parrotheads4

I bought some theater seats that came with free buttshakers. They did not come with directions for hookup, or an amplifier. I believe they are 50 watts each, and I have 4 of them. Do I hook these to my reciever? When I did a product search it seams they need a seperate amplifier, but I don't know what I need, and I wasn't going to commit a lot of cash to it. Do you guys have any experience with these?

TheMadMonk

I think they have to be run off a second receiver, because they hook up like speakers do, but should only be getting the subwoofer channel info.

Main Receiver Subwoofer Out -> Secondary Receiver RCA Input (I'd use a splitter to convert the single subwoofer cable into 2 inputs (L+R) on the secondary receiver) > Speaker wire out of this receiver connects to the buttshakers.

I haven't used mine in a while, b/c my 2nd receiver died on me.

On the bright side, if you have to buy a second receiver, you can just get a plain stereo one, since 5.1 is useless for these things.

Gambit

Just to clarify, you don't necessarily need another receiver, just an amplifier. Of course, if you have another receiver or can get one cheap, that would work as well.

Basically, the subwoofer output from your receiver should be split. Send one to your subwoofer as it is today, and then the other will go into the amplifier that will drive your buttshakers.

parrotheads4

Thanks guys. I split my subwoofer output and ran a line to an old reciever of mine (Fisher analog with AUX input -at least 30 years old!!). I plugged the line into the left Aux input, and ran speaker wire out of the left channel to the first shaker. I then ran wire from the 1st shaker to the 2nd then the 2nd to the 3rd then the 3rd to the 4th. I turned the balance all the way to the left channel, and turned everything on. They work great! The family, and I watched Tomarrow Never Dies, and the whole basement was thumping. Thanks for the help.