AVS › AVS Forum › Audio › Subwoofers, Bass, and Transducers › A comparison of three tactile transducers - ButtKicker Mini LFE vs. Clark Synthesis TST209 vs. Aura Bass Shaker Pro
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A comparison of three tactile transducers - ButtKicker Mini LFE vs. Clark Synthesis TST209 vs.... - Page 4

post #91 of 132
12/28/12 at 8:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Archaea View Post

wait - wait - wait. I haven't decided to do the DIY route yet. Don't throw me in that baby pee pool yet. I'm darn happy with the setup I have now. The SI 18" deal is crazy good prices for the drivers - - - but I have my reservations.
I've been to like 10 audio meets in the last two years. The caps are my personal favorite sub I've ever heard from the first time I heard them to 1.5 years and like 9 meets later. I've probably heard 50 subwoofers in that time in these meets. I'm not sure I'm ready to gamble my personal subjective favorite for an unknown DIY driver in mad multiples!!!
am I? eek.gifconfused.gif

I had my reservations too which is why I didn't immediately put the caps up for sale. At these prices though I found it very difficult to resist 'trying' them. biggrin.gif
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post #92 of 132
12/29/12 at 6:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Archaea View Post

I can't say I noticed that in testing - but we didn't push them beyond their limits either. I can control how many watts I supply them with the Inuke DSP and we limited it to 150 watts to prevent damage.
I do understand there is thermal controls in these transducers - so it makes sense they would shut down/soft limit if they were being overdriven. I'm surprised you managed to fry it unless you just completely overwhelmed it with wattage. 650 watts a piece might do it if they are rated for 150 each. tongue.gif
What I did think was strange that in the chair it felt like the TST209 was sometimes more powerful than the buttkicker - but when I was doing the visual testing on the board the buttkicker appeared was more powerful in shaking the water. Keeping ported subs back to use as near field transducers --- Interesting! tongue.gif

That's really cool that the Inuke DSP can limit power like that!

 

Yeah...well, there's a little more to the story about me frying them...when I first had them wired, I had them in parallel; which equated to 2ohms to the LT1300. That means each transducer was getting 1300 watts! eek.gif

 

I rewired with my second batch in series, so the LT1300 sees it as an 8ohm. This equates to around 325w per transducer. Since I've also found where it nows goes into the soft clip mode...hopefully, I won't be blowing more transducers. smile.gif

 

Perhaps the reason why the TST209 felt stronger is because at some frequencies it has stronger shaking than the Buttkicker? And maybe the scenes that you played with the water didn't highlight those frequencies? I dunno...

 

What would have been cool is if you used the Vibration Meter app to measure these things. See the first page of this thread: http://www.avsforum.com/t/1398473/measuring-the-tactile-feeling-of-your-sub-system

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post #93 of 132
12/29/12 at 6:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Archaea View Post

Keeping ported subs back to use as near field transducers --- Interesting! tongue.gif

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by carp View Post

Jonathan... I'm telling you - keep a Cap for behind the couch and buy sealed DIY up front. If your room doesn't give you the crazy couch shake like Dom's then you could just sell your other Cap. I can't do it in my room but you have tons of space behind your couch. His shakers can't keep up with his sub for gods sake, and the Cap is the king of ported subs IMO.

The thing about using a ported sub for the shaking is that it is the REAL THING! It is a much more realistic experience because you are not only getting the indirect shaking where the sub is directly shaking the couch, but you also get the direct shaking from the sub as it directly interacts with your body (an example of this would be the 'kick in the chest' sensation). Transducers can only provide the indirect shaking. Additionally, in my experience, it is MUCH more visceral!

 

My caveat to all of this is that for some rooms and sub locations, even a nearfield sub may not provide this level of shaking that I experience in my room. I had each outlaw behind the outer seats of my HT couch. However, only the center section would have that visceral shake...the outer seats didn't get the same shake even though they were placed right behind them (thus the reason why I installed the transducers).

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post #94 of 132
12/29/12 at 6:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gorilla83 View Post


I had my reservations too which is why I didn't immediately put the caps up for sale. At these prices though I found it very difficult to resist 'trying' them. biggrin.gif

So how does your Dayton sealed setup compare to the Caps?

