Since I'm not very speaker or amplifier savy I thought I post my quick/easy/cheap/basic way in which I hooked up my 4 bass shakers to 3 chairs using a old prologic receiver that needs 8 ohms per channel.

Note: I zip tied the shakers to the seat springs under my Berkline 099 HT recliners. The overall effect is not a strong on some scenes as expected, but my old receiver is not very powerful. And some movies don't have as much "LFE" as I thought.

2 Pictures to be uploaded.
I have an idea for hooking up 3 pairs on 2 receiver channels as well. If any one needs/wants that let me know I can draw that up as well.

Practical speakers in SERIES wiring.
Good idea for moving/removing a chair from a room for some reason, or if you don't want to run wires from one chair to the next based on spacing.

Hi Bob,
We have a dorm/theatre that has (10) seats, and we were given (10) 25 watt Bass Shakers. We want to hook them up to an amp with (5) going to "A" speakers on the amp and (5) to "B" speakers on the amp. Or (5) to the left channel and (5) to the right.
Our question is how many watts do you think it'll take to drive these puppies and exactly how do you wire these up? We've heard from ppl stating to run these in series, some said parrallel, some said you have to wire them + to - to + due to the ohm loads.
But not one of them (schematics) agreed with the other,,,,,,,,,,,,:confused:

Please help us Bob, its an all girl dorm and we'll do anything ;)

Jessica :)

P.S. 1st row (3) chairs
2nd row (3) chairs
3rd row (4) chairs
(10) total

Originally posted by CineFreak
Hi Bob,
We have a dorm/theatre that has (10) seats, and we were given (10) 25 watt Bass Shakers. We want to hook them up to an amp with (5) going to "A" speakers on the amp and (5) to "B" speakers on the amp. Or (5) to the left channel and (5) to the right.
Our question is how many watts do you think it'll take to drive these puppies and exactly how do you wire these up? We've heard from ppl stating to run these in series, some said parrallel, some said you have to wire them + to - to + due to the ohm loads.
But not one of them (schematics) agreed with the other,,,,,,,,,,,,:confused:

Please help us Bob, its an all girl dorm and we'll do anything ;)

Jessica :)

P.S. 1st row (3) chairs
2nd row (4) chairs
3rd row (4) chairs
(10) total

Jessica,

I've seen some of your other posts and I was also confused by the diagrams you were given...

I'm NOT an expert but I have had an electrical engineering class and read quite a few post before buying.
My diagrams were based on how I'm setting up my chairs based on what I've learned here with buying a NEW subwoofer amp.

Checking your math... You have 10 shakers and 11 chairs... ??
----
I just re-read one of your posts. Some one suggested running many in series to reduce chance of damage but would reduce the total output power.

I stereo AMP would TRY to hook 5 in series to the Left Channel, and 5 in series to the Right Channel.
If mono Split in to two paralel sets of 5 in series.

I would think you need around 250W for the Amp - 25x10=250.
I'm not sure how running 5 in series will affect total output.
I'd give it a try.

My OLD PROLOGIC receiver is low Watts (don't remember amount) but they are shaking the recliners enough if turned almost all the way up. Its probably not helping that I'm splitting the SUB signal 3 times... *shrug*

Do you need a sketch on how to wire them up practically?
I can probably scan/upload it this weekend.
Have you tried mounting them yet???
Aren't there any BOYS at that college that are more than eager to get into your room to HELP you girlies out? *snicker*

Also, Jessica, call Chris in the Part Express wholesale department. He is a guru with Shakers. 1-800-338-0531

Sounds like a good suggestion!

Bob, another thought. Could she use a speaker selector box to control impedance? Some of those you can wire 10 speakers simultaneously.

Speaker selectors put a resistor in-line that makes sure you never drop below 8ohms.. They trade heat and efficiency to get more speakers. We just need to wire them to make sure they hit at 8ohm at the amp. (Or 4ohm if it will handle it).. I've got 4 25watt models on a Polk 100watt plate amp and have it turned down to 25% volume..

How you attach the shakers also have a great impact on their performance and efficiency. Springs will probably absorb as much energy as the transmit, and it would most likely take a lot of power to move relatively thin springs at lower frequencies. Try running a piece of wood between the cushion and the springs where you won't feel it, and attach the shaker to the wood.

Now back to the 10 shakers..

For a stereo amp and 8ohm per side:

Take 8 of the shakers and wire them in SERIES in groups of two.

This gives you 4 groups of 8ohm and two 4ohm shakers left over.

Take two of the groups and wire them in PARALLEL. Do the same for the other two groups. This gives you two groups of four shakers at 4ohms each.

Now wire in one of you left over shakers in SERIES with each of your groups of 4. That puts a group at 4ohm together with a single at 4ohm for a total of 8ohms per channel per group with two groups.
...................

For a mono amp at 8ohms. Take 3 groups of three with the 10th left over.

PARALLEL the three shakers together. That gives you 3 groups at 1.3ohm, and one shaker at 4ohm.

SERIES the three groups together for a total of 3.9ohm.

SERIES the single shaker in with the the group. 3.9+4=7.9ohm total..

I'll draw a diagram if that will help..

Yes, if you could draw a diagram I would appreciate it. What if I used a QSC RMX-850 bridged mono (850 watts into 2 ohms). How many Pro Bass Shakers could I wire to that 2 ohm load and not destroy either the amp, or the Shakers? That is probably too much power for that scenario. With this amp it may be better to leave it in stereo.

How many Pro Bass Shakers could I wire to that 2 ohm load and not destroy either the amp, or the Shakers?

How many do you want?? You can play around with the ohms to get where you need to be.. The pro models are still 4ohm I think, and take 50watts a channel. So going by the 'numbers', you could put 17 on the amp and not be under or overpowered.. (in reality, you can be over or under, but over wattage would be better as you can still blow up the voice-coil with distortion..).

So 17... Wire 8 pairs together in series and get 8 8ohm groups and 1 4ohm shaker left.

wire 4 pairs of groups together in parallel and get 4 groups of 4ohms and one 4ohm shaker left.

wire 2 pairs of groups together in series and get 2 groups of 8ohm and one 4ohm shaker left.

wire the two groups together in parallel and get 1 big bundle at 4ohms and one 4ohm shaker left over.

Wire the group and the left over shaker in parallel and get a 2ohm final load.

And no, I'm not doing a diagram for that, but here's the two for the dorm room: ;)

Two 8ohm groups:
http://www.datasync.com/~firebird/8ohm%20stereo.jpg

One 8ohm group:
http://www.datasync.com/~firebird/8ohm%20mono.jpg

Good luck!

Originally posted by Kevin D
How you attach the shakers also have a great impact on their performance and efficiency. Springs will probably absorb as much energy as the transmit, and it would most likely take a lot of power to move relatively thin springs at lower frequencies. Try running a piece of wood between the cushion and the springs where you won't feel it, and attach the shaker to the wood.
[/B]

OK for starters that 10 speaker setup is obviously above my head.

Kevin D can you also explain how to hook up 6 4Ohm speakers using my prologic receiver using L and R channels with input from my Pre-Amp out. (See diagram in beginning of post).
------
Shakers and Springs.

I could use some help/suggestions here...
I zip tied the shakers to the cushion springs based upon someone else's suggestion. This suggestion was good, because it required NO drilling.

How would you suggest I place a piece of wood (plywood? 3/8 shelving boards?) under my berkline recliners?

Thick foam (Top) - Thin Springs (Middle) - Shakers (bottom) is my current setup.
I don't think I can get a board between foam and springs without ripping apart my BRAND NEW berklines.
Were you suggesting:
Foam, SPrings, Board, Shaker? What will that do? Disperse the vibrations a little?
----
My PL receiver's power
I wish I knew the rated power output per channel. Perhaps the receiver is too weak and everything else is good... *shrug*

Thanks Kevin. Great diagram. And Bob, thanks for your diagrams. Jessica is going to get all this info at once Monday morning, he he.

Bob,

I apologize.. I looked at your diagrams and read your message, but must have skipped right over the 3 pair portion of it..

With three pair, you are limited to either 6 or 12 ohms.. I honestly think that your receiver would run fine at 6ohms, so I would try that first..

12ohms is simply series wiring all 3 shakers together on each side of the amp.

6ohms is two shakers wired in parallel for a 2ohm load and then this wired in series to the remaining shaker for a (2+4) 6ohm load..

Calculating it is pretty easy.. Series you just add the numbers.. two 4ohms is 8ohms.. Parallel is (R1*R2)/(R1+R2)... For the same numbers, you just half it.. (4*4)/(4+4) = 16/8 = 2...... If you had an 8ohm load and a 4ohm load, it would be (8*4)/8+4) = 32/12 = 2.66ohms, almost as low as two 4ohm speakers..

As far as attaching the shakers, in recliners you don't have much option. I'd have to see under the chair to really think about it, but I bet you could fit a strip of 1/4" ply between the foam and springs.. I'm thinking about 4-5 springs running front to back.. If it's crisscrossed springs, never mind about that idea..

You could try screwing them with small screws to the front/back, or sides of the chair frame.. Something to get the vibration up through the back of the chair, as the butt only effect gets old after a while..

Maybe zip tie a piece of wood across several springs? Again, if the springs all ready criss-cross and touch each other anyway, disregard..

You are losing some vibration through the zip ties too. No matter how tight you get them, they will never be as tight as one screwed into something else.. The wood works well because the shaker can become fully coupled with it and then has a larger area to hit more of the springs.. Right now your 5" circle of power is only transferring it where ever a spring is touching it.. So together you might only have a 1" circle of coupled energy..

First off thanks all for the replies, its greatly appreciated.:)

Sorry, but I'll be honest and state that I'm still not quite sure of the wiring. Can somebody physically draw a diagram, please:confused:.
I know these (Shakers) are 4 ohms at 25 watts each, and would love to have the front two rows (6) shakers on one channel and the last row (4) shakers on the other channel.
Also should we get a 250 watt amp, or more?

We've had these badboys for sometime now and are anxious to get them bouncing.;) They're mounted to the seats and just waiting for the hookup.

Thanks again for all your help.

Jessica :)

Anytime Jessica, but I am sure Kevin and Bob are giving you more help than I am. It is good to see a lady in the forum we don't see them that often and it is good to see not just guys are into home theater.
I would say for the non-pro Shaker of 25 watts x 10 Shakers a 250 watts amp would give each one 25 watts with good headroom.

"Whats a nice guy like you doing in a place like this?" I get asked that a lot.


:D

Back to the bass transfered by a Shaker through a piece of wood. How thick do you need? Hard wood, or softwood?
TIA
Scott

Scott,
I would say hardwood, this gives a better resonance throughout your chair pending that the wood itself is mounted directly to the frame. Softwood would ever so slightly soften or deaden the "prescence" of the shakers as there really is no sound.
Think of the games at the amusement halls that you sit-in. They have the shakers mounted directly to the chair under your "Tucas" for maximum effect.

Jessica:)

Good point. I remember demoing Shakers (transducers) at Disneyland a long time ago. I also remember demoing them at WCES. The chair was soft, but it was a solid chair. My plan is to mount 4 Pro Shakers in my sweet spot black leather chair. It was a expensive chair. It does have solid bracing with wood already. But, I believe I will need at least a piece of walnut, or other hardwood for mounting these Shakers on the back and perhaps even the bottom. I want 2 hitting into my back and 2 hitting into my ass.

Originally posted by hometheaterguy
Good point. I remember demoing Shakers (transducers) at Disneyland a long time ago. I also remember demoing them at WCES. The chair was soft, but it was a solid chair. My plan is to mount 4 Pro Shakers in my sweet spot black leather chair. It was a expensive chair. It does have solid bracing with wood already. But, I believe I will need at least a piece of walnut, or other hardwood for mounting these Shakers on the back and perhaps even the bottom. I want 2 hitting into my back and 2 hitting into my ass.

Two on the back: All I can say is OUCH or thats gonna be a great massage!!! (Do you mean Pro or normal version?)

(I won't comment on 2 hitting into your ass.)

Do you want to feel the movie or fall out of your chair? :)

You think I will need a lead vest to protect my kidneys? LoL! I already have a M&K sub hitting me in the face, rear, right and a dual 15" ported cabinet front left corner. Talk about putting the "theater" in home theater, sheese. I want to get the Pro version. The amp I have for the Shakers is a QSC RMX-850 (200W X 2). I want to feel the bass more, a back massage would be great. Do you think I should just use two Shakers?

I've personally sat on a chair at a high end home theatre store that had (2) two 25 watt shakers strategically mounted,
1/ centered between your knees and "Tucas" and
2/ one centered at the base of your ribs.

Wow, what a really great theatrical experience!, watching The 5th Element. The great thing about it was that they only came on during the LFE's.

I think anymore than two may be overkill, and a little overpowering but hey what do I know.

Jessica;)

OK, I am lost on all this wiring. I am pre wiring my theater room now and I just ordered my 4 Aura Pro Bass shakers from Parts express. I am trying to figure out what wires I need to run and what kind of amp I need. The Aura’s are rated at 50 watts RMS/75 watts max. *Impedance: 4 ohms. I do not understand wiring in parallel vs Series.

