The Immersit Vibes is a home cinema tactile transducer designed to render infrabass frequencies as vibrations in order to emulate the movie theater experience with motion simulator seats. Initially developed to support a subwoofer in a home cinema installation, the Immersit Vibes is suitable for both 4D cinema and hi-fi use.
Immersit Vibes: presentation
The Immersit Vibes is a French crowdfunding project in competition with the Buttkicker, Earthquake Quake Q10B and EarthQuake MiniQuake tactile transducers. It features a Bluetooth audio transmitter to connect to an audio source (home cinema amplifier, Blu-ray player, TV or gaming console) and a receiver with an integrated amplifier connected to two transducers (pods). Each transducer should be placed under one of your couch?s feet.
Immersit Vibes: accessories
Immersit offers many accessories along with the transducers. In addition to two insulating supports for getting your couch perfectly level, a range of connectors is also included: mini-jack to mini-jack audio cable, RCA male to dual RCA female adapter, mini-jack Y adapter Toslink optical cable ? everything is here.
Immersit Vibes: Bluetooth transmission
The Bluetooth transmitter is fitted with a mini-jack line input which can be connected to the SUB/LFE output of any home cinema receiver, or to the pre-out connection of a hi-fi amplifier. The advantage of such a configuration is that the level of low frequencies can vary along with that produced by the speakers. The Bluetooth transmitter also features a Toslink optical input compatible with stereo PCM stream. The Immersit Vibes can thus be connected to a TV or gaming console, for example, with the drawback of a fixed output level. In other words, the intensity of the vibrations stays the same, regardless of the sound level. Lastly, the transmitter boasts a two-position gain control command for the incoming signal.
The Immersit Vibes? amplification module is integrated into its Bluetooth receiver. Note that the power of the amplifier hasn’t been communicated by the brand, all we know is that the external power supply can deliver up to 160 Watts.
Each tactile transducer features a small button which allows the user to choose one of three levels of intensity for the vibrations. The blue LED indicator found on each transducer can be deactivated.
Immersit Vibes: working principle
The working principle is very simple. The audio signal coming from the source (home cinema receiver, TV, etc.) is digitized (if it is an analog signal), compressed and transmitted to the receiver/amplifier via Bluetooth RF. The amplifier then converts the signal into amplified analog waves. Frequencies between 20 Hz and 100 Hz are reproduced by the transducers as vibrations.
Immersit Vibes: test
We tested the Immersit Vibes as per usual in our carpeted, hardwood floor test room. Our couch has the particularity of having narrow legs, meaning that only a limited surface was in direct contact with the pods. Our perception of vibrations was thus limited due to their dissipation through the floor and the pods? limited contact with the couch. However, we were able to feel the vibrations with both music and movies.
Immersit Vibes: conclusions
As is often the case with tactile transducers, it is strongly recommended to use the SUB output of a home cinema receiver and, if possible, to configure it so that it only handles the LFE part of soundtracks (set all speakers as LARGE). In these conditions, the vibrations are punctual and properly highlight the action. If a home cinema receiver is set up so that the SUB output reproduces the low frequencies coming from the left, right, center, and surround channels, the Immersit Vibes will constantly vibrate, which could become tiresome. A similar issue arises when using the optical output of a TV (or any other source), as the transducers will constantly vibrate. Once again, this could be tiresome for some or fun for others. The Immersit Vibes? performance makes it, according to us, an ideal device for those looking for low-key vibrations. Preferably paired up with a couch with wide feet on a tile floor. In such a configuration, the motion-enhanced cinema experience is optimal.
What we liked: the simplicity of use, the compact components.
We would have liked: a remote control to easily adjust the level of vibrations
