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

Thanks Tim!  
No need to rush on Experiment#2.  Duke told me he needs about 8 weeks ordering cabinets, amp and build time.

I will probably end up placing shelves along each right and left sidewall as you mentioned in step A.  
Probably will place a shelf on the back wall while i'm at it.(If I am going to drag out tools, measure and mark, drill, etc anyway)

With the floor subs under the mains, and one ceiling facing sub in a corner, that leaves just one sub to experiment with.

Unless I'm missing something, ...

@Duke - Do you place the subs directly under the main speakers?
If so, facing which way?

Thanks,
Hans

Hello Hans,

     Okay, my next experiments were going to be:

Experiment#2: Same as Exp#1 but face the drivers toward the wall instead of the ceiling. Deep bass sound waves are very long (a 20 Hz soundwave is about 56 feet long) and will continue reflecting off of room boundaries (walls, ceilings and floors) until they run out of energy.                 Whether these soundwaves are initially launched upward toward the ceiling, or sideways into a wall, causes their pathways to differ before reaching your ears located at your desk chair.  You'll need to determine if sub positioning and driver facing direction results in the bass sounding different to you and which you prefer.

Experiment#3:  Place a shelf/sub along each right & left side of your rear wall, with the closest edge of each shelf 2' away from the nearest rear corner of the room and with the sub drivers facing the ceiling.

Experimet#4: Same as Exp#3 but face the drivers toward the rear wall instead of the ceiling.

     It's important for you to understand that positioning a sub in a corner will increase that sub's perceived amount of bass produced because the presence of two walls in such close proximity reinforces the reflection of the long bass soundwaves it launches that radiate in a 360 degree pattern. 
     I understood this and specifically avoided corner placement of my four subs, keeping them at least 2' away from any nearby corner, because my goal was the smoothest, most natural and highest quality bass attainable without bass overemphasis.  
     However, your goals may differ from mine and you can experiment with placing at least one sub in a corner with any of your configuration scenarios.  If you do so, I know Duke recommends reversing the polarity on at least one sub that's not positioned in a corner.  
     I hope this info helped a bit.  Lots to learn but your experience gained from experimenting will probably be the best teacher.  

Best wishes,
    Tim

Honestly Hans the advantages of four are so great you can put them just about anywhere and still get great bass. I've moved mine around, played with phase and impedance (wiring for 4, 8 and 16 ohms) and a bunch of stuff and yes it does matter. But compared to how big a change you get moving one sub around the difference when moving one of four is small. It will help to keep this in ind because compared to the major errors just one sub always has when you go to four it puts you right from the beginning into fine-tuning. In other words prepare to be amazed and understand why those of us with four (or more) are such enthusiastic DBA proponents.

@millercarbon 

Yes, I feel I have a basic understanding of the reasons behind the advantages of the Swarm/DBA concept.

Landing right into the "fine tuning" stage makes sense now.

So after everything is set up, I look forward to some listening comparisons:
   
1) Swarm off
  
2) Swarm on but with just one sub (one of the subs under the main speakers) powered on to simulate a traditional single sub setup.

3) Swarm on (all subs on)


@noble100 
 
Really appreciate you taking the time coming up with the experiments! 

I plan to install shelves long enough to span each wall (left, right and rear) but with a 2' clearance from each adjacent wall.
That should accommodate all 4 experiments. 

Would it make sense to experiment positioning the subs on the floor to face the floor (on tall spikes) instead of facing the wall?


Thanks,
Hans 

 

hleeid:"Would it make sense to experiment positioning the subs on the floor to face the floor (on tall spikes) instead of facing the wall?"

Hello Hans,

Yes, because you’re venturing into new 4-sub DBA territory that I’ve never been to or even contemplated. I’m willing to help you as much as I’m able along the way but my current advise is it’s likely best you experiment with the positioning and facing direction of all 4 subs until you perceive the bass as being smooth, fast, powerful, highly dynamic, detailed and natural. IOW, until it sounds the best to you.
As millercarbon mentioned, just having four well dispersed subs launching bass soundwaves into your room is likely to result in very good bass performance in your room. Your main goal will be experimenting in positioning and facing, analyzing the bass results and then repeating until you determine the optimum, or at least a very good, combination of position and facing for each sub in your room.
The good news is the subs are not very heavy. The bad news is there are a high number of combinations of sub position/facing possibilities in total. However, I’m very confident you’ll consider it well worth the effort once you hear and feel the bass results of even a good, but perhaps not the optimum, combination of sub position and facing for all four subs.
My advice is to recruit or hire an assistant as the muscle and restrict your responsibilities to directing, analyzing the bass performance of each 4-sub position/facing combination permutation and recording the results.

Have fun,
  Tim