Nirmalanow
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2006
- Posts
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- 42
What if you could have full body sound and effectively limitless bass even with headphones? Maybe you can.
Others on here have mentioned the AuraSound bass transducers which are sometimes used in home theater systems to give tactile bass effects to movie sound tracks and the like (http://www.amazon.com/AuraSound-AST-2B-4-Shaker-Tactile-Transducer/dp/B0002ZPTBI/). And years ago, I had a homemade massage table with subwoofer type speakers built into it for a similar effect, but the massage table was not particularly musical.
A while ago, I mounted a pair of these transducers under a zero-gravity chair I was using in a voice biofeedback system (http://www.theportacle.com), and I discovered that they also created a very satisfying and enveloping effect when listening to music. While I have moved on from using the biofeedback system, I am really enjoying the fullness of tone (and unlimited bass if I want it) that I experience while listening on the chair. My DX90 has a line out, and I use an external volume control to allow me to adjust the relative levels of my headphones and vibrations coming through the chair,, as I find that the effect is too strong on bass heavy music and sometimes leaves me wanting more on bass light songs.
And it is not just bass. I can feel vibrations all of the way up into the mids coming through the chair. Somehow this way of involving the whole body in the listening experience is just....well....incredibly fun. And it is surprisingly musical when you get the levels adjusted properly for a particular song. You can literally shake your body with bass on some songs, but to my taste that is going overboard, sort of like a subwoofer that is turned up too high. But it is quick and easy to find a level that makes the music come alive with warmth, emotion and body to die for. Again, even on a song with little or no bass, the music is much more engaging with the added body vibrations in the mid-range. In addition, there is evidence that low frequencies play an important role even in music that has little or no bass as the sound of any note actually has a wide range of frequencies present in it -- read through this older thread for more info about this: http://www.head-fi.org/t/672810/bass-boost-affects-more-than-bass
It is about as un-portable a headphone system as you can imagine, but of course I can just plug my T51p headphones into the DX90 by themselves and listen on the go also. But when I want to settle in and listen for a while, I am loving this new full body immersion approach to my music. The chair does leak some sound into the surroundings, but it is surprisingly little for the amount of "sound" I experience in my body. It does not disturb my wife (or any neighbors) if I just shut the door to the room the chair is in, unlike a subwoofer which can be heard through walls.
Photos of the setup: (Note that the computer in the pictures which ran the biofeedback system has been replaced by the DX90 as my music source. Also the glasses I am wearing are another form of biofeedback that uses flashing lights controlled by your own body's frequencies for a very psychedelic light show that is also fun when I am in the mood.)
The amp for the transducers is an Alesis RA 150 which you can see on the floor.
You can see one of the transducers mounted under the seat of the chair. The second one is under under the backrest. Fortunately, the zero-gravity chair (which I already owned) had a nice wood back and seat that transmit the sound/vibrations very well. A commercial version of a similar chair is available here for a mere $3500: http://www.vibrasound.com/ZGBrochure.htm
I use a NanoPatch volume control for the level of the chair vibrations as that easily allows adjusting the relative levels on the fly, especially since the amp for the chair has dual volume controls and I do not want to have to fiddle with two knobs to adjust the bass level, or reach over from my fully reclined position.
Others on here have mentioned the AuraSound bass transducers which are sometimes used in home theater systems to give tactile bass effects to movie sound tracks and the like (http://www.amazon.com/AuraSound-AST-2B-4-Shaker-Tactile-Transducer/dp/B0002ZPTBI/). And years ago, I had a homemade massage table with subwoofer type speakers built into it for a similar effect, but the massage table was not particularly musical.
A while ago, I mounted a pair of these transducers under a zero-gravity chair I was using in a voice biofeedback system (http://www.theportacle.com), and I discovered that they also created a very satisfying and enveloping effect when listening to music. While I have moved on from using the biofeedback system, I am really enjoying the fullness of tone (and unlimited bass if I want it) that I experience while listening on the chair. My DX90 has a line out, and I use an external volume control to allow me to adjust the relative levels of my headphones and vibrations coming through the chair,, as I find that the effect is too strong on bass heavy music and sometimes leaves me wanting more on bass light songs.
And it is not just bass. I can feel vibrations all of the way up into the mids coming through the chair. Somehow this way of involving the whole body in the listening experience is just....well....incredibly fun. And it is surprisingly musical when you get the levels adjusted properly for a particular song. You can literally shake your body with bass on some songs, but to my taste that is going overboard, sort of like a subwoofer that is turned up too high. But it is quick and easy to find a level that makes the music come alive with warmth, emotion and body to die for. Again, even on a song with little or no bass, the music is much more engaging with the added body vibrations in the mid-range. In addition, there is evidence that low frequencies play an important role even in music that has little or no bass as the sound of any note actually has a wide range of frequencies present in it -- read through this older thread for more info about this: http://www.head-fi.org/t/672810/bass-boost-affects-more-than-bass
It is about as un-portable a headphone system as you can imagine, but of course I can just plug my T51p headphones into the DX90 by themselves and listen on the go also. But when I want to settle in and listen for a while, I am loving this new full body immersion approach to my music. The chair does leak some sound into the surroundings, but it is surprisingly little for the amount of "sound" I experience in my body. It does not disturb my wife (or any neighbors) if I just shut the door to the room the chair is in, unlike a subwoofer which can be heard through walls.
Photos of the setup: (Note that the computer in the pictures which ran the biofeedback system has been replaced by the DX90 as my music source. Also the glasses I am wearing are another form of biofeedback that uses flashing lights controlled by your own body's frequencies for a very psychedelic light show that is also fun when I am in the mood.)
The amp for the transducers is an Alesis RA 150 which you can see on the floor.
You can see one of the transducers mounted under the seat of the chair. The second one is under under the backrest. Fortunately, the zero-gravity chair (which I already owned) had a nice wood back and seat that transmit the sound/vibrations very well. A commercial version of a similar chair is available here for a mere $3500: http://www.vibrasound.com/ZGBrochure.htm
I use a NanoPatch volume control for the level of the chair vibrations as that easily allows adjusting the relative levels on the fly, especially since the amp for the chair has dual volume controls and I do not want to have to fiddle with two knobs to adjust the bass level, or reach over from my fully reclined position.