Tekton Brisance

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

speedbump6 is right. The "variety of reasons" is really one: bass modes. Because, physics, every sub in every room has areas where bass frequencies reinforce or cancel out. The old school approach was to move the sub around trying to find the smoothest response, then maybe try and EQ out the inevitable highs and lows. 

EQ never really works. The problem is that while EQ can get even response at one location, the resulting uneven signal is being put out by the sub all the time. So in all the regions being boosted too much bass is being put into the room. All the sonic energy that goes into the room from a speaker bounces around the room exciting everything in the room and causing it to reverberate and emit its own delayed sound right back into the room. By boosting the bass EQ actually makes this worse. The poor person using EQ then has to run out and spend even more money on tube traps trying to suck up all the extra bass he paid all that money to put into the room in the first place. So many audiophiles still think this is the way to go. Sigh.  
DBA takes advantage of room modes by putting several subs in different locations. All the different locations create bass modes in different areas. Because there are so many they add together so no single one has to be all that powerful. Because they are less powerful the lumps in their bass response is less as well. All together the result is much, much smoother bass. Without EQ. Without all the extra energy going into the room the bass is fast, taut, articulate. Like you never heard before. 

Its one thing to talk about. Its quite another to actually experience. Its not that the other ways of doing this don't work at all. They do. Just not anywhere near as good. 

Its hard to have too much bass. Four or five Brisance might just get you there. I would go with four of the 4-10's and one or two Dayton SA-1000 sub amps. Or if you already have some subs then whatever it takes to get you to four or five. Then you can either tweak what tiny amount of uneven response remains with your EQ, or ditch it altogether.

Probably awesome. Equally probably still be better with several rather than just one. Search DBA. 

My Moabs should be built next week. So very soon will know just how good they are, with and without my DBA. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367