Simvibe amp

Hi guys,

This has probable been bought up a million times on here, but I just can't make any clear sense over what I need - I knew I should have licensed in Science lessons at school....

I have a rig all set up and have had a pair of these given to me - http://www.conrad-electronic.co.uk/...ive-130-mm-80-W-Sinuslive-8-?ref=searchDetail - I have the simvibe software in preparation, but I can not make sense of what sort of amplifier I need to make it all work (Watts, Amps Ohms etc?!?) - With 2, I was thinking having simvibe in chassis mode with one acting as left and the other as right.

Any help on finding the right amplifier for this along with how to wire everything would be a great help!
 
For two 50W shakers at 8omhs each a 150-200 Watt amp should be fine. But you'll need to pay close attention to the output related to omhs. For instance, the 250W Dayton amp (link at the bottom) is rated for 252W RMS at 4 ohms but 153W at 8 ohms. Here's an example I pulled from this site:

Suppose the impedance of your speaker is 4 ohms, and its Continuous Power Handling (RMS) is 100 W. If you are playing light dance music, the amplifier's 4-ohm power should be 1.6 x 100 W or 160 W continuous per channel. To handle heavy metal/grunge, the amplifier's 4-ohm power should be 2.5 x 100 W or 250 W continuous per channel.

If you want to add more shakers in the future things can get hairy. If you think you'll want to, I'd recommend getting an amp that has multiple output channels so you can differentiate vibration zones (each tire, gear shift, etc) and keep things simple. You may be tempted by home theater systems but they are meant to work with regular speakers and not tactile transducers. Something like a studio amp could work. Not to jump forums but these guys cover a lot of useful information on the subject.

Alternately, you can run shakers in parallel or series. But the down side is you don't get that individual zone vibration/feedback. This page and this page have some very useful and concise information on the subject of parallel and series circuit wiring for audio specifically.

As an example, I have 4 Aura shakers (50W RMS 75W peak) in my home theater set up on a 250W Daytona amp. Split into two series (one for each channel) and they shake like mad. I can't go more than 3/4 amp volume or it will overheat and kick off. Maybe because I've actually got 16 ohms on the system (4 ohms/shaker = 8 ohms/series + 2 series = 16 ohms?) but I don't know if the amp treats the outputs as a series or controls them from two separate internal amps. Or it might be that the RMS wattage is actually 150W RMS for the entire system and each shaker is only able to receive around 35-40 W. In either case it's like a little kid trying to suck a Frosty through straw. But the amp is great and like I said, it shakes!

Hopefully this helps...someone.
 
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Thanks for this Tnadz. Makes sense but cant seem to find anything that fits the bill? Dont spose younor anyone else could find me an exact model that would work? Im pretty scared of cocking this up!
 
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Well, if it's ONLY going to be two drivers (two bass shakers) the Daytona amp I mentioned will work pretty well. If it's too expensive for you, there might be something else around that could work. What's your budget like?
 
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Price isn't a big issue. That Dayton one looks good but im from the UK and would rather buy from the uk (Dayton stuff is very tricky to source at a decent price here it seems) - just a few alternatives would be fab and I can see what sort of availability there is here!
 
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Well, I'm not too versed with the market from across the pond but just doing a quick Amazon search I found this comparable amp. It's rated for 250 Watts per channel at 4 ohms, like the Dayton but I don't see any rating at 8. Chances are you'd see a similar drop to around 150 W which is still nearly double the max load you'd get on either shaker. That one may even be overkill but you'd always have power and never overheat. You'd also be more than fine with this guy for about 20 quid less.

The only issues you might run into are converting the line out from your computer to the amp. If you look at those pics, those amps both take phono cables (as most will). But there are plenty of 3.5mm to Phono plugs, cords and connectors out there on the cheap or whatever your audio out is.
 
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