Interesting read here. I am researching the SWARM/DBA system through the forum here and other places. I had B&W Nautilus 800s with two sealed 15" subs, the B&W ASW850 and the HSU Research ULS15. I use a Velodyne SMS-1 EQ and my room is custom built with lots of sound mitigation in the walls, ceiling, etc. from my technology transfer experiences building secure spaces for "organizations". What I like about having the SMS-1 EQ is that I can turn the volume up liberally to enjoy super rock tunes when I want to...I mean thump you in the chest rock, but, I don't always play that way because I am a cool audio geek, and listen to audiophile recordings, or music at normal listening levels most of the time, with the subs blended ever so slightly above the cutoff frequency of 36db for the speakers. I have analyzed and measured slope, roll-off, phase, volume, 12 vs 24 cutoff, etc., for years and feel confident in being able to match my subs with the speakers.
BREAK:
All of that is about to end. I ordered the Classic Audio Loudspeakers T1.5 reference and will be here after all of this Covid stuff is over. So, now, I have some issues. One, the T1.5's are bigger then the N800s's, so subs have to move out of the spot behind, left and right of current layout. Nope, they stick out way too much and are just big, 95 and 90lbs each so cant put them anywhere else. I like my cake and eat it too when it comes to loud music, as described above, with chest thumping bass, when I want to, because I rock and roll, and I do the audiophile lower level listening thing just for listening to music and the details, trumpet here, soft sultry voice there, cymbals splash, etc., but, I love that I can turn the volume way up on the subs when playing Back in the Saddle by Aerosmith, and just go with the beat, no need for audiophile superlatives for those occasions, its just plays loud, and that's what I want and like. So, does the DBA give someone like me the opportunity to rock the house while enjoying the benefits of blended bass the rest of the time? IME, no matter how much you measure a room, and subs, high volume is going to skew your environment as we set a target measuring volume of 80db normally, and adjust whatever EQ if measuring for the warble tones to measure as flat as possible at the pre-set volume and the frequency being tested. I am assuming for most of the time, the DBA would be a great fit for my system due to the smaller size of the DBA system, I can place 4 DBA speakers scattered around the room (33'x19') and not worry about the bulkiness of the subs. I would even have room behind the T.15's for the DBA's and along the walls where I have natural stone columns jutting out, the DBA could just nestle on either left or right side of said column. I know I would have to measure, but that is fun to me. Anyway, long story short, can the 4 speaker SWARM/DBA rock and roll way past the point of 80DB reference points. My subs could produce 120db output if called to do, and do they ever get called for Back in the Saddle. How loud can the SWARM/DBA get? Thanks for reading my mini journal only to get the BLUF at the end.
Audioquest4life
