Tactile Transducers, (couch Vibrators) check it out, its awesome

[korgoth]

Tactile Transducers

crowson tech has new design of couch vibration. instead of bolting onto your couch, it sits underneath a couch leg and moves up and down.

i bought 2 of them about 3 months ago and its pretty damn cool.


you need a nice amp to run them but its well worth it. probobly my favorite part of my HT. you can move along with the music which is cool, but id have to say watchin an action movie is the best part.. or playing a video game.

very top quality product. and expensive. But they are still pretty uncommon so i just tell people to check them out.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

Cool product, but $650 it a bit of a stretch.

 

[cbraver]

That's nothing new at all. Been around for yyeearrrrsss.

Most popular is Aura Bass Shakers:
http://www.*****************/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=299-028

They make cheaper ones even than that too....and they still work great.

For 600 bucks you should take those back, that's an absolute rip off. You could buy two or three Aura Bass Shakers and it'll do all the shaking you need (I have installed them before).

-Chad

 

[cbraver]

..for some reason this forum keeps blanking out my link all funny. ?????????? What the?!

But, go to ***************** and do a search for Aura Bass Shakers and you'll find them.

 

[cbraver]

What the ****?! Is this forum blanking out Parts Express's URL? I can't type their URL without it getting asierked!?

 

[sts9fan]

they think there is gorilla marketing going on.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

You can't say parts express because when those two words are combined, they spell the bedroom dance. It's not you, just a simple program. Put an 8 between the s and e and tell the readers to eliminate the 8 when they log on. URL's are allowed here.

 

[cbraver]

You can't say parts express because when those two words are combined, they spell the bedroom dance. It's not you, just a simple program. Put an 8 between the s and e and tell the readers to eliminate the 8 when they log on. URL's are allowed here.

That's retarded. The moderators need to change that. Parts Express is talked about all the time on here. And who cares if you say the word "sex"? And sex alone isn't blanked out...so, I'm at a loss here.

-Chad

 

[korgoth]

That's nothing new at all. Been around for yyeearrrrsss.

Most popular is Aura Bass Shakers:
http://www.*****************/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=299-028

They make cheaper ones even than that too....and they still work great.

For 600 bucks you should take those back, that's an absolute rip off. You could buy two or three Aura Bass Shakers and it'll do all the shaking you need (I have installed them before).

-Chad

its not like the other shakers.. they won best new av product of the year, so it something new. Companies have been trying to perfect the tactile transducer for years, but this new one from crowsontech beats them all by far. they finaly made one that can accurately reproduce the motion realistically. The aura vibrates similar to a ps2 controller, which uses a spinning unbalanced object.... the shaking is pretty lame from what i hear. they actually stopped making them and sell them on liquidation for like 30 bucks because they suck,.


650 seems like a lot, but not really.. you could get a cheap one but why would anyone want to do that.. obviously there are reason other ones are one third of the price.. its all about quality, and this is the highest quality one youll find. im pleased with mine. its actually closer to 850 bucks after the amp etc but its worth it.. 850 is just like buying a nice pair of surrounds..

im not tryin to convince other people to buy them, but i was putting out the word,. i think these will get huge soon. people sound mad that i recommeded this product. I wouldnt recommend it if it wasnt cool.

 

[mkossler]

Well, here's one vote for the Butt Kicker.

Imax theaters have one installed for every three seats (or so I am told, I certainly haven't inspected every Imax theater to validate the claim). They are designed to bolt between the joists in the middle of your floor, or can be coupled to your furniture. A complete install kit can be had for seriously less than 650.00.

 

[cbraver]

Well, people usually use them for movies only. The Aura Bass Shakers in my dads home theater were turned off when he listened to music...because they just felt unnatural.

You can attach them whenever you want....the floor, or the actual chairs.

I have no problem spending a bit more for a better quality product, but there simply isn't much to these bass shakers. The Aura bass shakers (err..Butt Kickers, I think that's the official name...) we put in did their job with flying colors.

 

[mkossler]

I do understand why many would think that the tactile transducer would be a home theater-only implementation. The frequency response, normally, would be far lower than anything I would expect from a music track. That being said, the ButtKicker Concert was developed for musicians to "hear" what was being played by the band in large venues and studios, and is still popular for that use.

I was surprised to see you imply that the Aura Bass Shaker and the ButtKicker were the same product. Maybe that was not your intent; it is definitely not my understanding. The ButtKicker has a slightly different approach to things:

Aura bass Shaker: http://www.aurasound.com/bassshaker/body.html

ButtKicker LFE : http://www.thebuttkicker.com/LFE_home.html

Regardless, I have experienced systems with and without the transducers. My (now in-progress - YES!!!) basement HT will absolutely feature a ButtKicker.