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post #95 of 132
12/29/12 at 7:04am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dominguez1 View Post

So how does your Dayton sealed setup compare to the Caps?

Well I'm comparing 4 sealed dual opposed boxes to 2 smallish ported enclosures with 1 driver each so it's not really apples to applies. The sealed requires a lot more power and space but the reward is full bandwidth LFE/ULF (down to 6hz in my room). They both sound very impressive, it's all about what you want to accomplish and what your limits are.
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post #96 of 132
12/29/12 at 7:25am
Thread Starter 
Hey for anyone interested - amazon.com has the Inuke DSP 3000 for $295 right now. That's $105 cheaper than normal. It's overkill for most transducer application - but it's a great little amp and I'm really fond of the DSP. The DSP allows for customization of pretty much every parameter you could possibly want on a transducer. It can limit watts, set phase, set delays, has multiple adjustable parametric eq bands, adjustable HPF, crossover settings, dynamic eq options, hold and attack modifications, etc etc etc. All in an easy to use USB based application interface. I used it on my captivators for quite a while until I upgraded to a more powerful old iron 5000 watt amp - the Crown XLS-5000. The Inuke's DSP is what was able to get my Frequency response as flat as a pancake as shown in my avatar picture. I'm now using the Inuke on the transducers - and I only need a single channel for four 4 ohm units. A Inuke DSP 1000 is probably fine for transducer use - but the DSP 3000 is soooo cheap at $300 that I'd get that first.
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post #97 of 132
12/29/12 at 7:30am
Thread Starter 
Oh and the Inuke DSP 1000 is only $219 shipped right now at amazon. PERFECT for transducer use.
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post #98 of 132
12/30/12 at 6:18am
definitely should look into one of these, to eliminate a piece of hardware from my tv stand, running a ep4000 with a behringer cx2310 crossover
Edited by ufokillerz - 12/30/12 at 6:34am
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post #99 of 132
12/30/12 at 6:57am
Will the cheaper iNUKE NU1000 be good enough for a Clark TST429 Platinum model?
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post #100 of 132
12/30/12 at 7:13am
ordered myself a inuke 3000dsp for my 6x buttkicker lfes wired at 6 ohm load. replacing my ep4000 and cx2310 to consolidate space.
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post #101 of 132
12/30/12 at 7:38am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skylinestar View Post

Will the cheaper iNUKE NU1000 be good enough for a Clark TST429 Platinum model?

absolutely - the Inuke 1000 will be sufficient to power two Clark TST429's in stereo 4 ohm - one per channel. The Clark TST429 only recommends 150watt max per transducer at 4ohm. The Behringer amps generally quote peak amp specs rather than RMS ratings like the expensive amps typically do. RMS ratings are typically about 1/3 lower on this series of amp, or quoted directly in the Behringer "brochure". This is typical of most inexpensive amps - that they quote peak ratings instead of RMS.

If you have one - just use a single channel - If you have more than two transducers...

I can't find if the Clark transducers work at 2ohm -- if they do you could run two per channel in parallel at 2ohm stereo.

Alternatively and most assuredly - bridge the amp to run four Clark TST429's at 4 ohm using this similar buttkicker wiring schematic.



Any particular reason you don't want the DSP model Inuke 1000? The DSP has all the eq/crossover/filter settings you can shake a stick at --- if you like to tinker DEFINATELY pick up the DSP edition.
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post #102 of 132
12/30/12 at 7:54am
even if you don't tinker, i think the dsp are awesome as you said it, because it has the crossover settings etc. There aren't too many amps out there with a low pass/ high cut filter built in that works well for buttkickers and the likes.
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post #103 of 132
1/2/13 at 6:58am
Thread Starter 
As time goes on I'm finding I like these buttkicker mini LFE's more and not less. I watched Wrath of the Titan with the setup last night and it was very enjoyable.

