Human Touch HT-1650 AcuTouch Massage Chair Review

HT-1650 Build Quality and Use

Home theater chairs are the finishing polish on a room that really makes an impact. While a good audio and video system is imperative to a quality experience, having a good set of leather chairs will really make a big splash on your guests. They really differentiate the dedicated theaters from those who simply shove a bunch of gear into a room. For the do-it-yourselfer, shopping for home theater chairs can be an exercise in getting the best bang for the buck. Those building a high-end dedicated room from scratch, however, are faced with so many options that it can take a lot of time and consideration to find just the right model. Since some of these premier chairs can run upwards of $3500 each, we've found another option that we feel should be tossed into the mix: massage chairs. To test out our theory, we received a high-end massage chair from Human Touch and set about evaluating it for use in a home theater setting.

Human Touch has been in the massage chair business for nearly thirty years and claims the highest market share of sales in that category for the US. While we reviewed the Elite series HT-1650 massage chair (which represents the very best the company has to offer), Human Touch also provides many other options, including models that feature cup holders and various colors and form factors. The real question remains: can (and should) a massage chair make for a better choice in a home theater room? We think it's a viable option, and one that many users would be remiss in ignoring.

Leather and All the Trimmings

The Human Touch HT-1650 is a full-size massage chair that has an elegant and classic look. It features top-grain leather, with leather match on areas not touching the body. A beautifully finished hardwood trim adorns the base of the chair. The chair's main body area features a mix of leather and fabric, to allow a vigorous Robotic Massage that includes neck and shoulder areas. Dual-lumbar heat provides warmth during massage - and excellent feature for sore muscles. What sets this chair apart from others is its full-sized built-in foot and calf massager that can retract completely into the chair when not used. Flip it over 180 degrees and you get a leg rest that can be used when not being massaged. Underneath your thighs, an air impulse massager fires off 8 different points into the seat which makes for an incredible full-body massage.

The chair weighs a hefty 245 pounds and came delivered in full recline position with a thick cardboard box surround. The chair came in on a truck and the delivery company brought it into my home and removed all of the packaging. The chair is available in black and dark chocolate top-grain leather (we received the latter version). Once unpacked and delivered it was merely a matter of unpacking the user manual and power cable to get it ready. We plugged it into the wall and turned it on.

Using the Chair

There is a blue LED that lights up when you turn the chair on with the rear rocker switch. We left it on all the time since the chair automatically goes into shutdown once a program completes or the massage time reaches the maximum 15 minute cycle. The rear of the chair also features an accessory or convenience outlet that is rated to 1A with a fuse. We enjoyed using the chair as a "home base" while working on the laptop. In fact, we worked on much of this review while sitting in the chair. The other part of the electronics control system is the remote control, which is a tethered device which has buttons on the top and left sides. We felt it a good decision to go with a wired remote since a wireless product would most likely get lost in no time - something that would be tragic with a chair featuring no on-board hard controls. The remote is daunting at first, until you get a handle on the controls and what each function does. The basic breakdown is that there are a set of automatic program modes as well as manual controls for each aspect of the chair.

The Human Touch HT-1650 has an Acupoint Detection System (with a cool voice prompt) that supposedly adjusts the massage to your body. We could never tell exactly what the AcuPoint system was doing, but since we typically received a decent massage we'll assume it's got all sorts of magical goodness. Once engaged, the quad massage robot can deliver anything from a vigorous to a relaxing massage. The preprogrammed settings are designed to take you through several periods of various massage techniques - and each is outlined in the user manual. My favorite was the Night Time Soothing mode which really loosened me up. In terms of the automatic Program massage modes, the chair has the ability to massage your body in the following way (and the mode names are shown on the backside of the remote control):

• Full body sore muscle relief
  This ultimate stress relief program involved a heated full-body massage that included a 3-minute warm up, 9 minutes of high-intensity massage, and a 3-minute cool down. This mode actually spent a lot of time (for me at least) running the massage wheels over my shoulder blades - a particular annoyance I preferred to avoid.
• Sports back therapy
  Focusing on areas most often affected by athletic training and back, this heated back/calf/foot massage included a 3-minute warm up, 9 minutes of high-intensity massage, and a 3-minute cool down. It was a nice mode that favored the lower body.
• Leg foot hip therapy massage
  This program was seemingly designed to concentrate on massaging your rear leg muscles, calves and feet and maintained its intensity from start to finish.
• Neck shoulder relief
  This heated upper-back massage included a 3-minute warm up, 9 minutes of high-intensity massage, and a 3-minute cool down. It was nice to have a mode dedicated to the neck and shoulders and this one got a lot of use in our home.
• After work stretch
  A heated mid/lower-back massage plus a gentle body stretch included 3-minutes of warm up, 9 minutes of medium-intensity massage, and a 3-minute cool down. This mode seemed a bit underpowered since the chair was not designed to do a full inversion.
• Morning wake up
  The morning program could be used at any time, but involved a heated full-body massage program includes a 3-minute warm up, 9 minutes of medium-intensity massage, and a 3-minute cool down. It's an ideal program when you don't want anything terribly rigorous.
• Night time soothing
  This gentle and relaxing mode was one of my favorites for guests trying out the chair. It combined a heat with a full-body massage and included a 3-minute warm up, 9 minutes of low-intensity massage, and a 3-minute cool down. If there was one mode that got the most use, this was it.
• Massage demonstration
  The demo mode gave a nice overview of all different types of massage techniques. I used this on guests quite a bit as it did a good job of demoing the chair's full capabilities.

