Dayton Audio BST-1 High Power Pro Tactile Bass Shaker 50 Watts RMS, 4 Ohms Impedance - Turn Any Surface into a Speaker System - Generates Subwoofer Lows

I'm using two of these on my sectional couch. They work great and are definitely strong enough. They are small enough to be installed under my couch with enough room to the floor. I'm enjoying them for a few weeks now.

My first foray into these transducers was when I sold my VR headset in anticipation of the new model coming out. Missing the immersion and playing flat screen games, I was thinking, what can I do? I remembered years ago a friend showing me this thing called a Buttkicker he had in his home theater setup so I looked into that. Too expensive. I stumbled across these guys. I initially bought one. I removed the bottom of my office chair, cut a piece of plywood, got some longer bolts and bolted it all back together. Now I had a solid place to mount this. I got a cheap Nobsound 100w amp with an adjustable low pass filter. I plugged it into an extra usb sound card on my computer, ran my audio through Voicemeter Banana, and was blown away. I don’t think I could ever play games without it again. At half volume this thing shakes the chair like crazy. It adds so much immersion! Love it! Fast forward, the new Vr headset came out, I missed the shaker when playing standing VR. I began figuring out how I would make my own bass transducer vest. I initially was going to go with the small Dayton pucks. I bought a four pack and one was dead on arrival. I still wired them up and they have an impressive shake but I didn’t like the flimsy wires and just really like these bigger Dayton transducers I can plug my own wires into. I bought a second one. I ran them parallel, pulling a 2 ohm load from my amp, which it can handle and puts out its full 100 watts at 2 ohms. I initially just threw them into a cheap chest bag as a proof of concept with a long speaker wire running to my amp. It worked like I hoped but I wanted to not be tied to a cord for room scale wireless VR. I got a cheap swat tactical vest, the kind with the insertable armor. I cut a 1x12 piece of wood to fit in front and back. Then I screwed these transducers to it front and back. I got a power wheels 18v Ridgid battery adapter and a plug that fits my Nobsound amp. The batteries put out 19-20v which is perfect for my amp. I wired it all together and now I have a mobile transducer bass vest, powered by my drill batteries. I plug it into a headphone splitter on my VR headset. Wow!! This thing is heavy. 15lbs plus. But it is incredible to wear while playing games. One of these is enough to shake a couch, two of these is overkill but oh boy, will it kick you hard. These transducer are heavy, well built, and just amazing to play around with. Have fun with them!

The Setup: I’ve integrated five Dayton Audio BST-1 High Power Pro Tactile Bass Shakers into my sim racing rig, and the difference is night and day. I have them mounted at the four corners of my rig to simulate individual tire data (kerbs, wheel slip, and road texture) with a fifth one directly under my seat for engine RPMs and gear shifts. ​Performance & Feel: At 50 watts each, these shakers have more than enough power to vibrate a heavy aluminum profile rig. The tactile feedback is incredibly crisp and precise. When I’m driving, I can actually "feel" which tire is losing grip or hitting a rumble strip before I see it on screen. It adds a physical dimension to racing that makes you a more consistent and faster driver. ​Why the BST-1? ​Clean Power: Even with five running simultaneously, the signal is clean. They handle low frequencies (down to 10Hz) beautifully, providing that deep "thump" without sounding like a noisy rattle. ​Build Quality: They are built like tanks. They handle long endurance races without overheating or losing intensity. ​Easy Mounting: The 4-hole mounting pattern made it simple to bolt them directly to my rig's frame and pedal plate. ​Pro-Tip for Sim Hub Users: If you're running a multi-shaker setup like mine, spend time in SimHub tuning your frequencies. Setting your corner shakers to a different frequency than your seat shaker helps your brain distinguish between road effects and engine vibration, making the experience feel 100% realistic. ​Final Verdict: One BST-1 is a great start, but five is a total transformation. If you want to feel every gear change, every bump, and every slide in your bones, this is the best investment you can make for your rig. ​Recommended Companion for Your Rig ​To keep your 5-shaker setup from vibrating through the floor (and potentially bothering anyone else in the house), isolation is key. ​Dayton Audio ISO-4 Isolation Feet: These rubber feet decouple your rig from the floor, ensuring all that tactile energy stays in your seat and pedals where it belongs.

