Shakers - Simple/Cheap Hookup - Visual Guide - Page 6

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 and thinking about adding a second one....we'll see.

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 7.1 Receiver with the Yamaha YST-SW205 subwoofer connected to it.

today I hooked up 8 AURA Pro Bass Shakers and a 250W Subwoofer Amp from Parts Express to drive them.

I tried 2 methods of wiring suggested here: 1. 4 Ohm Method and 2. 8 Ohm Method

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 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.

Picture??

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

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?

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

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 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.