In A Nutshell
The speakers that produce the lowest bass are tactile transducers — they typically produce frequencies in the 0.5 – 20 Hz range. Tactile sound is not perceived through the ears — it perceived through the body. Most subwoofers are incapable of producing audio in this range.
A good tactile transducer to start with is $150, entry-level Clark Synthesis Silver Edition (TST239) — it provides ample sub-frequency bass for the home user.
The Details
Tactile sound is the sensation of sound transmitted directly to the human body by contact, rather than by sound waves through the ears (tympanic sensation).
More specifically, it is sound perceived through bone conduction, through muscles and deep tissue, and via skin sensation. We perceive the vibrations through our haptic senses which include both kinesthetic (muscle) and touch (cutaneous) senses. We feel both inaudible (infrasonic frequencies) and audible frequencies. Thus, tactile sound is not just brute rumbles and shock waves.
Tactile sound can be perceived in high fidelity up to the mid-range frequencies. According to NASA research we perceive 0 to 1 kHz through the sense of touch, 0 to 3 kHz through kinesthesia (the sense of the relative position of neighboring parts of the body), and 0.20 kHz to 20 kHz through our ears. Note there’s an overlap — we can hear the range of 0.20 kHz to 3 kHz both with our ears and through other parts of our body. Also, some hearing-impaired individual can hear sounds up to 5 kHz through their skin.
Tactile sound is a sensation that many seek out. People often buy expensive subwoofers to achieve deep bass effects. In this pursuit, subwoofers are often pushed past recommend levels, resulting in damaged equipment, muddied sound fields, and disturbed neighbors. Typically, subwoofers not produce tactile sound very well. They are designed to transmit low frequency sound through the air, and they don’t usually produce bass below 25 – 30Hz. Correctly installed and enclosed subwoofers can producer lower and louder deep bass, but they will not produce the same level of tactile vibrations.
So what kind of device produces tactile sound? Tactile transducers, or electro-mechanical devices that are built specifically to vibrate objects. They are very similar to a loudspeaker woofer driver minus the cone.
There are two basic flavors of transducer: inertial shakers and linear actuators. Let’s take a look at the differences between the two:
Inertial Shakers
Inertial Shakers operate by shaking a mass in an enclosed housing. The resulting vibrations are transferred to an attached object, like the wooden crossbeam of a couch, for example. Usually, shakers are bolted directed to an object.
Companies that make Inertial Shakers include: Clark Synthesis, Aura Sound, Earthquake Audio, Buttkicker and Sonic Immersion Technologies. These devices vary widely in price — some produce a simple shaking effect, some produce high-fidelity sounds that compliment to a stereo system or home theater (such as those offered by Clark Synthesis, my personal favorites).
A good tactile transducer to start with is $150, entry-level Clark Synthesis Silver Edition (TST239). It will produce solid definition to drum hits, or shake your fillings loose if you so desire. The transducer can be installed in less than an hour. It took me about 45 minutes to bolt it to the bottom of my couch, using the parts provided with the transducer. In my test installation, I removed the fabric from the button of a couch, and bolted the transducer to a crossbeam underneath. Once installed, the entire couch functions as a bass speaker.
But wait, we need to power the tactile transducer! Clark Synthesis sells a $350 customized tactile amplifier to do this, but you can actually use any amplifier that outputs at least 100 watts (check the Clark Synthesis documentation for more info). Well, Cambridge Audio makes good amplifiers, but their entry-level models start at $330. We can instead use an AudioSource amplifier. This is a 2-channel 100-watt (50 watts x 2) power amplifier, which can be purchased for under $100. This amplifier is well-reviewed — 111 reviewers on Amazon gave it an average of 4 out of 5 stars. You attach your amplifier to the tactile transducer using standard speaker cables. You then connect the amplifier to the Sub Out connector on your receiver.
Linear Actuators
Linear Actuators are transducers that push against a hard surface. They apply a force directly to an object, in contrast to Inertial Shakers which vibrate themselves, and then transmit that vibration into another object. Commercially available Linear Actuators usually replace the feet of a chair. They operate by pushing against the floor, and directly lifting and dropping a chair. They tend to be more expensive that Inertial Shakers, and they can be only installed under chairs — they can’t be installed under a floor or in a swimming pool like the shakers above.
Companies that offer Linear Actuator include: Crowson Technology and d-Box Technologies.
See also: The Tactile Transducer FAQ
Thanks for this nice article,
I’m testing DML (distributed mode loudspeakers) with suspended disks of acrylic, polycarbonate and polystyrene 1/4 inch thick and 2 feet diameter. The Visaton EX 80 S (8 ohms) with a 100 Watt amp is the best and the Dayton DAEX25SHF-4 (4 ohms) was doing good until the glued system that comes with it went of (some propose to use epoxy or crazy glue once the hot spot is determined), i’m using it in a vertical position, that is in my design… Of course, the bass is missing, but the mid’s and highs have a great presence. I wonder if anyone tested a Clarke Synthesis in a similar king of DML set up? Thanks.
Martin
I have a Clark and a Buttkicker. Clark is rated for 250 watts, Buttkicker is 1000 watt max. Buttkicker was twice the price, so I bought the less expensive Clark first.