Also how many times can I split the LEF single out of my Receiver? I need one to go to my SVS PB2 Plus and some or one to head to the AMP for the shakers. I have an old Yamaha 595A receiver I was thinking of using to drive the Shakers. The Yamaha has 70- watts to all five channels at 8 ohms. How could this work?

Thanks for any help.
- Scott

shine5555,

Go back to the first two posts of this thread I posted some SIMPLE diagrams that almost match your needs. I RECOMMEND trying the old reciever FIRST. Look at my drawings I'm did the same thing you are wanting to do. Set your old receiver to 2channel Stereo Mode (or a mono mode that goes equally to ALL channels).
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=2975137#post2975137

I don't know how many times you can split, with out noticable loss.
-----
The only difference between the pro and normal version is the speaker connections (and the total power). The Pro's appear to have the RCA style plugs. If you're receiver/amp output don't have that find some adaptors at RadioShak.

4x50W speakers=200 watts... I still think you should try old reciever first. AT full power they might be to strong anyways...

With the 4ohm speakers you NEED to wire in parallel as I showed.
----
If you buy a mono amp with only one output, post a new question on how to best hook them up...
----

PS to all I'll post some pictures later this weekend of the underside of chairs and the wiring.

Shine,
IF you are just PRE-WIRING, just run one set of wires to each seat/platform back to the receiver areaand work out the details in the near future.

IF that is to much wiring, run ONE + wire to the first speaker of a pair, then run the - wire to the second speaker and plug it into the +. Then run the - from the second speaker back to the receiver. That is how you run 2 speakers in PARALLEL on one channel.

PM and tell me how many speakers and what type of wire connectors on your OLD receiver and I will TRY to help and possibly make a sketch. Let me know how many seat and a general idea of placement. Does your old receiver have a 2channel Stereo or MONO mix mode? Are you using RCA from the SUB out on your "good" receiver like in my drawing?

Overkill is never a word used in our theater. But if you guys/gals (Jessica and Bob) feel 2 Pro Shakers will give me the "feel" of bass, I will just use 2.

shine5555, how many decoders do you have? If you have a DVD player with a decoder, use the Woofer out for one LFE, and if you use a pre/pro (audio-video preamp processor) as well, use the LFE/SUB out for the other sub woofer. In pro audio channels are daisy-chained a lot.

I was thinking of a Parts Express 250 watt (@ 4 ohms) plate amp (the kind with the remote controled volume and cross over setting) and four Aura Pro shakers for now.

I do have one free channel on my Samson amp (the other drives an SVS sub), but it's rated at 350 watts/channel at 4 ohms and 230 watts at 8 ohms, with no easy way to add an adjustable crossover (except a passive, fixed inline low pass FMOD) and the volume cannot be controlled via remote (I'm sure that adds some frustration when fine tuning).

Is that a good start, or am I missing something (too little amp power if I add more or too much power)? Does anyone have a simple diagram for running four Aura Pros using a 4 ohm load?

Anyone have some experience with the remote controlled sub plate amp listed here?:

www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&User_ID=16758649&St=8651&St2=-40635245&St3=55622586&DS_ID=3&Product_ID=15985&DID=7

Parts Express has free shipping until Monday, so I need some help ASAP!

Thanks!

Dan

Dan, great color and creativity in your web site. Are you North of Denver? I would love to make a trip up there.
I like the 300-793 from PE. Plenty of power for 4 Pros. The IR VC and crossover adjustments is great. Class AB is a plus as well. You could mount the IR eye (receiver)near a Xantech, or Niles IR repeater system receiver.

Here is Bobs schematic for 4 Shakers: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=2975137&fullpage=1

Here is a diagram you could double up by Aura:

http://www.aurasound.com/bassshaker/images/installdia.gif

hometheaterguy,

Thanks for the compliment on my first web site. I'm still in the learning stage on some of this HTML code, and would like to get Frontpage XP as it adds a lot of built-in "pro-grade" look and feel without being a web design expert, which I am not. :D

Any idea on whether this amp will take 6 Aura Pros okay? While I'm taking Parts Express up on their free shipping offer I thought I might add a couple extra for the heck of it (and who knows when they'll run out of their clearance shakers). Do you have an idea about adding the two extra shakers to these schematics (thanks by the way for the links)?

Also, did you find the 300-793's built in 12 dB/octave cross over steep enough? I was thinking of getting an FMOD 50 Hz low pass filter and adding it to create a ~24 dB/octave slope in case I still get shaking from slamming doors, etc. which isn't very realistic.

Yeah, I'm up here in Fort Collins, and have everything crammed into a small living room in a house I'm sharing right now. Talk about overly cozy!

Dan

I decided to go with just four shakers for now, but I did get a pair of 50 Hz low pass filters just in case (I'll just use one).

The one thing about that plate amp is how are the speaker wires attached in the back (the open ended part with the exposed circuit boards)? Are there special plugs I need to get?

Also, the thing about Bob's diagram is that he's using stereo amps, whereas the plate amp is, I'm assuming, set up to power one sub driver in mono. How would you hook up four shakers at 4 ohms then?

I could use all the help I can get. :)

Dan

Dan, I am doing the same thing as you are. 4 Pros and looking to see what base plate you order (before 6:00pm) for free shipping. "What 50 Hz low pass filters " did you get?

- Scott

Scott,

I went with the 50 Hz FMOD low pass in-line RCA filters and this amp from Parts Express:

www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&User_ID=16758649&St=8651&St2=-40635245&St3=55622586&DS_ID=3&Product_ID=15985&DID=7

I don't really need remote controlled cross overs (you usually just adjust them to taste and forget it), but the remote volume control will make things so much easier if the amp winds up in another room, and/or if I want to adjust the intensity of the "rumble" from my seat.

Good luck! The next step in audio/visual stimulus is about to begin!

-----------

Still any suggestions on wiring 4 Pros with a 4 ohm load off of a mono plate amp?

Thanks again!

Dan

The suggestions for the dorm bass-shaker wiring so far all have a slight problem. The problem is that the bass-shakers will not get equal power delivered to them from the amplifier.

In one example drawn in an earlier post, with two 8 ohm groups in series with a single 4 ohm driver, the single shaker will get HALF of the power of the amplifier, the other 4 will split the other HALF of the power between them. (In other words, they each get 1/16th of the power) Now, it is true that the impedance presented to the receiver is great, but the difference in shaking between the chairs will result in a rather poor implementation. (in my opinion)

The situation is even worse with the drawing of 9 shakers (three sets of three) in series with 1 shaker. Now we have 1/18th the power to most of the shakers, and half in the other.

A better solution would be to deliver EQUAL power to each of the shakers. I can only think of three (easy) ways to get there. None are perfect. One is outright bad.

BAD - NOT RECOMMENDED
Wire 5 of the drivers in parallel to the left channel of the amplifier, and 5 in parallel to the right channel. This would result in an impedance of somewhere .8 ohms. (that connection results in less than one ohm impedance and will probably harm the output transistors in most amplifiers if run at any volume)

BETTER
Wire 5 of the shakers in series. 5 x 4 ohms results in a 20 ohm load. Connect it to the left channel, wire another 5 in series to the right channel. The disadvantage of this is that the amplifier will not nearly deliver as much power output (only about a third actually) as if it had an 8 ohm load, it will be an easy load for the amplifier. If things shake enough... you are done.

BETTER - and what I would try first
Take 5 of of the shakers and wire them in series. Do the same with the other 5 shakers. Each set is 20 ohms. Parallel both sets and connect them to ONE channel of your amplifier, leaving the other channel unused. The series-paralleled sets will result in an impedance of 10 ohms and allow your amplifier to deliver most of its rated output. and each shaker will get the same amount of power.

BEST
Take up a collection at your dorm... buy two more shakers. You should be able to find a pair for about $30. (NOW you have 12 shakers) Find two more chairs and invite two more friends... have them bring the popcorn/drinks. Then, wire three shakers in series, connect them in parallel with another three in series and connect the six to one channel of your amplifier. This will be a 6 ohm load and your amplifier will probably drive it easily. Do the same with the other 6 shakers. Connect to the other channel of the amp.


Amplifier (one channel illustrated)
+ -
------------------------------| |--------------------------------
| |
| |
+--------[+==-]------------------[+==-]-----------------[+==-]---------+
| |
+--------[+==-]------------------[+==-]-----------------[+==-]---------+




[+==-] = bass shaker



You do not have to go crazy keeping track of polarity of the shakers. It does not really matter since each is on a different chair. (And if you can tell that your dorm-mate's chair is moving/vibrating upward when yours is moving/vibrating downward, you are probably sitting too close...) It is different when you have multiple speaker cones all trying to move the air in the room. Then, you want the cones to all be moving in the same direction at the same time, and polarity matters. With shakers, you will not be able to tell.

At least with this wiring scheme, all the seats are vibrating the same amount and the amplifier is seeing a reasonable load.


Edited to fix drawing and description....

Joe L.

So, if I want four 4 ohm shakers on a mono plate amp and be able to have the amp still see a 4 ohm load, and have all the shakers have equal power going to each, I should wire in series/parallel... correct?

So, I guess I need some speaker wire connection screw on crimps now and some electrical tape!

Dan

Dan,

Exactly correct.

Two in parallel would result in a 2 ohm load. Then, two parallel sets in series would give you a 4 ohm load. (perfect for most plate amps)

This would also provide equal power distribution to the shakers. (the flaw I saw with some of the previous 10 shaker solutions suggested in this thread)

Joe L.

Joe L,
I have a quick question.
I'm considering adding my extra pair of "normal" shakers to my setup (with the stereo prologic amp).
I'm thinking of adding one to each channel to make a 3 shaker series on each channel at 12ohm each. Will this damage anything or just reduce the overall power to each?

I also want to make the 3 pair easy to dis-connect. Any problems with this as long as the power is off? (The 3rd pair would go on "guest" glider chairs that might be moved around or removed from the room occasionally...

bob_vdi

That would work just fine. You would end up with a 12 ohm load on your amplifier, and its total power output would be a bit less, but it would not damage anything.

Most amplifiers do not like their outputs shorted when they are turned on, so make your connections with the power turned off.

Joe L.

I know these (Shakers) are 4 ohms at 25 watts each, and would love to have the front two rows (6) shakers on one channel and the last row (4) shakers on the other channel.


Jessica,
Re-reading your initial post, and giving this a bit more thought, you could connect six of the shakers as I originally described to one channel. (two sets of three shakers in series. Three in series = 12 ohms. Two sets of three in series then paralleled would be 6 ohms. Put that on one channel on your stereo amplifier. Then, four in series/parallel would give you a 4 ohm set. Put that on your other channel.

Lastly (and it did not occur to me till now) adjust the balance control on the amplifier so the front set are vibrating as strongly as the set on the rear row. This way, you do not have to buy any additional shakers, and any money you collected from your dorm-mates can be used for more beer/soda/popcorn/etc.


Attached is a crude drawing showing the wiring.

Joe L.

Dan, I will have to come up to Fort Collins someday.

I agree with Joe: series/parallel wiring on a bridged plate amp. Using banana plug adapters on a 5-way binding post can help resist corrosion.

Thanks everyone for a great thread - it seems like the bass shaker install question comes up every few weeks. Well I am about to add my request for advice to the mix. I appreciate your advice.

What I have - (6) 50 watt Aura pro bass shakers.
(3) recliners
(1) couch
(1) 500 watt 5.1 stereo to drive the bass shakers
(1) HK 525 stereo for regular speakers

My current plan is to run a Y cable splitting the LFE from my HK to the sub and my 500 watt stereo. I plan to add a second Y RCA cable to the input line on the 500 watt stereo to get a Left and Right signal.

I then plan to wire (1) bass shaker to each recliner and (3) to the couch.

I plan to wire the shakers in series in pairs as outputs for the Left/Right/Center speaker runs from the stereo. Each output is rated 100 watts so I think I should get 100 watts at 8 ohms for each channel by running the 50 watt bass shakers at 4 ohms in series.

Does this sound correct or is there a better way?

Thank you in advance.

Foxman,
You wiring setup is almost the same as my drawing (first post of this thread).
BEFORE you wire up 3 pairs, you might want to check a few things on your old 5.1 receiver.
1) Does it have a Stereo 2 channel mode?
2) Does it have a MONO 3 or 5 Channel Mode?
The reason I ask is...
I THINK most 5.1 receivers will not send the same signal to the Center as the LEFT and right by design. Thus a Stereo 2 channel or MONO 3 channel setup is what you really want.

Your math it right 4ohm + 4 = 8 per channel
But your output might not be equal on the center compared to the L&R.

IF you have to use only 2 channels just wire 2 pairs of 3 in series and get 12ohms per channel. Some one posted above this won't hurt the receiver just reduce the total output to each shaker.

However don't let that be a deterent! You probably won't have the shakers at full volume anyways!!! (Too high and your bum starts to get numb and a little annoyed...)

Good Luck!

