Anyone ever heard the Swans 6.1 HT system?

[kexodusc]

Slow week here for me. A co-worker of mine just bought complete HT from Audio Insider - Swans 6.1 HT something or other...
He's been bugging me for a week about how awesome these things are, and to go over and check them out.

He's a 2-channel guy and this is his first HT system, so I'm a bit skeptical about his claims, but he's telling me the Swan 6.1 mains do much better than his Dynaudio Audience 82's for $900 or so less...that's pretty high praise IMO, and I've agreed to spend a few hours putting them through the paces.

I've used a few Hi-Vi Research drivers (Swan's parent Company) in some small designs and heard a few others, and I've generally found them to be very good values... I'll be sure to post my own observations later this week.

This is a name I don't hear too much these days though, just curious if anyone's ever bought or demoed anything by Swan and what I can expect?

I'm becoming more and more intrigued by all the new speaker companies that are entering the mix, and here appears to be another one. We're seeing better speakers sell for cheaper these days, and far more competition than ever. I really think this is where the industry is headed, for better or for worse.

It might evolve into a Sear's Catalog type industry where dealers carry 1 sample of every model and color, and you order what you want...But with companies like Axiom, Ascend Acoustics, Rocket, getting a lot of praise, and the DIY route to speakers booming, I can't see it being to comfortable for the big companies like B&W, JBL/Infinity/Harman Paradigm, API, etc... slowly losing your market share while seeing your profit margins decrease is a recipe for disaster, regardless of how good or bad your speakers are.

[46minaudio]

Slow week here for me. A co-worker of mine just bought complete HT from Audio Insider - Swans 6.1 HT something or other...
He's been bugging me for a week about how awesome these things are, and to go over and check them out.

He's a 2-channel guy and this is his first HT system, so I'm a bit skeptical about his claims, but he's telling me the Swan 6.1 mains do much better than his Dynaudio Audience 82's for $900 or so less...that's pretty high praise IMO, and I've agreed to spend a few hours putting them through the paces.

I've used a few Hi-Vi Research drivers (Swan's parent Company) in some small designs and heard a few others, and I've generally found them to be very good values... I'll be sure to post my own observations later this week.

This is a name I don't hear too much these days though, just curious if anyone's ever bought or demoed anything by Swan and what I can expect?

I'm becoming more and more intrigued by all the new speaker companies that are entering the mix, and here appears to be another one. We're seeing better speakers sell for cheaper these days, and far more competition than ever. I really think this is where the industry is headed, for better or for worse.

It might evolve into a Sear's Catalog type industry where dealers carry 1 sample of every model and color, and you order what you want...But with companies like Axiom, Ascend Acoustics, Rocket, getting a lot of praise, and the DIY route to speakers booming, I can't see it being to comfortable for the big companies like B&W, JBL/Infinity/Harman Paradigm, API, etc... slowly losing your market share while seeing your profit margins decrease is a recipe for disaster, regardless of how good or bad your speakers are.

The Swans use a 13 dollar tweeter .http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=297-409
How they implement it is another story I cannot answer.The Rockets use the Vifa XT again how they implement it is another story.Did your friend level match the Dyns and the Swans before this conclusion?The problem with internet direct fans I see,Is they get a little on the cultish side.I was here when Norh was the big rave,and anythig said that was not positive the poster was a troll.So I tend to take some of these( MY internet direct speakers blow away speaker brand A,B, or C at half the cost with a grain of salt).

[kexodusc]

The $13 tweeter means nothing, often you pay more for a tweeter just to get a lower Fs, not sound quality or increased resolution, a few hundred Hz of lower response can double or triple the cost of a tweeter, not always worth it IMO. Hi-Vi is a real heavyweight in the value market...I used one of their 3" full-range drivers in a small home theater system...$10 driver sounds better than the $30 drivers in my Paradigm Atoms above 120 Hz. Then again the tweeter could really suck. The Vifa XT is a good tweeter, a bit overpriced compared to some Seas options though... I have the XT18WO09 7" woofer in my tower speakrs....They're $100 a piece, but worth it IMO. In a 3 way or with a decent mid-range woofer you can get away with cheap tweeters. Being built in China with American QC probably cuts costs quite a bit too over the average European stuff...and with all due respect to Dynaudio, they're drivers were consider way overpriced when they were available on the DIY market, and haven't been missed at all when they were forced to withdraw. I've always considered the floorstanders over-priced, but then I think most floorstanders are over-priced. Dynaudio makes some great standmounts.

I thought the same thing about the level matching etc, but this is a case where I don't think it applies as much as in-store demo. He's had the Dynaudio's for a few years now, and I assume is quite familiar with them. Right now he preferes the Swans, whether it's just initial excitement clouding his judgement, or something of substance I don't know...We'll see, I'm trying to make it over tonight.

You are absolutely right about the "cultish" tendencies of internet-direct speaker owners....but I don't see it being much worse if at all than any other speaker owners...People are pretty defensive about their purchases, don't like being second-guessed etc. When I first got my Axiom M3Ti's I was pretty disappointed with them and said as much..I might as well have said the world was flat, I got flammed so bad I never went back. I've since determined they are just very fussy speakers that don't have much bass extension, but when setup right, are quite good, much better between in the midrange than a lot of speakers I've heard in that price range.

I'll be sure to let everyone know what I think, maybe I'll drag my Studio 40's with me for another reference point.

[46minaudio]

Hi-Vi is a real heavyweight in the value market...I used one of their 3" full-range drivers in a small home theater system...$10 driver sounds better than the $30 drivers in my Paradigm Atoms above 120 Hz.
I agree,as I posted how they implement it is another story.I was going to use the same 3" driver in my T-AMP boom box project.The 81 dbs at 1 watt forced me to use somthing else.I have 4 now that I am waiting to use.Maybe a MTM with the little Dayton tweeter???.If I went Internet Direct I would give VMPS,ACI,and GR research a strong look.

[kexodusc]

GR gets a lot of good praise, but to be fair I don't really consider them internet direct for commercial speakers, as I think Danny Ritchie gets most of his business from the DIY crowd...could be wrong, but they're a bit different than say Axiom or Rocket. I think HI-Vi generates most of it's business from the DIYmarket too, although I've read the Asian hi-fi market is 10 times the size of the North American market, so maybe Swans are big over there?

I've only heard ACI's subs...Pretty damn good for the money...Didn't ACI use to be a kit only vendor way back?

[Buzz Roll]

I never understood why Swan publishes their step response tests - they're the worst I've ever seen...