The application wat the long roof of a bare metal limousine: It has the perfect resonant surface area for 0.0001 Hz through 150 Hz.
The Clark worked (functionally), but I made one miscalculation, and two horrible mistakes. I miscalculated the force required to be applied to the roof for proper roofline deflection. The Clark only provided about 50% of the desired effect. The first mistake was pretesting it without mounting it first to a solid surface. Applying ~125 watts caused it to overheat, and it smelled like the voice coil was burning. The second mistake (fatal) was driving it with the out-of-range intermittently peaking signal of ~325 watts. It happily took the abuse until the internal guts failed and broke loose. It sounded like ball-bearings in a coffee can. Although it has internal overcurrent protection, driving it at just under its threshold can still significantly reduce its lifespan.
Next,
The Buttkicker is different. It does not operate on a voice coil/permanent magnet arrangement. Instead, the BC is a linear actuator / motor. It can handle the current, and based on my application, it thoroughly enjoys the abuse.
There is one major requirement that I have not found listed anywhere, and you will thank me for sharing the following fact: Do NOT use a Class D amplifier to drive your low-frequency tactile transducers. It barely works… it hardly works… do not waste your time with cheaper, energy-efficient, smaller, cooler Class D amplifiers. The answer is A, but all you will find is AB. Class AB amplifiers will reproduce frequencies below 5Hz with huge amounts of power and force. You NEED this for your transducer.
The last consideration when building your transducer/amplifier system is filtering. You must completely filter out anything above 250 Hz. You will need to let your subwoofers punch out anything higher than that. Going higher than 200Hz will strain the transducer, and there is no internal filtering that will prevent it from trying to buzz itself to pieces.
My car stereo has menu options to electronically adjust a low-pass crossover, and has a dedicated subwoofer output (Kenwood $250 dual-DIN). The amplifier I am using is a bridged R.F. Renegade 550 (probably 450 watt peak). It has band pass and subsonic amplification control knobs. I am considering upgrading to a higher wattage amp because after about 25 minutes of SHAKING the car at 7Hz, it overheats, and shuts down. It does auto-reset, no permanent damage is done.
The amount of action I get from my 550 watt amp is too much for the car to handle. I have had to bolt things back together throughout the car. Windows shake out of their tracks, a side mirror fell off, people are hurting their necks from turning to look. It really is too much, but think about it this way: the trunk is empty, and my wallet is phat. The money invested is $600 between the head unit, the transducer, and the amp, but the system sounds like I invested a few thousand!
To summarize:
FILTER
CLASS AB
BUTTKICKER 1000watt
8 AWG (30A fused at the battery)
A SOCKET SET
CONTACT ADHESIVE
ICE
DARK SUNGLASSES
(and preferribly an old 6-door Cadillac service limousine)
___________________
Please share this information everywhere you can, you all have my permission. I couldn’t find these answers on the internet, nobody tries stuff like this anymore. I hope my efforts will save someone some time and money.
-Nathan, PDX
Pingback: Sound | Pearltrees
Nice job on your web site. I came across your site with the search term(s) “portable wireless tactile sound table”, as you might have guessed I am producing a product with that description and thought I would see what is out there.
I’m sure you have noticed as I have, that Tactile Sound has begun to disappear into obscurity.I would like to let you know that it is resurfacing as a therapeutic means under the title of Vibroacoustic Therapy. This has been a passion of mine for many years as I have experienced what I believe are the physical manifestations of being in contact with tactile sound probably longer then anyone else on the planet.
To answer one of the questions above about the NASA reference, I have personally tested a number profoundly deaf individuals for tactile response and found that 5kHz is the upper limit of their tactile perception range, Most individuals can feel up to 1 kHz at reasonable amplitudes but much of this is dependent on the coupling material, Foam, which we humans like to be in contact with,is bandwidth limited to about 800 Hz and that frequency is what is most quoted on the web. Glass on the other hand will produce a much higher tactile sensation. The tests I did utilized a now extinct BioForm chair that used high density polystyrene with very little padding and a bent hardwood frame.
I don’t know if NASA has conducted like experiments, but I do know they use vibratory stimulation (yet another name for tactile sound) to reduce bone loss in weightless environments, go to https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2001/ast02nov_1/ for the article.
That’s probably enough for now, let me know if you would like to know more about the subject. Oh, if you have the means, run the YouTube videos on the hifiwellness site through your tactile system, you’ll be glad you did.
Looking UP,
Tomqwest
Gerry,
You can find on bigstockphotos.com and searching on “sound wave”.
Cheers,
Justin
I need to get hold of the first image (high res)featured here on tactile sound, can anybody help?
Many thanks
Gerry
Does anyone have any experience with the Philips MC235B Flat Wall Mountable Micro Shelf System I was thinking about obtaining it and just wasn’t sure if its the greatest one to buy.
It is a very interesting article.
Could you please direct me to some of the references that you mention on it…more specifically to the part that says “According to NASA research we perceive 0-1 kHz through the sense of touch, 0-30 kHz through kinesthesia (the sense of the relative position of neighboring parts of the body), and 0.20 kHz to 20 kHz through our ears. Note there’s an overlap — in the 0.02-1kHz range.”…where can I find that article.
Thanks a lot
Felipe