Transducers Under Your Home Theater Seating

[Beatmatcher247]

ButtKicker®

I had an oppourtunity to "feel" the above product mounted under some power reclined theater chairs this weekend. I thought it was going to be pretty underwhelming but it was pretty impressive the amount of chair-shaking you get out of one of these. It was crossed over at 40 hz so that every car door slam doesn't shake you in your chair. Only the chunkiest of explosions/LFE.

What experiences have you guys had with these products? Do you find them to create a more immersive experience or would something like this take away from the immersion for you?

Do any of you have experience with both the Buttkicker and Clark Synthesis products and able to comment on why you like one over the other? Some people write about liking to use a mix of both products.

Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Clark Synthesis TST429 Platinum Transducer

Not planning anything in the immediate future with these because money can be better spent elsewhere first, but definitely plan on doing something with these at some point.

 

[j_garcia]

A buddy of mine had them on his couch and they do exactly what they are supposed to: add that vibration, which is all you perceive from very low bass anyway. He had them because he was in an apartment, so he went with a toned down sub and the butt kickers to add the feeling without having neighbor issues. I liked it the effect. Tactile transducers previously came to audio in cars where you would basically have them attached to your seat to give the impression of more bass.

 

[Beatmatcher247]

I know the military uses the clark synthesis products in some of their combat simulators. This has me thinking if its good enough for DoD combat simulators, it has to be loads of fun under your theater seating.

 

[Beatmatcher247]

No audioholics tranducer love!?

 

[jay21112]

I have a dual recliner/loveseat with 2 buttkickers and 2 Clark Synthesis Platinum Transducers wired to it. One of each under each chair. The buttkickers are hooked into the LFE and the Transducers into a mixer taking the signal from all speakers (7 channel surround right now) and feeding into a left and right transducer.

It takes a while to adjust them to mesh with your speakers instead of overpower them, however once you do it, you'll wonder why everyone doesn't.
And once you have them on and have been using them, if you ever turn them off during a movie, you'll feel like the sound just went flat.

I'm still in the "build" process, but once I'm done I'll post pics and notes on the install. ...just don't hold your breath for them, because with my busy life, it takes a while to finish projects like these...

 

[djreef]

I know the military uses the clark synthesis products in some of their combat simulators. This has me thinking if its good enough for DoD combat simulators, it has to be loads of fun under your theater seating.

...or gaming.

I had the originals run in series (to 8ohms) with an xternal crossover mod run by a small PartsExpress subwoofer amp in my old apt HT setup. It was hella fun to play with. With a little trial and error, concerning mounting sites within the structure of the seating arrangement, they can be very convincing. It takes a bit of work though to create the right feel. It's real easy to overdo it to the point where it feels artificial.

DJ