Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 16-20 of 24
 A whole new "Feeling" to your Home Theater and Gaming Experience February 14, 2009
Jeffrey S. Williams (Modesto, CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
My second Buttkicker BKA300 arrived last night, my first kit had what appears to be a bad transducer. I called Guitammer tech support for the first unit and they rushed me out a brand new kit first thing on Monday this week. The Customer Service was Excellent.
I have to admit I am completely floored at the performance of this unit and although I had an issue with the first kit, it was definetely worth the wait. It took me about 15min to setup the RF link, Amplifier, and transducer and begin enjoying what the Buttkicker had to offer.
I started off with a Blu-Ray version of Pearl Harbor and jumped to the First Strike scene where the bombing of Pearl Harbor starts. I selected 5.1 uncompressed for the soundtrack. Truly amazing being able to "feel" every explosion, flying bullet, bomb, or torpedo. The anticipation of what would be felt next is awesome particularly the scenes of the torpedo hitting the side of the ship or the bomb that went through the deck of the Arizona. Its like "OH YEAH! Here is comes", just like that feeling before you go down the first hill on a roller coaster.
After playing with the movie I moved on to a couple of games and see how they perform. Keep in mind that the Buttkicker uses the LFE or Subwoofer out on your receiver so it will only reproduce low frequency effects.
1. GT5P: No response from the BK when hitting the walls or another car, I guess this is OK since this would be considered bad driving. However while driving if you hit the red/white curbs (rumble strips) you definetely feel those. Depending on your speed affects the frequency and feeling that is felt. I also learned (felt) that not all the red/white rumble strips are raised, some are completely flat. I did not try a cockpit view or adjust the sound volumes in the game to see how the BK responds, curious how it feels in cockpit view.
2. MC:LA Not much response from anything other than Nitro Boost or hitting a gas pump at the 7 eleven! Like GT5P I did not try any other view or adjust the sound settings. However due the soundtrack in MC:LA it feels like having to 15" subwoofers in the trunk while cruising the streets of LA.
3. COD4: It looks like FPS games will be a riot, I went to ACT1 and did the "Death From Above" level. The 25mm, 40mm, and 105mm cannons are "WOW" and I dont mean world at war (which I will try next)! You can feel the actual shot when you pull the trigger and the explosion when it hits the ground from the C-130. I did not try adjusting any sound settings in the game and I did not try FPS yet. I think the bullets whizzing by will be spectacular, since I "felt" this in the Pearl Harbor movie.
If you are seriously considering one of these units, YOU will not be disappointed it adds feeling to both movies and gaming. I only played with the BKA300 for about 1.5hrs and did not move it to my couch. This unit is definetely more than enough for any game chair. The amplifier has a remote with preset EQ settings for movies, music, and games. You can also increase or decrease the intensity, I left it on either game or movie as that was enough already.
***Update*** After a couple of months enjoying the Buttkicker I have to say I have enjoyed the unit very much. In my first review I noted that there was not much response while playing some games particularly Driving games. I found that my Onkyo 805 receiver has additional adjustments for both the Subwoofer channel and another for the LFE output in the internal EQ of the Onkyo amp. Because I use the Audyssey (Calibration Mic) with my Onkyo my Subwoofer was set to -5.5db which is perfect when watching Blu-Ray movies. When Playing PS3 games on the other hand I found by increasing the gain on the subwoofer channel to +3.0db or greater then the response from the Buttkicker transducer is a HUGE improvement. I have found that while playing GT5P with the new settings that wall impacts, rumble strips, car impacts, and road/wind noise have become much more noticable so much more that I can feel the vibration in the wheel and shifter of my G25. I would also like to note that I find the Game EQ preset (-6db) on the Buttkicker remote for adjusting the transducer amp is the best while watching in Blu-ray movie with Lossless Codecs (DTS-MA or Dolby True HD). I start out on this preset setting and increase the intensity with the remote manually until I find the best response from the BK transducer. By doing this it prevents the Transducer from bottoming out or vibrating. I have to admit that I am spoiled by the Buttkicker because it takes away from the movie experience when going to the local theater. A idle chair now is just plain boring.
