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REVIEW: Audiokinesis The Swarm Speakers

Model:	The Swarm
Category:	Speakers
Suggested Retail Price:	n/a
Description:	4 speaker subwoofer array with amp
Manufacturer URL:	Not Available
Manufacturer URL:	Not Available

Review by Mickey Bob on April 02, 2007 at 19:21:33 IP Address: 204.128.192.3

Add Your Review for the The Swarm

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I recently had the opportunity to evaluate Duke LeJeune’s Swarm Subwoofer System. I use the word ‘system’ advisedly as the Swarm consists of five components: a mono plate amplifier and four 5” subwoofer modules. The Swarm is essentially a surround-sound subwoofer system.

The design principle behind the Swarm is simple. Four 5” drivers have the same area as one 12” drivers but.. and this is the whole point … four small drivers are much easier to drive than one large one. Something similar is done in the area of astronomical optics where increasingly a number of smaller mirrors with separate aiming drives are replacing the giant single mirrors used in telescopes of the past.

Just as it’s easier for smaller mirrors to be operated to exacting standards, it’s technically easier for small loudspeakers to reproduce sound accurately. One of the challenges in subwoofer design is the mass represented by a large driver. Once in motion it wants to stay in motion and yet we expect it to switch directions - in and out - 60 times a second for a 30 hertz signal. The more massive the driver material, the less accurately the driver can trace a delicate waveform. Another challenge to the subwoofer designer is the rigidity of the driver material. The more a driver cone flexes, the more it will smudge sonic details. Some subwoofer designers use exotic carbon fiber designs to get a combination of virtues - lightness and stiffness - but the cost of these materials is high.

All these technical challenges are easier to meet with a multiplicity of small drivers each of which is less massive and less prone to flexing. And yet, when the sound out put is aggregated the result is equivalent to a much larger driver. In the case of the Swarm, the four drivers are roughly equivalent to the surface area of a 12 inch subwoofer.

Thus does Duke LeJeune address the technical issues associated with constructing a quality subwoofer. But there is an additional element to consider - room acoustics.

Anyone who’s ever tried to find the best position for a subwoofer knows how difficult it can be. The subwoofer output interacts with the room acoustics in unpredictable ways with the result that different locations in the room get varying degrees of bass. At some points, out of phase reflections meet and cancel each other out. At other locations, compression waves collide and artificially boost the amplitude of certain frequencies. And then you have also to contend with room nodes - those frequencies at which the structural elements of the room resonate adding another befuddling variable to the sonic environment.

By dint of trial and error you can ultimately find a position for the subwoofer which will yield optimal sound at your selected listening position. But the sound quality will change quickly as you move away from that position. With one subwoofer, you can get it optimal in one place at the cost of getting it wrong everywhere else.

LeJeune’s Swarm system seeks to address this problem of room integration through its multiple driver design. The Swarm subwoofer array is intended to be installed asymmetrically. LeJeune reasons that the multiple drivers will create multiple resonances, multiple cancellations, and multiple compression wave collisions. But not only will these various effects be multiple - they will be random due to the asymmetric placement of the speakers. LeJeune hypothesizes that the effect of these multiple, random room interactions will be a soundfield where the various reflections, resonances, and distortions tend to cancel each other out resulting in a consistent sound throughout the listening environment.

The Swarm’s unconventional design includes some new thinking in the crossover design as well. LeJeune has chosen a fourth-order crossover. The salient feature of a fourth order design is a much quicker rise in output compared to other designs. The goal here is to keep the sub’s output below that of the full-range drivers and avoid the ‘smearing’ of sonic details often heard when a sub’s output intrudes on the frequency range of the main speakers.

