Guitammer ButtKicker opinions

[bismarck]

Has anybody used one of these before? I was wondering if they actually shook stuff, or if it is some gimmick. I have the sub-12 on a cement floor and i never get to feel the bass.

[chops]

I bought a pair of Aura Bass Shaker Pro's several months back that I

was planning on installing in my '02 Mazda Miata. But after I decided

not to do anything but replace the door speakers and headunit, I sold

the Xtant amps that I never used and decided to try out these bass

shakers on my home system.

I know some people put their noses up at them because that's not "real

bass". Well who cares?! Like you, I have cement floors and right now

cannot afford to build a floating floor for my room, so these are the

next logical thing.

I tell you what, I have them powered by my old '88 Pioneer VSX-4400

receiver and they really give you the impression of much larger, more

powerfull subs. They even sometimes seem to add a little bit lower bass

output where the sub starts to roll off (about 22Hz in my room with my

current DIY sub - about to be drastically improved).

Go ahead and buy yourself a pair, either the ones I have or those

ButtKickers. If money wasn't that much of an issue, I would have the

ButtKicker's also becuase of their power handling and freq range down

to 5Hz. The Aura's are only rated to 20Hz and a MAX of 75 watts, and

they DO fade out rather quickly after 20Hz or so, but they don't need

that much power to be very effective and I still really like them

either way.

Go have some fun and get your butt kicked, or shook. LOL You'll be glad you did! []

[HTADDICT]

The buttkicker is all it is says it is and more, used properly it will take HT to a new level and it is great for gaming also! It's something you have to experience for yourself, but I do not know of anyone who has bought one and hasn't loved it. Buy one and don't look back. Better yet, stop by and check mine out when you are in the area.

[rplace]

I totally disagree. I auditioned seats with them at a store with a complete RF-35 set up. The sound in the room was great, so I can't imagine they had them set up wrong. They could easily turn the buttkickers on and off and ran all the movie passages over and over with and with out them turned on.

At their best they were a novelty and just slightly distraction. At their worst there were a total annoyance. It reminded me of a trip through Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean back in 1974. Totally mechanical and very unrealistic. I would put my money toward a larger more powerful "real" sub woofer.

Just my $0.02

[sfogg]

"I would have the

ButtKicker's also becuase of their power handling and freq range down

to 5Hz."

The power handling of the BK is because they are *extremely*

inefficient. Don't let that sway you in comparison to other options. It

is a negative, not a positive... you need *far* more power with the BK

then with Bass Shakers to hit a similar level of effect.

They do go a lot lower then the Bass Shakers but when they overload it

is *far* more obnoxious.... sounds like a jackhammer... the Bass

Shakers just sort of start compressing. To avoid the obnoxious overload

you either need to turn them down more, put a limiter in place... or

roll them off to avoid the really deep stuff.

Either way be sure to treat them like a subwoofer. Don't run them full

range and take your time to dial them in well. Don't use them on music,

I have my pre-pro automatically turn them on/off if I'm watching movies

as compared to listening to music.

If possible delaying the signal to them to get them time aligned with

the rest of the system can help keep them from being distracting.

I have two of the Buttkicker LFE kits that I have played around with

but haven't permantly installed in the theater yet. Each seat has (2)

Bass Shakers installed push-pull and run off a Crown K2. That is in

addition to the ContraBass (flat to 16hz outside) and the (4) JBL

Sub1500s (just about flat to 10hz in my room... maybe lower)... the

Bass Shakers are still a lot of fun and add to the experience IMO.

Shawn

[chops]

"I would have the

ButtKicker's also becuase of their power handling and freq range down

to 5Hz."

The power handling of the BK is because they are *extremely*

inefficient. Don't let that sway you in comparison to other options. It

is a negative, not a positive... you need *far* more power with the BK

then with Bass Shakers to hit a similar level of effect.

Shawn

I stand corrected. []

It is true that once they are dialed in just right, they can make for a fun experience. I on the other hand do us them with music as well as movies. I have them turned up just to the point that they add just a little itty-bitty tiny bit more shake to the bass shake that's already there from my sub. It really helps out on the very bottom end where my current starts to roll off at 22Hz or so. If you didn't know any better, you would never know that they are there.

Now with movies, I have them turned up just a slight bit more just to add to the impact of the action going on on the big screen. This really comes in handy with those very quite suspense movies like "Signs", "The Village" or "The Forgotten". Oh, and even though it's not a suspense movie, but these shakers are really fun durring the "Pod Race" in Star Wars Ep. I. []