BIC Amercia Acoustech Platinum Series PL-89 tower speaker

I bought a pair of the PL-89II 's through ebay, okay, I felt like scum going through a Low Bid, free shipping offer, Amazon is a much better retailer, but hey I saved $90 and in this case it worked.Truthfully, after a few months I was back to the old Chorus II's which are an old "Hi-Fi" speaker, three way, horn loaded with a 15 inch woofer and a 15" passive radiator that accompanies the 90 Oz. Ceramic in the back. The decorum of the room again was less than aesthetic, but the sound was smoother and more powerful. The reason horns used to be three way was to avoid directionality. the most important thing I noticed was listener fatigue, the horn would get a little directional and harsh at points, the Klipsch stuff did not suffer from this malady.Okay, fast forward a year, once you get the equalizer setting right for the room, these are really great and I don't mean for the price, they, like most modern speakers require a subwoofer and a center channel I use an F-12 woofer and a PL-28 II center channel All of this stuff is easy to set up and equalize for your room I have my trained (equalized) to roll smoothly at 80 Hz I have them about 18" from a wall and with a few EQ and YPAO tricks. I tried a couple of months living with the RF/RC-62 II series and a Klipsch subwoofer, honestly, these do better for music and especially vocals, where I expected Klipsch to outshine the BIC. Directionality was also an issue with the RC/RC 62 II series, so I sold them all and came back to the BIC PL-89 II's, a PL-28 II and F-12 woofer.I like them better than their more expensive competitor (RF-RC/62) series which I bought and sold within about 2 months, there was a midrange rasp that bothered me, The BIC's don't seem to have that problem. They both roll off at about the same point according to YPAO. This is a well designed and well built productWell, here I am a year later. The nature of a two way horn loaded system makes it directional and honestly, there is a little more sparkle the Pl-89 II's, so I'm back to my PL-89 II's and PL-28 II.The BIC is a great value and I still think they're a great product, but if you have the extra money, buy the RF or now RPF series. I sold my PL stuff and bought the RF/RC-62 II combo. The BIC stuff was good, so is this stuff. It took me about two months to decide I wanted the BIC stuff back Fortunately it's not a difficult purchase

To start, I love this PL-89II pair and with over an estimated 700 hours I can finally write a review. But let me say that I do not have anything close to a true audiophile ear. They hit every range I could ever expect from a mid-priced tower and more. Many people have said that they do not have the low end that would be expected from 2 8" mid-woofers and it is true. But after 100+ hours of "break-in" (90% of my at home time after work is audio and not HT) I let them loose and they astonished me. The bass was there for sure. So much so that I had to dial it back on the 2.1HK receiver. Tight and certainly not lazy. Have them paired with a small and underperforming sub which only comes in handy for HT use and low volume listening but once above normal TV volumes the PL-89II's really create a well balanced note which renders the small sub very much useless. They fill my (split design) 5000+ cu/ft room flawlessly. I range in musical styling from Electrohouse to Americana to Blues, to Classic Rock, and more. They have shown great flexibility with all ranges while really producing an astonishingly accurate treble at all volumes. Someone who is dead set on a tower with phenomenal low-end at low volumes will probably need to look elsewhere. As for me I think my incoming Rythmik sub will take care of any possible problem I could ever have with the bass even though I am nearly never upset with bass output. Will most certainly NOT be second guessing this purchase any time over the next many years.Edit Part 1 of 2: I was able to listen to a pair of Klipsch RF-82II's after a long time of owning these PL-89II's and I couldn't discern any real difference in sound quality. Sure the RF-82's have a deeper cabinet and much heavier but otherwise they contain the same equipment. The PL-89's have a higher high pass crossover than the Klipsch but that didn't seem to make a difference. Both speaker systems have a low end roll off between 45 and 50Hz and at louder than normal listening volume both produce very tight and room shaking bass. The rooms that each speaker system is incomparably different though. Mine is much larger and has a lot fewer noise isolating and obtrusive features than my friends does. This may have caused a "misread" of the RF-82's but I'm still sold on these PL-89II's. Dollar for dollar I would buy these again over the Klipsch. Part 2 is after my sub arrives and I can see how it interacts with these speakers.Edit 2 of 2: after a long await and 15+ hours of break in for my brand new sub (not BIC) I can finish this review. A quality sub really locked in the music quality of these still awesome towers. The sub effortlessly drops down well below the ~50hz roll off of the PL-89II's. While a subwoofer is far from necessary for these great speakers, it does help blend all of your favorite tunes to how they always should have been. Listened to a friends RF-82's without his sub on, same situation. Doesn't seem you can't avoid the inevitable loss of the extreme bottom end. Just reiterates my belief that I made the better choice. With the savings over the RF-82's I easily purchased this extra music and HT enhancer. I hope this long (length and time) review can help someone who is riding the fence on what they want to pick up.