 Gives Your Home Theater a Kick in the Butt February 7, 2009
ding-dang (Vancouver, WA)
Pros:
*Easy Set-up
*Very Powerful
*Wireless
*Adds a whole new element to watching movies and playing games
Cons
*Remote is rather weak
*No LED display to let you know it's on or what volume it's set at
*Have to tweak the volume a little more than I would prefer but that's not really the fault of the buttkicker (read on)
I've watched Spider-man 3, U-571, Jurassic Park and Flyboys. The feeling and the sense of depth it adds to these movies is amazing. In jurassic park you could feel the weight of each dino step. U-571 really felt as if I were on the sub. Now I'm looking for any excuse to watch any old action flick just so I can fire up the old BK. Man I've watched a lot of bad Steven Segall movies (are there any good ones)
The not-so-good is that the remote is rather weak. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that the IR sensor is a bit weak. I find I have to lean towards it while on the couch with my arm stretched out to make sure the remote commands reach the IR Sensor. The other thing is that there really is no way to know you've turned it on or what the volume is set to. It appears there is no standardization in movies for sound. Some movies I find I'm cranking the BK up to really feel the impact. Other movies nearly blow your head off and I'm scrambling to turn this thing down. And sometimes movies that have a lot of heavy bass sound tracks start to annoy me. I want feel the puches, and explosions, and the crashes. I don't want to hear some annoying thumpity-thump-thump music fiddy-cent composed in his bathroom.
All that said, this thing is a blast and well worth the $300.00 I paid for it.
 Pretty good, but didn't work out for me February 1, 2009
dash-o
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
I purchased the ButtKicker BKA300 based on prior reviews here. This is my first time owning one of these systems. The intended purpose of was for more immersive movie-watching and playing on a PS3. The kit was setup with a HDTV using the line out on the TV using a Y-adapter to split between it and a 2.1 (two satellites one sub) speaker set. The rumble unit was setup under one of the four rear legs of a three-person sofa.
Watching live concert music on the Palladia channel really gives the feeling of being there. I started noticing that on regular TV programming one can hear muffled sound on most dialog as if the sofa was the speaker. This is a bit distracting, and an annoyance that could be addressed by sound proofing the furniture a bit.
The blu-ray version of The Dark Knight has some loud low frequency passages that causes a loud metallic thump. At first I though it was bouncing against the furniture or floor, so I took a couple of mouse pads as a quick fix test and put them in between the floor and another between the rumble platform and the sofa, but it did not fix the problem. I then watched Pirates of the Caribbean, again on blu-ray, fortunately not much of an issue here.
Gaming on the PS3 was another issue. Playing Call of Duty 4 with the rumble kit really brings gaming to a whole new level. Unfortunately, once I went online, grabbed a sniper rifle and aimed at someone, every heart beat the game produces started causing the metallic thump. I had someone else play while I tried troubleshooting the problem and noticed it was coming from inside the rumble module as if it was bottoming out. A few days later a family member was playing Resistance 2 and the module was not working. It had stopped working within an hour of playing, and was very hot to the touch. Once it cooled it worked again so it appears that it disables to prevent damage. I tried multiple settings for several days, lowering the "volume" on the amplifier, selecting different modes (music,movie,game,) but was not able to fix the problem.
Ultimately, I decided to return the unit. Really disappointing, I recently learned from reviews of the bigger brother (400 watts min, 1100 watts max) unit also bottoms out; this one is 50 watts. I may still give it a cautious try.
Incredible added dimension to home theater. January 19, 2009
Scott M. Bosco (NY)
Both the "Buttkicker" unit and amp have both been slimmed down from their original versions and yet still deliver amazing amounts of power and physical presence.
The biggest improvement comes by way of the newly re-designed wireless hook-up which is more accurate and dependable.
What a pleasure, and ease to connect and use. The now added remote saves time and is super convenient in fine tuning the unit - no more getting up and sitting down to make adjustments.
The smaller size of the "kicker" allows it to be put it under the couch.
I really like the wider platform that is useful for accepting two legs of a sectional close together.
I found this version also responds better to audio sources that are non-Dolby Digital, like 2.0 Dolby Surround films and even some MONO sources.
The product brings a missing dimension to home theater akin to what theaters used to call "Sensurround". Actions film are exciting, Sci-fi more explosive, and concerts become a live experience.
Great Product January 6, 2009
T. Sulliman
This is a great product and i am more than happy with my purchase! Also I had some minor issues when setting up but one call to Guitammer and my problems were gone.
Superb Product & Customer service.
Showing reviews 16-20 of 24
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