Describe the Buttkicker experience...

[Owen Bartley]

Can someone please give me a little depth on how the Buttkickers actually feel? I know the general idea, but I think I have only had experience with something like them once, and it was more like having a giant cell phone hooked up to the seat and set on vibrate. More of a buzzing than anything else really. I'm sure that they're 100x better than that, but I can't get that impression out of my head. Do the vibrations vary with frequency? Do they vary in intensity along with volume?

[RSH]

Owen,

Are you sure it was a buttkicker and not cheap Aura shaker?

The properly tuned buttkickers will give you a dramatic experience. If there is an explosion in the movie, you feel like your house is coming down. If there is a bullet hitting the wall, you fell that it just went through your body. It is very effective. Again the key is a properly tuned system.

I have also seen people jumping off the chairs beacuse they could not realize what was going on...

[Owen Bartley]

Roman, that's what I thought, and it was probably something like the Auras, it was a long time ago.

What about mounting the Buttkickers directly to floor joists, or is that advised against?

[RSH]

Owen,

Usually there are two methods of using/attaching the buttkickers:

1. In the chair/couch
2. On the built platform

These two methods will give you different effect. The platform mounting buttkickers will give you more of "the whole room" shaking effect. It can also give you a slight delay because of the fact that a lot of mass needs to be moved. The platform should be sitting on kinetic isolators to decouple it from the floor, so no vibration is passed to other parts of the room.

The first method will give you more precise effect. It will have no delay, and will work much better IMHO with your subwoofer(s). The Berkline seats have an option of factory installed buttkickers and come with the isolators which you usually put under the chair feet.

You will find people who will be in both camps - some like it better in the platform, some in the seats. You need to try both in order to decide for yourself which method works best for you.

[Owen Bartley]

Thanks Roman, appreciate all the answers. At least now I can bury the impression of the "cell phone buzz".

[Owen Bartley]

I was thinking about these again, and was wondering... are they supposed to be mounted vertically, or horizontally? Or does it even matter?

[RSH]

Does not really matter how you mount them vertically or horizontally as long as they attached to the frame of the furniture or to a structure the furniture seats on.

The Berkline mounts them vertically on the 3/4" plywood plate, which bolted to the frame of the chair.

[Hakka]

I'm curious about these, I have played around with an Aura shaker years ago but it was crap. My sonosubs shake my whole room/couch on bass heavy scenes, I assume a buttkicker would give me the chair shaking effect at lower volume levels, but would I gain anything at high volume?? I'm just having trouble imagining anything shaking the room more than the subs do now.

Are these available in Australia or do the have to be ordered from the USA?

Thanks.

Harry.

[RSH]

I do not believe that the Guitammer company has the distributor in Australia, but you can give them a call and ask www.thebuttkicker.com

If they do not have the distributor, I would be more than glad to help you out with any of the buttkicker gear.