Experience with various HT seating after attending Market in High Point NC

[RSH]

Gentlemen,

I have spent 2 days at the Market in NC this spring. I have attended the following manufacturer's show rooms, and looked at their seats:

1. Berkline
2. Coasters
3. Jaymars
4. Hamburg by G.A.Brinkel
5. American Leather
6. Some Canadian chairs sold by Ticana furnishings Inc.

I will try to do my best to describe each of them. I will start from the end of the list with the "Some Canadian chairs", which were nicely done and very I would say "cute looking". IMHO they were overpriced and very limited in options, configurations and styles (only two groups available). To make long story short - nothing special and rememberable about these chairs.

American leather - very stylish modern design with solid construction, fairly comfortable. Construction was much better than the Canadian chairs. The limited selection and extremely high price leave this ones for people with deep pockets wanting something exclusive.

Hamburg by G.A Brikel - new company on the market - chairs made in Germany. Top quality - the best from the above list with hardwood frames for their sofas and stand alone recliners and metal frames for their power recline pieces. They use european leather, high density foam, gas pressure mechanisms. Separate controls for adjusting headrest and footrest, and the back support (for specific models only). YOU CANNOT HEAR their reclining mechanism - these are better than Cinematech in this regard. They are priced quite high similarly to Cinematech. The styles are limited though, but I expect they will expand their selection.

Jaymar - very solid construction, firm cushions, top grade leather (no leather/vinyl available), fair selection. I liked the Jaymars quality and look. Unfortunately, I cannot say that they were very comfortable for me - none of their three models which they had in the showroom was.

Coasters. What can I say here - you get what you pay for. They are dirt cheap, and I found that one of their new models was pretty comfortable - I actually liked it a lot. But, the construction is not even close to any of the chairs mentioned above. The leather choice is extremely limited and quite poor quality (my opinion only). I DID NOT LIKE their reclining mechanism. To me the mechanism was too hard to operate - you really need to force the chair to go back after the first reclining position, and this was unacceptable to me. I tried all their chairs - none of them worked to my satisfaction. They do feel like they are made in China, which what they are. And I actually question statements like "For comparison the Studio series are basically identical to the Berkline 090 series" . I do not think this is a true and valid comparison (again, my opinion only). On the positive side - none of the other manufacturers can come even close to the prices these chairs are offered. So for the people who are on a very tight budget this is quite a bargain.

Berkline. Well, you may say that I am bias, I guess I am, but I will try to be objective. The Berkline had almost all their style groups on the floor, most of them with power recline and installed buttkickers. I will say that the Berkline were the most comfortable recliners out of all for my taste. Surprisingly I found that the most comfortable model for me (I am 185 Lb, 6 foot tall) was the 073. I have the 090s, and the 073s are basically the same chairs with a different form of a back cushion, which supported my head quite nicely. Now I have to think about changing my chairs. The construction of the Berkline recliners is way far from being at the top of the above list. I wish they spent more efforts on improving it. They introduced several new style groups, which are available now, and several new leathers were introduced as well. One model will only work in the Living/Family room environment or in a quite wide dedicated HT room. The second one has similar to 090s dimensions. It has a new CMAX cushion and hidden cupholder, curved armrests and a chaise pieces, which you can add in the ends. The third one is the most valuable. It is similar to 088s but has a TALLER BACK (and it is pretty comfortable) !!! Eventually they did it - folks who have small rooms but needed taller chairs could not have it, now they do... Another cool thing that the Berkline did were lighted cupholders. There is a photo element which reacts on the lighting condition in the room. When the lights are dimmed, it triggers the cupholder lights to turn on, and a very cool blue light is coming out from the cupholders. To me it is just a toy, but it looked pretty cool. What I noticed was that there is a trend of breaking a barrier between "living room" and HT room furniture. The Berkline tries to blend these two together, so you can pick and choose, whether you are looking for sectional seating with the cupholders and power recliners (even with the sleeper sofas), or you need a theater look - they have it all...

Oh, one more thing. The smaller chairs which could not accommodate the buttkickers, will have a new option now - mini buttkicker. This was done specifically by the Guitammer company for the Berkline. They use similar mini buttkickers for the drummers (attaching them to the bottom of their seats). The mini buttkickers in the Berkline chairs are attached to the back rail of the chair and act slightly differently. You feel the kicking not only in your butt, but in you back as well. They are rated at 150W. I still liked the buttkicker LFE better though. I spent quite some time talking to a friend of mine Cliff Adelman from the Guitammer (the buttkicker company). They are working on a product which will have the amplifier and wireless connect receiver built into the chair - this should be a big hit IMHO. I do not know when it is going to be implemented - hopefully by the end of the year.

There are a lot of choices out there, and I only was able to look into a small portion of what is available. There are very high end chairs for the customers to whom the price is no object. To some people these chairs will seem to be overpriced, to some they will get a feel of exclusivity and pride of ownership. There are very cheap and cookie cut solutions out their as well, and many folks will find that these will work just fine for them. Overall IMHO the Berkline was still on the top of the list with their selections, options, configuration flexibility and "Best for the buck" factor.