Breaking the Home Theater Surround Sound Barrier

Are you upsetting your neighbors with that wirelessToday, wireless surround sound systems exist to do
surround sound system? Why not dial the volumeexactly this in your home theater, helping to reduce the
down, kick in a pair of unobtrusive Bass Shakers, anddifference between the movie house and "in house"
still get the same effect.movie viewing. More exciting, however, has been the
Once upon a time, in the good old days when I was arecent development of an audio technology much
boy, you would head off to the cinema in thesimpler than any wireless surround sound system. I'm
weekend with your siblings in tow, allowing yourtalking about tactile transducers, or Bass Shakers, as
parents a few hours of relief from the highly stressfulthey are more commonly known. Instead of depending
realities of parenting in the seventies. Or something likeon a wireless surround sound system to deliver the
that. To be honest, I don't think my parents knew howsensation of "being there", tactile transducers generate
good they had it back then. We lived at the edge ofvery low frequency vibrational energy that can literally
the world, or as close as you can get to it beforebe felt throughout your body. Bass shakers allow you
falling off the map--in the trouble-free little city ofto experience every thump, thrust and shaking motion
Auckland, New Zealand. Either way, off to the cinemathat the characters in your movies are feeling. By
we would go, every weekend. Like dutiful clockworkattaching a transducer to a solid surface, like the
children of the corn fields, sunshine or rain, good moviehardwood backing of a home theater lounger, these
or total stinker. Actually, it's a wonder my force-feedvibrations pack an emotional wallop when the storyline
diet of Tarzan, Clint Eastwood, and Bruce Lee did meaction steps up.
no lasting harm. Somehow I survived to adulthood,When that *thing* jumps out of the closet on screen,
retaining my childlike indulgence for suspended disbeliefyou'll be jumping out of your chair! When those naval
in a darkened viewing room, minus the mandatory boxguns start pounding in "Sink the Bismarck", or that
of chocolate-centered Jaffas, which I have neitherT-Rex bellows in "Jurassic Park", you'll feel it in your
seen nor tasted now for perhaps thirty years.bones. Once you have experienced a Bass Shaker at
Now, there's a reason people go to movie theaters,play, that plain old home theater surround sound
and it's one that likely factors into why I remember thatsystem simply will no longer be enough for you.
part of my childhood so well. Watching movies in aIf you are really adventurous, handy with tools, and
cinema is nothing like the experience at home. At least,have lots of time on your hands, you can buy tactile
it was not back then. The big screen was essential totransducers separately and install them any place
"losing yourself" in the fabricated reality of a big studiowhere you might also hook up ordinary speakers,
production. But, contributing just as much to theincluding inside your car, if you like. But for the rest of
success of this movie magic was the concept ofus there is an easier option. Wireless Bass Shakers
surround sound--having the aural component of theare built into many models of home theater loungers,
experience assault you from multiple directions atincluding the Metro, Garrick, Este, and Rodeo models
once. If I was an engineer I'd probably tell you that, byfound on No wires, no installation, no fuss. In fact,
combining the sound from a number of separatedthere's no need even to send your kids off to the
speakers in a coordinated way, it is possible to createmovie theater by themselves anymore. Not when your
a spatial imaging component to the movie-goingfamily can share together all the thrills, and now spills,
experience that your television just cannot reproduce.of modern day movie viewing in the comfort of your
In layman's terms: surround sound just pulls you into theown home theater.
screen.