Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Neighbor problem

I shall take a look.

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

Watch out for the crazy guy with the leather helmet and the buttkickers. Nod grin and back away slowly. Only dangerous when provoked.

Wondering if buttkickers plus a good set of headphones would be the ideal "late night" system ?

When I scaled down my apartment HT in preparation to move I thought about that but couldn’t figure out how to get output from the headphone jack on my receiver and the subwoofer out at the same time, though I really didn’t spend to much time trying to figure it out.

Guess I will have to go the same way as the OP. Heard my neighbor complaining to another one the noise coming from the EP350. Weird thing is that the acoustics of my room sucks so bad that for me the bass does not sound so loud as my neighbor is complaining about.

I constantly have my music cranked. When I have the windows open, you can hear it down the street and across the parking lot at the mall, 100-150 feet from my house. I've had the security guard and others give me a thumbs up etc., but never any complaints from neighbors et. al.

So tonight i talked with my neighbor about this situation. Btw i have a good relationship with him since the beginning. I did a few test at his home and indeed the bass is loud ... i mean very loud. So i maybe end up with a conclusion. I can't have a subwoofer anymore (yes it suck but i dont want piss my neighbor, they have a 3months old baby too).
So what about sell my M3, my EP350 and my VP150 and get a pair of M60 and VP180 center ?
That could give me a decent amout of bass and better frontstage (not close to a sub but understand what i mean) and without disturbing the neighbor.

What you guys think ?

Weird thing is that the bass does not sound so loud while we use the HT, but maybe the sound going through the wall might be kinda loud though. I was thinking about getting some bass traps covering the whole wall we share, this might reflect the sound to the other wall which I don´t have any neighbor. I will ask other people about this. I was thinking the same thing as you, selling my EP350 but I will use it when my neighbor isn´t at home since I know his schedule. Hope things work for you too. Why don´t you consider the buttkicker?

One of the forum members, Tharkun, had a wierd experience with bass... he was running twin EP600s but never seemed to be getting as much bass from them as you would expect. Part of the problem was a big glass wall (so not much room reinforcement) but it turned out that the bass was really loud in the computer room down the hall from his listening area.

We (semi-jokingly) suggested that he move the subwoofers into the computer room so that the bass would be loud in his listening area, not sure if he ever had a chance to try that.