Best Bass Amp!

ptheo,

     I understand you're just looking for a good bass amp but I hope you're open to a suggestion that will provide state of the art bass response to your room/system that will also integrate seamlessly with either of your very good pair of speakers.  
     It's the Audio Kinesis Swarm distributed bass system and the complete package sells for $2,800 with your choice of wood.  It consists of 4 medium sized 4 ohm subs with 10" woofers driven by an included 1K watt class AB amp. The subs are positioned throughout the room in a specific step by step procedure that results in flat perceived bass response down to 20 Hz throughout the entire room, not just a predetermined sweet spot. 
      I'm not a seller, just a very satisfied user with a pair of large Magnepan panels in a system used for both 2-ch music and ht.  I could write a long post describing exactly how well this system actually performs but I discovered this Absolute Sound review of the Swarm bass system (link attached below) is a very accurate description of what to expect and what I experience in my 23' x 16' room.  I'm sure you could repair and sell your very good pair of Kinergistics SW-900 multi-driver subs at a good price.

Tim

www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/audiokinesis-swarm-subwoofer-system/




   

Test

Sorry, I'm having trouble posting.

Tim

millercarbon,

Amen, brother!  
     DBAs are just laid back super cool cats, taut, ultra smooth, extremely articulate and with a sexy deep alto voice that makes the ladies swoon.  But give these guys the right signals and they'll just get as tough, loud, bombastic and powerful as the situation calls for.  But they're always under complete control, able to quickly start and stop as necessary.


Tim 

ptheo,

      I think you need to decide whether you prefer very good bass response at just your listening seat's sweet spot or sota bass response throughout your entire room.  
    I believe your SW-900 subs are a pair of tall tower type subs with 6 10" woofers aligned vertically in each. Based on the quality of these and your speakers, I have no doubt you could arrange all 4 speakers (2 subs and 2 main speakers) in front of your listening seat sweet spot to get good bass response along with very good mid-range/treble response, good imaging and create a good sound stage illusion.   At all other standing and seating positions in your room, however, not only will the imaging be unavoidably nonexistent but the bass response will vary in quality due to bass modes present in the room (spots where the bass is noticeably exaggerated, attenuated or even non-existent throughout the room). If this is acceptable to you, then all you actually need is a good bass amp to drive your subs.  
    If not, the Swarm distributed bass array system I mentioned earlier would provide sota bass response throughout your entire room so that others in non-sweet spot locations can still enjoy the music being played in high quality full range sound.
    Another benefit of the Swarm is that the 4 subs (12x12x28 in. each and 44 lbs) would be positioned around the perimeter of your room, each facing and less than 2" from the wall, on spiked footers and the speaker cable connections hidden on the bottom. This results in the subs appearing in the room as pedestals in the wood of your choice like those seen at fine stores and art galleries. My wife usually has a vase with fresh flowers sitting atop one of the 2 subs visible in my combination living, music and ht room.  
    I know you have at least 2 pairs of excellent high quality speakers that I know would integrate seamlessly and sound great being paired to an excellent high quality distributed bass array system like the Swarm. I always had difficulty trying to pair 1 or 2 subs to my large Magnepan panels in my 23'x16'room. The Swarm I now use was the ideal solution and I don't believe I could overstate how well this system performs, truly sota for music and ht. The Swarm subs would not be positioned directly in front of your listening seat but the articulate bass will sound like they are. This also allows for only having your 2 main speakers needing to be optimally positioned in relation to your listening seat without the need for the pair of SW-900s and the Swarm subs along your room's perimeter.
      The SW-900s are still very good subs but I'm almost certain the Swarm distributed bass array system will outperform them in bass response quality, integrate more seamlessly with either of your main speakers and definitely be less conspicuous in your room.
    If you'd like to learn more about them and how it performs in my room and system, here's a link to a thread I started awhile ago here on Audiogon:  

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/anyone-else-using-an-audio-kinesis-swarm-or-debra-distributed...

Tim

ptheo,

     I misunderstood.  I thought you were looking for high quality bass performance that is very articulate, natural and integrates seamlessly with your Apogee Stages or your Dali Megalines but is still flat down to 20 Hz.      You've made it clear you're more interested in high spls and high quantity of bass rather than high quality bass. 
     You're obviously not familiar with high quality bass in your system since you'd rather sit in front of a pair of arena rock concert bass towers.


My mistake,
    Tim
 
     

peter-s,

How was my response rude?
This is a forum meant to discuss audio and ht issues in an effort to help members optimize their system’s performance. The accumulated knowledge and experience of Audiogon members is substantial and is willingly shared with others that require assistance.
I happen to have significant knowledge and experience gained in my many years of attempting to attain very good bass performance in my system, in my 23’x16’x8’ room that integrates seamlessly with my large Magnepan panels that only have useful deep bass down to about 35 Hz. I’m thrilled to have discovered a bass concept that provides sota bass in my system and room for both 2-ch music and ht. It’s called a distributed bass array (DBA) system which I’ve previously described.
When I read ptheo’s initial post stating he was searching for a pair of good sub amps he only mentioned that he used 2 high quality pairs of speakers. Apogee Studio Grands and Dali Megalines. He made no mention until subsequent posts that he intended to use a pair of large SW-900 tower subs with his very good main speakers.
I mistakenly thought, based on the quality of his two pairs of main speakers, that he’d be interested in a DBA bass system that would allow excellent bass response to the known excellent mid/treble response of both of his main speakers.
My intention was to assist ptheo by going beyond just offering suggestions of good bass amps and offering a bass solution in the DBA that I thought he wasn’t aware of and that I knew would integrate sota bass response seamlessly with either pair of his very good main speakers.
Unfortunately, I was surprised and disappointed to learn from ptheo’s subsequent posts that he clearly preferred increased bass volume and quantity to bass quality.
My perspective is I simply stated this without any intention or evidence of rudeness.
If you or ptheo perceived my previous post as rude, then I apologize and assure you that wasn’t my intent.

Tim

ptheo: "  I also stated Noble100 because of my room layout I cannot put subs on every wall in the room for DSA but you choose to ignore that.  Since I also will be using my system for home theater 60% of the time I want the extra capability low distortion woofers when needs for dinosaur stomps. I will be utilizing Dspeaker anti mode 2.0 different EQ curve music/home theater selection for that purpose. Curious, won’t I get much lower distortion at 20hz 115db with LSVA twelve 10” woofers vs DSA four 10” woofers?!"

Hello ptheo,
     I'm glad you're main concern is bass quality and not bass quantity. You are correct I did not notice you stated that you cannot put subs on every wall due to room layout. However, I did not choose to ignore this I just failed to notice this statement. It is also not required with a DBA to have a sub on every wall, just that the subs are well dispersed within the room.
     " Curious, won’t I get much lower distortion at 20hz 115db with LSVA twelve 10” woofers vs DSA four 10” woofers?!"

     Well, I believe you'll likely get a higher volume of deep bass at 20 Hz with twelve 10" woofers pointed at you than four dispersed throughout the room each facing away from you but I'm much less certain it would be lower distortion and higher quality deep bass.  

Best wishes,
   Tim