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

Just a quick note to those using the Dayton sa1000 to drive their subs. It has a very low input impedance, 12k ohms. If you're driving it with a tube preamp with output capacitors, you'll need a cap at around 6-7uF to avoid rolloff above 20Hz.  I had to order some new caps to fix that issue, still, it drives my subs amazingly.

First @audiokinesis congrats on this very well deserved award, you guys have changed the way I enjoy music and I was very lucky to find you. Needless to say Duke your altruistic attitude is a quality very scarce these days on this modern world.
Thank you everyone else posting as I actually have noticed a few tricks I could use to improve my AK swarm
Now, @cal3713
Interesting comment, I am using a tube preamp but going 1st to a Jensen balanced to single ended isolator which impedance is 39 kohm, in this case the tube preamp is presented with the transformer impedance not the SA1000's one, need to find out if my preamp have output capacitors.I have been considering splitting my digital source output as today my preamp is feeding my mono's and the Dayton's and when the Daytons are connected the speakers connected to the mono's changes sound, maybe because of the impedance change. This will allow some digital filtering sending 60 Hz and below to the Daytons and 60 Hz and above to my monos (need to ask Duke about the exact frequency as I also have his speakers)

@luisma31 If you do have a pre with capacitor coupled outputs, at 39k, you’ll need 2uF of capacitance (or more)... https://www.v-cap.com/coupling-capacitor-calculator.php

I find this concept to be fascinating although I have never actually heard it. For many years I have known that multiple subwoofers can greatly smooth the bass response in a room but I haven’t actually experimented with it.

Does anyone here have experience pairing a Swarm/DEBRA with relatively full range speakers...in this instance the Vandersteen Treo’s? The Treo is -3db @ 36Hz.
For those not familiar, Richard Vandersteen has a very specific technique for pairing the Vandersteen subs with his full range speakers. It involves an outboard first-order high pass crossover for the main speakers.(installed between the preamp and amp) The subwoofer also receives this signal from the amp by speaker wire and is built with some sort of low pass first-order crossover and it also somehow equalizes to compensate for the reduced bass level received through the speaker wires. So it results in very gentle 6db rolloffs for the subwoofer and mains either side of 100Hz. I really like this setup and think it works extremely well.

My big question is what would be the best way to setup if I wanted to integrate Swarm/DEBRA with the Vandersteen full range speakers.
-No crossover on the Vandersteens and the 24db crossover on the Swarm/DEBRA at about 36hz?
-A Vandersteen first order high-pass crossover on the mains(100Hz) and a low-pass 24db crossover on the Swarm set at....?
-or some other variation that I haven’t thought of?

"Does anyone here have experience pairing a Swarm/DEBRA with relatively full range speakers...in this instance the Vandersteen Treo’s?"

Installo43, one of my customers has Vandersteen Quatros.

Before getting the Swarm, he had been using one sub and a Meridian processor with 16 of its available 60 digital filters professionally calibrated to smooth his in-room bass response.

He replaced his sub with the Swarm, ran the Quatros full-range with their filters set to neutral, and hired the same (highly experienced) technician to make measurements and calibrate the filters on his Meridian processor. The technician found that the ONLY adjustment needed was to the level of the subwoofer amp. No further equalization was needed, either from the Meridian processor or from the Vandersteen’s analog filters (well, the Meridian did equalize the two surround speakers a bit, but that doesn’t affect what the Swarm was doing). He wrote that the Swarm "had rendered both the Meridian Room Correction and the Vandersteen’s analog equalizers unnecessary" for his room.

Quoting from his e-mail:

"The technician, J___ S____, who has performed dozens of these calibrations, said he has never seen anything like this. The room is rendered literally flat in frequency response and spatial energy distribution - sonically the room disappears. We played one of Kal Rubinson’s recommended demo discs, the 100th anniversary for the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra using the John Adams piece, "Short Ride on a Fast Machine", and you would swear you were in the hall. You can "feel" the ripple in the tympani skins! Very impressive."

I DO NOT claim that these results are "typical", but apparently it is possible to use the Swarm with a set of Vandersteens.

Duke
got a dog in the fight