I bought the Swans M5A

Speakers & Subwoofers
21

So I’m thinking about pulling the trigger on the Swans M5A. Any feedback on how they sound in a small room (say an office) and near field and mid field listening? Say 6 feet away…

Is the ribbon tweet smooth and is it solid or does it sound cheap? So ribbons can be amazing while others are implemented terribly.

How about at low listening volumes how is the performance there? Finally what Dac are you feeding them with?

22

They sound better than my S3000pro’s, the sound stage is huge and the imaging is wonderful, movies, music both sound great! I listen to them near field and have no issues, the mids and hi’s are beautiful. You will not regret it, besides the sound, the build quality is next level. They were worth every penny.

I feed them with a topping dx7pro balanced with xlr’s. They have their own dsp correction so the speakers have a dac built in.

Hope that helps. lol

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23

Thansk for the feedback!

One final question… do you find that they are acceptable without a separate sub or would you prefer to add a powered sub in a smaller room? Is the bass rolled off

24

I have a small 8in airmotiv s8 enclosed powered sub, like 200ish bucks to take care of my low end. Never tried the M5A’s with out it. But with 3 8’s I have no bass issues. lmao

25

I have a pair on order, coming in a week. They are big, almost like full size speakers. That is what I like about them. They are not dinky little book shelf units. I ordered custom stands for them, because stands this size are really hard to find.

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26

Can I ask two questions?

  1. How big is the sweet spot with those ribbon tweeter? For example, if you have a sofa for three persons with a chair on the left or right side of the sofa, do you notice a big change in the sound if you sit on a chair or one site from center of the sofa?

  2. Do you know notice a big sound change if you stand up instead of sitting down for vertical dispersion?

  3. Does this speaker have enough body or weight to the midrange? Meaning doesn’t sound thin?

Thanks and congratulation on your speakers. Your room looks very cool.

27
  1. How big is the sweet spot with those ribbon tweeter? For example, if you have a sofa for three persons with a chair on the left or right side of the sofa, do you notice a big change in the sound if you sit on a chair or one site from center of the sofa?

So this is an easy one, I have only used them in my office, and if I go into the -20’s at all on the topping they absolutely fill the room, like the room is the sweet spot. I just listened to Metallica’s One, I had to stop it half way through to digest what I was experiencing, kick drum bliss… Full transparency, Im in an office that is sound treated, and I have a airmotive powered 8 in sub all being fed by topping dx7pro balanced.

  1. Do you know notice a big sound change if you stand up instead of sitting down for vertical dispersion? nope
  2. Does this speaker have enough body or weight to the midrange? Meaning doesn’t sound thin? No if anything this is where these things shine, the sound is detailed, wide and crisp, while these have 8s and can make good low end I would rec a small powered sub for the lows.

Excuse typo’s several beers deep. =)

28
  1. Swan have a lot of mids
  2. I think sit down and standing only affect nearfield the most, stepping back 2 metres and its not that bad at all.
    1.If you don’t rotate your speaker to a certain degree, like 15 degs inward , then the affect isn’t that bad for home theater, though, for critical listening, only 1 person at a time =)
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29

Thanks for the detail answer. I love wide horizontal dispersion and base on your description it is more than 120 degree. The Airmotiv is the opposite where it have a very narrow sweet spot. I guess ribbon tweeter is different from AMT driver. That’s good to know.

Right now it is out of stock in Amazon. Even the Swans D300 is out of stock too. But the D300 have a waveguide that might limit the sweet spot.

30

Thanks for the reply. So it’s full body mid is what I like. That works out perfectly in my situation since our sofa is at least 2 metres from the listening window. I’ll have to wait for restock in Amazon now.

31

I have these, and I’d like to inquire if I add a subwoofer, will it increase the strength, power, and output of my mids and tweets?

32

Short answer would be No.
Adding sub before the speakers might cut or cut’s the FR from low end of speakers but they perform same way. Sub or no sub.
If they had a dedicated sub output. The woofer might play little louder / better since they do not have to push so hard on the lower frequency range.
Still no effect on tweeter or midrange.

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33

Not every active speaker with a sub out will have an active crossover. In fact, most are just a full range mono output and require you adjust the crossover range on the sub.

34

I know. We still talking about the Swan M5A. Not about every active speaker.
That’s why i left the “might” word in, since we would not know what they would do if they had one.
Well probably the specs, information and manuals would if there was one but anyways.

Even if adding sub before these speakers, like it should be done. It would not change the strength, power, and output of mids and tweets. What was asked.

35

Hey Dominic, I finally figured out my bass and volume issues. It was my driver settings. Oh much better now.

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36

Dominic, these things really hammer now.

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37

Dominic, I can’t figure out how to get back there again though. Do you know how? I think I might need to turn the bass down a touch. EDIT: I found a youtube video about how to do it. Man, these punch now. I’m worried to blow the woofer.

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38

Tell me more about the driver setting? Are you powering from a Mac? Im going Mac to DX7 to xlr balanced, while feeding my sub with rca’s.

39

Well there is what is called a bass booster, which is actually a bass adjustment. I can adjust the HZ it goes down to and how many decibels I want to alter it by. I’m on a regular pc, not mac. It is in a tab called Enhancements… It made a night n day difference.

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40

If you can get into your sound driver settings, do it. It made a hell of a difference for me.

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