Aurasound AST-2B-4 Pro Bass Shaker Tactile Transducer

I purchased a pair of these tactile transducers to mount in my home theater seats. The impact is incredible! Don't get me wrong, I have a 15" servo subwoofer that will easily rattle the windows if I want it to; however, it still doesn't provide the experience that these little beauties provide. The experience is most akin to a high end movie theater where you feel the bass throughout your body. The lowest frequencies can't be heard anyway, but feeling them immediately improves the movie experience dramatically.To hook them up, I split my subwoofer out cable and ran one to my subwoofer, and the other split to a cheap stereo amplifier to the CD input. The result is that the signal coming into my 2nd amplifier includes only the low frequencies as established by my crossover in my 1st amp, which is set to 80hz. I hooked the bass shakers to the 2nd amp speaker outputs and can now adjust the "volume" of the bass shakers by using the volume control on the 2nd amp.Even with my volume turned down quite a ways, the bass shakers provide the illusion of an enveloping sound field and live action. I couldn't be happier with these products. I actually had to turn them way down since they shake so much. You don't need a much more expensive solution since these will output more shake than you'll ever need. I turned them way down because initially they shook too much and created a very artificial experience. With them turned down, they are much more subtle, yet they still shake my theater seats quite a bit.

Great addition to give tactile feel in my home theater. I currently just have one installed on the foot portion of my recliner since noone else really digs on the tactile sensation of bass like I do. I ended up getting a cheap 50W stereo amp with RCA in/out to drive it and it gives plenty of rumble. I have it connected to my minidsp 2x4HD to adjust the crossover so that it only kicks in on 40Hz and lower. I can only imagine it would be even better if I was able to mount it directly under the seat or somewhere closer to the lower back section of my recliner, but the options were pretty slim for mounting with my particular recliner.

Perhaps useful to compare side to side with a Buttkicker Concert Mini which as far as I can tell is the same as the driver in the Buttkicker Gamer 2. I've run these off the same amp with the same settings out of Simhub to compare them side by side.Pros:- these don't overheat. You can push them to the point that it feels like their giving their best without maxing out at certain frequencies and yes, they get a bit warm, but they don't go into melt down.- the mounting surface is flat, and as long as you have the space very easy to mount- cheap!- adequate response for corner use, in my rig anyway.- doesn't have major piston slap issues in a specific frequency range as far as I can tell. It's either fine, or volume is too high, unlike the BK which can be frustrating because you have to set the amp to avoid the low hz piston slap, and in so doing lower volume where it's much more capable (or eq out 20-30hz a little).Cons:- does not have the same deep resonance that the BK is capable of. That BK thrum that you can get from low revs is just excellent, but I've it's getting that by working hard in the 20hz -30hz range, and that's what makes the BK overheat.. so I can't really give the BK a complete win here.All in all I think it's a product that "just works". It's not the best response available, but it's easy to dial in and enjoy for hours.

These are nothing short of awesome! I have two subs in my home theatre setup, driving at 800 and 1500 watts, and can play down to around 25 Hz, 28 Hz with decent level, so I'm not lacking for bass or punch. However adding these gives an amazing tactile kick, adding depth to the system and completing the experience. Basic frequency testing shows they shake from about 48 Hz all the way down to about 28 Hz, which perfectly compliments my subs. I've experienced no bottoming out or any kind of distorted shake even at levels that are more than what I would think most people would enjoy. They handle hard kicks from explosions and soft transient response from music as well. They peak in the low to mid 40s by a few dB so if this is bothersome to you you will have to use an equalizer to flatten them out. I'm driving 4 of them with a classic Nikko Alpha III stereo amp rated 80 watts RMS. I wired two to each channel in series so the resistance would increase to 8 ohms. I added a simple pre-amp to set the level. Level setting is critical in any home theater and you want to make sure you get this right so they blend properly with the rest of your setup and don't blow apart from being overdriven. A word on mounting - do NOT mount these to a solid part of your furniture such as the main frame structure. You will feel little to no effect. I did this first and was horribly disappointed. I then changed up and mounted one for each seat with deck screws on a 3/4" board attached to the framing for the seat springs. This spring framing "floats" as a 6 point attachment to the main structural frame on 1 x 2s. I had to make sure the board did not touch the main frame, or the effect was reduced. I couldn't be more pleased, they are an amazing deal for the price.