protoss71-
After doing more research, a distributed bass array seems like a much
better idea than a single huge subwoofer. I’m surprised I have not seen
anything about this before. The price of the audio kinesis swarm seems
reasonable for four passive subwoofers and an amp.
Right. I had tried and looked into so many things for so long and had pretty much given up and decided really fine bass response is impossible given the realities of room modes. When I first heard of DBA almost 2 years ago it seemed like just another false hope until reading the research and theory it kept coming up more and more solid.
Finally early spring 2018 I built mine very similar to the Swarm- same Dayton amps, 10" Morel drivers, Parts Express cabinets. Two sealed, two ported. From the very beginning it was obvious all the glowing reviews are justified. Even without tweaking a thing it was easily the best bass I ever heard, anywhere, ever. A far cry from the incessant fussing and checking and then still never feeling its quite right that we all get with a sub, EQ, tube traps, etc.
I did do a lot of that same stuff, trying different locations, tweaking phase, trying different wiring configurations, all of that. In the end the DBA concept is so strong it turns out all you really need to do is plop them down somewhere near some walls, adjust the level, and enjoy.
As for the Swarm itself, at one point in the research I came across the account of an audiophile with a $30k subwoofer budget. Yeah he had $30k allocated just to subs. So of course he was auditioning and comparing everything up to $30k. He went with a Swarm. Now why he didn't go with four or five even better subs I don't know. Point is, he heard em and four beat one all the way to $30k.
I was surprised at not hearing of this sooner myself. The seminal research was done something like 30 years ago. That was doctoral research. But its been pretty well known in audiophile circles a good 20 years. Yet it still seems a well kept secret.
I chalk it up to the typical audiophile and his inability to understand anything, especially anything not being mindlessly repeated ad nauseum by other audiophiles. There really is almost no ability to think independently. Just look at this thread. You asked a reasonable question, which almost no one is interested in answering. Instead they go on and on about how many models Tekton has, how can anyone have so many models, oh look another Tekton fanboy, yada yada yada freaking yada.
So congrats on actually taking the time to do a search and figure something out - and then have the courage to post it.
We now return you to our regularly scheduled irrelevance.
Oh but first in case you haven't seen it here is my system. Note the comment from a recent visitor. Notice what he said about the bass.
https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367
