So what exactly makes this an Ultimate Gaming chair? It has 2 flush built in speakers located on top of the backrest, 12 rumble motors, volume controls, led lighting and a “massage” mode.  The speakers and audio quality in general definitely need some work though it’s unfortunate because everything else is fantastic. To get audio to the chair you need to hook up your device via the provided RCA audio adapter which means no digital signal. Here’s the first problem for me at least. I use a nice 7.1 lossless surround system and it’ll be difficult to switch from that to a 2 channel RCA connection. I thought I would use both my surround sound and chair speakers in conjunction to give my ears a real treat. It worked, sort of. I tried for at least 20 minutes but currently the PS3 has no way to output audio via HDMI / Optical and RCA at the same time as you can only choose one audio output, unless you have a RCA 3 way splitter (which  I don’t have) your out of luck getting dual audio on your Wii as well. So I went RCA only and tested my favorite PS3 games Uncharted and Gran Turismo 5: Prologue to see how the audio stacked up. I’m sure it’s for cost saving measures but using an RCA connection really degrades the sound quality. There is plenty of crackling and hissing and seeing you’re so close to the speakers it stands out. In a game that has an incredible DTS surround track like Uncharted the downgrade to a 2-channel setup especially when all the audio is coming from behind me is underwhelming to say the least.
 
Time to focus on where the Renegade chair excels the rumbling and bass this chair creates is awesome. If you’re in my situation, use your surround speakers, turn the chair volume off and turn the rumble motors all the way up! It’s made for a racing game like Gran Turismo 5: Prologue seeing that it is practically a car seat. You feel every bump in the road, every up shift and any type of tactile feedback. With a good racing wheel like Logitech G25 the whole experience comes together very nicely.

The PS3 can’t output over two sources but my fortunately my 360 can. So I tried it out with the Transformers HD DVD with my 7.1 system for example, the volume on the chair speakers were off and the motors at full power the combination of my surround sound and chair definitely made the experience even better. The minor gripe is that the rumble given off by the 12 powerful motors is naturally dependant on the bass frequencies in the source material. When playing PGR4 my seat would rumble with the bumps and grooves in the road but it would also go nuts with the music. Naturally this isn’t always an issue but the music in your source material has a big effect on the motors.