Anyone used a tactile transducer? How do they work? (1 Viewer)

[Steve*MH]

I have heard some good comments about the use of tactile transducers such as Clark Synthesis and Buttkicker. Anyone have any comments about them?

Also, can you tell me how they work? Do they require a separate amplifier or are they self-amplified(amp built-in)? Could someone power a tactile transformer with an extra channel of a multichannel amplifier? Does the transducer accept typical speaker cable as does any other speaker?
Thinking about the EAD Powermaster 8300 8 channel amp--could have a 7.1 system and use the 8th channel for the transducer. Would this work?
Thanks for any comments.

 

[Phuong]

Think of a tactile transducer as a speaker attached to furniture. Whatever it's attached to (furniture/floorboard) is the cone. Like a speaker, it requires amplification, and like a subwoofer, it works best with bass management. In many cases, you can split the subwoofer output on your receiver and feed it to a separate amp that would power the tactile transducer. Since transducers reproduce bass signals, they need solid amplification, so experimentation might be necessary to see if the extra amp channel is compatible (4 Ohm v. 8 Ohm) with the transducer. Clark Synthesis sells 100 watt Carver amps, so that might give you an idea of what kind of power these things crave. But the effect well-calibrated transducers produce borders on awesome, if somewhat novel. They are by no means necessary to enjoying home theater, but they add another dimension of "being there," especially when you don't have a monster subwoofer or cannot crank the volume to superloud levels.