Why the fascination with subwoofers?

@rauliruegas 
Not sure why you are attacking atmasphere. He's not selling subs. Over the years Ralph has been as unbiased as I can expect from a manufacturer, even when explaining benefits of a SET, which is a product that competes with his amps. His experience is relevant to me.
Also you are taking words out of context. When he replied " that's exactly how it works" he was answering why subs added depth, etc, which is something I knew too - but the question wasn't pointed to me.

FWIW, over time I've exchanged with several knowledgeable people who do sell subs and don't, listen to their points of views and explanations to help form my opinion and then decide how to try it out myself.

BTW, thanks for the link to the Harman work. I'm familiar with it as I have Floyd Toole's Sound Reproduction. One material aspect of their research was time delay between the subs in the room, which is something I can't do with my setup. Neither can the SWARM system, yet Noble100 and Millercarbon report very good results, so I'm intrigued. In fact mine are Rythmik subs with more tuning flexibility so should do even better. And I do have means for proper measurements.

Regards

Do you use a bus to fly to Chicago? 

Oh and the Swarm system is a bad joke. The people who thought this up have no understanding of acoustics in a usually sized room. It is all about reducing first reflections. All the swarm system does is increase the number of first reflections. The result is mud. It may be powerful mud but mud none the less. 

Really? And you would know..... how? 
Which ones have you heard?

lewinskih01

One material aspect of their research was time delay between the subs in the room, which is something I can't do with my setup. Neither can the SWARM system, yet Noble100 and Millercarbon report very good results, so I'm intrigued.

My 4 are run with two Dayton amps, giving me the option of running stereo, mono, and with variable phase on either one or both pairs, in addition to being able to wire one or more completely out of phase. Phase isn't exactly the same as time delay, but close enough for government work. 180 degrees out of phase equates to a .025 second delay at 20 Hz. 

In any case what little I've had time to experiment with hasn't turned up any noticeable difference. Yet. This probably says more about my lack of experience.

The bass from a distributed bass array, it seems to me, is so much better than anything possible from any one or maybe even any two subs, that it takes quite a long time to appreciate. This is compounded by the fact its impossible to know where the really good bass is until you come across it, often by accident. Some recordings I always thought had a lot below what I was hearing turns out they really do. Some others not so much. Some I would never in the world have thought of having low bass surprised me. I've barely begun to scratch the surface of what's hiding out there waiting to be revealed.

Often times when it happens its not like you'd think. Almost all of what we think of as bass is guys plucking strings or hitting synth boom boom boom each note pretty much like the last. This I am now sure has more to do with the inherent inadequacy of a single sub than anything else.

Because the bass with a bass array is never like that. Each note, each drum whack, whatever, is its own unique event. And I know this is passing strange and one hell of a conundrum because at the same time its all mono its also precise and localized. Just not localized anything like the way people assume. Its clear the sense of localization has nothing to do with what is coming out of the subs.

Obviously, because I can run all 4 off the one amp and it sounds exactly the same as run in stereo. To be fair I noticed the same thing with my one Talon Roc sub. Which with its massive drivers and isobaric design ought on paper at least to be faster and cleaner than my much cheaper PartsExpress subs. But its not. Not even close. The 4 sub array is much more precise. Despite there being 4 of them. Spaced all over the room.

But because it is so much better I think means it takes a lot longer to dial in and understand. Also my time is limited and given the choice between enjoying awesome music and working to make it even better I keep coming down on the side of immediate gratification.

So sue me.

I'll get around to it, eventually. Even so its more than enough to know absolutely and for certain this is the way to go.