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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!

hleeid
noble100's avatar
noble100
2,419 posts
 
Hello mizike,

     I would read your Rhythmik F12 manual to see if they have a method to connect multiple F12 subs together.  The better sub companies, like Rhythmik, already understand the benefits of multiple subs in a room and have incorporated methods to hook up a single sub and then piggy-back more of their subs off of the first sub, usually at least up to 4 subs total.  The first sub’s settings, for volume, crossover frequency and phase, typically control all attached subs.  The left and right channel bass are usually summed to mono in the first sub and all subs are thus outputting mono bass as a group.  This is optimum for best results but, don’t worry, you’ll perceive the bass in stereo once your main speakers are hooked up.

Tim
noble100's avatar
noble100
2,419 posts
 
mac742:”Just in case anyone wants a good deal on the part-express (Dayton) SA-1000 power amp that Audiokinesis supplies with the Swarm is on sale for $374 bucks - the sale ends on April 30, so jump if ya want one at parts-express.com. Regular price is $549.”

The Dayton SA-1000 amp control unit was also included with my Audio Kinesis Debra 4-sub DBA System. I think this amp is a good performer whether you’re using an AK Swarm/Debra 4-sub DBA system or creating your own custom DBA using 4 spassive subs of your choice.
The SA-1000 has plenty of power at 1,000 watts, has the required 3 controls for volume, crossover frequency and continuously variable phase and it is a class AB amp rather than a class D amp which I believe reproduces bass more realistically and naturally.
I’ve never read other members discussing the differences they perceive between subs powered by class AB vs class D amps but, based on my experiences, I do notice differences. Prior to purchasing my AK Debra 4-sub DBA, I tried using numerous pairs of good quality self-amplified subs all powered by class D plate amps In my room and system. Right away I noticed that 2 subs performed and sounded much better than a single sub and integrated more seamlessly with my fast and very detailed Magnepan Main speakers. The bass was very powerful, dynamic, detailed, smooth, fast ad very taut and tight. Overall, I enjoyed it very much.
With the installation of the AK Debra 4-sub DBA, all the bass quality improvements I noticed with the use of 2 self-class D amplified subs were even further enhanced with the exception that most of the bass tautness and tightness was gone. Initially I missed this bass tautness and tightness but, the more I listened to the 4-sub DBA, the more I realized that the class D amplified subs were adding this quality to the bass. After listening to several music tracks of different genres, I determined that the Dayton SA-1000 powered subs sounded more natural to me, especially when I focused on bass note decays. The decays through the class D amps sound truncated in comparison to the naturally diminishing decays through the Dayton SA-1000 class AB amp.      My theory is that the differences can be explained by the different Damping Factors of class AB amps, typically in the 100-400 range, and class D amps, typically well over 600 and often over 1000. The higher an amplifier’s damping factor, the greater control it has over starting and stopping a woofer’s movement.

Tim

mizike
107 posts
 
Tim, I have checked with Rythmik and they are ones that suggested the Y connections. I just wanted to see if anyone had an opinion on that method. Pros or cons or if there is another suggestion. 
hleeid OP
219 posts
 
@audiokinesis - Duke, you mentioned: 
For unusually demanding applications like yours, there is a custom high-output version of the Swarm which is not up on my website. The footprint is 14" square, the height depends on how low you want to go.  

Does this use the same Dayton amp?
What are the differing heights for subwoofers?
Would the individual heights be varied within a given high-output Swarm?

I know I PMed you these questions but thought to post here so others may benefit from your response.

And thanks again for going out of your way to resolve my refurbished amp issue so quickly!
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,510 posts
 
@mizike, the other way to use four Rythmik subs is to get the XLR2 version of their plate amp. That amp allows one to "daisy-chain" (or "piggyback") two subs together, one as master, the other slave. When so connected, all the crossover/phase/etc. settings on the master amp are fed to the slave, the latter's controls bypassed.
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