[PAP]

We have buttkicker for each of our Berkline 090's (factory option). They didn't come with the kinetic isolator devices.


Are these necessary?

 

[craige17]

I would think with one buttkicker per chair you'd get more shake than you could ever want, even w/out the isolators!

 

[PAP]

I wasn't sure whether they were designed to somehow improve the quality of the shaking going on, or to amplify the effect. They're $15/each so that's $60 a chair or almost $500 for my 2 rows, so I'd prefer not to have to use them unless necessary.


The chairs I bought (at the Berkline outlet sale) did come with some rubber feet in a separate pack which I figured were supposed to be the poor man's kinetic isolators, but again I wanted to understand exactly why these are needed at all.


My floor will be carpet, over a subflor product and over a riser in the rear.

 

[b00bie]

Hi


Where can you get the isolators? I looked on the Buttkicker site and the only ones the sell (outside of the mounting kit) are not the donut shaped ones to go under the legs of the existing furniture, they look more like something that would either replace the existing legs or be bolted to the bottom of a platform. I would like to try some on one of my couches to see how much of a difference it would make but I certainly don't want to replace the present legs. Thanks in advance for the help.



Tom

 

[RIT]

TAKE A LOOK PARTS EXPRESS WEB SITE ,THE "TI-300" IS ONLY $2.25.

 

[b00bie]

RIT


You mean the TI-100 and thats exactly what I was looking for, thanks for the "find".


Tom

 

[PAP]

The Ti-300 is $50 each. The 100 is 2.95, but honestly that looks like the same thing I can get at my local hardware store to screw on the bottom of a chair to keep it from scratching the floor.

 

[b00bie]

Well I ordered a few of the 100's and I will post something after I get them to see if there is a "real" difference.



Tom

 

[RIT]

b00bie, I GOT AN OLD CATALOG HERE AND ITS THE TI-300 THATS 2.38 MUST BE A PRINT ERROR.

 

[Russ Rubman]

I use the Kinetic Isolators sold by Guitammer Co. myself and, both in theory and practice, they make great sense. The idea is to reduce the amount of energy transference by isolating the vibration. Without them, your chair will transfer a great deal of its energy to the surface below and, thereby, diminish the effect greatly.


I have found that by isolating the vibration and adding a subharmonic generator to add in lower octave harmonic frequencies, I have been able to make my buttkickers perform at a whole different level. These were inexpensive additions but the performance now is well beyond my original expectations. My advice is don't cheap out. Get the biggest, fattest feet you can find and slap 'em on. After all, what's the downside?


Russ

 

[PAP]

$500 is the down-side.


I can see how these isolators are necessary to maximize output of the BKs, but with one installed on each berkline, I can't imagine not having enough umph already. If it changes the impact/type of output, I'll consider the money, but if it's just making it "louder" and more efficient, I'll turn my amp up a bit and save the $500.


OTOH, the comment about a subharmonic generator tweaks my curiosity. Can you discuss this further?

 

[b00bie]

Well I got my TI-100 feet from PartsExpress today and I promised I would post some feedback but before I do, since everyone has variations in their setup I thought I would tell you about mine first. My theater is in my basement, it has a concrete slab floor with low pile carpeting and heavy duty padding. I do not have theater seats, instead I have two Sealy love seats and a couch, low back, heavily stuffed and leather covered, the love seats are the first and third rows and the couch is in the middle. The second and third rows are on a riser built from 3/4 in MDF and 2x4's, graduated at 5 and 10 inches respectively and covered with the same carpet as the floor. I have four Clark transducers, two gold (one in each love seat) and two silver (both mounted in the couch) and they are powered by two Sony 100W Receivers.


The isolators are just large rubber cups with a mounting screw and washer for attaching to the existing feet on the furniture and add about an inch to the overall height after installation. I needed 14 for my installation and the total cost with shipping was a little over $40.


Now for the review, for my setup I noticed a very good improvement in the amount of motion and had to turn my shaker amps down a bit which resulted in a little less background shaking from extraneous signals without a decrease in the oomph of those Dino steps or depth charge explosions which I felt resulted in an overall better impact, IMHO for about $10 a chair this is a worthwhile investment for those that want to squeak out that last little bit from their shakers



Tom