I did lots of demos last night - just of different scenes off the scubasteve demo disk. I tried subs without transducers, I tried transducers without subs. Definately the most enjoyable was when both were playing together. I like the levels dialed down on the transducer so that it adds to the effect, but not strongly - it feels natural and allows for me to play the volumes at lower levels and still get the tactile effect! I'm looking forward to hosting a movie night for some of my KC friends and showing them what the transducers can do when dialed in well! It definitely works better to have two distinct subwoofer outputs when using transducers - 1 to control subwoofer volume, one to control transducer shake. My Onkyo TX-NR1007 fits the bill nicely in that manner!

The Inuke is working well - though my DSP 3000 is too powerful for even four of the Buttkicker Mini LFE's I have to keep turning it down. I'm not at about -12 on the sub LFE channel 2 and about 2/3's gain attenuation of one channel of the INuke DSP 3000. The Buttkickers aren't in any danger of bottoming out, but I find it's too much shake for my preference at more volume.
Edited by Archaea - 1/2/13 at 7:04am
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post #104 of 132
1/17/13 at 2:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Archaea View Post

Hey for anyone interested - amazon.com has the Inuke DSP 3000 for $295 right now. That's $105 cheaper than normal. It's overkill for most transducer application - but it's a great little amp and I'm really fond of the DSP. The DSP allows for customization of pretty much every parameter you could possibly want on a transducer. It can limit watts, set phase, set delays, has multiple adjustable parametric eq bands, adjustable HPF, crossover settings, dynamic eq options, hold and attack modifications, etc etc etc. All in an easy to use USB based application interface. I used it on my captivators for quite a while until I upgraded to a more powerful old iron 5000 watt amp - the Crown XLS-5000. The Inuke's DSP is what was able to get my Frequency response as flat as a pancake as shown in my avatar picture. I'm now using the Inuke on the transducers - and I only need a single channel for four 4 ohm units. A Inuke DSP 1000 is probably fine for transducer use - but the DSP 3000 is soooo cheap at $300 that I'd get that first.
Based on this, I bought an iNuke NU1000DSP to drive my Crowsons. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I can't get anywhere near the response from the Crowsons with the iNuke that I do with my Buttkicker BKA1000. I've had to turn the iNuke up to FULL OUTPUT to get even a small amount of response. The clip lights are on almost constant, yet the transducers are barely responding. I have it connected the same way the Buttkicker amp was connected; Oppo subwoofer analog output -> amp -> Crowson's wired in parallel. I have the amp in "bridged" mode and I've played with a number of different settings on the amp, (LPF's, slopes, delays, etc.) I have tried both a 1/4" connection and an XLR connection between the Oppo and the iNuke, and I've tried wiring a 4-pole Speakon connector every different way possible, (the connection that is recommended for bridged is Pos -> 1+ and Neg -> 2+, but that doesn't seem to work any better than any other connection.)

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong, or if I've connected something wrong?

Craig
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post #105 of 132
1/17/13 at 2:28pm
Thread Starter 
Did you try connecting it to the AVR subwoofer out? it is possible that the Oppo subwoofer out doesn't have the voltage output to properly drive a pro amp, while a consumer amp like the buttkicker amp would be setup to utilize a lower voltage. If that ends up being the issue you might need to buy something like an art cleanbox pro or a samson sconvert to modify the voltage out on the oppo. Or possible you got a defective Inuke, although - I'd check it with something else first.


Are you watching the signal input levels in the DSP software? Do they move in realtime - like it is getting signal?
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post #106 of 132
1/17/13 at 3:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Archaea View Post

Did you try connecting it to the AVR subwoofer out? it is possible that the Oppo subwoofer out doesn't have the voltage output to properly drive a pro amp, while a consumer amp like the buttkicker amp would be setup to utilize a lower voltage. If that ends up being the issue you might need to buy something like an art cleanbox pro or a samson sconvert to modify the voltage out on the oppo. Or possible you got a defective Inuke, although - I'd check it with something else first.
A PM from forum member "lilmike" suggested the same thing. He suggested a Henry Engineering Matchbox II. Not sure I want to spend more money just to make this work. In addition to the above problem, I've also encountered a couple of other issues I'm not a "fan" of... the "fans" being one of them. The fans are LOUD. Even with the door to my equipment room closed, I can still hear them, (when it's otherwise quiet in the theater of course.). I understand that they can be replaced with quieter fans, but still more money and effort. In addition, there is no auto-on/off feature. I would need to go into my equipment closet and turn it on and off every time I use. More importantly, if I forget to turn it off, it stays on with the fans running, eating lots of unnecessary electricity.