So… how does this all work out in practice? I would say, based on my experience… pretty well. When paired with my Quad ESL-63’s running full range the Swarm added a nice layer of bass reinforcement right where the Quads needed it. Most importantly, by adjusting the volume and the crossover point, I was able to bring the bass in at just the point where the Quads seemed to roll off. I can’t overstress the importance of this. In other experiments with my Quads, subs always seemed to produce too much output in the mid-bass region where the Quads actually do quite well. When a sub adds its output to this region, it degrades rather then enhances the Quad sound. But with the Swarm, I seemed able to dial the bass in just beneath mid-bass region giving the overall sound more depth and a very satisfying amount of bass impact without compromising the Quads’ legendary transparency and clarity. (I had the crossover set to what I estimated to be the 60 Hz position, and the volume at just below 25 percent.)

The Quads have always excelled at reproducing acoustic music, but with the Swarm added in, the Quads could really rock! The kick drum now really had a kick. And bass guitar had just the right amount of added heft I’ve missed from the Quads in the past. And once again I noticed that none of what the main drivers did well was being compromised by the Swarm. I could keep its output below the main drivers so I could still enjoy their high resolution with the added benefit of a real kick in the bottom. Steely Dan and Roy Orbison really came alive with this configuration.

After listening to some of my favorite CD’s, I decided play around a little bit with a home theater set up. Out went the Quads and in came the Sound Dynamics RTS-3’s. (This is the ‘affordable’ monitor Harry Pearson raved about a few years back.) With this more dynamic speaker I could really crank up the volume. Of course it doesn’t play as low as the Quads so I had to dial the crossover point up to about 90 Hz, and raise the output dial to the high noon position.

Wow. Now admittedly, this was just a stereo system, but with the Swarm helping out, the Sound Dynamics speakers were doing something they’d never done before - throw up large stable images with a vertical as well as horizontal dimension. Symphonic music took on its proper scale. Now don’t get me wrong. In every way the Quad/Swarm system was the overall best for music. But combining the Swarm with the Sound Dynamics gave me a system on which the sound assumed the large scale proportions you need for dramatic home theater. I was able to experience prodigious amounts of appropriate bass quality and quantity. In ”Superman Returns” the planet Krypton exploded not just with a one-note bassy blast but with a palette of bass colors, some actually inaudible. In “Hunt for Red October” (a film which boasts some of best recorded and engineered sound I’m aware of) the Swarm reproduce the various engine noises and ambient environments of the ship settings with a vividness and impact that really enhance the dramatic experience.

As you can see, when properly integrated, the Swarm do an awful lot right without doing much wrong as far as I can hear. Still, there are a few things on the negative side of the ledger. The system would benefit from a remote so you could experiment with various crossover and level settings from your listening position. However… the exercise of getting up and down probably was good for me and I must say that eventually in both cases (Quads and Sound Dynamics) I arrived at what I considered optimal settings and was no longer tempted to keep tweaking. The other point really has nothing to do with the Swarm but everything to do with room acoustics. No matter how carefully you adjust and tweak there will come, from time to time, bass notes that will resonate unpleasantly loudly in your room. The fact is your walls, or ceilings, or room contests are going to be susceptible to various resonances that will cause certain bass frequencies to jump out too loudly. The fix for this is probably some kind of equalization - a feature that some subs do offer. But like the convenience of a remote - this is something that would greatly increase the cost of the system.

On balance, and in summation, the bottom line on my experience with the Swarm is…. If you can spare the room for a four speaker sub array, then the Swarm - once it’s in production - will be an attractive (and, I suspect, a relatively affordable) option. If room is tight, perhaps Duke can be persuaded to also produce a three speaker version, although I understand that the reason he chose four speakers is that it’s the point of ‘optimal’ return. Fewer makes a big difference in quality, more doesn’t.

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Product Weakness:	Four speaker units to contend with, no remote operation
Product Strengths:	Prodigious but musical bass, steep crossover curve that helps it nicely integrate with Quad speakers, relatively immune to placement

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Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Creek 5350
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	none
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Sony mass market cd player
Speakers:	Quad esl 63; Sound Dynamics RTS 3
Cables/Interconnects:	audioquest, straightwire, monster
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	classical, steely dan, home theatre
Room Size (LxWxH):	12 x 12 x 8
Room Comments/Treatments:	carpeted floors, absorbent panels
Time Period/Length of Audition:	4 weeks
Type of Audition/Review:	Home Audition

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