Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Subwoofer- the monster EP800 or two EP500s?

What if it makes your chair rattle?

Not much, to me, would be less than 20% of all video media with sound produced and distributed via air, cable, satellite or physical storage means for the past 50 years.

That's a fair definition. Not much, to me, would mean that it would be difficult for me to find anything to watch with that low-bass content regularly, but I don't find it that difficult. Of course, I like re-watching stuff, and I buy more movies than most people.

Based on my experience one per row should be sufficient if like in your case each row of seats is sitting on a stage/riser or something other than just the floor. They do make smaller units that in my opinion would be appropriate for individual chair mounting. IMO a full size Buttkicker is overkill for a single chair. Hell if mounted directly to the frame one Buttkicker is overkill for a couch which is why it works fine just using the “foot” pad and resting a couch leg on it. I am just using a modified version of that by attaching mine to a 2x4 and resting the back legs of my three chairs on it. Works great.


I imagine if the BK is going to rattle your chair there’s a good chance the subwoofer would too. I’ve used both my BK and EP500 in two different rooms and never had the BK rattle my seats. OTOH my EP500 has always make something rattle that I subsequently had to locate and “lock down.”

I’ve read up on Buttkickers a lot and don’t remember ever running across anyone having a rattling problem. The only operation issue like that I’ve read about was someone who had it resonating (chair mode as opposed to room mode?) with their couch at a certain frequency. AFAIR the result was being to strong at that frequency and taking extra time for the vibration to dissipate (decay). I’ve also read of people having the dissipation problem if their mounting surface be it a riser or the seat, if mounted directly, is not very ridged.

In both case I’ve used a BK the frequency response and attack/decay are superior to the subwoofer. I imagine It’s because I only run the BK below 40Hz which is to long a wave to resonate with my seating.

Another potential problem with integrating a BK with a sub is setting the distance if you have a subwoofer with DSP. Unless you have a receiver with separate calibrated outputs then the sub and BK are going to be out of sync by how ever many feet the subs DSP chip adds.

One more potential issue is if the receiver applies a heavy correction to some part of the bass that the BK is also playing, that correction is also going to the BK which not suffering from a room mode will now be under powered. In this case a second calibrated subwoofer output could simply be run hot to make up for some of this which IMO would cause a big problem if your only running the BK over a small range like I am, 40Hz > 5Hz.

the back row is on a riser, I assume one unit would attach to the riser to rattle the back row. I just installed Dricor subflooring which is a floating subfloor to let the basement concrete breath and evaporate any moisture. It is a toungue and groove system, figured that the 2nd buttkicker could be installed to the flooring behind the front row. I've hear people say their sub performance dramatically improved once installing Dricor, versus over concrete and carpet.

Thanks for the tip on that. I'll have to look into it.

Thanks Dean! That's why you guys rock. Honest, practical opinions not based on bragging right and suggestions that save money to boot. I will definitely look into the butkicker and start with one ep500 for now.

Your welcome! Post back how things work out for you as it’s always best to get a variety of experiences.

BTW, cool screen name. Vanity was hot in that movie!

I forgot to add that even the physical distance to the subwoofer may cause it to be out of sync with the BK if you can’t set their distances separately.

You know I just re-read your initial post and want to make sure that when you say “the bass you can FEEL, meaning under 20hz” that we are really talking about the low bass rumble that shakes your furniture and not the midbass punch that you “feel” in your chest, the type of bass you would feel at a rave.