Searching for matching(?) Subwoofer solution

Dear @audiokinesis : "" in which a distrubuted multisub system falls short..."

I’m just talking about the myth that we can’t detect the direction for frequencies 80hz down ( two channel with two subs. ) and this is not true. Our brain/body can, @tyray explained twice .

What is true is that some people can’t detect it but other can do it.

Even with frequencies/instruments that speakers puts at the center of the imaging/soundstage is difficult to detect if the sound comes from the left or rigth speaker.

Knowledge/experience to know what to look for is what tell each one of us the true not that myth per se.

Inclusive other gentleman posted that not playing music but test tones proved that our ears can detect 50hz.

No one knows the whole body/brain abilities on that myth subject when even the scientifics say the human been knows how the brain works only at around 18% of its overall capacity ! !

Audio is surrounded of to many myths many of them by our self ignorance levels or just for not know what to look for.

Some times is more problematic due that we own different kind of room/systems and obviously different ears/body/brain sensitivity to different frequencies and to different SPLs.

Noble 100 is spreading " everywhere " that low bass non detectable myth and that says he can't do it but that he can't do it does not means no one else can.

Audio is complex issue, especially on what we are perceiving and a home system behavior is different of what happens in a MUSIC hall or a small club.

R.

Dear @audiokinesis  : Fortunatelly I already made my choices on room/system choosing what for my MUSIC/sound priorities, still today, gave and give me the best trade-offs for a high quality overall level performance. Truly satisfied, not " perfect " but always perfectible.

R.

raulruegas:
"Fortunately I already made my choices on room/system choosing what for my MUSIC/sound priorities, still today, gave and give me the best trade-offs for a high quality overall level performance. Truly satisfied, not " perfect " but always perfectible."


Hello rauliruegas,
     
      You're obviously very fortunate.   You made an informed choice and picked the set of tradeoffs that makes you happy.  
     Congratulations, you only have one thing left to do; enjoy the heck out of your high quality system with your music of choice.

Enjoy,
Tim

Wow this topic has legs. I like to simplify things. First of all it is not a sweet spot. It is a sweet line 90 degrees from the center of the speaker axis.
On this line the speakers are in perfect phase with each other and will cast an image of the recording to the degree that the system is capable. 
Now because of standing waves and interference patterns the frequency response below about 100 Hz on this line can vary up to 10 db. It depends on room dimensions and the way the subwoofers are used. 
You can hear this easily in your system. Just play a test tone at say 60 Hz and walk back and forth across the room and you will be flabbergasted at how the volume changes within just a few feet. When I was using two woofers I dealt with this by moving my listening position along the "sweet line" until I felt the bass sounded right. Doing this even with room control is a benefit because it will cost you much less amplifier power to correct the response at your listening position. With a point source system and one favored listening position 2 subs can do the job fine and as Raul suggests I think two good woofers is better than 4 bad ones. 
But, when it comes to other situations like having multiple listening positions along that line or having line source or linear array speakers you run into trouble. It is difficult to compensate for two positions and two point source subs will not project as well as line array speakers so the sound gets thinner as you move away from the system. This is where multiple subwoofers come into play. It seems that the SWARM group wants to place their subs anywhere in the room. This will smooth out the frequency response throughout the room but depending on the distance between to subs may cause phase issues. Here is a rule of thumb. For the drivers to act as one they can be no farther apart than 1/2 the wavelength of the crossover point. So say you are crossing over at 100 Hz. That is about 10 feet at sea level. If your subs are less than 5 feet apart they are acting as one and no matter where you are in the room they will always be in phase and as long as additional subs are closer than 5 feet to the last one in line they will always be in phase no matter where you are in the room. If you make the array longer than the lowest frequency you want to reproduce you have created a line source subwoofer. At lower cross over frequencies say 80 Hz the distance would increase to 7 feet between subs. 
Now in my case I need a subwoofer linear array to match the output of my ESL linear arrays and the woofers are arranged across the front wall with the outside subs in the corners. I am doing this to make the array function to below 20 Hz but a point source system does not have to worry about this. So, what I am suggesting to the SWARM people is to place their woofers in configurations so that one is no farther than 7 feet from the next assuming you cross at 80 Hz, 5 feet if you cross at 100 Hz. This will make all of them in phase no matter where you are in the room and should increase the dynamic response of the bass. Try it and let us know what happens. This rule is used by designers that use multi driver arrays. If you study various designs you will always notice that tweeters are always closer together than midranges which are always closer together than woofers. We are just extending the same principle to subwoofers and the much longer wavelengths involve. Pheyew that was tiring.

Mike