'Buttkicker' bass alternative - and 5.1 surround sound setup?

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SUNNYDEE_187
Buttkicker alternative and 5.1 surround sound

So I'm going to build my cockpit next week
I dont want to spend that much money on a 'Buttkicker' rumbler.

But I'm thinking of buying a Logitech 5.1 Surround sound system and fitting that in the cockpit and putting the Subwoofer infront of the seat for the same sort of bass effect. I know it wont produce anything as good as the buttkicker but will be better than nothing.

Anyone out there tried a subwoofer and also used a cheap 5.1 surround sound on there setup/cockpit?

If you have post some pics please. :D

Thanks
 
Im sure someone will chime in with the aura bass shaker. its essentially the same as a buttkicker but cheaper and not quite as powerful. so people mainly use it for the more suble effects like engine rumble, butnot road bumps. the buttkicker gamer is easy and effective, i've had no probs with mine but if i had more money i'd get a buttkicker LFE and shake the poo out of my rig
my point is the buttkicker is worth the 130 bucks including amp
 
I have 2 subs on my rig. 1 is inside the enclosure with me and shakes my legs. The other is behind my seat and shakes everything else in the house. When not going to the extreme I sometimes turn the bigger sub off as the smaller one by my legs does quite a bit to give me the effect I was looking for.
 
I have a 7.1 sound system with a 12" sub woofer and 2 aura bass shakers plus 2 buttkickers. It has great tactile amenities :) You can see it Here
 
Something that may help you feel more of the sub's soundwaves would be to build a nice solid U or V shaped wood box around it, in order to catch and bounce waves towards you. So if it's sitting behind your seat there would be a lot less bass going to the back of the room.
Not right around the sub.. I'd recomment at least 24" gap, because low frequency soundwaves need to be able to "breath" to change direction efficiently.
 
I have them set to right and left with the frequency at a little under 70hz. Volume set the same for both. This covers everything you would care to feel while driving. Very nice.
 
To the OP you do not state what budget you want to put into this?

Which Logitech speaker set were you looking, their are several?

I would say you would be wiser putting as much money into a surround package first and get a fairly decent one for the price. You can always look at adding tactile later. A sub on such relatively basic surround sets will give a limited quality of bass. It will create more rumble than proper full lowdown bass frequencies. It would be worth putting it close to your seat but will be limited and not produce the same level of effect or impact a decent "Aura Pro / Buttkicker" will produce.

Look on places like "Richer Sounds" "Argos" "Asda" and other large supermarket stores.
You will find for instance on Argos the "LG HT554TH" which to me looks much better than some "Logitech" setups and available for £176.


Link Here

Their will be alternatives but just be sure you get one with HDMI input or at least "Optical Input" to get Dolby Digital.

Regards tactile, well the "Aura Pro" is the best value/performance tactile unit on the market. I would say it outperforms the "Buttkicker Gamer" however I believe "greeze" has both incorporated on his rig and can give you more on a comparison.

The "Buttkicker Mini LFE" packs the best punch for its size. These in the UK are available from Here as an authorised UK dealer. They provide a better performance than the "Gamer Unit" which really was first developed for PC chairs and while it isnt bad it does have a basic performance ability compared to other units.

They will need their own amplifer and source input.

Hope it helps a bit.


Thats exactly what i want,one more gamer2 for differnt wave frequencies. is that what you do or do you have them wired in parallel tuned to the same?

Buttkicker do not support stereo tactile.
All their amplifers will only output a single channel input. So with their amplifers you would need a seperate amplifer and Buttkicker for each channel.

A 2.1 configuration is a big jump up over a single tactile experience.
This would require 3x Buttkickers with 3x amplifers operating via the below inputs:

Left
Right
LFE (sub out)

However to do this requires having the surround decoded audio split into individual channels to be amplified. Again something none of the Buttkicker amplifers do. So a surround decoder with a multichannel amplifer (or seperate amplifers) but usually an AV reciever with built in decoding can be used to decode and ouput an amplified channel for individual tactile channel needed.

Really for many users that get into having a more engrossing "tactile experience" than what Buttkicker setups provide will have a surround setup for their speakers and another for their tactile. This can then be further developed with crossovers / equalisers / bass enchancers.

Be warned it's addictive. I've reached a point of having a rather complicated setup combination of 26 channels. This achieved via 3x AV recievers being used for my own upcoming cockpit. Totals = 14 tactile / 5 subwoofers / 7 speakers used throughout my cockpit platform, pedals, seat and wheel support sections.
 
