Posts Tagged ‘sanyo 8700’

Osaki 6000 Massage Chair Review (Part 1)

Thursday, January 12th, 2012

Some Thoughts and Pics of the Osaki 6000 Massage Chair (Part 1)

We’ve had the Osaki 6000 massage chair in our showroom for over a week now and I have some initial observations I thought I would share with you about my experience with the chair:

1. The Massage Chair Design

It is a very nice, trendy looking massage chair with great “lines” (as we’d say about a car). Their design is what I consider a

Osaki 6000 Massage Chair

Osaki 6000 Massage Chair

knock-off design of the very famous and popular Inada Sogno massage chair, but a very nice and maybe even better looking design than the Sogno. I have the black model that also has silver accent stripes on the outside of each armrest. It is made of a synthetic material (faux leather, if you want to sound hip!)

Within the silver stripes, towards the back of the chair, LED lighting is blended within the stripes. The lights are blue and look fantastic and quite stylish. I haven’t used the chair in a dark room yet to see how the blue LED lights look that way, but the integration of the lights within the design of the chair is pretty cool.

2. Music System

I love the ease of use of the music system. The Omega Montage massage chairs had a jump drive that was included with the chair. You could download music to the jump drive and then plug it into a USB port at the back of the chair. With the Osaki 6000 massage chair, you have a simple plug as part of the remote control pedestal that plugs into your cell phone or iPod.

You can pick and choose your music and listen to what you want. You just pick your music as you would any other time from your

Music speaker

Music speaker (click to enlarge)

phone or mp3 player but now the music is getting pumped through a two-speaker system built into the shoulder airbag pieces. Now you can listen to your music in stereo while you are getting a great massage.

The music system also includes a “Music Synch” program that coordinates and synchronizes the chair massage to the beat of your music! Pretty cool stuff, actually.

3. 30″ Vertical Roller Track

I love the extra long vertical massage roller track; the rollers go way down in to the gluteal muscles thus providing a massage in the sacral area (the area just above the butt-crack, if you’ll pardon my vernacular!). Most chairs don’t go down there, except for the Inada Sogno, Inada Doctor’s Choice, and Sanyo 7700 and 8700 models. Those chairs are all priced considerably higher than the Osaki 6000 massage chair.

The drawback with a longer vertical track, if you want to call it a drawback, is that the rollers go so low into the back but at the opposite end of the spine, the rollers don’t go up real high in the neck. Like the Inada  Sogno massage chair, the head piece of the Osaki 6000 provides an airbag compression massage to the neck. Unlike the Inada Sogno, which actually provides a kneading massage with those airbags, the neck massage in the Osaki 6000 is really just some pretty mild compression by the airbags.

If you want to get a neck massage using the rollers, you can just lift the head piece up and over the back of the chair and set the rollers manually to go up to the neck muscles. If you are a taller body, then you may have to slide down the chair a bit and recline the chair back all the way to get the rollers to hit the neck muscles.

I had a couple come in last week to try the Osaki 6000 in comparison to the Inada Sogno. The husband was 6’2″ and the wife was 5’7″. Both had to slide down the chair a bit to get an optimal neck massage from the rollers. A little bit of an inconvenience.

The intensity of the rollers can be adjusted from the remote control. I like  an intense roller massage so I put the rollers on full-blast. I was quite happy with the massage and the intensity thereof.

4. Seat, Thigh, Calf & Foot Massage

The chair utilizes 51 airbags (vs.  32 in the Osaki 4000 massage chair) and a good portion of those

Thigh & Arm Airbags

Thigh & Arm Airbags (click to enlarge)

airbags are found in the lower body. They provide good airbag compression massage in those areas, no difference really compared to other chairs with airbags in the same areas. I love that you can adjust the intensity of the airbags to your comfort level.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this review. I will post it this weekend for your reading enjoyment.

Dr. Alan Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com

 

Massage Chair Questions From A Massage-Chair-Relief.com Shopper!

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

I received a great email from a visitor to our site…obviously someone who has been doing their massage chair homework. Below is their email to me followed by my response to them:

“Wanted to hear your thoughts. I have been struggling with for the last 6 months to try and make a chair selection. The issue I continue to run into is that there aren’t places in my area to try all the chairs.