Bob knows what he is talking about.

One thing I would mention about crossover points. You could use two Harrison Labs PFMOD RCA in-line crossovers. Place them between your processor audio out and your multi-channel amp audio IN. These attenuators come in all frequencies, get the low pass one, I believe it is 70HZ. They are 12dB/octave, but you can stack them for a steep 24dB/octave slope. These will keep the voices from being vibrated from the Shakers.

http://www.hlabs.com/technical/crossovers/img0.gif

hometheaterguy,
How do you know which Hz version to buy if you're a crossover newbie who just want to crank up their shakers without feeling EVERYTHING?

Is it personal preference? Experience? Experimentation? Calculations based on your equipment and desired output?

How do "I" pick the right one for me simple inexpensive setup? (I wish I bought these with the shakers to save shipping :( )

Bob the crossover point in this application is chosen by what crossover points cut voices and frequencies above 200HZ. You are safe with anything 200HZ and below. It has been determined that sounds below that are "less" localized and therefore are mostly felt, not heard.

THX, standing for Thomas Holman's X-over is 80HZ. Sony uses a 100HZ cut-off in their decoders.

The 100HZ LP (Low Pass) PFMOD would never need replacing if you go with that one. Just make sure you get a low pass.

If you have a shop in your town that sells raw speaker drivers, they are sure to sell PFMODs. Any car audio shop will as well.

Bob - thank you for the feedback - I will check the receiver to see if I can get equal output to each channel. I will let you know how it turns out.

I have read of people using the FMOD 50 Hz low pass because they could still feel vibrations on things like doors slamming, etc. That doesn't sound all that realistic. I've never felt tremors in my couch when someone closes a door hard!

A lot of it is personal preference.

Dan

Originally posted by foxman
Bob - thank you for the feedback - I will check the receiver to see if I can get equal output to each channel. I will let you know how it turns out.

Glad I could help! I created the post/sketches to help newbies like me that might have an extra receiver and limited speaker wiring knowlegde.
----------------
I'm considering putting my old passive sub that came with the prologic reciever on the center channel just to see what happens. (In 3 speaker prologic? mode - It doesn't have a mono mode :( only stereo, 3 speaker or 5 speaker prologic)

Unfortunatley I just put it under our tiny 4.5 foot tree to prop it up near the window. :p

Does that mean the 70hz versions would be a nice comprise between THX and Sony? Use one or two? (Sold in pairs on parts express).

Sorry, Bob, just got back to this thread. Well my Lexicon pre/pro has an adjustable (variable) crossover adjustment, I will be using the PFMODs for just the Shakers.

I would use the 100HZ PFMODS. You will get a little more mid-bass vibrations.

hometheaterguy,
I will have to find/read my receiver's manual, but don't HT receivers with SUB out already cut most/some of the highs out and send the rest to the front speakers?
Or do they just cut them off around 200?

At the moment I'm probably not going to buy the FMODs (getting low on $$) and at the moment what I have works.

Hi Bob, good seeing you.

Yes, a receiver with SUB, or LFE out will cut high pass frequencies. Yes, you will have to review your manual to find the exact crossover point as some manufactures have different crossover points. You are at liberty to use this connection. I did not know you had it available, I thought you were using a conventional sub with it.

Great Shaker Link: http://www.alegriaaudio.com/bass_shakers.htm

Great article Mike, thanks.

OK I've got a question about my Sherwood Prologic Receiver (don't have model# handy), that is shown in my original sketch at the beginning of this thread.

I'm considering adding a 3rd pair of shakers. I'm considering adding the pair to my Center channel, and switching the receiver to 3channel "prologic" mode. Is this likely to work evenly per pair or will the center shake like mad?
-----
Reminder - Mono signal from 6.1 Receiver's Sub-Out - Split to powered sub and split again to L&R input of Prologic Receiver - 2 pairs of shakers - 1 pair in parallel to L and 1 pair to R out.
-----
Is the Center channel idea going to work or should I make 2 pairs of 3 shakers?
I'm currently out of wire so experimenting won't be easy unless I find some scraps.

Ok, not to beat this to death, but my electrical engineering is pretty weak. I have 6 bass shakers and 2 rows of 3 seats. I will be using the Aura Bass Shaker Pro's (6 in total). I also just purchased the 250 watt plate amplifier mentioned from parts express. What is the best way to wire these up so that I can get the most out of my amp?

Is simply wiring 2 sets of 3 shakers in series my best option here?

Thanks.

" 3channel "prologic" mode. Is this likely to work evenly per pair or will the center shake like mad?" (Bob)

I think you mean 3-channel stereo as Dolby Pro Logic is L, C, R, and mono surround (4-channel). In 3-stereo you will have equal power, but in DPL, yes the center will have more output regardless of the crossover point.

Originally posted by hometheaterguy
" 3channel "prologic" mode. Is this likely to work evenly per pair or will the center shake like mad?" (Bob)

I think you mean 3-channel stereo as Dolby Pro Logic is L, C, R, and mono surround (4-channel). In 3-stereo you will have equal power, but in DPL, yes the center will have more output regardless of the crossover point.

OK
Well at least on that receiver I can adjust the Rear and Center channels lower than the Main (L&R). So that should work for my "extra" chairs. Now I have to check if they can be installed.
-------------

digitaltrader
Ok, not to beat this to death, but my electrical engineering is pretty weak. I have 6 bass shakers and 2 rows of 3 seats. I will be using the Aura Bass Shaker Pro's (6 in total). I also just purchased the 250 watt plate amplifier mentioned from parts express. What is the best way to wire these up so that I can get the most out of my amp?

Is simply wiring 2 sets of 3 shakers in series my best option here?


Is that a mono amp? How many out put connections does it have. (I'm not familar with them).
If they have 2 out puts make TWO pairs of Three
If they have 3 out puts make Three pairs of TWO (but that seems silly with 2 rows).
If they have only 1 out put, you have to check earlier parts of the thread. I didn't quite know how to do that. That's why I saved $$ and used my old receiver which came out of our bedroom. :(

Sorry to bring this thread back up as it seems to have all the answers, but it can be quite confusing with every scenario each of us has.

Well here I go with my set up and how to properly connect my Aura 25 watt bass shakers.

First I have two rows of three Irwin Marquee theatre seats (each on its on riser - back row is 10" off the ground and the first row is 2.5" off floor)

I have an old 100w BIC subwoofer(SWA-100) amp (piece of cr@p - hums way to loud - will replace after holidays). I am feeding this amp from a split RCA sub connection from my Harmon Kardon HK300 into a Paradigm PS1000 and then it splits (mono -rca connection) to this amp, I then split the mono rca connection to a stero rca connection and feed this into the BIC amp.

This amp has only 1 output (+/-) out for subwoofer, but does have Left and right channel outputs as well. I can also set the amp for 8 or 4 Ohms.

What is the best way to connect my 4 25watt Aura bass shakers? Also, this amp hums very loudly(well enough that I hear it in dialogue scenes) - is this normal or is it just because this amp is Cr@p?

thanks for the help.

humming electronics does not sound very safe in the long run.
I'm not familar with sub amps but...
Try hooking up a pair of pararell shakers to each channel (left and right).
Other wise check the series formula above and try to come up with a setup that will give 4 or more ohms total and hook up to the sub output.
(sorry to busy at work to help beyond that).

BTW I think this post should keep growing rather than a new post every few days! :)

"BTW I think this post should keep growing rather than a new post every few days!" (from Bob)

Don't worry, it will. :)

Bob / Anyone:

Set up the Aura's with a splitter at the sub preout. (Aura's connected to Old Kenwood amp.)

When the amp (Kenwood / Aura's) is on, getting a hum on the powered sub. I can turn down the volume on the sub to eliminate the hum, but lose power doing so.

Tried different cables, no splitter, hum is eliminated when running without the shaker amp.

Any ideas on what is happening, or what to try next?

Thanks!

Update:

Tried a dfferent amp on the same setup, still the hum when connected and poweed, different cables, too. Hum is eliminated when not using the split signal, however is only around when the separate shaker amp is powered. which auto starts the sub amp. If the sub amp is off, the hum only appears when the shake amp is powered up. Some type of current is being passed back through the cable, seems to me. Not sure how to eliminate it.

Often when a sub hums it is due to a ground loop problem. More often than not. One way to get around this is to use a "cheater plug" to eliminate the ground prong on your subs AC cord. That is if your sub has a 3 prong plug. The cheater is an adapter that converts a 3 prong into a 2 prong plug. I had to do this with my HSU sub and it removed all traces of hum.

Actually in my case my sub uses a common computer type AC cord, of which I have several of those laying around. I simply cut the ground prong off of one of those cords and viola', no more hum.

The best part is that it is cheap and easy to try.

Originally posted by Dean Prestholt
The best part is that it is cheap and easy to try.

...and the worst part is that ground is there for safety.

Power devices should NEVER have the grounds removed!

:eek:

No third prong. KLH 12" sub. Any more ideas?

Thanks!!

I'm not sure where you should go from there. Maybe someone else has another suggestion.

As far as removing the ground, it is more than safe to remove it from a device such as a sub. If it wasn't I'm sure that HSU wouldn't recommend doing so for this very problem. And it worked just fine on my system.

Oh and one more thing, the other Dean, just in case your worried about this too, the sky is not falling either!! :rolleyes: ;)

Originally posted by Dean Prestholt
As far as removing the ground, it is more than safe to remove it from a device such as a sub. If it wasn't I'm sure that HSU wouldn't recommend doing so for this very problem. And it worked just fine on my system.

Oh and one more thing, the other Dean, just in case your worried about this too, the sky is not falling either!! :rolleyes: ;)

What's your basis for this besides your opinion?

I've been shocked by a floating ground have you? If there is a failure in the amp and 120 is put on the chassis you have a dangerous situation.

HSU's design may be as such that they're willing to take that risk and have convinced others that it's not a problem -- I still stand on my statement.

What's the sky got to do with this? :confused:

I think an isolation transformer will solve your problem safely.

Do a search on the web for a stereo version.

The loop in the signal grounds is the real problem.

If all else fails....

Tried another SHIELDED cable, and viola! No hum.

Off to watch LOTR!

THanks for all of the replies. To all, Happy Holidays!

I would say that I base it on the Electronics degree I have but I wouldn't expect you to take my word for it. Like I said before though I have an HSU sub that hummed all the time. By removing the ground prong as per HSU's suggestion it worked fine. I haven't been electrocuted yet.

Now if you were going to be using the sub outside or in a otherwise potentially wet environment then I would definitely NOT recommend removing the ground.

I do have a question for you, Dean. How many pieces of your AV gear has a 3 prong plug? In my system maybe a third do the rest don't. Should I replace the cords on the ones that don't? Might be a shock hazard there?? Of course I wouldn't do that, because it's just not necessary.

Your idea of an isolation transformer is a good one but it may not be the cheapest way to go. The best thing is to track down the guilty component introducing the ground loop and go from there.

Just in case you still doubt the cheater plug idea look in the pdf file below. Chapter 3 in the trouble shooting section. There are some good suggestions on how to track down the problem component there as well.

http://www.hsuresearch.com/vtf2.pdf

Or a quick search found this, second question and answer.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/qa/qa9798/qa82.html

Oh yeah, the sky is falling thing was just a joke. You know as in Chicken Little. Some people just worry too much.

Have fun.

Good for you ggingrich I'm glad you tracked it down. And a bit cheaper than an isolation transformer too!;)

Well, not so fast.

Hum is gone. What happens now is the shaker amp clicks, and nothing happens. Seems to be when LFE is engaged. Going to look for a short, but thought I'd check here to see if someone might have an idea.

Using a Denon 4802, SW pre out connected to splitter, going to KLH 120w sub and Kenwood for the shakers. It was working with the bad cable. Using rg-58 with Radio Shack adapters to get ro RCA from F connects.

Thanks,

Galen

Update:

Once again, fixed it. Cable splice was shorting. Have to pass through the phono input, must have blown the other input. Bottom line, they ROCK.

Happy Holidays!

Originally posted by Dean Prestholt
I do have a question for you, Dean. How many pieces of your AV gear has a 3 prong plug? In my system maybe a third do the rest don't. Should I replace the cords on the ones that don't?

The point of discussion was a POWER device (i.e. power amp, receiver) not the line level devices (i.e. CD player, EQ, etc.)

Amps/receivers have a third prong for safety because the possibility exists of a dangerous situation during certain component failure scenarios and causing the chassis to become *live*.

Not all do, but my point was the ones that do should not be considered some kind of option for audio tweaking and simply removed. There were designed with ground fault protection for a reason.

If you are an EE I can't believe you're disputing this fact.

Happy Holidays

-Chicken Little
:p

Originally posted by Dean Hayes
The point of discussion was a POWER device (i.e. power amp, receiver) not the line level devices (i.e. CD player, EQ, etc.)

Amps/receivers have a third prong for safety because the possibility exists of a dangerous situation during certain component failure scenarios and causing the chassis to become *live*.

Not all do, but my point was the ones that do should not be considered some kind of option for audio tweaking and simply removed. There were designed with ground fault protection for a reason.