Bolted one of these to my computer chair with a VESA Pole Mount and run it with a stereo amplifier. Use it to feed telemetry from flight sims to the bass shaker for things like engine rumble, cannon fire, stall buffeting, g forces. It works very well and really adds amazing haptic feedback to the flying! Definitely recommend if you are trying to add that extra dimension to your simming or movie watching!

Initial review: This review is for using this device for tactile feedback in a racing simulator. It is not being used for in game audio, media, or theatre purposes, so I can not attest to how well it performs those functions. With that out of the way, this does an excellent job. Prior to using this transducer I was using 2 of the Dayton BST-2 transducers (purchased from partsexpress.com on discount) in the same location on my rig, mounted behind the driver seat. The BST-1 is not only more powerful than the 2 BST-2s combined, but it also has a much more usable frequency range. Both transducers are advertised to operate from 10-80hz, however neither of the BST-2s create substantial vibration below 30hz. They fall off pretty hard. The BST-1 on the otherhand still thumps decently down to 7hz. For these tests both drivers were connected to a 4x100w @4ohm amp, with each driver on its own channel. The BST-2s had to be turned down to not be overdriven. Mounting these correctly is really important to getting the most out of them, and isolating whatever theyre attached to is equally important. When I use my sim rig i place sound isolating blocks under each corner. Isolating the rig from the ground made such a difference that I had to turn down most of my feedback settings. After having used both, I can easily say just buy the BST-1 over the BST-2 any day. Down the road I will be buying another BST-1 for the front of my rig, but the 3 drivers I already have are plenty for now.

Has good power, volume, and quality for the money. Compatibility was good with my sim rig, and size wise fit perfectly under the seat.

SUMMARY The BST-1 is not a necessity for a home theater, but boy does it add something to the overall theater experience. I don't think I will ever go back to watching movies w/o them turned on. I think "Bass Shaker" although techincally is what it does, to me seems to have a negative tone to it. Properly setup think of it as a subwoofer extension. They seem to be built well, and have lots of heat sinks to get rid of the heat when driven hard. CONFIGURATION: As great as these are, they need to be installed and setup properly. The BST-1 needs to be anchored very securely to a flat wood surface for maximum performance and to eliminate rattles. Much like the configuration of all of the speakers in your home theater it is important that everything is balanced properly. If you look at these as an extension to your subwoofer like your subwoofer is an extension using bass management to your center / L/R/Surround / heights etc. The BST-1 is rated at 10-80 hz, but will make sounds at higher frequency's so it is important to have the signal crossed over (the install guide says 80hz), I have mine at 80hz w/ the sub crossover and it seems fine. So when very low frequency's occur in movie sound tracks your sub is doing what it can, but these add that extra low freq (even below human hearing). Its the really low frequencies is where these really shine to "extend" the overall low frequency impact that your home theater has. I also find that I can run the subwoofer (and the overall theater) at a lower output and with the BST-1. The experience is more enjoyable and better at the lower sound levels plus the BST-1. There are other "bass shakers" out there but they are more expensive and I would have a hard time to imagine that they would be that much better. INSTALL DETAILS (For those who want to know) I am using (3) in a sectional with a wood frame (see pics). The sectional sits on a concreate floor. These are 4 ohms each I have (2) wired in series for total 8 ohm load to one of the amp channels and (1) wired to the other amp channel. I then paned the amp output to the speakers in series to balance out the power and level. I am using a 100w per channel amp dedicated to these (an old 2 channel receiver) so I can shut them off (and adjust the volume) / balance if needed. The input to the amp is the sub output of the home theater receiver (that handles my other speakers) sub crossed over at 120 hz. spilt to the L/R channels of the dedicated amp. For video games, we up the level, for movies we turn it down so it just "hits" when it adds to the movie and does not distract normally. I found that I needed to tighten some of the parts on the sectional to avoid vibrations at the very lowest frequencies. Update 2-23-22 - Still going strong after about 2 years of use at least 1 / week. Updated crossover for the Sub and BST-1 from 120hz down to 80 hz. My Front/Surround/Ceiling all crossed over at 80 hz now. I think they (The BST-1) work better crossed over at 80 vs 120hz. Still a great investment in my opinion. GOOD DEMO's for the BST-1 Jumanji - Welcome the jungle - (any scene where the games drums are playing) Solo - A Star Wars Story - The scene with the explosion of the train of coaxium Avatar Any movie with low bass

This is my 2nd one and love them!! Better than ButtKicker.