I got this amp because I liked the idea of having more precise control over the delays and LPF's. I wasn't unhappy with the Buttkicker amp, so I may just go back to that.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Archaea View Post

Are you watching the signal input levels in the DSP software? Do they move in realtime - like it is getting signal?
Yeah, it's getting a signal, and the input signal lights show appropriate response in realtime. Also, the output clip lights light up with the volume at max, which is odd because the output signal meter lights are not at max???

One positive consequence of all this is that I took my seating apart and found a rattle in one of the seats. Eliminating that rattle makes the whole system sound better. smile.gif

Craig
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post #107 of 132
1/17/13 at 6:49pm
Thread Starter 
Craig, sorry you aren't having a plug and play experience here.

The fans are easily remediated. The Inuke uses a 12 volt fan so any computer fan will be a easy swap in replacement. I've modded the fans on several amps and none were easier than the INuke DSP amp.
Here's a fan that will work great with near perfect reviews and inexpensive to boot.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999343


As to the power thing - the Inuke DSP is class D, it uses very little power when idle, and very little power when even powering things - in comparison to other amp technologies. I'd wager it uses less power at idle than one of your submersive hps. I pulled my old p3 kill a watt out to test on mine, but the display is garbled and I think it's dead. I'm leaving it plugged in in case it comes back to life. I bet it's 10 or 15 watts at idle tops.
http://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4460-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B000RGF29Q


Now for the real problem --- getting it to actually work for you....
I think you will have to tow with providing it an input off the LFE channel of your AVR - even if only briefly for a test. What model AVR do you have? Onkyo or Denon should be fine to run a pro amp. A Pioneer may not be. Your SMS-1 should be fine I think.

As to the clip lights - that's strange behavior. Are you talking about with nothing plugged into the amp the clip lights come on with the gain attenuators on the Inuke dsp 1000 set to max? If so you have a defective amp. If not, then remove your oppo source and unhook the input and see if it still happens. Did you limit wattage? When you limit wattage your clip levels drop WAYYYYYYYYYYYY down. So if I limit my wattage in the DSP to say 150 watts per channel, my clip lights will come on much before the actual limits of the amp because it is indicating I'm reaching those power levels. I've also noticed that due to a bug or whatever the fans speed up when the clip lights come on which is good because normally at clip you are really taxing the unit - however -- if I limit the wattage my clip lights come on much earlier (NOT taxing the amp) and yet due to this 'bug' the fans still ramp up. I think the fan must be set to ramp up at clip regardless of pushed wattage. That's only a problem with the stock fan. I replaced my fan and I can't even hear the unit now. In fact I don't hear it unless my ear is touching the thing, and certainty have never heard it ramp up since replacing the fan.

Keep working through this - the DSP options you are getting to play with will be worth the fuss IMO.

Heck I didn't even have use for it, and I bought another Inuke dsp 3000 in that amazon sale because I like these amps so much. It's sitting in the box for a future project!
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post #108 of 132
1/20/13 at 5:01am
after waiting for the smoke to clear after the holidays, i drove down to parts express yesterday and came home with a buttkicker LFE, a bka1000 amp and 4 mounting feet (rated 220lb ea.)...

between errands and dinner (and two trips to lowes) everthing was up and running last night...i borrowed craigs idea and used the sub out on my oppo 93

i set low filter to off, high pass at 40hz and gain on buttkicker amp between 10 and 11 o'clock

just to get a feel for things i threw avatar in the oppo...set volume on processor to -16 and let 'er rip...

i'll just say, my expectations were exceeded on every level...brings a whole new dimension to the movie experience! i was concerned about whether or not my choice of mounting feet and location would work out but seems to work great!

next i tried TDKR with the same results...outstanding!