If you are an EE I can't believe you're disputing this fact.

Happy Holidays

-Chicken Little
:p

My point being is MY receiver and power amp have NO 3rd prong. MY HSU sub does, or did, have a 3rd prong. I removed it and eliminated the hum. Nuff said. Its been running this way for over a year with absolutly NO porblems.

Did you even look at the pdf file? It is the owners manual for the HSU sub. In the trouble shooting section it says to use a cheater plug if your sub has hum. I don't expect you to believe me but I would think you would take the word of the manufacturer of said sub. In this day of lawsuits I don't think they would recommend bypassing a safety device if it truly wasn't safe. They obviously think of it as an "option". Better to use it if its there but if it's causing problems remove it. In this application that is. Its all just a matter of common sense.

And as an EE I'm not disputing the fact that "some" if not most safety devices shouldn't be bypassed. In the case of the ground plug it should never be removed from devices such as power tools that are held in your hand while in use, or from any kind of device that might be used near or handle water, such as a washing machine. Again just common sense.

In the case of a sub, I never use mine in the bathtub or carry it around the house with me. If you do so with yours then I would not suggest your removing its ground plug.

At any rate, have a nice day. And Merry Christmas to everyone.

I'm just a Wild and Crazy guy:cool:

“My point being is MY receiver and power amp have NO 3rd prong.”

-That’s because they were designed with a polarized plug and enough circuit isolation for safety.

“MY HSU sub does, or did, have a 3rd prong. I removed it and eliminated the hum. Nuff said. Its been running this way for over a year with absolutly NO porblems.
Did you even look at the pdf file? It is the owners manual for the HSU sub. In the trouble shooting section it says to use a cheater plug if your sub has hum. I don't expect you to believe me but I would think you would take the word of the manufacturer of said sub. In this day of lawsuits I don't think they would recommend bypassing a safety device if it truly wasn't safe. They obviously think of it as an "option". Better to use it if its there but if it's causing problems remove it. In this application that is. Its all just a matter of common sense.”

-Well I verified this and you are right but this is the first company I’ve every seen who’s said it’s OK to lift the safety ground. That doesn’t mean it’s a good practice to follow for other equipment. It’s more than common sense.

”And as an EE I'm not disputing the fact that "some" if not most safety devices shouldn't be bypassed.”

- And as a fellow EE with prior experience at a pro audio company I declare what you should say is NEVER unless expressly indicated acceptable by the manufacturer i.e. HSU.

“In the case of the ground plug it should never be removed from devices such as power tools that are held in your hand while in use, or from any kind of device that might be used near or handle water, such as a washing machine. Again just common sense.”

- Common sense? That would tell me not to cut something off the plug.

”In the case of a sub, I never use mine in the bathtub or carry it around the house with me. If you do so with yours then I would not suggest your removing its ground plug.”

- What happens when my power amp fails, I go to make an adjustment to the volume and get hit with the voltage that’s present on the chassis? It happened to me and I wasn’t in the bathtub and it wasn’t raining. It happened because some boob thought it was ok to lift the ground.


Merry Christmas
And don’t be a boob.

Does anyone have any comments on the difference between the standard version and the pro version? I currently plan on using 2 Pro shakers on my couch and 1 normal shaker per my two chairs.

Wow, this thread got way off track from the Shaker topic originally posted. It happens, I know. There is a hum FAQ by Bill at the beginning of one of the forum sections. It may be the speakers threads.

The Pro models handle twice the power and have external heat sinks and therefore stay a little cooler. The Pros shake more. Have you seen the Watt Butt kickers? They are something else.

OK, one quick question:

I would like to place 4 50w pro-shakers in my sofa.

I understand I can Y connect out of my LFE channel that feeds my existing Sub to another amp to drive the shakers.

However, my question is this: The amp I would like to use is just a power amp (Adcom GFA-555 with 165wper channel). In other words, it doesn't have level control. Would I be able to use this, or would have have to use another control amp as well? I would think I would be ok just using the power amp.

Any responsed would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris

The Adcom would work great. You would get master volume control by using a passive control device like this:

http://www.svsubwoofers.com/images/picture_black_box_big.jpg

Thanks HTguy! Ordered 4 pro's this morning. Tech support there was great.

You are welcome. Yes, Parts Express has great support. You do not need the device above, but it would control the output of the Shakers (it would protect them). You could go to a local car audio shop and get a cheap in-line RCA attenuator by Alpine, or another brand that would do the same thing.

Well I got my four shakers yesterday: 2 standard and 2 pro. I mounted them and hooked them up to a pioneer receiver (it is a 5 channel one where the DD decoder has died, but it has a 5 channel in) It is rated down to 6ohm, but I only paid $10 so I have no problem pushing it;)

I watched 'Black Hawk Down' and 'Twister' All I can say is :D :D :D :D

Glad they turned out, and they were $1000 cheapter than "Buttkickers".

Glad to hear they're working too.

I received my 4 pro's yesterday and mounted them. They're alright, but probably not mounted to the best seating arrangement.

They're mounted to a double reclining sofa that has plenty of padding, so it dampens the shaker effect. I have all 4 mounted to solid wood on the frame, but there still seems to be too much damping.

Anybody else have this problem?

After reading this thread I ordered a set of two 50 watt Aura Pro Bass Shakers from Parts Express. I just received my Bass Shakers this morning and after opening the box I discovered that someone had messed up the order and send me two pairs of the regular 25 watt Aura Bass shakers. So instead of having two 50 watt bass shakers I have four 25 watt shakers. Now what? I just saved 10 bucks but is this a good thing? I want to shake two seats on my Lazyboy couch so I could mount two 25 watt shakers on each seat. Would that be better than one 50 watt shaker on each seat? What about the power handling ability of the lesser 25 watt shakers. Is that a problem? I want to power them with a Parts Express 250 Watt Subwoofer Amplifier. Will I fry em? These buggers are heavy and I hate to go through the extra expense of sending them back.

Lurker, it is common to lose some vibration due to the materials in the sofa. You may want to take some of the polyfill out and more importantly, mount them on a piece of solid hardwood and experiment re-locating them for highest impact. Lower ribs/back mount and under the seat are most common.

Schuro, PE has never messed up for me, but mistakes can happen. Since it is their mistake don't settle for the ones you received, go for the pros for best impact. PE will have FedEx give you a tracking number and schedule a FedEx Express (demand express, not ground since they dropped the ball) pickup at your door, or business.

I ordered 8 Aura Pro Bass Shakers which arrived the very next day from Parts Express. I would like to put 4 in the back couch and 4 in the front couch. I tried to use a new 6.1 receiver (KLH from best Buy for $150 on sale - I thought that a total of 500 watts was pretty good and if I got tired of the shakers I would have a budget 6.1 receiver for my next project. ) I tried using 2 in series from each of the 2 fronts and each of the 2 surrounds but couldn't get most of them to work very well. Not sure why it didn't work. I tried it several ways but only the center channel seemed to work. I tried different inputs (CD, tape vcr, etc.) but I suspect the amp just wasn't made to send out 4 like signals, always decoding or something. I guess I will give up on this idea and buy the PE 250 watt sub amp since it has remote volume control, crossover, no decoding to get in the way and is about the same price. I know how to wire two shakers each in series but to have all 8 going into a mono amp I am not sure how to do it and keep it at 8 ohms (correct that, 4 ohms). I have heard you can do shakers in series in sets of two and then do each 2 shaker set in parallel with the others and keep to 4 ohms but I just can't picture it. If anyone could tell me how in detail or fax me a diagram, (614) 876-2885 (no cover needed) I would be forever grateful. Thank you for your help. I would love to get this project moving so I can enjoy them.

How are you hooking your subout into the KLH receiver? Are you using the 5.1 in?

__________________
Getting a CRT projector is like heaven. I want to go there, I’m just am not a big fan of the shipping terms.

Man Mike is that wisdom. My old Barco weighed 190 lbs :(

Originally posted by mikejz84
How are you hooking your subout into the KLH receiver? Are you using the 5.1 in?

Splitting sub line from the receiver sub out with a y splitter, one line to the sub and other line to the new receiver, using a Y splitter to run it into the L and R inputs, using the VCR input now. From there I have two shakers run in series attached to each of the front right, front left and center channels for a total of 6 shakers. I have two more shakers to hook up but since I couldn't get these all too work properly, only the center really shakes, I haven't bothered with the other two. I tried various inputs and modes with no improvement. I will check to make sure I have the speakers set for large with no subwoofer just in case I didn't do that. I can't think of anything else.

"I will check to make sure I have the speakers set for large with no sub woofer just in case I didn't do that. I can't think of anything else". (Troy)

Troy, I would set your sat's to "small" to avoid distortion. Set the sub to "on" if you use a conventional sub woofer. Bass Management is not implemented in your receiver unless you do both of those things.

I would use an AUX out on your DVD player and a 100HZ PFMOD passive crossover for the Shakers.

Okay. you are going to need to take the signal and get several y-adaptors and hook up to the direct 5.1/6.1 out (forget the .1) and put the unit into 5/6 Channel direct mode. That is how I have mine hooked up, I made a custom junction box to avoid all the y-cables.

The thing is that to drive all of those shakers, you will need to address each channel of that receiver directly.

Originally posted by hometheaterguy
"I will check to make sure I have the speakers set for large with no sub woofer just in case I didn't do that. I can't think of anything else". (Troy)

Troy, I would set your sat's to "small" to avoid distortion. Set the sub to "on" if you use a conventional sub woofer. Bass Management is not implemented in your receiver unless you do both of those things.

I would use an AUX out on your DVD player and a 100HZ PFMOD passive crossover for the Shakers.


If I use the DVD AUX out I will loose the Shaker effect for Xbox which runs through the receiver. I prefer not to do that.

Originally posted by mikejz84
Okay. you are going to need to take the signal and get several y-adaptors and hook up to the direct 5.1/6.1 out (forget the .1) and put the unit into 5/6 Channel direct mode. That is how I have mine hooked up, I made a custom junction box to avoid all the y-cables.

The thing is that to drive all of those shakers, you will need to address each channel of that receiver directly.

I think I follow the logic. I will try it one channel at a time before I invest in the Y cables.

Anyone know how to hook up eight, 4 ohm shakers, all to one line out and keep it at 4 ohms? Would it be 2 shaker sets wired in series and then wire all the two shaker sets in parallel? Can you draw up what the wiring would look like for a newbie?

Does your Receiver have a direct in for 5.1 or for 6.1 because you could just ues it to drive 5/6 of the skakers and pick up a 2-channel one to drive the other shakers.

Here is to my 747th Post!
http://www.physics.unlv.edu/~hilife/JetsnPlanes/747-400Takeoff.jpg

Mike, congrats on your 747 post, you are cruising!

Troy, my bad, I wasn't even thinking about your XBOX. You may try a switch box then.

Found out my problem with the pro shakers. Had my surround processor crossover set to 80Hz. Reset to 120Hz, and now the sofa can rattle the fillings out of your teeth. Gonna play around a little and maybe set it to 100Hz and adjust some levels.

In Road to Perdition, the early scene when Tom Hanks opens up with his Tommy gun was awesome! Good Shaker experience.

I want to use L-Pads to offer individual control to the shakers. I have 8 shakers (wired in pairs at 8 ohms per pair). Can anyone tell me how to wire the 4 L-pads togther to control these? Is it just parallel, or am I missing something? (I'll be driving them ith a 200 watt sub plate AMP from PartsExpress. I want to present an 8 ohm load and allow for individual control. Thanks for any assistance.

Ok, I think I finally figured this one out. The L-pads offer a constant impedance to whatever they are hooked to... so I just treat the two speakers in series (4ohms + 4 ohms = 8) as an ohm load. The rest of the rules about series vs. parallel still apply, and all I have to do is the math. So if I take 2 8 ohm L-pads and their attached speaker pair and connect them in parallel to each other I get a 4 ohm load for those two (8x8/8+8=4) speaker pairs. If I do the same with the second set, and then series wire the two sets I end up with 8 ohms (4+4=8). Sound right?

Anyone know how to hook up eight, 4 ohm Aura Pro Bass shakers, all to one line out and keep it at 4 ohms? Can you draw up what the wiring would look like for a newbie?

I posted this in Troys message.
I'm not sure if it is safe for his receiver (4ohm at 250 w or 8ohm at 150w).
Total Ohms was 4.67 as drawn.
Comments?

Please see the attached drawing of how I think Parts Express said to wire 8 shakers so they will run off their sub amp and be 8 ohms at the amp. Anyone see anything wrong with it?

Anyone see anything wrong with it?

Nope, that should be 8Ohms.

Can someone tell me or better yet draw for me the best way to do 1 BS Pro on each of 6 seats in two rows? Carpeting folks come next week, I can't put this off any longer! Thanks as always...

deckman37,
We need more details
Mono or stereo amp?
4 or 8 ohm?

