Audio Kinesis Swarm Subwoofer Awarded 2019 Golden Ear Award by Robert E. Greene

Congrats Duke on additional recognition for your research and efforts and also for selflessly sharing links to DIY products that might compete with your own.

 I’ve been keen to try the swarm arrangement but so far haven’t adventured beyond two subs. My reluctance to invest in more hardware comes from my skepticism, which comes from having read people commenting that pretty much any sub will do, as long as there’s four or more.
I can’t get beyond the notion that some subs just don’t sound very good, and multiplying an average sounding sub by four surely doesn’t equate to good quality bass.... how can it?
Smoother and a more even response maybe, but what about tight, extended and tuneful bass well integrated with the mains? 
I use two HSU subs in my system, both older designs (VTF-1 VTF-2). They’re ok but not great. How can adding two more of the same fix the deficiencies of these mediocre subs.
I’m not trying to pick a fight, I’m just genuinely curious and trying to learn.
 

Congratulations Duke!!
Even a newbie like me can understand how well deserved this award is (not to mention how overlooked and underappreciated your design is)!

@Duke - you mentioned that:
What would be really sweet is, three subs near the ceiling and the fourth one closer to the floor

This looks like a deal maker for me since my room is very small.
What are some ways you can suggest to position (suspend/hang?) the subs near the ceiling?

Thanks,
Hans

Duke - your honesty and transparency laudable- thanks for putting together a turnkey system, and at an affordable retail price.

Duke, Congrats on the well deserved recognition! We spoke last spring
about getting the Swarm into the mix for our Speakerfest Event.
This year's event will be Stand mount speakers only.

What a perfect way to show off the Swarm! Surrounded by the likes
of Vimberg, Dali, Borreson, Joseph, ATC, Harbeth your product
will be a perfect match. We may even sell a few sets!!

Best,

Jeff Kalina, AZAVClub.com

Rooze wrote: 

" I can’t get beyond the notion that some subs just don’t sound very good, and multiplying an average sounding sub by four surely doesn’t equate to good quality bass.... how can it?" 

I think the suitability of the subs for this application matters. Back to that in a moment.

The biggest issue at low frequencies is room interaction. Compared to the few dB difference between good subs, the peak-and-dip patterns that rooms impose on subs are huge. By spreading multiple subs around the room, we get four significantly different room-interaction peak-and-dip patterns. The more different peak-and-dip patterns we are summing, the smoother the net result.

Now ime subs with huge bottom ends are generally not the best choice for a distributed multi-sub setup. My understanding is that your Hsu’s have pluggable ports, and ime that can be very helpful in getting the in-room bottom end balanced right (it’s what I do too). If you had four Hsu’s with pluggable ports, I’d say start out with the ports plugged in all of the subs except for one, the one nearest a corner. One sub in one corner is okay, but I suggest no more than one. If the Hsu’s have phase adjustment, put the one farthest from the main speakers in reverse polarity, unless that’s the one with the ports open.

Then if you need more low end, unplug one port (your choice which one). If you need less low end, plug ports in that sub nearest a corner. I have zero experience with a quartet of Hsu’s, but this is what I would try. The ability to plug ports in the Hsu’s may make them actually more suitable fort this application than most subs.   I'm not suggesting you buy two more Hsu's - just tossing out an idea of how Hsu's might be used. 

Duke