- The Good: Gives you the feeling of bass without a subwoofer; works even when you're wearing headphones; good selection of controls for fine-tuning force-feedback-type sensations; top-notch materials and workmanship; easy setup.
- The Bad: Controls need constant, delicate tweaking so that vibrations don't turn to outright rattles, clanks and buzzes; no remote, which means the large and heavy control box needs to be kept within arm's reach; won't work on all chairs; unit sometimes overheats and shuts down after a couple of hours of intense use; cable trailing from your chair can be annoying; pricey.
- The Verdict: This gadget gives hard-core players bass they can feel instead of hear - games become more realistic and the rest of the household will thank you.
REVIEW:
When I first heard about the ButtKicker Gamer, I thought it was yet another of those totally pointless gadgets you see disappointed owners unloading at yardsales. It soon changed my mind — it won't appeal to everyone, but if you're a hardcore gamer, this will likely go straight onto your I-want-it list.
The $149.99 (U.S.) ButtKicker is basically a force-feedback system for your desk chair. I know, I gave the same snort of derision before I tried it.
In fact, it's difficult to describe the ButtKicker to someone who hasn't tried it. The best analogy I can think of is a really loud concert, the kind where you can feel the bass in your body if you're too close to the speaker stacks. The ButtKicker does the same sort of thing, but without turning your eardrums to mush.
In fact, it's almost silent.
That's the remarkable thing about it. When you sit on a chair with the ButtKicker running, you'd swear that the bass is loud enough to earn you a visit from the local bylaw enforcement officer. But if you stand up, the bass goes away - and for anyone standing nearby, there's no sound at all beyond the faint buzzing of your chair (if there are any loose/vibrating parts), and whatever treble is coming over your regular speakers. If you have headphones on, the ButtKicker is just a low background buzz for others in the room.
The trick is that the ButtKicker sends low-frequency vibrations through the chair and fools your body into thinking it is "hearing" deep bass.
The gadget has two main parts. The first is a metal vibration unit about the size of a flattened tennis ball, connected to a heavy steel quick-release clamp. The clamp goes around the centre post of a desk chair. This is the only type of chair it works with — the type with a base on wheels and a centre post supporting the seat (the company makes more expensive versions for home theatre seats and couches). The clamp is adjustable, and it fit both a modern desk chair and an antique oak office swivel chair I tried it with (the solid oak chair gave the best vibration-feedback, I'm assuming because it had no upholstery padding my hindquarters ... although the metal fittings on the old oak chair did rattle a bit). The quick-release lets you unsnap the vibration unit and put it away when you're not using it, which is handy, but it's small enough that you could leave it attached all the time if you prefer.
The second part is a control box about the size of a large car audio amplifier - it's darned heavy, too. It can sit flat, or on its side in a pair of supports (although they slip off easily if you move the control unit around, which is annoying).
The control unit's face has a "volume" dial for the strength of the vibrations, and a crossover dial to select the frequency of the vibrations that the ButtKicker responds to (just as you would on an audio subwoofer). There are also high- and low-frequency crossover cuttoff switches to tailor the sound for games, music and movies.
