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.