Home Theater and tweaking

[Bobby Bass]

Am always tweaking the home theater system and this time around I added a Buttkicker to the theater. This is a shaker that the couch sits on and is connected to an 1100 watt amp. It turn the signal that is sent to the subwoofer and drives a piston that vibrates the couch. It goes down to 5hz so you are feeling sounds that you can not hear. Watched Fly Boys and really brought the dogfights right in your lap. Just when I think I have it all tweaked I find something else to play with

[RobertELee]

Where did you get that and how much does it cost?

[Bobby Bass]

Buttkicker is a brand name and you can do a search for it. I bought the complete kit for about 340.00 Amp, kicker, installation plate. If you want more info e-mail me at [email protected]

[Whoaru99]

Do you have your room fixed up with acoustic treatments?

They're one of the very best tweaks going.

Improves every aspect - bass, mids, highs, echo, and more - the whole nine yards...

How about your TV/projector? Have you had ISF calibration done to it?

[Bobby Bass]

My theater is 10x14 so I don't have the box effect of sound bouncing off corners to meet in the center. All 4 walls are insulated as is the floor ( there is a sauna in the basement under it ) I have sand bass catch tubes in the front and the sub sits on a box of sand. There are heavy drapes along two opposite walls. Also the screen is bracketed with more drapes. Sound wise it is pretty good as I have the 5.1 balanced for the room. The buttkicker really adds to the sub letting the low sounds to be felt rather then heard.

[Whoaru99]

With my setup I'm relatively flat (-3dB) to about 17-18Hz, but going even lower with something like the Buttkickers would be pretty interesting I think.

How high up in the bass do you allow them to go?

[Bobby Bass]

After doing some playing around I have the buttkicker active from 5-80 Hz they respond to 200 but I have the high cutoff on. ( if listening to music I turn it back on and bring it up to 200hz ) I run the amp at about 50%volume. Just watched the Marine last night and that movie is wall to wall explosions. Buttkicker did it's part at this setting you can watch an entire show like CSI and wonder if the kicker is on then you get a gunshot and you feel it more then hear it. A nice tweak to the theater. Really gets the looks when I have friends come in and I put in Black Hawk Down and they want to watch the whole movie. Makes the old movies new again. the amp is 1100 watts and will power three kickers, one is more then enough for our heavy leather love seat.