Congratulations on your new reference . I was using my own 4 sub set up for two years . This setup makes a small system sound like a large one .Play some live music and enjoy
Swarming!
Hi folks!
Hope everyone is doing well.
I just got my Swarm Distributed Subwoofer Array from AudioKinesis hooked up.
Wow!
Pre Swarm setup:
Office (10 x 14 minus closets):
Amp: Hegel H190 integrated, Bryston P26 preamp, Ampzilla 2000 Second Edition monoblock amps
Speakers: KEF LS 50 non wireless, Ologe 5, Magnepan LRS
So two subs arrived yesterday (Saturday).
With two subs and the Dayton amp, I first hooked up one sub in various positions on the floor.
Listened to a variety of music.
Played around with the gain.
After four crawls and two more "just to confirm" crawls, I located and left Sub 1.
I’m still a newbie here so apologies in advance if the proper terminology escapes me when I try to describe all the ways everything (not just the bass) just sounds a lot better.
While it sounded better than three other subs I tried, the bass got less clear soon after the gain was up enough to hear the sub and especially when I moved around the room.
Now, with Sub 1 optimally (for now) placed, Sub 2 took the rest of the evening.
Sub 2 is ceiling facing (3" clearance from the ceiling) on a long shelf behind the listening position.
Spent a few hours sliding it left and right, flipping it over to fire the port in the opposite direction, etc.
Flipped it three times.
My back was starting to complain when I first got it up on the shelf. These things are heavy and awkward to remove from a high shelf when flipping over, not to mention the heart stopping, lose balance or grip on the sub, close call moments!
Decided to leave it in the corner where the shelf meets the right wall with the port facing the corner and wait for the other subs.
The improvement, though not significant, was more than noticeable at my listening position.
The improvement started to get significant when I rolled my chair around the room or got up and walked around.
Things sounded pretty good in more areas of the room.
I heard more quality out of the newly added quantity of bass.
The other two subs arrived today.
Duke at AudioKinesis suggested varying the heights of the ceiling facing sub(s) if possible as this will affect the vertical plane.
So,...
Subs 3 and 4 are also ceiling facing with a 6" clearance located in the left and right front corners of the room.
They are perched on steel wire shelving units allowing for one inch height increments. The added storage space with the shelves is a huge bonus!
Turned the music back on a little while ago.
What a mind blowing experience!
While the LRS made the room seem bigger, with all four subs firing, the Swarm seemed to add body, intensity and dynamics to the "bigger room". Just about anywhere in the room.
I can raise the gain much higher and actually enjoy the clarity and evenness in the added bass.
Bass is not lost at low volumes. I can actually hear more details in the bass without needing to raise the volume.
Absolutely love the LRS! Thought the bass was pretty good. Didn’t hit like the LS 50s but seemed more than adequate.
But after a satisfactory gain setting and listening with the Swarm added, I got up and turned the gain all the way down and listened to just the LRS.
The Swarm added such a high quality and intense "kick" to the low end that just went away.
This got me out of my chair again to bring the gain back up.
A remote for the Dayton sure would be great!
I just can’t imagine listening to my system without this really cool subwoofer solution!
Limited to a small room?
Yes, there are four sizeable subs and an additional amp to place.
I thought there was no way that would work in such a small 10’ x 14’room.
Why four subs?
For anyone not familiar with the Distributed Bass Array concept, search through these threads.
There are numerous postings on this by some really knowledgeable people. (millercarbon and noble100, especially)
With three of the subs up high, the fourth sub is the only additional piece taking up floor space.
It’s been only about 2 hours listening with the Swarm in place.
With just the first sub placed via crawling and the other three just put in place, everything sounds like my system had a major upgrade!
It’s actually quite shocking! Seriously.
Excited to experiment with the subwoofer heights, different amps and also with the LS 50s and Ologe 5s.
Kodus to Duke at AudioKinesis for building such an effective, simple and flexible subwoofer solution!
These things actually look pretty cool too! Zero WAF issues!
Stay safe and healthy everyone!
Hope everyone is doing well.
I just got my Swarm Distributed Subwoofer Array from AudioKinesis hooked up.
Wow!
Pre Swarm setup:
Office (10 x 14 minus closets):
Amp: Hegel H190 integrated, Bryston P26 preamp, Ampzilla 2000 Second Edition monoblock amps
Speakers: KEF LS 50 non wireless, Ologe 5, Magnepan LRS
So two subs arrived yesterday (Saturday).
With two subs and the Dayton amp, I first hooked up one sub in various positions on the floor.
Listened to a variety of music.
Played around with the gain.
After four crawls and two more "just to confirm" crawls, I located and left Sub 1.
I’m still a newbie here so apologies in advance if the proper terminology escapes me when I try to describe all the ways everything (not just the bass) just sounds a lot better.
While it sounded better than three other subs I tried, the bass got less clear soon after the gain was up enough to hear the sub and especially when I moved around the room.
Now, with Sub 1 optimally (for now) placed, Sub 2 took the rest of the evening.
Sub 2 is ceiling facing (3" clearance from the ceiling) on a long shelf behind the listening position.
Spent a few hours sliding it left and right, flipping it over to fire the port in the opposite direction, etc.
Flipped it three times.
My back was starting to complain when I first got it up on the shelf. These things are heavy and awkward to remove from a high shelf when flipping over, not to mention the heart stopping, lose balance or grip on the sub, close call moments!
