The Swarm Subwoofer System received a Product of the Year Award for 2015, and Editor's Choice and Golden Ear Awards in 2015, 2018, and 2019. How often does a product receive not ONE but TWO repeat Editor's Choice and Golden Ear awards? For Robert E.Greene's original May 2015 review, see http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/audiokinesis-swarm-subwoofer-system/.
The main obstacles to natural-sounding bass reproduction are the inevitable room interactions, which impose large peaks and dips on the bass response. By using multiple subs spread asymmetrically around the room, each sub will produce a unique peak-and-dip pattern at the listening position. The combined average of these unique peak-and-dip patterns is much smoother than any one of them would be, resulting in more natural-sounding bass with excellent pitch definition.
The Swarm modules use Room Gain Complementary tuning; that is, they have a gentle roll-off across their passband that is the approximate inverse of typical room gain from boundary reinforcement. Typical room gain from placement near a wall is 3 dB per octave below 100 Hz, and so the Swarm modules roll off at about
3 dB per octave from 100 Hz down to 20 Hz.
The Swarm is unusually user-adjustable to deal with problematic rooms. One or more of the subwoofer modules can be converted to a low-Q sealed box by plugging the port, and many users report improved in-room bass smoothness from inverting the polarity of one of the subs, further decorrelating the in-room bass energy. Decorrelation of bass energy is desirable if the goal is smooth bass, and it should be, because smooth bass = fast bass; it is primarily peaks in the bass region that make the bass sound slow, boomy, and otherwise unnatural, and poor speaker/room interaction causes those peaks.
A single high quality shelf-mounted amplifier drives The Swarm, and the subwoofer modules are connected in series-parallel. A second amplifier can be added if stereo operation is desired.
The Swarm Specifications
Type: Four-piece powered multisub system
Woofer: 10" long-throw rated at 600 watts thermal
Typical in-room bandwidth, vented box mode: 18 Hz to 100 Hz
Typical in-room bandwidth, Qtc = .50 sealed box mode with 25 Hz boost engaged: 22 Hz to 100 Hz
Dimensions: 22" tall x 12" wide x 12" deep
Weight: 44 pounds
Amplifier: Kilowatt-class AB amp w/ 4th order variable lowpass filter, continuously variable phase control, single band parametric EQ, switchable +3dB @ 25 Hz bass boost, and switchable 18 Hz infrasonic filter.
Pricing: $4400/system + shipping in Satin Black; Oak, Walnut & other finishes available at additional cost. Direct sales only.