The Third Dimension in Home theater

Any one that has ever experienced a good home theater system will speak of how great the video quality was, the size of the television, how loud the sound was or the great sound separation they heard from the speaker system. Audio and video are definitely the main components of an enjoyable home theater system, but there is a third dimension in home theater. This third dimension is achieved through adding sycronized physical movement to your home theater experience.

The idea is fairly new to home theater enthusiast, but it has been incorporated in many attractions at amusement parks. Ever been to one of those interactive movies at the amusement park? The seats move, water shoots out and various other actions based on the movie on the screen. Those extra elements help to draw you even further into the production. Of course, that type production cost big bucks and isn't really practical for the average home setup. In spite of the aforementioned factors, you can get something close.

Bass Shakers

Bass Shakers or Tactile Transducers work on the concept that low bass is mostly felt and not heard. Feel the earth-shaking bass from your music, movies or video game soundtracks. Originally designed for automotive applications to produce big bass without taking up valuable space in the car. The majority of tactile transducers are simple low frequency electromechanical devices. Particularly, this is the case with Aura bass shakers in view of their extremely limited frequency response.

Tactile transducers are designed to attach directly to large surfaces such as home theater seats, couches, and flooring.

Once activated, these will drive the supporting surface structure into vibrations over the tactile range. The surface now acts as the diaphragm, somewhat similar to the cone in an ordinary speaker.

Tactile transducers help the viewer feel rather than hear the low-end frequencies found in movies and music. They are calibrated specifically to produce an accurate tactile sense, otherwise missing from music and movie sound tracks.

When attached to a resonant surface, they will effectively increase the portion of tactile sound as 'felt' by the viewer in comparison to that produced by sub woofers and ordinary speakers. Consequently, the viewer will be able to feel the natural percussive impact of sounds when watching a movie or listening to music.

Unlike a sub woofer and normal speakers, tactile transducers do not make the room overly load. The greater perceived loudness of a tactile sound transducer equipped system allows listening at lower sound volumes.

This does not mean that tactile transducers are there to replace sub woofers and speakers. This is not the case; rather their presence should be to complement the sub woofer and speakers performance.

The optimum sound level for a sub-woofer is when you can just feel rather than hear the bass. Through the use of tactile transducers, this is even easier to achieve while maintaining the sub woofer sound at a more natural level. In a similar manner, the best setting for the tactile transducer is when you can just feel the seat shaking. Do not overdo it. The illusion that the percussive impact of sound is a natural extension of the movie soundtrack should remain.

In addition, use of specially designed rubber mounts on home theater seats and flooring equipped with tactile transducers, will help keep effects and vibration isolated from other things in the room. In other words, in a proper installation, low frequency vibrations will not be carried throughout the entire house.


There are many applications for the shakers. Explore some options here.

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