Bass shaker amp... Question before I buy (1 Viewer)

[David Laplante]

Hi everyone,

I posted this in the receivers and amps forum but did not get a response so I thought that maybe I should post it here to...

I am not vrey amp/speaker literate so, sorry for the "newbie" question.

I am VERY interested in buying a pair (or maybe only one?) of the aurasound bass shakers (AST-2B-4) and I am wondering which amp I should buy. I want to spend around 150$ (Canadian dollars) for the amp.

At the supplyer where I want to buy the bass shakers, they also sell this amp from aurasound(http://www.solen.ca/amp50.htm). Is it going to be enough? Since it is 60W, will it be able to drive 2 bass shakers?

Also, I am wondering how much shakin' i will get from only one shaker. I want to set them on a 2 places recliner sofa with a steel frame.

Can someone clear things up for me? I really dont want to buy just anything without the correct information.

Thanks,

Dave

 

[brentl]

For the bass shakers a 60 WPC amp is MORE than enough. Remember you only want to feel the shake when an intense bass scene hits.

As long as you have an amplifier that has a crossover(any home theater receiver basically) you would be able to use any amplifier you want.

I do remember that the bass shakers are 4 ohm speakers, just make sure the amp you buy can take for ohms per channel OR run 2 bas shakers in series, that will increase the impedence to 8ohms and work with anyt amplifier.

I'd just buy the cheapest 2 channel receiver I can find with a warranty and go with that.

Crap, I've got a 20 year old technics receiver and it works fine, it's only 15 WPC.

Brent

 

[DonnyD]

Just as brentl stated, it doesn't take much to drive the Aura bass shakers pretty good.... I use a partexpress 150w mono amp on 4 of the Pro Aura shakers and it is turned WAY down and they shake my couch VERY well......almost violently.....
The most important thing about bass shakers is getting the "right" signal to the shaker amp from your receiver.
You're gonna enjoy the difference the shakers will make..... ENJOY....

 

[David Laplante]

Thanks for the info,

Thats exactly what I wanted to know. But, in light of your responses, I am wondering if driving 2 bass shakers (which are 4 ohms) on this amp (60W (Mono I think) at 4 ohms) will be too much, or too little (is there such a thing?).

I dont know much about matching ohms for speakers and amps and even though it is not that expensive, I don't want to blow the amp because I put too much load on it.

 

[rob-h]

That amp would have been good for 2 of the 25 watt bass shakers. I doubt its enough for 2 of the 50 watts you are looking at.

 

[brentl]

30 watts per shaker is more than enough, but that's my opinion.

You'll run into wattage problems with this amp when you run a pair .... Confirm the amp will run at 2 OHMs, or you may not have enough power if you run them in series(about 15WPC ... although mine seems fine).

Brent

$150 will get you a receiver with 75WPC into 8 ohms, seems like a much better way to go.

 

[David Laplante]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. You have helped me a lot!!!

In lignt of your comments and some on other forums, I guess I will go with this amp which is about half the price (in canadian $) of the first one I was looking at.

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=300-784

That should be just enough for 2 shakers...


And while ordering from parts express, I am also going to buy the shakers from them. Seems a lot of people have had good experiences with them.

Thanks again everyone!

Dave

 

[rob-h]

Thats the plate amp I would have gone with and actually is what I reccomended in an earlier thread of yours.

 

[brentl]

OK, remember that each speaker will be getting 22.5 watts.

Brent

 

[David Laplante]

Rob, You're right... Sorry for making you repeat... I had forgotten about that thread. Thanks anyways!

Brentl, I might be mistaking, but from what I heard, it should be enough. Is it?


I'll keep you guys posted when I receive them... Ordered them late yesterday. Being in Canada, I gues the "same day" shipping does not apply... I hope to received them friday. It'll give me enough time to install them before Star Wars comes out

 

[Chris Fleming]

I've lurked here for quite a while. But I have to admit to being confused about alot (if not most) of the amplification stuff. I'm going to risk being a total dork, but hopefully someone can clarify for me.

