Customer Reviews

ButtKicker BK-LFE Low Frequency Effects System

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am not sure you can make a comparison between the two products. What must seem like two different products that in essence do the same thing to some, turns out to be two products that approach the idea of tactile transducing from two different design goals. The Clark is if anything, more refined, providing fast response throughout the frequency range it was designed to reproduce. The Buttkicker could best be described as brutal, slaming home its intended effect. My recommendation is to buy both to mix and match under a platform or below a floor to get the best of both worlds.

**EDIT**
A year or more later and I have almost retired the BK-LFE. I could never get it to stop bottoming out on extreme lfe movie segments. And when it bottoms out you know it! ...Very distracting and what I considered untenable. Turning the amp down only dimished the effect to the point where it became a negligible tactile sensation at best. On the other hand, I have nothing but praise for the Buttkicker amp! I started experimenting with it using one and now have it powering two Clark Synthesis Platinums, (CSPs) in parallel and WOW...this works in spades. Yes, a CSP is twise the money but is a no compromise piece of work. Is it worth twice the money? Well, when one sort of works some of the time and not well the rest of the time and the other offers endless effect that you can dial in to suit, it all comes down to budget. Buy the Buttkicker LFE but be prepared to adjust your expectations, not the equipment.

The ButtKicker is capable of adding a new dimension to your home theater but it has to be installed correctly to realize it's maximum potential. As I found out through my own experience, there are two important factors to a successful installation.
First of all the the ButtKicker has to be mounted securely to the seats you are going to use it with. For my installation on a dual recliner, I used 12 gauge perforated angle steel that is available in the home stores. After cutting the pieces to size, I bolted them to the angle steel frame that connects both recliners together and then bolted the ButtKicker to that.
At this point I thought the installation was complete, so I wired it up to the ButtKicker BKA-1000-4A power amp and picked out a DVD with some LFE`s on it. Well right away I experienced the tactile sensations that I was promised but as soon as the LFE effects level increased, the ButtKicker would start to bottom out hard and this was very distracting.
I decided to call customer support and I would like to aknowledge the incredible customer support that is available from The Guitammer Co and is only a phone call away. I talked to Mark, a very knowledgeable enthusiast and he explained to me that my installation was not complete and why it wasn't. The ButtKicker can create an incredible amout of shake and transfer it to whatever it's bolted to. But here's the second factor- whatever it's bolted to has to be able to move. All of you have seen subwoofers in action, the large cone has suspension around it so it can move freely. The same logic has to be applied to your ButtKicker installion.

If you check out the Buttkicker website, you will see that they sell rubber isolation feet. Installing the appropriate size and number of these feet will complete your installation. After I installed a suspension system under my recliner, I was amazed at difference. My recliner is sitting on a concrete floor and the reason my ButtKicker was bottoming out is because it was trying to move something it wasn't designed to. Now, with the suspension system in place I can turn down BK amp and enjoy abundant shake with no bottoming out.

The ButtKicker LFE is truly an impressive addition to my home theater and my only regret is that I didn't add it sooner. The ability of it to respond to frequencies below 10hz is outstanding and I am actually able to turn my subwoofers off and still have a very involved audio\tactile experience. Still, my favorite moments occur when watching the face of guests the first time they are watching a movie and an explosion or other LFE rich segment occurs, sometimes they will jump out of the seat not sure what just happened!

I purchased this product to realise force feedback in my Game Race chair (from Open wheeler (UK) and pedals and steering wheel from Fanatec (germ)). It does a great job together with the 1000 watt amp.
It is of added value in terms of your experience if you play Forza, GT5 with Playstation or Xbox 360 consoles.

The product does EXACTLY what its name suggests. It will kick your couch, your chair, or your whole house if you ask it to! I was very pleasantly surprised by the new dimension the Buttkicker LFE brought out in movies and especially video games. If you like the shoot 'em up style video games, the feel of a .50 cal machine gun giving you a perfectly timed and sonically accurate recoil-kick for every single round fired will blow you away (no pun intended)! It can be tricky to set up if you already have a complex home theater set-up going, but it's simple and flexible design rewards the extra couple of minutes in your A/V receiver's crossover/LFE levels settings menus!

Their service is something you never find anymore.. You get a real person with the touch of only 1 button, who works for the company (not some outsourcing offshore giant!), and who treats you the way you wish all companies would: with sincerity, respect, and follow-through. Marvin even took extra time to offer installation tips and suggestions in detail with me.

I never really write product reviews because most products, even if they're good, don't warrant taking the time to do so. The Buttkicker is an exception that truly stands out. If you've got home theater, you're crazy not to add one or more of these guys!

I bought this and wireless receivers. I rate this 4 because it performs as advertised. As for value add, I leave mine unplugged most of the time - for me the novelty wears out pretty quickly. What I don't like: I have a delay about 0.5 seconds for music. I didn't understand what the wireless was for - it makes the connection between your A/V receiver and Buttkicker amp wireless - I thought it made the buttkicker shaker and buttkicker amp wireless. I sent mine back after talking with tech support. My reciever and amp are in the same cabinet, wireless is pointless for me. What I like: Nasty power on the buttkicker amp, I plug my subwoofer right into the 2100 watt river juice, diconnect the shaker to take the load off my receiver - priceless.

Nice!Hook up is too easy.Just keep the amplifier away from the rest of your equipment.The shaker was mounted under the couch(in the center).The movies that stood out the best were transformers,a couple of Imax films,like Nascar, apolo 13 and blue planet.It Really gave the feeling of being there as oppose to AURA shakers.The 50 watt shakers were fun untill the 1500 watt shaker was fired up.The amp being used is a buttkicker 1900 watt power house.I soon will be buying 3 more shakers like this one for my theater.This is a must buy!

Is working nice, but too powerful.
Heavy core and crazy shake in 10-30hz. And I expect more linear for higher freq.
For mid freq (50-100hz) need more power from amplifyer and when mid start feeling, low freq is more than need.

If you planing use it only for one person, better buy less powerful model.
So, is cool for big coach at home and no very suitable for small chair at condo :)
Is =VERY= powerful.

Finally tried this at my buddys house and it was awesome - saving up to purchase one of my own...