Added my bass shakers and got 'em running, thanks for the helpful diagrams. I hid all the wires and had some friends come over for a demo of my home theater. They didn't know the bass shakers were in the seats. Sat them down for the Depth Charge scene in U-571 and when the first explosion went off they really jumped out of their seats. These things definitely add a new dimension. Time to watch my DVD collection all over again!

Originally posted by bob_vdi
deckman37,
We need more details
Mono or stereo amp?
4 or 8 ohm?

Bob, I have a used 5.1 amp that can me set to stereo. I believe it's 8 ohm. Thanks for the help.

Great thread! The tactile shakers are my favorite cheap add on. Puts the "motion in the ocean!"

~josh

Cheap?

The carpet installers have pushed the schedule back one week. So if anyone wants to take a stab and help me out, I'd really appreciate it!

Originally posted by bob_vdi

IF you have to use only 2 channels just wire 2 pairs of 3 in series and get 12ohms per channel. Some one posted above this won't hurt the receiver just reduce the total output to each shaker.

I think this answers my question. I thought I had read this entire thread, but somehow I missed this one. The answers are usually already here someplace, right?

I bought a set of these a few years ago from parts express. I never had the chance to hook them up. I saw this thread and decided to give it a shot.

I just got a new 5.1 H/K receiver to replace my dead ProLogic one. I don't have a sub yet. I hooked the sub-out to one channel of AUX-in on an old fisher rack system amplifier, then hooked up 2 25W Aura shakers in series to one speaker output. This receiver has a 5 band EQ, so I pushed the lowest (50hz) setting to the top and the rest to the bottom.

It does work. I'm not really sure if I like it however. I think the problem is that since I don't have a sub woofer, and since my speakers are pretty small, there is too much 'dead space' between the lowest frequency that speakers can go and the highest frequency that the bass shakers can go, so the whole setup just feels fake.

In addition, my couch is a futon and the bass shaker is lodged in the back, behind the cushion, exposed to back wall which is right behind the couch. Some of the bass of the shaker reflects off the back wall and sounds really hollow and boomy.

I liked it best with the shaker volume turned way down, so the vibration & boom was small.

I'm not sure if I'll keep it or not. I do have to return the reciver to the basement where it belongs however. The fact that it works at all is very cool.

I think you are right about needing a subwoofer and there is a great subwoofer shootout going on right now in the speakers section. An entry level sub of good quality (HSU, SVS) would most certainly be a great addition to what you already have. You will not regret getting one, I promise. I have never noticed any noise actually coming from my shakers but it may be unoticable with the sub playing at the same time. You are probably running yours at a much greater volume due to your set up. I suspect the sensation would be much better if the shakers were fixed to a board that attached to the length of the frame so the vibration is more dispersed and a lot less localized. Of course you don't want to see it or hit it while sitting down. I don't have a futon so maybe this is hard to do.

Will the the Aura shakers get really hot while playing? Right now I have the positioned in the back, right under the cushion.

Well, on a whim I bought 4 pairs of the these things from PE. Kind of a "eh, might use them some day" thing. I've got two fairly sturdy couches, and what I'd really like to come up with is a way to make these removable. I.e. construct some type of box which I can slide under the couch when I want them, or pull out when I want the wires out of the way. How much (if any) clearance do I give from the underside of the couch to the shaker? Or do I need to get it firmly in there? Not sure this will work, but I thought it was worth a try :).

As for the actual wiring, I admit to being a little confused. I'm going to try and drive them with an Magnavox 5.1 receiver. So I would need to wire them in series to increase it to 8 ohms per line, correct? How many can I use in this method?

Thanks,
MP

I was listening to my system the other day and noticed that I could feel the vibrations of the upper frequencies. So I was thinking about hooking up my Bass Shaker Pro's full range to see if I would like it. Has anyone tried this and if so what is your opinion on this? Also will running shakers full range hurt them?

Interesting discussion. I've had shakers set up for a while and this thread is making me reconsider if I have them set up for the best effect. I too am running my shakers (4) thru an old receiver. When I set mine up I thought it
would make sense to just set the receiver decoding to "mono" as the signal is mono. I did notice that it gave the effect more thump if I activated the built in equalizer and set bass boost on. The receiver is an old sony
5.1 receiver with its endless array of specialized settings. Does it make sense to just set the thing to mono? The sony wants to cut out into a protect mode if I set the volume control too high (have it at approx 8 o'clock). The shakers have actually survived 2 sofas. On the original sofa I had them acting as legs between the frame of the sofa and the ground.
On the new sofa (sectional) I placed them on the frame of the sofa. Now that I am thinking of it, I think the original set up was more effective. Looks like I have a good excuse to start ripping up the furniture again ....

I have not noticed that the shakers get hot in my use but do not have them touching anything except wood either. I think that they definitely work better if only reproducing the lowest frequencies, below 40 hz. It ruins the effect is they are vibrating often and when people are talking or during the soundtrack. I find that they add more realism and a bit of a surprise if they only activate when there is a loud explosion or similar low frequency event. I added the shakers and then a very large (too large) SVS subwoofer and if I had to give up one I would trade the SVS for a smaller sub and keep the shakers. The sub sends low frequency vibrations through the house and disturbs everyone not in the basement theater if it is turned up much at all. The shakers with a smaller sub would be the best of both worlds in my situation.

Does anyone foresee that I would have a problem using this speaker selector switch Niles SPS4 (http://ww3.onecall.com/PID_784.htm) (switch requires an amplifier that is compatible with a 4 ohm speaker) with

four aura pro shakers (one shaker on each channel of the switch)

driven by this subwoofer amp (http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=300-804)?

Power output of this amp is 150 watts RMS @ 8 ohms 200 watts RMS @ 4 ohms.

I want to allow guests the option of having the shaker on or off.

Thanks.

By splitting the LFE out of the receiver to a seperate receiver eliminate these shakers from activating during music or TV in PLII mode?

Originally posted by pcrx
By splitting the LFE out of the receiver to a seperate receiver eliminate these shakers from activating during music or TV in PLII mode?

NO.
Acutally music / tv commercial tend to have alot more HARD hitting base than DVDs at the same receiver volume levels. (Stronger signal?)
I usally turn off my shakers unless I want a rear-end massage while listening to Metallica. :D

Could I use the Harman Kardon PA 2000 power amp to drive 4 of the pro bass shakers (2 sets of 2 in series)? One call has them refurb, I really don't want to have to put one of those ****** looking $99 stereo receivers that bestbuy / circuit city carry by Teac, KLH or sherwood in my audio rack, plus I don't need another tuner or video inputs ect... all those extra buttons I don't need or will use, I thin the amp looks really slick.

Old 5.1 Reciever

I have a 7+ year old Pioneer VSX-D606S 5.1 receiver rated at 100 watts per channel.
How many pro 50 watt shakers could I effectively run out of this receiver if using it to run shakers only?
Is anyone else using this receiver to run shakers?

Craig

Unlike many here, I got myself only a pair of 25w 4 ohms shakers for my 2 lazyboys.

How do I connect them to my amp (85watts 8ohms per channel)?

1) 2 shakers to +/- of one channel (L or R)
2) 2 shakers to + of L channel and - of R channel
3) 1 shaker to each channel

I am oblivious to the 'ohms' impact, can someone explain why I need to match the ohms of my amp?

Hi

Looking through the various posts..Do I need a FMOD even I use the sub out from my receiver ? I thought the sub out only produces 120hz and below..I am looking to hook up an old receiver set to stereo for the shakers..

Thanks for your advises.

Dex

My advice is to try first without the FMOD. Maybe you will be satisfied with the shaking.

this is good advice, although i use a fmod.Essentially you want to stop the shaking when say "Vader" is speaking..I don't think you need it for that, even though there may be decent bass in his voice..The f-mod allows you to limit it to only the deeper bass..Explosions, etc..When the effect is really needed and will be more convincing..After a few movies my wife still doesn't know i installed them..She just thinks the bass is stronger on a few movies we've watched..Which we like decent bass levels anyway.Hope this helped..

brickie

Hi Brickie,
I dun have any LD or DVD material for Star Wars, so can't comment on Vader's voice. But how do you measure the Hz frequency for Vader's voice if it's above/below 50Hz? Who knows... maybe his voice was meant for LFE output?

Other scene I can recall that comes close with his voice is maybe the creatures' voice/roar from Fifth Element.

The other sure way to check was via the AVIA LFE sweep signal.

This is just an example i gave you..The main thing is, many myself included would not want my couch to "shake" when he did speak..Yes i'm sure it probably may be routed to lfe when it comes out in sept..But it is appropriate to shake your couch in that instance.By using, a fmod of 50hz, i assure myself my shakers only go off when i feel it is necessary..It truely is a judgement call, and i'm sure there's no right or wrong..But if i were in a persons setup and the couch shook for something like that, i'd think he had his bass cranked artificially too high..

brickie

What is an FMOD and where can I get one?

I am guessing it serves the same purpose a cross over does.

Do you have to have one for every shaker?

Craig:)

Craig, what's up..Yes, a fmod is essentially a xover.You don't need one for each shaker.It goes in line with the input on your second receiver.You can get them from Parts Express. They are about $25 a pair.And yes they must be bought in pairs.I use a 50hz right now.

brickie

I need help. I have 2 Buttkicker, They need a minimum 400 watts each at 4ohms. I have 2 extra channels on my amp at 200watts each channel. Does anyone see how I can make this work.
Thanks for any help.

Have you tried them to see if maybe you have enough power present to drive them? Not familiar with the buttkickers, but i see they need gobs of power.

brickie

Originally posted by brickie
Have you tried them to see if maybe you have enough power present to drive them? Not familiar with the buttkickers, but i see they need gobs of power.

brickie
I don't know how how this all works yet. I have 200 watts at 8ohms in each channel so I didn't know if there was to wire them to get 400watts at 4ohms to each shaker.
??????

In the best amps, when they're presented with a 4 ohm load they should double there power..I would say find out what your amp is rated at for a 4 ohm load.IF it can handle a 4ohm load and it does increase substantially in power you may be in business.

If it's say a 5 or 7 channel amp, and you've already got 8ohm speakers hooked-up I don't know if you could put a 4 ohm load on the extra channels..hopefully the experts will chime in here.

brickie

My amp is a 7 channel amp and I'm using 5 channels for 8ohms speakers. I figured I would see if I could use the other 2 channels before I bought another amp.

Yeah, that's what i possibly figured..Just not sure if there would be a problem putting those 4 ohm buttkickers on those other 2 channels.

brickie

Originally posted by brickie
Craig, what's up..Yes, a fmod is essentially a xover.You don't need one for each shaker.It goes in line with the input on your second receiver.You can get them from Parts Express. They are about $25 a pair.And yes they must be bought in pairs.I use a 50hz right now.

brickie

Another question.
So if I by a pair of them, (F-Mods) could I run as many as 8 shakers on them. Four shakers per F-mod? That would be two separate feeds off the 2nd reciever of course.
Do I just type in fmod when searching the P-Express site and I will find them that way?
Thanks for the help!!!
Craig :)

Craig, they will come if you do a search that way.. But you should not need to seperate feeds from amp,All you need is 1 fmod in line with the cable going to your 2nd receiver.8 is a nice #. It should be easy to come up with a ohms rating that your 2nd receiver or amp likes.

brickie

Originally posted by bob_vdi
I posted this in Troys message.
I'm not sure if it is safe for his receiver (4ohm at 250 w or 8ohm at 150w).
Total Ohms was 4.67 as drawn.
Comments?

Bob,

First, I think you got the math wrong.

Three 4 ohm shakers in parallel = 1/(1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 ) ohms
That results in a load of 1.33 ohms.
Putting that in series with one 4 ohm shaker results in 5.33 ohms load.

Putting that combination in parallel with another like combination is
1/(1/5.33 + 1/5.33) ohms.

Doing the math, your wiring diagram results in a resistance of 2.665 ohms to the amplifier. I doubt that is any good for the amplifier.

Compounding the problem, as I said in an earlier post, the wiring you illustrated does not equally shake each "shaker" Most of the power is delivered to the two shakers you have in series with the others. The remaining power is shared by those in parallel.

So, not only will it result in a load that is bad for your amplifier, but equal distribution of power is not even close. In my opinion, the power should be distributed equally to all the shakers. Not 1/4 of the power to two (those in series with the others) , and 1/12th of the power to the others (those in your diagram wired in parallel).

I might suggest that you use the PE suggested drawing and present an 8 ohm load to the amplifier (don't get hung up on trying to get a 4 ohm load)

Joe L.

I'd listen to Joe..He corrected my setup and i'm still getting a TREMENDOUS effect from a 12 ohm load!! And i feel safer that all shakers are getting equal power.

The one thing i think some people should realize is that it DOESN"T take alot of power to get these things going!!I'm using what i believe to be a 50 watt per channel receiver(OLD Onkyo), with 6 shakers and I can't get volume near halfway point..The shaking becomes to much.. Yeah maybe a 4 ohm load would be better, i don't know. But man any modest receiver will blow or should i say shake the hell out of these things.

brickie

You guys made me buy the Aura Bass shakers...shame on you all.:D
I ripped apart a brand new $5000 Leather-Couch and installed them.( Wife was not Home)
I bought a 2 Channel 200 Watt KLH Amp just for the Shakers on Ebay for $49 and am planning to hook it up, the way you suggested.