For manual modes, the chair can provide a rolling massage, kneading, percussion, kneading & percussion, compression and heat. The seat's air impulse massager fires air into bags located underneath your thighs for a rather unique, but pleasing, experience. And the feet… calves and feet have never felt this good and we were completely blown away by how comfortable the HT-1650 made our legs feel. The chair massaged our calves in an upward, progressive motion. This was designed to force blood away from the feet and allow new (revitalized) blood to re-enter the lower extremities. While this goes on a separate set of vibrating nodes affect the feet, enhancing circulation and leaving you with a feeling of complete relaxation.

Since the remote allows both pinpoint targeting of the robotic mechanism and a "Zone" massage, it was possible to target very specific areas with particular massage methods and get the most out of this chair. Even in manual modes the chair sets a 15 minute limit, though if you change into a preset mode or stop and re-start, the timer will reset as needed.

HT-1650 Home Theater Application and Conclusion

One thing that we really liked about the Human Touch HT-1650 was its variable height settings. The chair provides three different height settings that will vary the top-end positioning of the robotic massage unit for neck and shoulder massage. This is extremely important as a person who is 5' 6" and another who is 6' 6" are going to have a hard time using the same massage path for their needs. What I quickly discovered about the HT-1650 was that the chair could also be inclined to allow for "in-between" height positions that didn't necessarily fit to the three height settings provided. We weren't making up numbers when we gave the height ranges above. We had lots of people come through to try out the chair and it accommodated the entire range. The only person left partially out of the fun was a wonderful neighbor who is only about 5' 2" tall. She was unable to fit her legs fully into the calf massager and still get her back into the corner of the chair for a massage. In situations like that we simply flipped the foot and calf massage system over into a standard leg rest.

The Home Theater Experience

We could easily envision placing several of these chairs side-by-side in a room. In fact, with a larger custom theater room it would make all the sense in the world to provide a nice massage during the previews which often fill up the first 15 minutes of a new Blu-ray movie. I mean, that's just the perfect amount of time for a full massage cycle, isn't it? We used the Human Touch HT-1650 Massage Chair in one of our theater rooms and found the noise levels to be far above what we'd want during an actual screening, however (with the arm massage mode off) it was indeed quiet enough to use the chair during the non-critical previews section of each disc. In addition, the motorized recline, leather head pillow, and retractable foot rest made this chair quite a bit more comfortable than my entry-level Berklines. One thing Human Touch could add to its collection would be a modified version of the HT-1650 which provided a shorter back to allow better sound transmission from the surround speakers to your ears. It would also do better to allow for multi-row seating configurations. Another nice option would be for the massage chairs to be purchase in groupings of 2, 3 and 4 chairs in preconfigured straight or arced arrangements. That might be wishful thinking, but I see a market that's just waiting to be tapped into.

Conclusion

Human Touch has delivered the very best it has to offer in the HT-1650 Massage Chair. Its versatile programming and convenient automatic massage programs make this one of the easiest-to-use, and also the most customizable massage chairs for the money. Putting those two attributes together isn't easy and means high praise in a very competitive market. We'd love to see Human Touch and others enter the home theater and custom A/V installation market with chairs well-suited for the needs of retailers and designers. As audio and video components evolve into more sophisticated products, why should home theater seating be any different? It's time consumers demand more from their chairs than motorized recline mechanisms. It's time for a massage chair revolution!

Human Touch HT-1650 AcuTouch Massage Chair
$3999

Human Touch
3030 Walnut Ave.
Long Beach, CA 90807
(800) 742-5493
www.humantouch.com

About Human Touch
Human Touch is the leading provider of high quality innovative lifestyle products and experiences that deliver indispensable, life changing benefits to an ever growing number of consumers.

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

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Metric	Rating
Performance
Build Quality
Ergonomics & Usability
Ease of Setup/Programming/Integration
Features
Remote Control
Fit and Finish
Performance
Value