Bass Shakers on the cheap!

[Sonnie Parker]

You might also try wiring them in parallel to lower the impedance and increase power output from the Sony if it can handle the lower impedance.

I'm thinking that the board is absorbing too much of the vibrations, and maybe mounting them directly to the frame would be better.

 

[Mike Schramm]

This is the first time I have ever wired anything either in series or parallel. I've only ever done the normal one wire, red to red, black to black. I didn't even know that was a thing until this thread started. Wiring in parallel with generate more power than wiring in series?

 

[Todd Anderson]

Something isn't right... you should feel that.

You could also just wire them from two different terminals.

Did you try increasing the bass in the Sony settings?

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Generally, yes. When you wire in series you add the impedance of the speakers. The Dayton shaker is rated at 4 ohms, so wiring them in series makes it an 8-ohm load on your Sony amp. So you have one channel on your Sony amp powering an 8-ohm load. In most cases amps are rated at 8-ohms and the power increases as you lower the impedance, and in some cases doubling the power. 8-ohm rating is 100 watts, and 4-ohm rating is 200 watts. Probably not the case with the Sony and most other receivers. It's usually 100 watts at 8-ohm and 125-150 at 4-ohm. Then if you double down again to a 2-ohm load it may increase the power more. However, not many receivers are capable of a 2-ohm load.

In this case, what I would do is use two separate outputs on your Sony. Split those inputs to both L+R on the CD input as mentioned earlier. Then use the left output to one shaker and the right output to the other, giving you full power of each channel to the 4-ohm load of each shaker.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

That Sony unit shows the following:

Minimum RMS Output Power (8 ohms, 20 Hz - 20 kHz, THD 0.09%)

100 W + 100 W

It also shows there is no 4-ohm/8-ohm switch (8-ohm only)... so it's not really designed to power a 4-ohm load. It may still work just fine though, although it may only output down to 20Hz. I was unable to find any measured output data for it.

 

[Mike Schramm]

I never thought to crank up the sub level on the Sony. So, here's my plan: relocate off of the board and onto the couch itself, wire them individually, and boost the sub gain on the Sony. I will, of course, report back.

I hope the Sony isn't too weak to handle these.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

It shouldn't be, as they can be fully powered with 50 watts... and you got that much for sure.

 

[Mike Schramm]

I haven’t even messed with the sub levels on the Sony yet. I’ve mounted them directly to the couch and wired them individually.

Much improved!

That piece of plywood I used definitely wasn’t helping anything. I wonder if each shaker getting more than enough power helped too. Now, to play with settings and get them dialed in!

 

[Mike Schramm]

Holy. Crap. These things, when set up right, they are SO MUCH FUN. I did the race scene in Ready Player One, the big tank fight scene in Fury, and just about every Godzilla scene in Godzilla Minus One. I finally have that tactile feel I've been wanting! Now I want two more for the back side of my seat since I have two in the front of my seat.

@Todd Anderson, I was thinking about it, and other than setting my speakers to large and full range what could I do with the bass settings on the Sony? I'm using the SACD/CD input and I have the bass shakers set as the front right and front left speakers, so as far as the Sony knows I don't have a sub set up. Either way, thank you for this suggestion, I am absolutely LOVING this!

 

[Todd Anderson]

VICTORY!!

This is probably an over used phrase… but I really do believe these bass shakers are the best bang for the buck upgrade for a home theater. You’re going to get years and years of use out of them… and it’s going to be awesome!

In terms of settings, I was speaking of channel levels in your AVR’s speaker settings menu. You can boost the dB of output for the two channels (or one channel) there. Since the AVR isn’t running anything else, you can crank it up.

 

[Mike Schramm]

Gotcha, that makes sense. I'm getting a pretty good kick right now, but it won't hurt to play around and see what I like the best.

Completely agree that, for the cost, these things may be the biggest home theater upgrade you can make. Especially when a lot of us have some of the extras you need (amp, miniDSP, speaker wire, etc.) to get up and running already in use or laying around the house. I am at $110 out of pocket and I feel like I just bought a 21" sub or two. So cool!

 

[Todd Anderson]

Yup. They're great. Not sure how big your seating area is... but you can see how it's tempting to give every seat a little shake!

 

[Mike Schramm]

Yeah, I can see wanting to make that whole "back" row shake. The part of the sectional that extends toward the screen shouldn't need anything, those are the cheap seats anyway. I need to get my wife down there and hear her thoughts on them. She normally sits right in the corner with the right surround blasting into her ear.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Beautful room!

I'd say 16 to 20 shakers and four external amp sources ought to get the job done

You can tell your wife it's your idea. I promise it will only improve your relationship!!