AudioKinesis Swarm reviewed in April TAS: "...a revolutionary development..."??

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Duke

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From The Abso!ute Sound, Issue Number 252, April 2015, starting on page 86, review written by Robert E. Greene:

"The AudioKinesis Swarm represents a new departure in subwoofer systems, and to say it works well is an understatement.  It is completely stunning.  To my mind, it is a revolutionary development in subwoofer design."

"It will no doubt be somewhat disconcerting to the makers of large monolithic subwoofers to report the truth here:  The Swarm, in fact, worked better than one or two subwoofers, even when those were DSP-adjusted."

"The Swarm makes bass that has both power and definition.  Go to an orchestral concert and you will get the idea.... The definition aspect is more than a matter of "tight bass" in the audiophile sense.... One can readily follow bass lines in orchestral music in a way that escapes most systems completely.  This is how live bass sounds."

"The clarity [of the bass] combined with its natural level gets one very close to the live experience of bass in large halls." 

"[T]he Swarm, presumably because of its smoothing out of response, largely suppresses the bass signature of your listening room.  And as a result one can hear the original venue in a most unusual way."

"If you are interested in the reproduction of large-scale music, the Swarm will offer new dimensions - almost literally - to your audio experience."

"I think [distributed multisubs] is the future of bass in rooms.  Period."

"The Swarm is such an excellent manifestation of the general idea and at such a reasonable price that one is hardly tempted to do anything except just purchase it."

"...one Swarm is already a new world of bass excellence."

"This is a system that works.  Truth to tell, it seems to me to make even the most magnificent of one-point subwoofers into dinosaurs, something grandly impressive in their time, but their time is over."

Okay not that I'm exactly an objective observer, but it seems like Robert is saying there really is something new, different, and worthwhile going on here. 

If you want to see whether I quoted anything out of context, or misleadingly cherry-picked these quotes, well you'll just have to read the whole review! 

For those who are not aware, Robert E. Greene is not your average human being.  He's at the tail end of not just one bell curve, but several.  He turned down an offer to head the mathematics department at an Ivy League-caliber university to take his current position in the math department at UCLA because the research opportunities were greater.  When I asked him about his day job, he tried valiantly to explain his work on developing the multi-dimensional mathematics of the theory that is the next level beyond string theory.  He is a concert violinist and recording artist, violin instructor (you've seen his work if you saw Russell Crowe in Master and Commander), and he also rescues and socializes abused Doberman Pinschers.  Robert E. Greene is one of those rare people who seems to bring light into the room when he enters it.  Somehow he still finds time to review unusually practical and/or innovative (but still affordable) audio equipment, and the audio world is the richer for it.  It is an honor just to have him see enough merit in the Swarm to want to review it. 

Here is his audio website:  http://www.regonaudio.com/

And, the Swarm page on my website:  http://www.audiokinesis.com/the-swarm-subwoofer-system-1.html
« Last Edit: 14 Mar 2015, 11:00 pm by Duke »

Odal3

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Congratulations on the great reviews. Also thanks for posting the link to regonaudio.many good articles and info to read.

Brian Walsh

Maybe this will start a buzz online. Pun most certainly intended! :green:

Russell Dawkins

That is about as strong an endorsement as I've seen for any loudspeaker system, ever.

REG does not gush, but by his standards, that is pretty much a rave.

So many good ideas get lost in the mists of time. I'm glad that this one seems to be coming to fruition.

Now the work begins. I hope you have connections in China!

Duke

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Thank you much, Odal3 and Brian and Russell. 

Needless to say, I've seen a significant rise in my Swarm sales since the Editor's Choice issue came out, and that has accelerated now that REG's review is out.   I think REG legitimizes the concept in many people's minds, and hey that's fine with me! 

Russell Dawkins

Are you prepared for possible exponential growth?? That's what I meant by "now the work begins".

Duke

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Are you prepared for possible exponential growth?? That's what I meant by "now the work begins".

That's not a problem that I have had experience with yet, but let's just say I would welcome the challenge!   The Swarm would probably be the easiest of my products for me to expand production of. 

I would like to keep production of the empty cabinets local rather than going overseas.  A few years ago I had a bad experience experimenting with overseas sourcing, wherein the builders made a number of unauthorized changes despite my having hired an American company that supposedly specialized in being an intermediary and keeping such things from happening.

At the moment I'm two weeks away from moving to the outskirts of Dallas, where I will have to find another woodworker with a CNC machine, but a few Google searches have reassured me that there are quite a few in the area. 