Problem is, i already split the Subwoofer-outlet to go to two identical Subs in the Room, can i split it one more time to get the LFE signal into the Shaker-Amp???

I don't see any reason why you couldn't split the LFE signal once more.

Worse case, you might have to tweak the gain controls on the subs to compensate for slightly less drive to them. (since the signal is being split three ways)

Best case, you will have a low enough output impedance on your LFE output from your receiver and you will not have to adjust any levels (other than on the shakers amp) because the LFE output will not get loaded down any by the additional input to the new shaker amplifier.

Joe L.

Boy, those things rock!!!

I spent about $250.00 on the entire project,(6 hours labor, including running new wires) carefully cut a nice piece of Hardwood that fits snug and tight under the Couch. The Shakers are attached with Carriage Bolts and self-locking Nuts, because i have seen too many wood-screws come loose.
The Covers under my (brand new) Couch was carefully removed and later stapled back on.
I used 10X3.5" Woodscrews to attach my Hardwood plate to the existing Frame on all four Corners. On top of that i used Liquid Nail to get things tight enough.
(i hope, i don't ever have to remove that plate again.)
Well, i pop in my Home-made Demo-DVD (with about 15 of the most awesome DVD-tracks on them) and wooohooo!!!, does this feel nice.
It isn't some annoying vibration, that comes from the Aura's, which i was afraid of.
No, it is a clean, warm THUMP in your behind or back. (somehow i must have managed to attach the wood-plate solid to the Back support on the Couch. lucky shot.

Anyways, i encourage everyone to try it out, it is some work, ok....but the Fun-Factor is 10+.

Another believer!!!

brickie

hey, brickie
I made some pictures while building, i have thrown these on my Website.
There is no Text yet, i will add that later.
just click on my Sig, and perhaps tell me what you Guys think.

Frank
:)

Very nice!!That is one hell-uv-a wall unit!!!!!!! EXTREMELY polished and pro look..I'm going to check my shakers since I installed them with wood screws.I really don't think they'll come loose,but I do like the wingnut idea.

brickie

Okay, going to make this thread a little longer. There's another topic that isn't addressed all that thoroughly, at least not that I noticed. How many, and where to mount them? I bought two pros, planning to mount one on each couch. Then I started second guessing myself, and I'm wondering if that will be enough. I think what I'll do is zip tie one of them to a couch and if that's good, then great. If it's not enough I'll put them both on one couch and order two more for the other. Now, as for location. Here's a picture of the bottom of my couch if it helps any http://gallery.avsforum.com/showphoto.php?photo=7830&password=&sort=1&cat=all&page=1. I'm not sure how well you can see, the perimeter is framed by four 1X6's, and the three pieces of wood in the middle are 1X2 (although this didn't look like standard sized lumber, that's about the size). So my options for mounting are anywhere along the perimeter, diagonaly (cuz I don't think they will fit straight) on the any of the three pieces in the middle, screw a piece of wood to the three pieces in the middle (perpendicular to them) and mount to that, or zip tie to the spings like I've seen in some pictures of recliners. So many options, so little idea?! If I just use one, I'd imagine it would make the most sense to put it either on the center piece of wood, zip tied to the springs in the middle or on the 1X6 in the rear of it. If I do two of them I'm thinking on the two outside 1X6's. But I don't know. Two more things to mention. First if it goes on one of the 1X6's it will be vertical, is that okay? Second, this couch has one big cushion on top instead of three normal cushions, so that might make a difference as well. Any help would be greatly apprciated.

Joey, did you look at my install (http://www.blue-screenofdeath.com/system.htm) at all?
(scroll down)
one Shaker per seat seems to be the best setup, so in your case about three...
I would not at all recommend Zip-ties, as they will most likely dampen some of the vibrations.
Do it right the first time.
You want to use the hardest wood possible, and install the Shakers most rigid to the Frame of the Couch to experience the best vibrations.
(at least, this is what I learned on my project)
Note that I used Carriage-bolts to prevent the Shakers from coming loose.
Just my 2 cents and best of luck to you.

:)

hope this works..If not it's posted in the other "big" shaker discussion going.Here is how i mounted mine.

brickie

This from my other post in the other discussion thread on these.Explains what I did.


Iv'e attached a picture of how i mounted mine..perhaps you could do it this way instead of cutting into couch.This is my loveseat,and i did the couch the same way..I had slats of wood running in the direction of the screws, as you'll notice in picture.I just screwed a piece of wood to these "slats" and then mounted shakers firmly to board..Rock solid, and works fabulous.I too did mine while the wife was away..Just makes for less headaches, til she feels them and agrees what a great idea!

brickie

Okay, another mounting question. I'm going to mount two (for now anyways) pros to my couch. They are going to be mounted on the left and right part of the frame, vertically and 'facing' each other. If I'm thinking about this correctly, that will effectively make them out of phase, so the question is: When mounting two bass shakers in such a way that one is one way and the other is the opposte way (that is tops or bottoms facing each other) should they be wired out of phase?

I would wire them out-of-phase as you described in that situation.

Joe L.

Got'm wired up, tried them both out of phase and in phase, didn't seem to make a huge difference, but all I did was run some test tones from the main amp. Gonna order two more for the other couch as well as a sub amp. I really wanted to order a dedicated amp and kept talking my self out of it for various reasons, BUT I finally came up with a great reason to go ahead and buy it....Both receivers are Onkyos...what does that mean...trying to do anything on one, makes the other do the same thing, sometimes backwards even (ie power is a toggle, so turn one on and the other turns off). I swear, that couch did NOT want these things though. I wanted to put machine screws with lock nuts on to really hold them in place, well, the drill battery just about died, one drill bit is now a permanent piece of the couch (I've never had that happen before, it's just plain stuck, for the life of me I can't get it out), had a hell of a time finding bolts small enough to fit though the holes in the auras but more then 3 inches long, then I couldn't drill though all the wood for various reasons. So I decided to use screws, snapped one of the heads off etc etc etc... Well there in now, like it or not, and in a couple of days, the other couch is getting them too. Well, off to try them out!

lol, good story.
I ordered some 4 more Auras for the rest of my Couch as well, more Carriage bolts and lock-nuts.
I forgot to mention, that i had to drill the holes on the Auras a bit bigger, since i could not find carriage-bolts small enough to fit.
My FMOD'sarrived as well, so i'm going to give them a try and report the results here.
:)

Those fmods should make a big difference for you..Wife just figured out that we had them..She them when I moved furniture due to alittle remodeling. She's now co-signed and said i should get more to have enough for the chairs in our dedicated theater..When we finally find a house..Guess I'll go ahead and order 6 more.

brickie

Hi

Got my Auras and am looking for a single FMOD 50hz low pass. Parts Express do not ship to Singapore and I am hoping someone can sell me a piece of FMOD. They are sold as a pair and if you do not need a pair do consider selling to me. I can pay through PayPal and will of course add USPS shipping cost.

Do PM me if you can help.

Thanks
DexS

I will order a set of FMODs right now.
Parts Express ships within a few Days, i will let you know when they get here and then we'll do the paypal thing.
Couldn't cost that much to ship them to you, i ship stuff to Germany all the Time.
:)

update: i did place the order with some other Stuff, but the FMOD's are on back-order. I don't know, how long it's going to take.
:(

update:

i finished installing six Shakers and tried different FMOD's, (finally arrived)but i don't see a difference between the 70 and 50 Hz, but there is a big difference between using them and not at all.

I am actually driving them with one of those guys (http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=300-793) and thinking about adding a second one....we'll see.
:)

Went to take a look but link goes to main website.

brickie

Originally posted by brickie
Went to take a look but link goes to main website.

brickie

Part Number 300-793 from Partsexpress.

Hi

Managed to get my pair of pro shakers up and running for 2 weeks and it started failing twice. I suspect its the old kenwood amp that its near RIP but the last time I was trouble shooting the shakers, my subwoofer blew its fuse. I am using a Y splitter at the line in at the sub so I can connect another 1 to 2 RCA which go to the old kenwood. This is how I tap the low freq signals for the shakers. Will this connection (splitting at sub input) damage my sub ? I have since disconnect the shakers for the time being until my sub has stablised.

Thanks

http://www.termpro.com/articles/spkrz.html

Good article explaining hooking up speakers in series and parallel.

Hi,

I have a Yamaha RX-V2400 (http://www.yamaha.com/yec/products/RECEIVER/RX-V2400.htm) 7.1 Receiver with the Yamaha YST-SW205 (http://www.yamaha.com/yec/products/HXseries/HXseries_subs.htm) subwoofer connected to it.

today I hooked up 8 AURA Pro Bass Shakers (http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=299-028&scqty=4) and a 250W Subwoofer Amp (http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=300-793&scqty=2) from Parts Express to drive them.

I tried 2 methods of wiring suggested here: 1. 4 Ohm Method (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=3238338&fullpage=1) and 2. 8 Ohm Method (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=3254694&fullpage=1)

Both methods worked fine however the 4 ohm method 2 Shakers we're really shaking while the other 6 we're about half.

The 8ohm method all seemed stonger and all we're even.

The 250W Subwoofer Amp (http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=300-793&scqty=2) can drive 4ohms at 250w and 8 ohms at 150w.

Anyone wanna suggest a better way to hook these up or shud I be happy with the 8ohm method?

I've written several posts on exactly the issue you discovered.

That drawing showing a "4 ohm" method results in uneven shaking.

Worse than that, if you wired 8 shakers as illustrated in that drawing and connected them to your amplifier, they would represent a load of 2.66 ohms, not 4.67 as described.

The error in the calcs on that drawing is that three shakers in parallel would be equivalent to 1.33 ohms, NOT 5.33 as drawn. (4/3=1.33)

The 1.33 in series with a single shaker would then be 5.33 ohms, not 9.33. and two sets of that combination in parallel would be half of that, or 2.66 ohms, not 4.67. If connected to some amplifiers a 2.66 ohm load would cause them to overheat... or worse.

Since 2.66 ohms is lower than most amplifiers can handle, you probably don't want to use that wiring diagram for your configuration. As you discovered, 2/3rds of the power will be delivered to two shakers and the remaining 1/3rd split between the other 6 shakers. That too is undesirable.

Now...to his defense, the author of that drawing did say he was NOT an expert.

The goal is to get the power evenly distributed to all the shakers involved so they will all shake the same amount. A second goal is to wire them in a configuration that represents a load your amplifier can handle. The 8 ohm drawing accomplishes both of those goals. , The 4 ohm drawing you linked to accomplishes neither.

Good luck with your new shakers in your theater. Be prepared for a great addition to the home theater experience.

Joe L.

Originally posted by brickie
This from my other post in the other discussion thread on these.Explains what I did.


Iv'e attached a picture of how i mounted mine..perhaps you could do it this way instead of cutting into couch.This is my loveseat,and i did the couch the same way..I had slats of wood running in the direction of the screws, as you'll notice in picture.I just screwed a piece of wood to these "slats" and then mounted shakers firmly to board..Rock solid, and works fabulous.I too did mine while the wife was away..Just makes for less headaches, til she feels them and agrees what a great idea!

brickie

Picture??

Brickie's picture (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=3866284&fullpage=1)

Thanks, didn't look hard enough for the pictures.

What is the deal with FMOD's? What are they and why use them?

Deja-vue,

Nice system! I'm equally impressed with the clean install of the shakers in your leather couch. I have a question for you. Did you install your shakers straight to the sub-amp? I noticed that the wiring does not show them being wired in series or parallel. Am I correct by stating this?

The reason I'm asking is because I'm in the process of ordering 8 Pro-Shakers and the same plate amp you just purchased along with the 50mhz FMOD. I was just going to wire the shakers in pairs( 2 x 4) and then wire each pair to the plate amp speaker connection. Thanks in advance.

Jr

Originally posted by Mike191
Thanks, didn't look hard enough for the pictures.

What is the deal with FMOD's? What are they and why use them?

Fmods are filters that control how much low frequency energy goes to the shakers..It doesn't allow bass over a certain frequency to reach the shakers..Even though the LFE channel is meant for bass only, you still don't want to send bass like that in a males voice or "little" drum beats..I hope you know what i'm getting at..Only bass you want is the LOW blow thru you type bass.

brickie

Jr Lew
Thanks for the kind words.
The Subwoofer only has one outlet, 250 watts into 4 Ohms, so i installed all six parallel, i experimented with 2 in series and the rest in parallel, works ok for now.
I am planning to install two more Shakers and an additional Amp (same model) and then use 4 shakers per Amp.
We'll see. I am quiet happy with the setup as it is right now, but i always like to tweak things around a bit.I also tried a couple of different FMOD's.

