Hi Philippe, I’m the Buttkicker promoter you were warned about. I lived in an apartment for 3 years with a full up HT in the living room and never once got a noise complaint despite having my neighbor arrested (yes taken to county lockup) for playing his crappy music to loud at night.
Yup the trick was to turn the subwoofer down, even off very late at night, and using the Buttkicker to give the feel of deep bass, which is how we actually experience it anyway.
Alan is not the only one to think they are gimmicky but IMO if it’s level is tuned in with the rest of my system the low bass feeling is indistinguishable from having my sub turned way up only w/o also shaking the walls. I think most people who have Buttkickers probably run them “hot” so they feel over-the-top. If Sean reads this he can vouch for how it’s worked when he’s been over.
I’ve never really used it for music though that was it’s original purpose, to give bass feedback to stage musicians, though it’s evolved since then. The reason I don’t use it for music is that I’m usually looking for the midbass punch in the chest in music which the Buttkicker doesn’t do.
Otherwise there is really isn’t much you can do that will help to attenuate the very low bass. Placing it directly behind your couch very close may help you a little by having some of the sound absorbed into the couch before it can start bouncing around the room thus allowing you to lower the volume a little. But the reality is that the very low bass is going to pass right through the walls with little trouble.