by this time i was somewhat giddy...this was a blast! i want to watch every movie i own with this thing!!

i grabbed "blackhawk down" and i had my first "uh oh" experience on, you guessed it, f'n irene...

the buttkicker made the most gawdawful sound...like a broken rod on on yer dad's 68 buick...scared the sh&% outa me! my first thought was that i had broken the buttkicker LFE within the first hour...i turned the volume down on the pre and brought the volume on the bka1000 down to between 9 and 10...


i let the movie continue to play, and tried two others after that...everything seems fine (thank god)

needless to say i did NOT go back and play "irene" again...the buttkicker did NOT like that scene
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post #109 of 132
1/20/13 at 7:47am
OK, I tried the Behringer hooked up to the XLR output of my Integra. That worked much better in terms of output. I could get just as much output with the Behringer as I do with the Buttkicker. So, it is clear to me that the issue is a signal level issue. The Oppo doesn't put out a strong enough signal to drive a "pro" amp, which is what the Behringer amp is. In a PM, lilmike described it like this:
Quote:
"Sounds like a signal level issue. The Oppo is a consumer device, so it runs -10 dB, the iNuke, being a pro device, wants +4 dB levels. That's 14 dB, which is huge. What do you do for volume control? Seems to me that the Oppo would not have any volume control in it."

The Oppo does, in fact, have a volume control, but the maximum output of the variable volume control is the same as the output of the "fixed" volume control, so you can't use the variable volume to turn up the Oppo.

The problem could be addressed by using the "standard approach" of connecting to the subwoofer output of the pre/pro. Of course, running off the output of the Integra is reverting back to a signal with Audyssey room correction, which IMO, is a big step backwards and not worth the amp switch, or even the DSP provided by the Behringer. I also don't like having the transducers being responsive to changes of the Master Volume Control. IME, there is one "right" level for the transducers, and that level is irrespective of the overall volume. Turning the transducers up with the MVC can make them too high and turning the volume down can make them too low. I much prefer the "fixed" output of the signal from the Oppo.

This was an interesting experiment, but I think I'm just going to go back to the Buttkicker amp.

Craig
Edited by craig john - 1/20/13 at 8:26am
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post #110 of 132
1/20/13 at 8:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lefthandluke View Post

i borrowed craigs idea and used the sub out on my oppo 93

i set low filter to off, high pass at 40hz and gain on buttkicker amp between 10 and 11 o'clock

The settings in the Oppo are also very important. Go into the Audio Processing menu. Set all speakers to "Small" with a 40 Hz crossover, (don't worry, this will have no effect on the HDMI output; this setting *only* affects the Oppo's analog outputs!). Set all Speaker Distances to 20 ft. Set the Subwoofer Distance to 0 ft. The turn off the speakers and just play the subwoofer and the Buttkicker. In about 3 ft. increments, add some distance to the subwoofer. Listen for the audible output to be perfectly timed to the tactile response. Once you get it very close, then play around with smaller increments until you feel the response at the exact same time you hear it. This whole process is the same process you would use if you had adjustable delays like the Behringer has.

Quote:
Originally Posted by lefthandluke View Post

just to get a feel for things i threw avatar in the oppo...set volume on processor to -16 and let 'er rip...

i'll just say, my expectations were exceeded on every level...brings a whole new dimension to the movie experience! i was concerned about whether or not my choice of mounting feet and location would work out but seems to work great!

next i tried TDKR with the same results...outstanding!

by this time i was somewhat giddy...this was a blast! i want to watch every movie i own with this thing!!

i grabbed "blackhawk down" and i had my first "uh oh" experience on, you guessed it, f'n irene...

the buttkicker made the most gawdawful sound...like a broken rod on on yer dad's 68 buick...scared the sh&% outa me! my first thought was that i had broken the buttkicker LFE within the first hour...i turned the volume down on the pre and brought the volume on the bka1000 down to between 9 and 10...


i let the movie continue to play, and tried two others after that...everything seems fine (thank god)

needless to say i did NOT go back and play "irene" again...the buttkicker did NOT like that scene