My original System ( when i built it) is about 8 years old, just recently i started to upgrade it.
I spent too much time here on the AVS Forum, and as a result i am a couple of thousand dollars poorer...

my recent upgrades include the shakers, couple of Amps, extra wiring, complete new Speakers, new Pioneer 2012, and a second Pioneer 300 DVD Changer.(comes in next week)...when will it ever stop? :(

Originally posted by brickie
Fmods are filters that control how much low frequency energy goes to the shakers..It doesn't allow bass over a certain frequency to reach the shakers..Even though the LFE channel is meant for bass only, you still don't want to send bass like that in a males voice or "little" drum beats..I hope you know what i'm getting at..Only bass you want is the LOW blow thru you type bass.

brickie

So what freq cut off are you guys using? I noticed there are MANY to choose from.

This one. (http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=266-250)

:)

Great! Since they are sold in pairs, I assume you place one per side on the input to the shaker receiver or, should they be placed on the outlet side of the main receiver so both the shakers and the sub are filtered?

Are these really necessary or are they just a final refinement?

If you using a sub amp, like this one (http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=300-794&ctab=4) with an adjustable crossover then I really don't see the need for an FMOD. However if you are using an old receiver to power your bass shakers then the FMOD would probably be a good idea.

Actually you only need to use 1 fmod. If you split the output of your sub lfe then plug it into that,then use a y adapter to go back to left and right if you need to.Hope I explained that good..To me, they are very much necessary, but YOU need to try it both ways to see what you think.

brickie

I agree with you Brickie, I suppose I should have said an fmod was necessary, not probably a good idea, with a receiver or other non sub type amp. I have mine hooked up to a receiver now and it really would benefit from an fmod. It is kind of annoying having your butt vibrate when someone is talking. I just haven't gotten around to ordering one, or I guess two. (whats up with that anyway, you should be able to buy a single unit).

However, I still say if someone has a decent sub amp, with an adjustable crossover, that adjusts down below 40 or 50 Hz's, and has at least a 12db per octave slope, then the fmod would be redundant.

Now I agree with you..Just haven't seen too many plate amps with crossovers that low.If you know someone else that needs one you guys could split the cost on it..

brickie

Home Theater is an addiction. I just told my wife, no more home theater equipment except for my main speakers, but after being enlightened by these shaker threads I just secretly purchased 2 bass shakers and am anxiously awaiting there arrival. I will install them secretly as well because I think she will think this will sound like a ridiculous idea, however if she experiences it I believe she will feel otherwise.

I have two very, very elementary questions.

1. Everyone seems to be purchasing 6 or 8 of these things and hooking them up in series, in parrellel, etc. I only ordered two, one for a recliner on one side of the room and one for one on the other. Do I simply connect one to the left speaker and one for the right speaker out from the "old" amplifier as opposed to connecting them in series which would mean running a wire across the middle of my floor?

2. One of the recliners tends to get moved around a bit since it is a combo home theater/kids play area. Is there a simple way to connect the wires (banana plugs or something?) so that they can be disconnected to move the recliner or does everyone here have dedicated theater seating that does not move?

You are correct on both accounts..2 is obviously the easiest amount to deal with..Also the PROS will accept the bannan plugs you mention to make unhooking them easier.The regular version I think only accepts regular speaker wire.

brickie

The small one have a blade connection that attaches to the wire then plugs into the speaker. Don't forget the FMODS needed to eliminate unwanted frequency levels. I would run each of the shakers off the left and right speaker terminals as suggested. Don't forget these are now 4ohm not 8ohm so be sure your old amp will handle them.

Forgot about that one..May be better to run them in series off 1 channel of amp..then again I don't think they would be too demanding for a reciever. Try it and see how it works both ways.

brickie

I am getting the smaller ones. I guess I will see when I get them, but I assume that these blade connections that you mention just get connected to regular speaker wire correct? The FMOD, when I order it, gets connected between the sub out Y connector and the old amp correct?

I will have to read through this thread again to get a better understanding of ohms. I need an ohms for dummies manual. :p

You are correct once again..The regular ones won't take banannas.Also the fmod you got right.Ohms is very confusing at times..

2 8 ohms in series=16 ohms
2 8 ohms in parallel=4 ohms

2 4 ohms in series=8ohms
2 4 ohms in parallel=2 ohms

brickie

The shakers should arrive today. I just want to double check before I hook these up. I understand it would be better to hook up 2 in series, which I eventually will, but I am only planning on hooking 1 up ininitially.

Brickie you said it should be ok to try it both ways. I just want to make sure that I am not going to damage anything if I hook up just 1 4ohm shaker to an 8ohm receiver?

You'd damage the receiver before the shaker from my understanding..Most likely it would simply go into " protect mode". You'll be fine.I would just try series if that's the way you're going to end up.It does NOT take much to get these shaking!! So you won't be losing anything if that's what you're worried about.

brickie

Thanks for posting all of your experiences guys! I'm going to be picking up a couple of pairs soon. I've got the Ohm stuff figured out but was wondering what gauge of speaker wire to use? Bigger is usually better but at what size would I start seeing diminishing returns on my investment? Thanks.

14 gauge would be fine..Anything over this is overkill, unless you got some EXTREME runs.

brickie

Thanks brickie. I'm really looking forward to adding this experience to my home theater. I'll probably do just what you did and not tell my wife. She's the type of person who is against new stuff until she experiences it first hand. At least I was right about the Tivo and X1!

Post your results when you get them up and running!

brickie

From reading most of these threads it seems that the general consensus is that the standard (non-pro) model has enough power to make most people happy. Am I reading this right? Personally I'm leaning towards getting the normal ones partially because of the smaller size (might make installation easier) and the cheaper price. Apart from having more kick to them and connectors instead of wires are there any other reasons why the pros might be better to use? I hadn't heard of heat being an issue.
It should make for an fun moment if I were to mute the volume and crank up the shaker amp while a cat is snoozing on the couch. :D

Javaman, you really hit it dead on the head!The larger ones do have more power handling capabiltity,but I think you touched on that one.

brickie

hmm, i think bigger is better, when it comes to Shakers.
(even though i have never felt the non-pro versions).
I figured, if i ever take my couch apart, it'll better be worth it.
I don't want to do it again.
The pro-versions only cost a few bucks more, and i am glad, i bought these.
I am very happy with the results.
just my 2 cents.

I tend to like the "bigger is better" effec as well..Iv'e got 6 pros.

brickie

I just got my 3 Palliser Connery's set up (w/built in shakers) & holy cow what a difference. They give you the impression of having prodigious amount of bass without cracking the drywall. Like any sub system that is too loud the effect seems artificial, but if dialed in properly they "sound" awesome!

Well, I finally got them hooked up and man, I can't believe I didn't do this earlier! I'm only using one pair so far, wired in series to a old Technics receiver. I stopped using this receiver several years ago since several of the inputs were acting up. I just about had gotten to the point of frustration after trying 5 or 6 inputs when I realized I forgot to wire the last lead for one of the speakers! DOH. Anyways, once I finished terminating it it worked right away. So far I've only tested it with SW ep II, and the asteroid sequence was unreal. I've got my primary amp's crossover set to 80hz, but I think a Fmod would help out a bit in getting rid of some of the unnecessary vibe.

Good job, and yes, the fmod should make a big difference.Also of course make sure the volume isn't too loud..It doesn't take much to get these shakers going at all!!

brickie

Thanks! I probably wouldn't have done it had several of the AVS members never pioneered it and chatted their results up on this thread. In the near future I may pick up a 2 channel EQ, (They do work on line level stuff don't they?) raise the crossover output to both and EQ it down to roughly 80Hz for the sub to let me optionally feed a higher frequency to the shaker. (around 120 or so) for racing games. I've noticed that the effect is great for low revs, but cuts out very quickly when accelerating. Obviously I wouldn't be able to get the shake for high revs, but it would be neat to adjust the range a bit for just the shaker to smooth out the transition. Hitting rumble strips is definately a ride now!

Wow. That was quite a thread to work through. A few things that I was looking for that I didn't see...

I noticed that most people are using an old receiver as an amp for these. I don't have an old receiver laying around and I don't want to buy an "old" receiver just for this. I do need need two channels for my setup, so a single plate amp won't work.

Would a Crown pro amp be over kill for these? Maybe the XLS 202?

I have 8 shakers and am going to run them four per channel. My theater seating is divided into four pretty equal couches, so I was going to mount two units in each couch. I wanted to put a toggle switch in each line so that I can turn off the shakers for a given couch if I wanted. I know that this will change the resistance on each channel, so I need an amp that can handle down to 4 ohms (when all four are going, it will be a 4 ohm load on each channel, two shakers will be an 8 ohm load)

They will be setup on each channel like this:

Channel 1
|_s_O_O_| O=shaker
|_s_O_O_| s=toggle switch

Anyway, I hadn't seen anyone post about putting toggle switches in, and I was also looking for amp recommendations for this kind of setup.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Hey, Gamemaster.

I use this Subwoofer here (http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=300-793) in my Setup, and i must say, i am very happy with it. It comes with a remote-control, which makes adjustments fairly easy.
The use of a Fmod is highly recommended as well.

Toggle switch is a great idea..Ans should work as long as you use a heavy duty one.As far as the XLS 202, way overkill for this project.Trust me, it doesn't take much to get these going at all..

brickie

As far as the Crown amp, why not? I'm guessing with your Crown you'll have plenty of power to spare.

I use an Adcom GFA555II and haven't had any problems (2 pro's per channel).

Overkill maybe, but I wouldn't hesitate to use the Crown if you already have it and its not being used for anything else.

Even if you do torch the shakers (not that I think you will), they're cheap;)

I would agree if you have it, or plan more down the road .. otherwise ,yes,it's overkill..But i'm not mad at you..as I FIRMLY believe in overkill!!

brickie

Thanks for the replies.

The perfect amp would be a two channel amp, around 100W/channel @ 4 ohms (it will handle all four shakers at 4 ohms), and drop slightly to 75-80W at 8 ohms (two shakers).

I agree that the crown 202 is overkill, but I am looking for a solution here. I know that I could go get a "cheap" 200W stereo receiver, but I'm a little worried about the life of the receiver as most "cheap" consumer receivers aren't rated for 4 ohm work. I'd rather not want to waste the $100 bucks on something that is just going to bite it in six months because I overheated the power supply.

Plus, an extra receiver is kind of unattractive in the EQ rack, IMO. I agree that this is a minor concern, but I already have this setup in my family room down stairs (my old HT setup ;) ) with my sub being powered by an old Sony receiver. I'd like something a bit more aesthetically pleasing for my dedicated HT.

Would I be wasting my money to get the crown? Would it work to have the crown power these and just keep the amp turned down (so I don't fry the shakers)? Is there another solution out there that I don't know of?

:confused:

Conrad, I totally feel you. Your concerns are valid..The main reason most choose the reciver aside from price is for the volume control..I have a reciver but I didn't get a remote with it, so no volume control for me..Although not a big deal to me..You could most definitely do what you said as far as just keeping volume down, and would be a good idea if you plan on expanding later..

Brickie

Some do use those plate amps like you find on powered subs, but for the price point and power I like The Crowns.

Okay, now I'm leaning towards getting a seperate power amp. Maybe the Onkyo M-282. This would look nice with my Onkyo TX-SR800 anyway. But I don't really want to drop $300 on it (or whatever it is retail). But they do look nice and they are rated for 6 ohm work and would probably handle 4 ohm light duty just fine.

Someone talk me out of this please.

That's a good point about the remote control advantage of using an "old" receiver. However, since I am using the toggle switches, I don't see much need for more control over the shaking. The amp will have a "volume" control anyway. It is something to think about though.

Thanks.

Ok because of this thread I just ordered 3 Pro's.

Now I need to find an Amp... I have no idea what Im looking for but like the few posts above I dont want another A/V reciever in the rack. Is there such thing as a Mono Amp? Maybe something for ~$100 bucks?

P.S. My CC hates this website. Although I'm doing my part in helping the economy :)

If you have a place to put a plate amp, that would be a great option. They are single channel, would be in your price range, and would provide enough power to run your shakers. You'd just need to hide it somewhere, cause they are kind of ugly if they aren't mounted to something. ;) Just make a small box to put it in and hide it under/behind something. I got my plate amps [the ones for my subs] from apexjr.com. The Jr version should work for you.

I'm in the same boat, I don't want another A/V receiver in my EQ rack. Yuck! But, I just cut into my amp budget a bit by buying an OTA HD receiver so now my amp choices are a bit limited.

After reading these two bass shaker threads you've got another convert. Amp #2 is set up and the bass shakers should arrive this Wednesday!

I've got a question that I don't believe was specifically covered yet ( or at least I couldn't find anything in this thread or the other "bass shakers" thread).

SETUP
Assuming the LFE signal is split - one line goes from my main receiver (HK AVR 7200) to my powered sub and the other line goes to my supplemental receiver (Sony STR-DE135) running the bass shakers.

QUESTION
My AVR 7200 has an internal variable crossover built in that I can set for my sub output. I've set this to 70HZ (<70Hz goes to my sub, >70Hz goes to Fr L/R speakers). But if I'm in Dolby Digital mode watching a movie is the internal sub crossover bypassed (i.e. the x-over setting has no effect on what frequencies go to the sub)?