 

[cbraver]

Ah, that's right, Aura doesn't make the Butt Kickers. I got the branding mixed up. The Butt Kickers were the ones I actually have experiance with, not the Bass Shakers. My bad.

Regardless, I think the transducers in music is just a preference thing.

Me, personally, when I listen to music I have it at a pretty high volume, so my subs vibrating the room like mad anyways, so I wouldn't mind having a transducer adding to that (with my Velodyne HGS-18...I don't know how big of a difference it would be, haha, that thing hits like a freight train). Some people just don't like to be that "involved" I guess...or perhaps they think it is taking away from the fidelity in some way.

I got a question for you though. The Butt Kickers were installed using a seperate little NAD amp. If I wanted to add a transducer to my 3805, could I use the B channel with a smaller transducer (like those at Parts Express)? Just to play around with.

-Chad

 

[mkossler]

I don't see why not - I'm assuming you would want to bridge both front b-channel outputs with the speakers set to "large" in order to get all of the relevant low frequency signal to the shaker. I'm honestly not familiar with your 3805, Yammie user here, but it seems like a relatively straightforward proposition.

 

[korgoth]

yeah the butt kicker definately seems like a better product than the aura bass shaker, but the design is still a little iffy.. it attaches to the side. or underside of the chair instead of actually using gravity to its advantage.

the one from crowsontech is smarter. It sits under a couch leg so its more like youre actually sittin on top of the shaker itself, instead of the transducer trying to shake everything sideways. its a lot harder to feel a vibration if it was attached to the side, rather than resting between the floor and your couch leg.

ive personally never tried the buttkicker. im sure its cool, but i dont think it really compares in quality with the tes-100


and no.. you need more power than the seperate b channel to run these. Were you talking about a seperate b sub out channel? those are all rca thought right? these connect through speaker wire, plus even if you rigged it to hook up i doubt it would be enough power to even feel anything.

 

[korgoth]

I don't see why not - I'm assuming you would want to bridge both front b-channel outputs with the speakers set to "large" in order to get all of the relevant low frequency signal to the shaker. I'm honestly not familiar with your 3805, Yammie user here, but it seems like a relatively straightforward proposition.

you could try that but youre going to have a crap load of high end noise coming through too.. you need to only have low end freq's coming through or it will work and sound horrible.

 

[cbraver]

you could try that but youre going to have a crap load of high end noise coming through too.. you need to only have low end freq's coming through or it will work and sound horrible.

Well, I can use a DIY mechanical crossover to keep the mids and highs off of it.

 

[korgoth]

yeah i actually did the same thing before i had my amp.

you can try it, but it doesnt really do justive to the transducer. its almost not worth the effort because it makes the product is seem pretty lame. The transducer i was using wasnt getting enough power, im not sure how the buttkicker works but im sure its pretty similar.

from what ive experienced, you have to get it working perfectly or else you wont even enjoy it. my first set up was pretty half assed, and i just kept it turned off.

it is cool to play around with, but i recommend tryin a 30 day free trial. im sure buttkicker has one. i know that crowsontech does.

 

[cbraver]

Nod. I'd probably just have to buy a cheap amp for the thing.

 

[mkossler]

The experience you have is of course going to depend on the amplifier and the transducer. Based on what jetyi83 posted, I expect that he tried somehting more on the order of the Aura, which is much more low-power and is even sensitive to the amount of torque applied to the fasteners- too tight, and you feel little to nothing. This is in marked contrast to the ButtKicker, which employs a linear magnetic driver and should be tightly fastened between two floor joists if not directly coupled to your furniture. Try both, and you will never confuse the two products.

As far as sound - "a crapload of high-end noise" referred to by jetyi83, I am not sure how that would occur, since the ButtKicker (and the Bass Shaker for that matter) reproduce very low frequencies, below the audible spectrum and therefore without "noise". Is there some other symptom (buzz or something) you have experienced when sending a full-spectrum signal to the transducer?

I am sure that jetyi83 is spot-on with his assessment of the likely performance using the B channel without external amplification - the ButtKicker requires a minimum of 500 and a maximum of 1500 watts of power. I should have considered that when I made my previous post - the 3805 might be able to drive a Bass Shaker, but not a ButtKicker.

Well, all in all they're fun, easy to use, and can be had for under 500.00 with the amplifier included. In my case, that is a recipe for inclusion on the HT shopping list .

Cheers -