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

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.

This is an old review I wrote like 10 years ago, but I never posted it on Amazon.Hopefully this helps someone out, because these seem to be the two most popular subwoofers on this site because of their price point and value. I apologize in advance if this is in the wrong forum.My new home theater is a SD/NewEgg special containing only Polks. I have two Polk Monitor 70s ($137 each open box), two Polk Monitor 60s for rears ($100 each new), and a Polk CS2 center ($92 open box). I checked the Newegg open box section every 2 hours for like 2 months to get this stuff. I just recenty got a used Denon AVR-590 used off ebay.I spent a week reading every thread on the internet I could find between the Bic F12, Polk PSW505, and the Energy S10.3 . I came to the conclusion that since I had a larger room, I would shy away from the 10" Energy sub even though it appears to have the best sound quality of the 3, while still having pretty good output. I didn't think a $200 10" subwoofer would fill a 26x20 room. I also was weary about the build quality considering the annoying front light dies for everyone within a few weeks.Anyways, on AVS forum and most of the internet, most people picked the BIC F12. However, there is a large following for the PSW505 on Polks forum (go figure), and on SD. The kicker is Amazon accepted a trade in on some old calculators and gave me $20, so I ended up choosing the BIC.I ordered it on a Tuesday morning, it shipped on Wednesday, and I received it on Thursday, lightning fast. Here are my thoughts, and I am not an audiophile. I had some cheap KLH speakers I spent bottom dollar on and loved them for 10 years.First thoughts were that this thing is really, really loud. It is also really, really big. You're suppose to leave a foot of space for the backfiring port. This was an issue for me. Sitting flush against the wall was the only way it could line up with the rest of my stereo. I had to move it to the side pretty far so I wouldn't have to hop over it every time I walk by.I wasn't impressed impressed with it musically. It didn't sound bad, but it didn't sound great either. Home theater was pretty good. It gets pretty deep, and like I said, very loud. Maybe I got used to it, but it didn't seem as loud the following days. I was coming from an older JBL 12" that I realize now was very weak compared to the BIC.The day after I bought my BIC, I was browsing NewEgg open box, and a PSW505 showed up for $124! I couldn't help myself because I knew it wouldn't last, so I bought it. I just hooked it up today, so I can finally do a direct comparison.I switched the audio cable back and forth between them while playing loud rap music. They both sounded the exact same for the first 30 minutes or so. I had the gain set on both at 12 oclock. After 30 minutes, I realized that the PSW505 had more kick/boom to it bass wise. You could hear it rumble noticeably more than the BIC. I did however notice a little bit of port chuffing on the Polk, but you can only hear it if your ear is right next to the port. I doubt anyone would ever do that. The BIC doesn't chuff much because of their special port.So I think wow, this is great, the Polk has more output and was cheaper! This was confirmed with Home Theater. The Polk had noticeably more boom when I watched Transformers. My Denon is calibrated for the BIC by itself, but you could hear much more bass in the fight scenes. An explosion that you could barely hear from the BIC made a BOOM from the Polk.So I sit back think about getting dual PSW505s (2 open boxes @ $124 each) and returning my BIC (1 for $200). While I was watching the movie for like an hour though with only the Polk on, I realized that despite the extra ooomph the Polk was giving, I wasn't really enjoying the movie. I went back to the BIC F12 and really listened. Again, although the F12 was not as loud as the Polk at the same gain, I realize the BIC sounded much clearer than the Polk. It had crisper sounds.Conclusion:I think people would be happy with either subwoofer. They sound pretty much the same with rap music. If you switch back and forth repeatedly, you'll hear a difference though. The Polk is rated higher in wattage, so that's probably why it's louder at the same gain and probably louder in general. For me, I've decided to keep the F12. Due to the cheap price, I'm also considering keeping the PSW505 as well. I'm a bass head and while a single sub is probably enough for most, I might want to help fill out the large room more.I'm attaching some side by side photos of the F12 and the PSW505. Notice that the PSW505 has broken pegs on it. Yes, the grill came broken, but Polk will send you replacements rather easily, which is a big deal for me.The F12 is aesthetically pleasing with its black cabinet and the gloss silver cone. The Polk looks kind of ugly with the silver face next to the series II monitor series that is all black cabinets and faces, but behind a grill you'd never be able to tell.Bottom Line: With them both costing the same price, I would recommend the F12 over the PSW505. I think the boominess and extra output of the Polk would get tiring after a while and you would want something a little clearer, even at the sacrifice of a little output. If you will be listening to 100% rap music, you may actually like the Polk more cuz I kinda did.I hope that this Joe Schmoe review helps many Slickdealers with their future home theater and subwoofer purchasesThe F12 is $197 on Amazon right now, $3 less than what I bought it for last week.It has been about $200 for the past 5 months or so. Likely not moving any time soon.The PSW505 is regularly on sale for $199 shipped on Newegg.P.S. I actually caught a second PSW505 tonight and purchased it. I canceled it like an hour ago, so it will probably be back tomorrow morning for those that want one. For $123 shipped it's a freakin steal you shouldn't pass on. I just don't need a third one and this stuff doesn't go for much locally on CL surprisingly. I added a poll for fun and a couple of extra pictures. The F12 is really wide. That is my monitor 70 and the sub is leaned up against the wall, the M70 isn't. The Polk isn't much smaller, and I realize that if I keep both I will need to relocate one of them somewhere else in the room.

This is the sub you are looking for. No need to look any further. Amazing heart palpating, wall shaking bass right out the box! Mine isn't even broken in yet and Im pretty sure I cracked the foundation of my house watching ghost busters frozen planet! Lol. My only issue was that it was delivered in its own box on my porch, displaying to the whole neighborhood what is inside. All in all, I'm very happy! Enjoy!