So I'm not "prepared" at the moment. but think that I could get that way if/when the need becomes apparent.


Russell Dawkins

Good luck with it all - it sounds like you have your hands full and this, after all, is the best kind of challenge to be faced with.  :thumb:

Kenneth Patchen

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Yeah, like what Russel said +2.

"Are you prepared for possible exponential growth?? "

Hey Gate, I love to exponentiate. But I went to your website and The Swarm are located ... where? Shouldn't they be up front and center, at least for a short while?

Duke

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Thanks, Russell!

Yeah, like what Russel said +2.

"Are you prepared for possible exponential growth?? "

Hey Gate, I love to exponentiate. But I went to your website and The Swarm are located ... where? Shouldn't they be up front and center, at least for a short while?

I went back and included a direct link to my Swarm page in my first post above, and here it is again: 

http://www.audiokinesis.com/the-swarm-subwoofer-system-1.html

As for putting the Swarm on the main page, that's a great idea.   In about a week or so, I'll be announcing a new Planetarium system or two, which is the name for my series that uses high-output "satellite" speakers with a Swarm.   At that point we'll put a picture up on the main page that will show the Swarm "in action", as part of a Planetarium system.   
« Last Edit: 15 Mar 2015, 12:22 am by Duke »

Doublej

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Congratulations!

Seems like there may be some BIG money to made outfitting nightclubs with a commercial version. Or do nightclubs just care about thumpa thumpa thump and not care about the quality of their bass.

Duke

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Congratulations!

Thanks!

Seems like there may be some BIG money to made outfitting nightclubs with a commercial version. Or do nightclubs just care about thumpa thumpa thump and not care about the quality of their bass.

I have zero desire to supply subs to nightclubs!  I knew a Sunfire dealer in New Orleans who supplied subs to night clubs.  Every Monday he'd start replacing the ones that had been blown over the weekend.  I'm sure he got paid for the ones they blew, but that scenario really doesn't appeal to me at all. 

If there is a sufficiently idiot-proof setup to survive that kind of abuse, it would take a real specialist to install and calibrate it.  That's just not my area, nor one that I'm particularly interested in.   

JLM

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Was wondering what happened to the swarm satellites.  Worried that in the excitement over recent products they might have got lost.  Also note loss of the Gallo satellites from the site, so thought maybe you had walked away from satellites.

Very much looking forward to the re-introduction of the Planetarium systems.

Brian Walsh


ACHiPo

Congratulations Duke!

jimdgoulding

Duke has a customer down my way with some Sound Labs electrostats using three of his subs in a custom built room.  Physical, majestic and airy the music I played was with no hint of add-on boxes or drivers until his Swarm was bypassed and the stage shrunk.

Odal3

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limniscate

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Duke LeJeune of Audio Kinesis is a true gentleman! He drove The Swarm down from Dallas to Austin and helped set them up at my place for the audition. The system sounded great. It took a while to adjust for the room acoustics, but once it was accounted for, the bass was stellar. Even though The Swarm uses ported subs, they didn't sound slow at all. I would highly recommend The Swarm!

P.S.
The rest of the system was composed of: (1) Magnepan 1.7i, Odyssey HT-3 SE Plus with Kismet Center Board Upgrade, Groneberg TS Premium upgrades, Odyssey Candela Preamp, ODAC, foobar running WASAPI, Equitech Son of Q Jr. connected via Synergistic Research Tesla T3 with Galileo MPC, Groneberg Quattro Reference cables, ICs and power cable to the amp, standard IEC to the Candela (upgrading to Groneberg soon)

dcbingaman

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Hi, Duke.  Just wanted to say hello. 

The Swarm is working well with my Vandersteen 5.1 array and my Meridian G68 processor.  I just got a couple recordings from the Berlin Philharmonic on their new label.  These are Blu-Ray with HD video and DTS-HD Master Audio in 5.1, all channels 96khz / 24 bit.  The bass on these recordings is awesome - the engineers did a great job.

 Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream by Abbado is the first recording I tried.  Unbelievable - it starts out very softly (the fairies wings), but then the entire orchestra joins in and the basses in the hall take over.  It is just like hearing the St. Louis Symphony in Powell Hall here in St. Louis.  I have NEVER heard bass reproduced as lifelike as this in 40 years of audiophilia ! 

Congratulations on a terrific product !

Duke

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Thank you very much dcbingaman!