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Im sure someone will chime in with the aura bass shaker. its essentially the same as a buttkicker but cheaper and not quite as powerful. so people mainly use it for the more suble effects like engine rumble, butnot road bumps. the buttkicker gamer is easy and effective, i've had no probs with mine but if i had more money i'd get a buttkicker LFE and shake the poo out of my rig
my point is the buttkicker is worth the 130 bucks including amp

Where did you hear this line of garbage?

The Aura Bass Shaker is every bit as powerful as the Buttkicker Gamer 2 as long as you use the right amp. I have to turn the volume on my amp down to less than half or else the walls in my house start vibrating when I run over rumble strips or bog the engine down.

The Buttkicker is a nice pretty package, that's all, you can get equal/better for cheaper easily.
 
To the OP you do not state what budget you want to put into this?

Which Logitech speaker set were you looking, their are several?

I would say you would be wiser putting as much money into a surround package first and get a fairly decent one for the price. You can always look at adding tactile later. A sub on such relatively basic surround sets will give a limited quality of bass. It will create more rumble than proper full lowdown bass frequencies. It would be worth putting it close to your seat but will be limited and not produce the same level of effect or impact a decent "Aura Pro / Buttkicker" will produce.

Look on places like "Richer Sounds" "Argos" "Asda" and other large supermarket stores.
You will find for instance on Argos the "LG HT554TH" which to me looks much better than some "Logitech" setups and available for £176.


Link Here

Their will be alternatives but just be sure you get one with HDMI input or at least "Optical Input" to get Dolby Digital.

Regards tactile, well the "Aura Pro" is the best value/performance tactile unit on the market. I would say it outperforms the "Buttkicker Gamer" however I believe "greeze" has both incorporated on his rig and can give you more on a comparison.

The "Buttkicker Mini LFE" packs the best punch for its size. These in the UK are available from Here as an authorised UK dealer. They provide a better performance than the "Gamer Unit" which really was first developed for PC chairs and while it isnt bad it does have a basic performance ability compared to other units.

They will need their own amplifer and source input.

Hope it helps a bit.




Buttkicker do not support stereo tactile.
All their amplifers will only output a single channel input. So with their amplifers you would need a seperate amplifer and Buttkicker for each channel.

A 2.1 configuration is a big jump up over a single tactile experience.
This would require 3x Buttkickers with 3x amplifers operating via the below inputs:

Left
Right
LFE (sub out)

However to do this requires having the surround decoded audio split into individual channels to be amplified. Again something none of the Buttkicker amplifers do. So a surround decoder with a multichannel amplifer (or seperate amplifers) but usually an AV reciever with built in decoding can be used to decode and ouput an amplified channel for individual tactile channel needed.

Really for many users that get into having a more engrossing "tactile experience" than what Buttkicker setups provide will have a surround setup for their speakers and another for their tactile. This can then be further developed with crossovers / equalisers / bass enchancers.

Be warned it's addictive. I've reached a point of having a rather complicated setup combination of 26 channels. This achieved via 3x AV recievers being used for my own upcoming cockpit. Totals = 14 tactile / 5 subwoofers / 7 speakers used throughout my cockpit platform, pedals, seat and wheel support sections.


My budget for speakers is probably £100, Im just looking for something with decent quality of sound and a decent sub. Even if it is tiny I don't really mind as long as some sort of bass or vibration is happening Im happy with that
I was looking at this sort of speaker system, so the actual speakers could be mounted on to the cockpit
 
OKay will look into specs and connentions.

Is you max budget £100, can you go £150?
It would be recommended and trade in a few games or something to get the extra cash. Once you get your audio setup you are unlikely going to change it unless your not happy with it. So wise to spend a bit extra and get the sepeaker system now then tactile later is my honest advice.

The X530 while nice is very basic even the Z506 package may easily be bettered by a proper all in one home cinema unit. I will look around to give you a few choices but no point if your budget is so limited to £100 as really the Logitech would then be as good as your likely to get.
 
Latte, it also depends where the speakers will be located, for my cockpit I was considering larger and better Sony speakers than my current LG speakers but since I have mounted them directly to the cockpit I needed smaller ones. Same here, the size of the room and distance also is an important aspect.
 
I wish I could just wear some nice 7.1 headphones, I wouldn't have to worry about any of this speaker crap, just headphones + bass shakers. My wife doesn't want me to wear them though since we have a 1yr old son and need to be able to hear him.
 
I wish I could just wear some nice 7.1 headphones, I wouldn't have to worry about any of this speaker crap, just headphones + bass shakers. My wife doesn't want me to wear them though since we have a 1yr old son and need to be able to hear him.

Not sure if you will be able to hear the baby through 7.1 speaker noise.

