Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater ButtKicker LFE Kit

Does anyone have one of these or tried it. Buttkicker looks like fun, they can be had for around $330.00.

I had bass shakers in my first home theater. I had real movie theater seats, and each one has its own Bass Shaker hooked up to it. The effect was pretty cool. My theater used to be featured on Parts Express' web site when they sold Bass Shakers, but they are pretty much sold out. My current theater does not have any transducers (Bass Shakers or Butt Kickers), but my new one that I am building right now will have them again.

They are no substitute for bass, but they can add great effect at lower volume levels and really give a "feeling" of rumble. I am using them because when I had them before, I found that people first were in awe over the dedicated home theater (that was back before many people had anything), but when they left they talked about the Bass Shakers being the coolest part of the theater.

This time around, I am using 2 old Bass Shakers that I still have attached to a loveseat that was also in my first theater, and I just bought 4 more new ones off of eBay. I have a 320watt (way overkill) sub amp from an SVS PCi subwoofer that I am going to power them with. They will be mounted under the custom home theater seating that will be built for my home theater (once it is installed, it can't be removed without destroying it)...

Anyway, you can get a lot of effect out of cheaper solutions, but the ButtKicker is a great choice if you have the cash sitting around. Of course a D-Box Motion Chair would be totally outrageous, but for $10,000 - $15,000 for a couch, it is outrageous in price too.

Thanks Nick, I was unaware that there may be some cheaper alternatives out there, since my living room is basically my home theatre I thought it would be fun to add something under the couch to give it that feeling of rumble, the kids would love it
I don't want to bolt anything to the floor, but if you have some recomendations for other methods that would be just as effective and save me money, I would love to hear them.

Hey Michael:
I see you live in California. Isn't there a family of illegal immigrants around somewhere that you can hire to hide behind the couch and shake it when you're watching DVDs? Seems like a win-win.

Two very large subwoofers should produce the same rumble effect for alot less cost than those crazy rumble seats.
In having a SVS PCi 16-46 in my house at 60% gain was impressive. I can only imagine a larger version, and two of them. You can feel the air move across the hairs on your arm.

My sub happens to be placed close to my couch, and at the appropriate times, the whole thing shakes very nicely, thank you!

As a follow up I decided to purchase the Buttkicker LFE Kit, received it yesterday and just got it setup. First the build quality of the comopnents are excellent, the amp is rated at 1000 watts at 4ohms and solid as a tank.
I've only had the chance to test one DVD so far WOTW, got the kids on the couch and fired the movie up, I have to say it really does bring a new level to the home theatre experience, the couch was rumbling, the kids were screaming in glee, it was a blast. All I can say is in concert with the eP500 it really is a Buttkicker.