Product: Buttkicker LFE Kit
MSRP: $459.95 ($399.99 MAP)
Product: Link
Reviewer: Nicholas “bapenguin” Puleo
Back when Arcades actually existed, there were these great driving games that really immersed you into the experience. These games had a gear shift, pedals and a steering wheel. But the best thing about those games was always the feedback provided by shaking the seat. Every time you’d crash or go over a jump the seat would rumble your pants* accordingly. This is something that has long been missing from the home gaming market, thankfully a company called
Guitammer has brought us a solution with the
Buttkicker LFE Kit.
With HDTV gaming coming into the light, the era of big screens and big sounds has begun. Gaming on your grandma’s 13” TV with mono sound is a thing of the past. Now gamers are immersed with 52” screens and glorious 5.1 audio. To take this experience further, the
Buttkicker LFE kit will shake your couch (or the entire floor) with every in game effect. What makes the Buttkicker different from a subwoofer or a shaker is its ability to accurately reproduce these effects without making any noise. The Buttkicker is able to reproduce a large frequency range of effects. The box states a resonant frequency of 9 Hz and range of 5 - 200 Hz.
What’s in the box?
The
Buttkicker LFE Kit comes with everything you need to get up and running and get your butt kicked. The kit comes with the Buttkicker Amplifier, this is what powers up to 4 Buttkicker LFE devices. Also included in the box is the Buttkicker LFE itself, the chair mounting kit, speaker cable, various cables for different hookup options, chair isolators and plenty of instructions.
Installation
Installation is pretty straightforward. The Buttkicker Amp connects to your subwoofer out on your home theater receiver. If you already have a sub connected via this method, there is an included Y adapter. The
Buttkicker LFE is then mounted onto the chair mounting plate. This plate sits underneath one of the legs of your couch. Under the rest of the legs you place the rubber isolators. Once the amp is connected and LFE mounted, use the included speaker cable to connect it to the
Buttkicker LFE to the amp.
The nice thing is for most chairs that have dustflaps the Buttkicker LFE hides nicely underneath it.
One thing I had some trouble with was getting the LFE to perform exactly like I expected. For me, I was looking for something that would simply reproduce the more powerful sections of games. Out of the box the LFE was very sensitive which caused to vibrate almost constantly. Even the soundtracks of the game would cause vibrations. Luckily the Buttkicker Amp offers plenty of tweaking options. After turning down the crossover frequency to less than 80, turning on the high cutoff filter, and turning off the low cutoff the Buttkicker LFE was near perfect.
Performance
So what is it like when using the Buttkicker? It really is something that needs to be experienced because it feels so natural. For instance in Burnout: Revenge on the Xbox 360 when you speed burst there is sort of a rocket flame effect. It’s not a very powerful one, it’s very slight. So the
Buttkicker LFE has a soft continuous rumble that it outputs. But in that same game if you crash into a wall the Buttkicker puts out a singular power punch on impact, followed by several smaller ones as each piece of your car hits and tumbles. And when you execute a crash breaker? You better hold on to your pants for that one.
Playing Battlefield 2: Modern Combat was the most intense experience I’ve had to date with gaming in a home theater setup. My recliner turned into a massaging chair during my firefights. I could feel the helicopter blades whirling over my head. I nearly jumped out of my seat as missile whizzed by my head. With every tank shell that is fired the chair gave me a solid kick to the pants.
I also watched a few movies with the
Buttkicker LFE. I have two “test” scenes I use when checking out new audio and video setups. The opening battle scene from Gladiator was up first, and the Buttkicker did not disappoint. The effect is especially cool as the catapults are loaded. I also used the Oliphaunt charge scene from
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Needless to say, every stomp from an Oliphaunt is another kick to the pants.
Conclusion
The entire LFE kit will set you back around $400 bucks from various online retailers. At first I thought this seemed overly expensive, but when you compare this to most middle range subwoofers it’s on par with the price. Each additional LFE unit will set you back about $200-220 as well as the cost of another chair mounting kit ($49.99). Of course, one LFE is powerful enough to shake a whole couch so additional units may not be needed. There are actually instructions on how to hook the LFE up to the joists of your floor to shake an entire room. Needless to say, you’d need to be in a special situation (a.k.a. Single) to do this.
The
Buttkicker LFE provides an amazing immersive experience while gaming. It adds an entire dimension to gaming that feels completely natural. The LFE performs great for movies as well and makes a truly great addition to your subwoofer. If anything, at least try to find a local dealer who can demo the
Buttkicker LFE for you so you can see what you’ve been missing in gaming!
The Good
+ Amazing immersive experience
+ Large range of effects, very realistic
+ Lots of hookup options and tweaking options
+ Silent, not boomy like a subwoofer
The Bad
- Kind of expensive
The Ugly
- No remote for Amp
Score
4 out of 5 EvilEyes
*NOTE* this review contains excessive kicking to the pants. *
