TES100 Stereo Tactile Motion System and A300 Integrated Stereo Effects Amplifier

Although subwoofers bring realistic bass sound to the home theater environment, there is still something missing - tactile motion sensation. In the real world, when something explodes, you feel it, not just hear it; when you drive a car over a bumpy road, you feel the bumps, not just hear the result. Now you can add tactile experience to your own home theater with the TES100 Stereo Motion Effects System and the A300 Integrated Stereo Motion Amplifier from Crowson Technology.

TES100 Linear Actuator Features

1. The TES100 Motion System includes two TES100 Linear Actuators, 5.7 inches long (including speaker terminals), 4.8 inches wide, and 1.1 inches high. The TES100 which also comes with two Motion Isolators for attaching to furniture support feet. The system configuration used for this review allows for Stereo Motion Effects reproduction in combination with the A300 Integrated Stereo Motion Amplifier.

2. The TES100 Actuator's weight is 3.5 lbs. Maximum load that the TES100 Stereo Motion System can be placed under is 1,000 lbs.

3. The TES100 Actuator connects to an amplifier via standard 18-to-10 gauge speaker wire and has nominal impedance of 6 ohms.

4. Minimum amplifier output power recommended for use with the TES100 is 50 Watts RMS. Maximum amplifier output power recommended is 500 watts RMS.

5. The frequency response of TES100 goes from 600HZ down to 1HZ.

Product Overview - A300 Amplifier

A300 Integrated Stereo Motion Amplifier Features

1. The A300 amplifier is a 2-channel amplifier that is specially designed for use with subwoofers and linear actuators.

2. Power output in 2-Channel Operating mode is 150 Watts per Channel RMS at 6 Ohms. Power output in bridged mode (1 Channel Operation) is 300 Watts RMS at 6 Ohms. (Note: To use bridged mode, connect speaker wires to the two + terminals and use the channel one inputs from the source component).

3. A Volume Control allows the user to adjust the degree of the tactile motion effect.

4. The A300 utilizes standard RCA input connections for both the left and right channel and LFE (low frequency effects - from the subwoofer channel).

5. The A300 has a frequency response from 2HZ to 600HZ +/- 3 db, and features a variable 600Hz to 20Hz low pass filter.

Linear Direct Drive - The Technology Behind The TES100

The key technology employed in the TES100 is Linear Direct-Drive.

Instead of vibrating air, like a subwoofer, or employing a piston that vibrates inside housing that indirectly transfers the shaking sensation to a chair, such as a bass shaker (both of which take of energy), Linear Direct Drive transfers sonic low frequency motion effects directly through the chair itself via its feet, which is similar to techniques used in direct hearing via human bone conduction.

If someone is sitting in the chair, they will feel the direct effect of the linear drive process on their body. This method requires much less energy to produce motion effects than other methods, thus enabling a more dynamic effect with faster response times. In other words, the TES100 can capture the subtle motion vibrations of a car driving on a country road to the big boom of an atomic bomb explosion.

Setup and Connection of TES100 Actuators

The TES100 was installed by connecting the actuator plates to the stereo speaker connections A300 amplifier, via standard speaker wire, and then placing the actuator plates under the right and left rear supports at the foot of a chair. In addition, two Motion Isolators are placed under the chair's other support feet. This serves to isolate the motion vibrations, so that they only goe to the chair and not the rest of the floor, as well as securing the chair so that it does not move off the linear actuator plates. As a side note, you can use a chair or a couch with the Linear Actuators and the Motion Isolators.

Connecting the A300 Integrated Stereo Motion Amplifier

The supplied user manual for the A300 has excellent illustrations on how to connect the TES100 Actuator plates to the A300 Integrated Stereo Motion Amplifier, and is very self explanatory. You simply connect the speaker terminals on the actuator plates to the left or right channel speaker connections on the A300, in the same way you would connect loudspeakers.

You can then connect your DVD player or AV receiver to the Left, Right, and LFE inputs on the A300. One way is to connect the left and right preamp outputs and your subwoofer output to the A300.

Here is the configuration that worked well for me. What I did was connect the digital audio output of a DVD player to the Yamaha HTR-5490 AV receiver, or Outlaw Audio Model 950 Preamp, in the normal fashion. Then, I also connected the stereo analog outputs of the DVD player to the stereo analog inputs on the A300 - this gave me a two-channel mixed audio output from the DVD player to the A300. In addition, I connected the Subwoofer output of my AV receiver or preamp to the LFE input on the A300, and then connected the LFE output of the A300 to the standard subwoofer I used.

Setup Clarification From Crowson Technology

When confirming my setup with John Yi of Crowson Technology - he indicated that, although my setup does work, he further advised the following: "Generally, we don't recommend mixing a fixed (audio) output with a variable (audio) output. We would recommend, using all the variable outputs from the receiver pre-outs, or alternatively, using the fixed (audio) outputs off the DVD player (if it allows the use of both the L,R, and LFE outs to the A300 at the same time as the optical or other connector to the Receiver). Using Fixed (audio) outputs will not allow your receiver volume control to act as a "master volume" that will include the TES100 output level" .

This clarification from John Yi, of Crowson Technology, is very practical and welcome advice for potential users of this system.

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