Merits and demerits of bass shakers...

[darksideboy]

.....for hi-fi listening and other stuff
Starting a thread for everyone to share your experiences/expectations with tactile trsnsducers and bass shakers. Specifically in hi-fi settings
How do they compliment standard speakers? Do they enhance or are they detrimental to the sound experience?
Do they really take the audio experience to sub20hz range?
Whats the best configuration you think - on wall, below the floor or some other cool way?
Also experience with exotic stuff like bone conductors.





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[weltersys]

.....for hi-fi listening and other stuff
Starting a thread for everyone to share your experiences/expectations with tactile trsnsducers and bass shakers. Specifically in hi-fi settings
1)How do they compliment standard speakers?
2)Do they enhance or are they detrimental to the sound experience?
3)Do they really take the audio experience to sub20hz range?
4)Whats the best configuration you think - on wall, below the floor or some other cool way?

1) "Standard speakers" may not be loud enough to provide a tactile feeling, bass shakers can provide the feeling without requiring the sound pressure level.
This can be "complimentary" to neighbors who won't hear (or feel) high LF SPL.
2) They are an enhancement if you like to be shook up. Drummers and gamers often like them. They are not what I would call "high fidelity".
3) Depends on the transducers used and the way they are mounted, but some certainly can provide a tactile feeling at 20 Hz to as low as 1 Hz. They should be actively crossed over below 80 Hz (or so), as high frequency energy just contributes to their voice coils heating up and burning out with little "feel".
4) Tactile transducers are designed to move what you are sitting on, not make sound. They are most effective tightly bolted to a seat with little padding, an overstuffed couch will absorb much of the movement.

Mounting them on a wall would do nothing except make the wall rattle, excite narrow band wall resonances, and cause screws and nails to pull out, and pictures to fall off. In the floor wastes most of the energy, and your butt shaking gives a more visceral feeling than your toes being tickled.

Art

 

[norman bates]

Slow, sluggish, expensive if below 40hz.
I think the IBeam goes lowest, flattest........

Ideally you need to isolate a couch on rubber footers.

Great for movies, video games, not waking wife, or upsetting neighbors.

From reviews I read, people still wanted a sub with the bass shaker.

 

[DorinD]

I used a pair of shakers under my couch to improve the impact on movies or percussionist music (piano included) of an already full range horn system.

But the level should be set so low as it shouldn't be perceived at all on the normal listening material. You just sense it when explosions or other extremely high dynamic events are taken place on a track.