Hi Alan, my guess is that they were running the BK hot at the demo probably intentionally but possibly by accident since I’ve found that the performance of the BK is more sensitive to changes in power (SPL) than regular speakers/subwoofers. The plus the huge variation in the mixing of LFE in movie tracks can make the BK a little of a pain to keep “tuned” in with the rest of your system.
For integrating a BK into an HT having a second customizable subwoofer out can be a great help as it allows for a different distance setting (very helpful with a DSP controlled sub) and for tweaking the “volume” independent of the subwoofer w/o having to walk over to the BK amp itself.
Just to be clear to anyone reading this IMO a Buttkicker is not a substitute for a good subwoofer. Rather in certain situations like apartments, townhouses, houses where the rest of the family doesn’t want to “feel” your movies and gaming a BK can augment a good subwoofer or set of full range speakers so you can have the SPL for the higher frequencies turned up a little higher than the low frequencies would otherwise allow. A BK can also help give more low bass feel w/o exciting room modes that might make low LFE from the subwoofer seem to powerful.
Also not that a BK or other types of tactile transducers won't play higher frequencies than the low base IMO those don’t normally feel right since they wouldn’t normally shake your seating. On the plus side of this there are many movies that have scenes which one would think deserve some very low LFE but all the bass is up in the midbass region. Here a BK can turn that midbass into the feeling of low bass by giving you the rumble you might expect from what you’ve seeing on screen. For reasons of tweaking to get the most out of a BK I do recommend using there purpose built amp since it has high and low pass filters the low being variable which allows for the best integration into an HT system. However, any amp powerful enough can technically run a BK though some of the other brands are better suited for that.
In short a Buttkicker is a useful tool for some situations but not a substitute for a good subwoofer. While I still use my BK in my house since leaving the apartment I find that the utility value of something like this goes down in proportion to how “loud” you can turn your subwoofer up.
Cheers,
Dean