Decided to leave it in the corner where the shelf meets the right wall with the port facing the corner and wait for the other subs.
The improvement, though not significant, was more than noticeable at my listening position.
The improvement started to get significant when I rolled my chair around the room or got up and walked around.
Things sounded pretty good in more areas of the room.
I heard more quality out of the newly added quantity of bass.
The other two subs arrived today.
Duke at AudioKinesis suggested varying the heights of the ceiling facing sub(s) if possible as this will affect the vertical plane.
So,...
Subs 3 and 4 are also ceiling facing with a 6" clearance located in the left and right front corners of the room.
They are perched on steel wire shelving units allowing for one inch height increments. The added storage space with the shelves is a huge bonus!
Turned the music back on a little while ago.
What a mind blowing experience!
While the LRS made the room seem bigger, with all four subs firing, the Swarm seemed to add body, intensity and dynamics to the "bigger room". Just about anywhere in the room.
I can raise the gain much higher and actually enjoy the clarity and evenness in the added bass.
Bass is not lost at low volumes. I can actually hear more details in the bass without needing to raise the volume.
Absolutely love the LRS! Thought the bass was pretty good. Didn’t hit like the LS 50s but seemed more than adequate.
But after a satisfactory gain setting and listening with the Swarm added, I got up and turned the gain all the way down and listened to just the LRS.
The Swarm added such a high quality and intense "kick" to the low end that just went away.
This got me out of my chair again to bring the gain back up.
A remote for the Dayton sure would be great!
I just can’t imagine listening to my system without this really cool subwoofer solution!
Limited to a small room?
Yes, there are four sizeable subs and an additional amp to place.
I thought there was no way that would work in such a small 10’ x 14’room.
Why four subs?
For anyone not familiar with the Distributed Bass Array concept, search through these threads.
There are numerous postings on this by some really knowledgeable people. (millercarbon and noble100, especially)
With three of the subs up high, the fourth sub is the only additional piece taking up floor space.
It’s been only about 2 hours listening with the Swarm in place.
With just the first sub placed via crawling and the other three just put in place, everything sounds like my system had a major upgrade!
It’s actually quite shocking! Seriously.
Excited to experiment with the subwoofer heights, different amps and also with the LS 50s and Ologe 5s.
Kodus to Duke at AudioKinesis for building such an effective, simple and flexible subwoofer solution!
These things actually look pretty cool too! Zero WAF issues!
Stay safe and healthy everyone!
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- 71 posts total
Congratulations! Welcome to the club. Its a hard one to get into. First you have to understand a whole bunch of stuff that is actually not all that hard to follow except that it is so different than the accepted wisdom parroted dogmatically over and over again by almost everyone. If you actually do it though then the hardest thing to get your mind around is that it really does work so much better than would even seem possible. As you now know, it does! Its crazy because in most other things it is near impossible to have really state of the art performance, and even if you do it cost a small fortune. With bass however you can have true state of the art performance for like $3k. Not peanuts, but barely entry level in terms of speakers. You already made the plunge so this might be a little late but here's a neat video I only just discovered and you will notice he mentions a couple points you brought up. Quality bass has a powerful influence on our perception of the whole system quality. So just what you said. Only with studies to back it up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McN2AygDMtQ Sounds like you already have it pretty well dialed in. Only advice I would give, listen to a lot of different stuff, consider carefully, and make any level changes very small. Whatever you think, make it less. Other than that sit back and enjoy the ride. You earned it! |
Awesome! Congratulations 😁. I have had an absolute horrid time ever trying to get 1 sub to sound good in my set-ups. For some reason I’ve been able to set up 2 different friends systems with only 1 sub that sound great. My brothers setup uses 2 and thats ok, better than 1. Anyhow, once you have heard well integrated subs, its hard to not want them. I have never heard a swarm set-up but I am really wanting to get one some day. It seems like everyone who has tried it loves it. You brought up an interesting point that I have been giving some thought to lately, and that is do you achieve smoother response with some subs at different heights / planes within the room. Apparently you do! And last, if you have any of your subwoofers on one of those somewhat flimsy wire shelfs, you should look into using an aurelex subdude under those! Happy Listenin’ |
@b_limo Thanks! I haven't gotten to staggering the shelf mounted sub heights. But the shelf units I got are the really heavy duty industrial ones. I have them each bolted to a side wall. Never heard of the
aurelex subdude. Just looked it up. Appreciate the tip! Initial overall impressions are that the bass can be augmented to levels that would otherwise muddy everything using just one or two subs. I can raise the gain higher than normal to bring out certain cello passages without adversely affecting the mids and highs. Having just conducted listening tests with one, two and finally four subs, I can truly attest to the audible differences. Even a newbie like me can hear the incredible improvements. Interesting point: My fiance asked: Why not just raise the bass on an equalizer?". I told her to have a seat and listen as I first raised the gain on the Dayton amp (Swarm). I then lowered the gain all the way and turned up the bass on the equalizer. Less than 30 seconds go by and I didn't have to say a word. I heard her loudly say: "Switch it back please! That was hurting my ears!" The LRS sound really awesome now with the Swarm. I just switched out the LRS and hooked up my Ologe 5s. Excited to see how they sound with the Swarm. |
- 71 posts total