"Giddy", yes that's a good description of the effect. smile.gif

What you heard was the piston in the Buttkicker hitting the ends of the barrel. As long as you didn't break the housing, it's probably fine. However, there is a lot of content with signal below 8 Hz. You'll want to be careful on that kind of stuff. Alternatively, you could turn on the HPF, which Buttkicker calls the "Low Frequency Cutoff" and which kicks in at 20 Hz. Here is a graph of the impact of that filter:



Or, just be more discreet with the level control. smile.gif

Craig
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post #111 of 132
1/20/13 at 8:37am
thanks craig...

i hate to limit the buttkicker to 20hz, so i'm gonna spend some time today with the gain control...try to find a good compromise. might just hafta use different volume level for movies with heavy sub 10hz content...(not all that many)

i may have blindly lucked out as to the timing issue...as i was amazed at how "in tune" everything seemed to be. in avatar, when the new troops first land in pandora, jake rolls out in his wheelchair into the path of one of those huge two-legged 'bots.
the heavy footfalls from that thing were RIGHT on...and there was no smearing or delayed reaction on the part of the buttkicker...very "tight" for lack of a better term. (this is how i always felt the footfalls in "robocop" should have sounded!)

again, thanks for the tips
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post #112 of 132
1/20/13 at 2:16pm
Thread Starter 
listen to some music to set timing delays. some e thing with a quick repeating drumbeat is ideal. I've found that f or movies most anything works, but for music the agreeable distance setting is a narrow band of a couple feet on my buttkicker minis. for me it's 6 to 8.5 feet on my onkyo and inuke setup on sub channel 2, to match the 10 foot on channel sub channel one.
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post #113 of 132
1/21/13 at 3:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ufokillerz View Post

butt kickers are pretty damn awesome, i have full size 2ohm version buttkickers mounted on each of my 6x berkline 12006 chairs.
Watching some movies, when i accidently had the gain set too high, i felt nauseous because i was shaken so violently hah. The full size versions are definitely up there, i definitely would say to give them a try, if you plan to run another gtg, let me know, i can send you off a spare full size buttkicker i have. you just pay for return shipping when you are done. My regular subs are 2x danley dts-10s, and while they have waken everyone sleeping upstairs before, the buttkickers still added a lot to my home theatre experience. .


just wondering...when you had the gain set this high (feeling nauseous) did the buttkicker ever bottom out?
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post #114 of 132
1/22/13 at 11:45am
I finally got the single BK Mini LFE from my brother. I first mounted it on a piece of wood to the frame on the bottom of the Berkline 13175 recliner. It was pretty cool. Then I tried it mounted upside down on the back of the recliner's wooden frame; likely the area where they are typically mounted. Mounting in this fashion allowed me to use 4 screws total as the width of the wood on the seat's frame was not wide enough to accept all 3 mounting holes on the BK Mini LFE. The impact of the Mini was much better in this configuration compared to it on the wood on the bottom of the recliner.

I have an Onkyo 805 receiver and a 5-channel Sherwood Newcastle amplifier rated at 200 watts per channel at 4 ohms (all channels driven - the literature says it can even handle 2 ohm loads at around 320 watts per channel). The Sherwood is driving the front speakers and the single buttkicker. One channel isn't powering anything. The Onkyo handles the surrond speakers.

To incorporate the BK Mini, I had to use a spiltter from the Onkyo sub-out. The sub-output is low-pass filtered on the Onkyo at 80Hz.

With the subwoofer channel turned all the way down to -15 on the Onkyo the Buttkicker still bottomed out with bass heavy scene from TDK. I'm not sure if the Sherwood is just too powerful or if the frequencies below 30 - 35 Hz are causing the bottoming.

Archaea, you have any advice in the matter? Maybe I should just try out one of those Inuke amps you mentioned. I plan on getting 3 more of the Minis for the front chairs but am concerned with spending unncessary money to power them. The Sherwood likely has more than enough power but not being able to tailor the cut-offs makes it a poor choice for this application. Perhaps applying an in-line high-pass filter at 30Hz would solve the problem. Thoughts?
Edited by TCW1 - 1/22/13 at 12:52pm
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post #115 of 132
1/22/13 at 1:01pm
Thread Starter 
I really dig the inuke amps - but alternatively something like this would probably work with your sherwood amp.
http://www.amazon.com/FMOD-Crossover-Pair-High-Pass/dp/B0006N41CO/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1358886910&sr=1-3&keywords=FMOD+High+pass
- so long as you are happy with the same delay settings as your actual subwoofer when you split your sub out.