I have found a solution - cyber nanny with video with motion and sound sensor and I always see and hear the baby.
 
Haha, well yeah, but with triple 42" screens wrapped around me and a 7" screen for game monitoring, not sure if I'd be able to pay attention to yet another little screen.

I think headphones are a no-go. I've got a little cheap set of Logitech X-530's that are working fine for now. Or I've got a decent Klipsch speaker system with a Denon receiver that I might use.
 
OKay will look into specs and connentions.

Is you max budget £100, can you go £150?
It would be recommended and trade in a few games or something to get the extra cash. Once you get your audio setup you are unlikely going to change it unless your not happy with it. So wise to spend a bit extra and get the sepeaker system now then tactile later is my honest advice.

The X530 while nice is very basic even the Z506 package may easily be bettered by a proper all in one home cinema unit. I will look around to give you a few choices but no point if your budget is so limited to £100 as really the Logitech would then be as good as your likely to get.

Thanks alot for your info, I could probably get the extra £50. Both speakers mentioned above have good reviews but I would really like one with a control which allows me to adjust the sound AND bass

something like this as long as sound and bass are adjustable http://vladsgadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Logitech_Z4_Speakers_Control-300x300.jpg
 
Latte, it also depends where the speakers will be located, for my cockpit I was considering larger and better Sony speakers than my current LG speakers but since I have mounted them directly to the cockpit I needed smaller ones. Same here, the size of the room and distance also is an important aspect.

If you have a look at wayside's cockpit where the steering wheel is based I would put a speaker on each side, then the other two speakers behind the seat and the sub-woofer by my feet
 
Something that may help you feel more of the sub's soundwaves would be to build a nice solid U or V shaped wood box around it, in order to catch and bounce waves towards you. So if it's sitting behind your seat there would be a lot less bass going to the back of the room.
Not right around the sub.. I'd recomment at least 24" gap, because low frequency soundwaves need to be able to "breath" to change direction efficiently.

That sounds like a nice idea but hard for me to visualise. would you be able to show me a picture or draw me a rough image on paint?💡
 
This one looks about the best for the price I have found so far.
See Here
LG HT306SF

Official Page
At this price however all seem (like the Logitecs) to be missing digital inputs.

However I would say this LG unit offers much more for your money and likely no worse come sound quality.
 
This one looks about the best for the price I have found so far.
See Here
LG HT306SF

Official Page
At this price however all seem (like the Logitecs) to be missing digital inputs.

However I would say this LG unit offers much more for your money and likely no worse come sound quality.

Wow that's really impressive for that price.
Sorry but my knowledge of speakers inputs and outputs is lacking.
What do you mean by missing digital inputs? 👍
 
This is one of the better ones Ive seen that includes HDMI/Optical digital inputs and is also a standalone entertainment system. Great spec for the price.

SonyBVDE280

With digital input you can connect your console or PC for "Dolby Digital" rather than your amplifer just getting an analogue stereo signal. It simply means you'd be getting better surround effects and likely a better sound including proper (.1) LFE bass from surround sound games.
 
This is one of the better ones Ive seen that includes HDMI/Optical digital inputs and is also a standalone entertainment system. Great spec for the price.

SonyBVDE280

With digital input you can connect your console or PC for "Dolby Digital" rather than your amplifer hust getting an analogue stereo signal. It just means youde be getting better surround effects and likely a better sound including proper (.1) LFE bass from surround sound games.

Sonys are a bit to expensive to be honest.
But really the one I'm hoping to find hopefully has a small little controller which lets me adjust the bass and volume, just like on the 2.1 z-4 speakers
 
Those models shown download the manuals, you will be able to adjust the volumes of different speakers seperately within the systems control menus or they will have remote controls my friend.

Again something the Logitec probably hasn't

Like I said I would go to something more like the Sony in the long run you will enjoy it more and that is not expensive. It is the price of a console yet offers a great amount of features.

In all honesty the bass output from the Logitecs will be pretty crap in real home cinema or audio terms.
You have to be realistic at these price points. It just cannot deliver proper low down bass effects.

I will let others now give their own advice or links to alternatives.
 
Those models shown download the manuals, you will be able to adjust the volumes of different speakers seperately within the systems control menus or they will have remote controls my friend.

Again something the Logitec probably hasn't

Like I said I would go to something more like the Sony in the long run you will enjoy it more and that is not expensive. It is the price of a console yet offers a great amount of features.

In all honesty the bass output from the Logitecs will be pretty crap in real home cinema or audio terms.
You have to be realistic at these price points.

I will let others now give their own advice or links to alternatives.

the 'LG' ones aren't Logitech
 
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