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

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.

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.