With the INuke you could set your own delays, set maximum wattage, set specific crossovers, and exact HPFs (I find 35hz to be a good one with a shallow rolloff on my INuke and LFE mini's.)
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post #116 of 132
1/22/13 at 1:56pm
Sounds like the Inuke dsp 3000 might be overkill for 4 Minis. The prices I've seen lately on the Inuke dsp 1000 are so low I'll just pick one of those up and call it a day. Appreciate your help.
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post #117 of 132
1/22/13 at 7:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by craig john View Post

The settings in the Oppo are also very important. Craig


again...wise words

sometimes i AM sharp as a marble...

tonite i went into the oppo setup menu and, per craigs suggestion, set the output to FIXED, as opposed to VARIABLE...big difference!

now the buttkicker gets a fixed signal and is not affected by the main volume of my integra processor...

i stuck "blackhawk down" back in the oppo, set MV to -15 and cued up "f'n irene" again...

this time, no bottoming out, no worries about overdriving the buttkicker...just a whole lotta shakin' goin' on!!!
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post #118 of 132
1/23/13 at 6:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lefthandluke View Post

just wondering...when you had the gain set this high (feeling nauseous) did the buttkicker ever bottom out?

never bottomed them out, 6x 2ohm versions, wired 3 in series into each ep4000 channel. have behringer crossover limiting it to 45Hz and under.

watched a ton of movies, no bottoming out, usually around -15 on receiver volume.
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post #119 of 132
1/23/13 at 6:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by TCW1 View Post

I finally got the single BK Mini LFE from my brother. I first mounted it on a piece of wood to the frame on the bottom of the Berkline 13175 recliner. It was pretty cool. Then I tried it mounted upside down on the back of the recliner's wooden frame; likely the area where they are typically mounted. Mounting in this fashion allowed me to use 4 screws total as the width of the wood on the seat's frame was not wide enough to accept all 3 mounting holes on the BK Mini LFE. The impact of the Mini was much better in this configuration compared to it on the wood on the bottom of the recliner.

I have an Onkyo 805 receiver and a 5-channel Sherwood Newcastle amplifier rated at 200 watts per channel at 4 ohms (all channels driven - the literature says it can even handle 2 ohm loads at around 320 watts per channel). The Sherwood is driving the front speakers and the single buttkicker. One channel isn't powering anything. The Onkyo handles the surrond speakers.

To incorporate the BK Mini, I had to use a spiltter from the Onkyo sub-out. The sub-output is low-pass filtered on the Onkyo at 80Hz.

With the subwoofer channel turned all the way down to -15 on the Onkyo the Buttkicker still bottomed out with bass heavy scene from TDK. I'm not sure if the Sherwood is just too powerful or if the frequencies below 30 - 35 Hz are causing the bottoming.

Archaea, you have any advice in the matter? Maybe I should just try out one of those Inuke amps you mentioned. I plan on getting 3 more of the Minis for the front chairs but am concerned with spending unncessary money to power them. The Sherwood likely has more than enough power but not being able to tailor the cut-offs makes it a poor choice for this application. Perhaps applying an in-line high-pass filter at 30Hz would solve the problem. Thoughts?

Something doesn't seem right here at all. Per parts-express website, it should be good to 10hz. Also, you should be amp limited as well.

 

I don't think the inuke will fix this problem...more like mask it if you employ a HPF at 30hz. Also, you'll be missing some significant shaking if you do that.

 

Perhaps it's defective?

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post #120 of 132
1/25/13 at 11:27am
Maybe it's defective as you mentioned. However, Archaea mentioned this problem with the LFE Minis on content below 35Hz. I figure The Dark Knight has quite a bit of below-30Hz action going on and that is what's causing the piston to slap against the ends of the cylinder.
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