Hello jdlynch,
Since Duke hasn’t yet replied, I thought I’d give you my input and advice.
I use the Audio Kinesis Debra 4-sub DBA in my system and room for about 40% 2-ch music listening and for about 60% 5.4 home theater surround sound audio. My main goal is for very high quality bass for both and the 4-sub DBA concept definitely provides this to near state of the art levels in my system and room.
You’ve stated your basement system, however, will be used about 90% for HT and your main goal for a bass system is more about providing powerful, room shaking and chest pounding bass.
Duke, knowing the 4-sub DBA concept’s main attribute is its high quality bass, provided the good advice that a better solution for the higher amplitude bass you prefer would be to add 2 larger and more powerful subs to your system and create a custom 3-sub DBA system as he described, although the 2 additional subs do not have to be as large or powerful as your existing Submersive sub. You would gain more bottom end power, impact and more powerful dynamics by adding 2 slightly smaller and less powerful subs while also gaining some DBA benefits such as increased bass detail, lower distortion and more seamless integration of the bass with your main speakers.
In giving his advice that you needn’t add 2 more subs as powerful or as large as your existing Seaton Submersive sub, I believe Duke was referencing Dr. Earl Geddes, the inventor of the 4-sub DBA concept, and his subsequent research and claims that 3 subs in a distributed array can be as effective as 4 subs in a distributed array in some rooms.
I completely trust both of these men’s advice but I have no experience utilizing 3-sub DBAs, only 4-sub ones, and I’m therefore hesitant to offer advice on 3-sub DBA usage. I can tell you that I’ve adjusted the level of my 4 subs but I’ve never adjusted, or even felt the need to adjust, their delay settings. Volume, crossover frequency and phase are the only required settings on an AK Swarm or Debra 4-sub DBA, I seriously doubt it would be different on a custom 3-sub DBA.
You may be interested in utilizing a $200 Mini DSP unit, however, which requires a single pair of L+R channel inputs and allows the connection and advanced control settings of up to 4 subs. I believe it would be very useful on custom 3 or 4 sub DBAs but unnecessary on AK Swarm and Debra 4-sub complete kit DBAs.
Best wishes,
Tim
Since Duke hasn’t yet replied, I thought I’d give you my input and advice.
I use the Audio Kinesis Debra 4-sub DBA in my system and room for about 40% 2-ch music listening and for about 60% 5.4 home theater surround sound audio. My main goal is for very high quality bass for both and the 4-sub DBA concept definitely provides this to near state of the art levels in my system and room.
You’ve stated your basement system, however, will be used about 90% for HT and your main goal for a bass system is more about providing powerful, room shaking and chest pounding bass.
Duke, knowing the 4-sub DBA concept’s main attribute is its high quality bass, provided the good advice that a better solution for the higher amplitude bass you prefer would be to add 2 larger and more powerful subs to your system and create a custom 3-sub DBA system as he described, although the 2 additional subs do not have to be as large or powerful as your existing Submersive sub. You would gain more bottom end power, impact and more powerful dynamics by adding 2 slightly smaller and less powerful subs while also gaining some DBA benefits such as increased bass detail, lower distortion and more seamless integration of the bass with your main speakers.
In giving his advice that you needn’t add 2 more subs as powerful or as large as your existing Seaton Submersive sub, I believe Duke was referencing Dr. Earl Geddes, the inventor of the 4-sub DBA concept, and his subsequent research and claims that 3 subs in a distributed array can be as effective as 4 subs in a distributed array in some rooms.
I completely trust both of these men’s advice but I have no experience utilizing 3-sub DBAs, only 4-sub ones, and I’m therefore hesitant to offer advice on 3-sub DBA usage. I can tell you that I’ve adjusted the level of my 4 subs but I’ve never adjusted, or even felt the need to adjust, their delay settings. Volume, crossover frequency and phase are the only required settings on an AK Swarm or Debra 4-sub DBA, I seriously doubt it would be different on a custom 3-sub DBA.
You may be interested in utilizing a $200 Mini DSP unit, however, which requires a single pair of L+R channel inputs and allows the connection and advanced control settings of up to 4 subs. I believe it would be very useful on custom 3 or 4 sub DBAs but unnecessary on AK Swarm and Debra 4-sub complete kit DBAs.
Best wishes,
Tim