If I have a decent AV receiver, how do I use an external amp (or cheap receiver) to drive shakers? For instance, if I use the SW out from my receiver to deliver the signal to my system's powered SW, how do I use another amp or receiver to draw from the same .1 signal to drive shakers?

Again, I apologize if this is completely basic stuff, but for some reason, I can't wrap my mind around it.

Thanks!

 

[rob-h]

You use a splitter cable, one end goes to your sub and the other to the amp that drives the shakers.

 

[David Laplante]

Hi Chris,

What you have to remember is that the output from your main reciever to your power sub is not amplified... that is why you need another amp.

I understand how you feel... I was confused also at first... It take a lot of reading to understand clearly how bass shakers work, how to connect them etc... The information is not clearly stated, concerning bass shakers, for confused people like us.

Thankfully, lots of people here (like rob and brentl) are knowledgeable and kind enough to share.

 

[Brad_B]

Since you are in Canada, STAY AWAY from PartsExpress! They use UPS shipping and you will get killed at the border. I got charged $61 bucks by UPS by ordering 6 shakers. And the worst thing is that PartsExpress is now selling a very low quality version of the regular Aura Shaker and you have to solder speaker wire to them yourself. They no longer sell the retail version of the regular shakers.

Personally, I'd buy them off of EBay and get them sent via the US Postal Service if the seller will do that. Check the last few pages of the HUGE shaker thread over at AVS in the subwoofer forum.

 

[Brad_B]

oops. I see I am too late and you already ordered them from PE.

 

[David Laplante]

Thanks for the input Brad,

Actually, even if they chraged me 61 bucks like they did to you, it would still be cheaper than buying them from a distributor near my house. In fact, they'd have to charge me 100$ for it to come up even. Don't know about ebay though.

As for soldering speaker wires to them, that wont be a big problem for me, I have a friend working for Bombardier and he's soldering radio wires and stuff like that on planes... he should be able to help me.

But Looking at the picture from their site http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=299-028, are your sure that you have to solder the wires ? it looks like plugs to me.

 

[Dave Simpson]

David,

Your link points to the Pro version of Aura's bass-shaker, which does indeed have plugs. Brad's referring to Aura's regular version, which requires soldering. FYI, in case you haven't noticed, the Pro shaker is more than twice as much $$$ as the regular version.
Also, I hope you get what you ordered in a timely fashion, but a year ago, I waited roughly three weeks for two pair of the regular shaker from PE, delivered to Toronto (and I'd happily do it again). The price to my door, by the way, was $125CDN (after all tax, shipping, etc.), or roughly twice the USD price shown on the web-site (USD price doubled equals approximately what you'll pay in CDN money, just to be completely redundant about the whole thing). This is normally a pretty good rule of thumb to determine how much an item is going to cost you across the border.
Enjoy your shakers! Cheers.

DS.

 

[Chris Fleming]

Just wanted to extend this thread long enough to say thanks for helping clarify. The splitter seems obvious, now that I read it, but it also seemed too darn simple to be true!

Thanks again!

 

[David Laplante]

Hi Everyone,

I received my bass shakers and the amp last wednesday so the shipping to canada took a week. Reasonably fast. I had a 66$ Customs charge from UPS.

I installed them this weekend and watched Star Wars III.

the bass shakers ROCK BIG TIME !!!

Before installing them onto the couch, I was afraid that the amp would not be powerfull enough so once they were installed, I set the volume on the amp to maximum.

I quickly found that it was way to high. The bass shakers were distracting me from the movie. I was pleased to see that the amp was indeed powerfull enough.

I would like to thanks you all for helping me. I would recommend everyone that is thinking about buying some to go for it... it is well worth the 145$ US that it cost me !

Dave

 

[brentl]

I was lucky enough to find these shakers for next to nothing at Princess Auto about 5 years ago, and I quickly found out that they really can pull you out of a movie quickly when set too high.

Enjoy

Brent