For example, do all frequencies of Dolby Digital's discreet LFE channel go to the subwoofer no matter what internal crossover setting (inside amp), or does the crossover still send only signals below 70Hz to the LFE out?

HK's manual doesn't touch on this at all and I'm trying to decide if it is absolutely necessary to order a set of 70Hz fmods. Thanks for any help!

Oops, one more question. My Sony receiver running the bass shakers has an A channel and a B channel and is stable at 8 ohms. The manual says that A+B is an internal series connection (the receiver manual states "A+B(series)"). Using ohm's law does this mean that the receiver, when running A+B is only stable at 16 ohms (8 ohms + 8 ohms in series)? There's not 4/8 ohm switch on the back.

Thanks again!

spillz564,

I have the same HK reciever with my LFE out split and fed to both my subwoofer and to the plate-amp that powers my shakers. I have not found any need to add any "fmods"

I would say give it a try without them. As you said, there is already a low pass filter on the LFE output of the receiver. Odds are it will do the trick. You can always add one later if you feel there is too much high-frequency signal fed to the shakers.

Many receivers put the A+B speakers in series to provide for an easier load. If the manual did not say anything about 4 ohm loads, the odds are it was not rated for 4 ohm use.... but... that does not mean you cannot use it.

From what I've experienced, the shaker amplifiers pretty much are loafing 95 percent of the time. It is a rare action sequence that will last any length of time at all. Therefore, you probably will not be stressing the amplifier power supply even if you connected a 4 ohm load where the manual only described 8 ohm speakers. Although there is some risk, If you are brave, try it. Just increase the volume till you get the desired shaking effect and don't crank it all the way up (you probably won't need to anyway)

If your amplifier experiences a meltdown, then it probably didn't have any protection circuitry and was not going to last long with anything less than a 8 ohm load... In that case, you have an excuse to get a better amplifier.

How many shakers will you be running?

Joe L.

Joe,

Thanks for the reply. I'll give the internal crossover a shot on the HK 7200 and see what happens.

I got the sony (running the shakers) off of Ebay for $15 + $20 s+h so I'm not too concerned if something happens to it.

I started off just ordering two pro shakers and will probably wire them in series and connect to the L channel for now for an 8 ohm load on one couch. If these work well though I will probably add several sets more for other seating positions.

I was just trying to think ahead about the best way to hook up, for example, 8 separate shakers. I could do several parallel/series combinations as described previously in this thread and connect to only the L channel or both the L+R at around 8 ohms.

But I was also thinking, I could have 4 sets of 2-pro-shakers wired in series and connect each set to one of the four outputs (A channel L,R & B channel L,R). Theoretically this would mean all 4 sets of shakers would be delivering 8 ohm loads. But if the receiver A+B is wired in series, I was thinking that maybe the receiver would only "safely" accept 16 ohms (8 ohms A-ch + 8 ohms B-ch) when in A+B mode.

If I could wire in the 4 sets to 4 separate inputs on my Sony (bass shaker) receiver, I would theoretically have more control over the amount of shaking on each set.

Thanks for your help and your previous wiring & ohm's law explanations. It's been a while since I had EE classes in college :-) Plastics engineers don't use wiring too much!

-Brian

Originally posted by J. L.
[B]From what I've experienced, the shaker amplifiers pretty much are loafing 95 percent of the time. It is a rare action sequence that will last any length of time at all. Therefore, you probably will not be stressing the amplifier power supply even if you connected a 4 ohm load where the manual only described 8 ohm speakers. Although there is some risk, If you are brave, try it. Just increase the volume till you get the desired shaking effect and don't crank it all the way up (you probably won't need to anyway)

If your amplifier experiences a meltdown, then it probably didn't have any protection circuitry and was not going to last long with anything less than a 8 ohm load... In that case, you have an excuse to get a better amplifier.
B]

I think I'm just going to try and old receiver as an amp for my shakers. You've soothed my fears that a 4ohm load is going to kill the amp. It's cheap and probably worth a try. Just need to find one now...

Thanks!

Let me know what you find. :)

I'm in the same boat. Looking on ebay there is a ton of garbage.

You guys should look at your neighborhood flea markets..Got mine their, and was dirt cheap.$25, and works flawless.

brickie

I called my parents and asked if they have anything. My dad thinks there is a 10 year old Fisher Reciever in the Attic. I'm gonna go check it out tomorrow.


Shakers came today, Priority just went up! :D

Keep us posted..

brickie

Ok I couldnt wait so I went over to see what was in the attic. Here is what I found. :D

http://www.tta89.net/HTPC/rec2.JPG

http://www.tta89.net/HTPC/rec1.JPG

Its a Pioneer SX-203 whatever that is (was?). The back of it says 150 watts. Not exactly an audiophiles dream reciever but I'm hoping it will work to run 3 Aura Pro's.

OK so thats the easy part. I have no idea how to build these boards to the bottom of the couch. Are there are other pics floating around? I don't want to ruin my 2K dollar couch. :D

Always nice to have a cold CORONA around, while you're doing it.:D

click on my Sig, there is some pics how i did mine.
(and my couch was over 5K:eek: )
:)

Here is how I did mine..Screwed to the wood that was running under couch,and then mounted shakers to that.Awesome effect!!

brickie

I guess not really thinking when I ordered I bought 3 shakers for the couch. Is there a way to hook up three to this old reciever without one side having more load than the other?

I have have 3 cushions and I figured one for under each of them. Maybe I can get away with just two if I position them right? I have the Aura Pro's.

Mike that was my love seat..Iv'e got 3 on the couch.I used your logic as well..1 per cushion for maximum impact.

brickie

I only have a couch so I only bought 3 shakers. I dunno how to hook it up so they get even power and doesnt cook the amp. Maybe I should just buy a 4th and put it in the ottoman. :)

Could be a great idea since 3 is such an odd number.

brickie

Or 4 in the couch :)

Think 2 is ok in the couch?

I'd give it a try and see what you think..The couch being bigger you might want to crank them a little more to get desired effect which will make them seem to artificial..I'd go for at least 3,but give it a try.

brickie

Ok now we are going in circles!

How do I wire 3? :)

Sorry, i apologize..Should have worded it better 3 in the couch,and 1 in the ottaman if feasible..Or yes even 4 in the couch. for a couch I don't think 2 will give you the desired effect.But if you already have the shakers,then by all means give 2 a try in the couch first..No big deal to screw another one down later.

brickie

fwiw, regarding the number of shakers on a couch. i just finished installing two pro shakers on my sectional couch (length of two couches) and am running these shakers off the L channel of a 100 w/channel receiver. these two are more than adequate to get the couch rumbling. i also have the receiver volume at 1/2 power. hope this helps.

on another note, it appears that if you have an internal x-over setting on your main amp (mine is an HK AVR 7200) this x-over DOES apply to LFE when using Dolby Digital. so if you're receiver has an internal x-over setting for the LFE (sub) output, there's not a need to purchase fmods. just an observation that i thought might help others...

For 3 shakers (4 ohms each):

If you have a two channel "shaker" amplifier...

Either put all three shakers in series and connect them to one of the two channels and only use one channel of the amplifier.
or
Put two in series on one channel and the third on the other channel and then adjust the left/right balance control to get the two to shake the same as the one on the other channel. (The control will be off center)

If you have a one channel "shaker" amplifier...

Put all three in series (for a total of 12 ohms) and connect it to the only channel of the amp.

Joe L.

Originally posted by TTA89
How do I wire 3? :)


Get three more! (you will want them anyways once you start "shaking")

I started out with four, then ordered two more for a total of six in one couch.
:D

This site is evil! :eek:


I just wanted to come here and find info on a 1500 dollar TV. Look what I have done! :o :o


Just tack on another 30 bucks at Radio shack... Now I just gotta tear apart the couch.

Yes sir..LOL.Evil indeed my young apprentice.

brickie

hey guys, after reading this thread I jumped in. So I have 2 pairs of Aura shakers (not pro) for the couch and 1 pair for the loveseat. I have an old Technics SU-V60 Amp sitting around here and I'm wondering if it's good enough. I don't have much info on it, but it's 2x100W and it has a slide switch on the back (pic included) where you can choose the impedence of the speakers. To the left you have 4-16 on the mains and 16 on the remote and to the right you have 4-6 on the mains and 6 on the remotes. Can someone tell me if this will do? and if so, what's the best way to hook up the shakers and bass feed? That is, into CD in from the split and wire the 4 going into the couch in series and put on left channel, 4-6 ohms etc. Any help is appreciated.

thx

http://www.kulkarnicorp.com/truck/technics.jpg

So you have a total of 6 shakers, correct? If so,i'd wire them in series(3 each), and hook up 3 to the left channel,and 3 to the right.This is exactly what I did.This way they will all get even power.It would be a 12 ohm load so receiver will be super happy.Also it is more than enough!! Put switch on 4-16 ohms.

brickie

Thanks very much Brickie, that's what I'll do! Can't wait for the results :)

You're welcome.

brickie

....from an earlier post, the best "shaker" sensation for a recliner was touted to be had by mounting two shakers per seat, one below the seat cushion, and the second along the small of the back behind the back cushion. Has anyone tried this? Is the common wisdom that two 25W Shakers mounted in this fashion would create a better sensation than one 50W Pro Shaker mounted below the seat cushion. Pricewise, these two options are about a push, so I was wondering if anyone has tried the two shaker setup?

This could posibly work, but really seems like theres too much of a chance of the effect becoming artificial.

brickie

I've got 3 pair of PROs ordered. 1 shaker for each cushion on 2 couches. How many watts should I try to get when looking for an old receiver? I'm hoping a 100x2 would work without stress on the receiver. How would I exactly wire these up? I'm thinking 3 on each channel but how would I run the wiring? I'm not knowledged in the whole ohm technical talk.

thanks a lot for any help

Jimmy, 100x2 is the norm, but trust me it is overkill..I'm sure you've heard me say that a few times..It does not take much power to get these things going!!It can get artificial real fast..50x2 would work as well.for 6, wire them in series with 3 on each channel and sit back and get ready for the ride.

brickie

I ordered a pair of shakers once I saw the price on PartsExpress.

OK, I think I have a problem with my couch. The bottom of my couch has no crossbeams. The frame runs around the sides to form a large rectangle... so how would I mount these things?

Here's a quick diagram:

http://members.rogers.com/mshe/Sofa.gif

Would mounting the shaker like this be OK?

http://members.rogers.com/mshe/Shaker.gif

The buttom of the sofa is a bit hallow... so the only contact points will be the frame. Any ideas what I can stuff between the mounting board and the sofa to increase contact?

Thanks.

Here is some pictures how i did mine.
I hope this helps you out.

Shaker-install (http://www.itprofessionals.tv/system.htm)
:)

Thanks Deja-vue!

How did you mount your "shaker board" to the sofa itself? Did you use liquid nail or did you screw it in?

Thanks.

mshe, i used both.
If you scroll down on that page you will see that i used Hardwood, woodscrews and liquid-nail to secure the plate to the couch.
I wanted a solid connection to the Frame. The harder the wood, the better, i figured.
Note that i also used carriage-bolts with locking-nuts to attach the Shakers to the woodplate securely. I did not want to take the couch apart again to re-tighten anything.
Most members report that woodscrews on the Shakers won't come loose, but i just wanted to make sure.

Have Fun!
:)

mshe, any results yet?
I wonder, how you ended up doing the install.
Keep us posted.

:)

Is this how I should wire my 3 shakers? I have 6 total shakers for 2 couches.

Correct Jimmy.3 per channel is the best way to go when you're doing 6.Of course your load is 12 ohms,and most any receiver will love this.I have 6 and mine are wired like this, and the shake is TREMENDOUS!!

brickie

I phoned up PE to see why my order had taken 10 days without arriving and was informed that they have run out of Bass Shaker Pro's :(

They still have the standard Bass Shakers.

1) Is there much of a difference between the standard and pro's ?

2) Can someone recommend another online supplier that has the pros at a good price ?

Thanx

The only other place Iv'e seen the pros at a good price is Ebay.For what it's worth,many here report great success with the regular shakers..I'm not sure though since I do use pros...

brickie

Originally posted by Deja-vue
mshe, any results yet?
I wonder, how you ended up doing the install.
Keep us posted.

:)

I ordered the shakers from PartsExpress early last week. After 4 days of waiting I noticed my order was still in "Processed state". As expected (with my bad luck) PartsExpress had just sold out of the shakers...

I ordered a set from Smarthome Auctions.. they shipped today so I hope to receive them next week.

I'll take some photos once I have mine installed.

Originally posted by sk8conz

2) Can someone recommend another online supplier that has the pros at a good price ?

Thanx

Smarthome auctions has them for 90.00 a pair - 10.00 more each than PartsExpress.

On the bright side, Smarthome ships ASAP - as in same day :)

Otherwise there are 4 or 5 Bass Shaker Pro auctions on eBay for about 65.00. However I believe the seller only ships witin the US (I'm in Canada) and wants a money order (what a hassle...).