first sub. My new one sounds much like my first sub on the same day; just not as powerful. But having the second sub substantially adds to the feeling of my music. One thing I learned quickly is that stacking my two subs up on themselves is NOT the ideal thing to do; I only did this because I'm waiting on cables and only had a 3 foot piece of wiring to jimmy-rig it up to my front left large speaker. As soon as I got my cables hooked up, and was able to position my newer sub in the opposite corner of the room, the "bass field" opened up; where once I had dead spots in the room, they are no more. I have a typical duplex by the way, no mansion or garage, just a run-of-the-mill apartment type housing layout. My popcorn popper works great! Mmmm, just like the theater... I thought I had my couch rattling before, but with my second sub, it's like having a punch thrown at every square inch of my body while I'm on the couch when it's cranked up. I highly recommend getting two subs of whatever you choose to buy. It has an amazing effect of evening out the "sounds great" spots and the "sounds like ass" spots. Anyways, to sum it all up, I'm more than happy, ecstatic even! I'm happy to be pushing around twice as much air now as I would have buying one expensive sub. **6 MONTH UPDATE** All is good with my two subs, they just sound great. Just the other day I knocked a picture off the neighbor's wall in our duplex; I've kept the volume down a little bit since then. The only thing I've noticed that may be "negative" to some is that at extreme volumes, they seem to limit themselves to a max output, which is a good thing. I'm guessing that there's some sort of regulator in the amp that prevents damage to the speakers. But don't let this push you away from these great subs. Like I said, it's only barely noticeable, and only at crazy loud levels (my Denon 1712 at max volume, playing bass heavy music). If I ever find myself in the highly unlikely situation of needing any more bass than I get with these, I'll be buying from BIC again.

I am using this in a 5.1 setup on a Sony STRDN1030 Wi-Fi Network A/V Receiver . It is in a rather large Living Room / Great Room floor plan where the living room, kitchen, dining room, etc. are all open to each other. The whole great room area is like 20 feet wide by 30 feet long and 13 feet peak of the cathedral ceilings. The bass sound from this subwoofer is excellent. It can really move some air. I love this speaker and I am very happy with this purchase. A three way toggle switch is on the back that allows turning the speaker off, on, or automatic. On automatic, it turns on when a signal is present and turns off if no signal is present for more than 20 minutes. This auto off function works great. An led light shows green when the subwoofer is receiving a signal, and red when it is not. If the back of the subwoofer is near a wall, the red light is bright enough to tell if it is on by seeing the reflection of red on the wall without having to go look at it. I like that because I can tell if it is on without getting up off my sofa. Sometimes a movie might not being playing bass when I think it should, and glancing over there lets me know if it is on and if I need to check settings in Receiver or on back of bass. There is an amplification dial on the back that can increase or decrease loudness. When set a little high, it will rattle your house. My 17 year old daughter came out of her room the other day, complaining about how her entire room was shaking. I had it set a little high. Sometimes I get engrossed in a movie and do not realize what I am doing to other members in the household. :-) Anyway, once it is set properly, I get a nice bass response from this speaker which makes movies with action effects much more enjoyable. There is a cross-over dial as well, but I don't usually use it with my Receiver because the Receiver has its own cross-over for the audio encoding that I use. The Receiver does a good job of sending only bass to this speaker so I don't get any muddy kind of sound that some people complain about because they don't have their crossover setup right. Once setup properly, I usually don't even think about this speaker. However, sometimes when I watch a movie with extraordinary sound effects, this speaker does its job, and then I think about how glad I am that I purchased this speaker. I was watching Wrath of the Titans the other night, and I felt like I was in the movie fighting the monsters. It was great. This subwoofer can make you feel a crashing effect not only in your chest, but in your entire body. If you don't like that, however, you can turn it down so you only hear the bass and not feel it. Best of both worlds. I don't know how a person could go wrong with this purchase. It is a great subwoofer at a great price with a great five year warranty. This speaker easily earns a five star rating from me.