The basics -
Details: Myself – 5’10, wife 5’6
Issues: Myself – C4 bulging disk, straight neck spine, slight curvature at base of spine. Regular discomfort usually located behind shoulder blades or in neck. Occasional issues with lower back. I do see a chiropractor.
My wife: Slight issues with hip (stiffness) and problems with circulation in legs and feet.
What we have sat in: Inada Dreamwave, Sanyo 8700DRK, Human Touch (most of them), Panasonic EP-MA51KU, Osim Ucomfort, Osim uAstro
Favorites (Mine): 8700DRK and Dreamwave. In particular, I really like the 3D massage. My issues is whether 3D is truly worth the cost variation. I am more about utility – what will truly be theraputic and helpful. Taking a step down I did like HT-7450. Didn’t like the other Human touch chairs. Was ok with Panasonic.
Favorites (Wife): Osom Ucomfort. Liked Sanyo and Inada. Others were “ok”. Didn’t really notice 3D.

In general we both like the 5 year warranties. I have been coming back to the Elite Optima – but really unsure since I can’t sit in the thing. Do you have thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks, Robert”

Dr. Weidner’s response:

“Hello, Robert
Since I didn’t hear from you via phone, I figured I’d write up as much as I could for you to answer your inquiries.

It sounds like you have tried most of the better chairs. Your height and your wife’s height does not preclude you from any chair model, actually. If you were over 6 feet tall, that would affect some model recommendations. I would suggest the Sanyo 7700 over the 8700 since the price differential is $1000 and the 8700 is much like the 7700 but for folks over 6′.

Your spine sounds like you need a massage chair…that’s for sure. I can pretty much promise you that you will get a tremendous amount of relief from a massage chair, especially if you use it daily. Here are some thoughts about the chairs you mention and the conditions you suffer from:

1. if your wife suffers from poor circulation in calves and feet, then I would probably suggest a chair with both foot and calf massage. The Human Touch chairs, for the most part, do not have a foot massage feature…only calf massage (unless you go to the HT-9500 or HT-5320).

2. I think it is safe to say that all massage chair models massage the the mid back (thoracic) region quite well. If you want a chair that massages “way down” into the low back, i.e. the top of the butt/sacrum, then I would suggest an Inada chair or a Sanyo chair. Human Touch chairs typically only go down to the belt line.

3. For the neck and shoulders, all models are pretty good. The Inada Sogno has a cervical traction device which uses air bags to traction your neck and massage it. You can lift the cervical traction device off and let rollers work your neck and shoulders, too, if you so choose. The cervical traction device and the dreamwave technology in the seat of the Inada Sogno are incredible features, unduplicated by any other manufacturer at this point. From my perspective as a chiropractor, I must say that I absolutely love those two features of the Inada Sogno chair. There is great therapeutic value in them.

4. I don’t know much about the Panasonic MA51, other than what I have read about it. You know more about the feel of the chair than I do. I’d love to hear from you what your opinion of it is. Panasonic’s are traditionally well built chairs that are not great for taller folks. Your height, again, is perfect for any manufacturer’s chair, including Panasonic.

5. I have sat in the OSIM chairs and they are a typical, generic Chinese-made chair. Nothing out of the ordinary. I would have to classify the Elite chair the same way, though I have never actually sat in one. Feedback from clients is that it is also a typical Chinese-made chair. I have also heard from other shoppers and clients that the customer support for the OSIM and Elite chairs is questionable, based on either their personal experience or what they have found through their research on the web.

6. The uAstro chair by OSIM is a copycat look-alike of the Inada Sogno body appearance, but it is nothing like the Sogno in feature and function. The Inada Sogno is a very unique chair that does feel quite different than other traditional massage chairs.

In our business, the Inada Sogno is the most popular-selling chair, for what it’s worth. I have written quite a bit on my blog about the Sogno, the Panasonic 30007, and the Sanyo 7700, including some comparisons between the chairs. Please go to my website, www.massage-chair-relief.com, and do a search for any of those models and you’ll find a lot of info. For example, here are 3 blog posts comparing the Inada Sogno to the Sanyo 8700:

http://www.massage-chair-relief.com/blog/general/inada-sogno-massage-chair-vs-new-sanyo-8700-massage-chair-part-i/

http://www.massage-chair-relief.com/blog/general/inada-sogno-massage-chair-vs-new-sanyo-8700-massage-chair-part-ii/

http://www.massage-chair-relief.com/blog/general/part-iii-inada-sogno-massage-chair-vs-new-sanyo-8700-massage-chair/

I hope this input helps in some way. Please feel free to call me anytime on my personal cell number, 801-651-2026, and I’ll be happy to chat about any of the models you are interested in.

Dr. Alan Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com

New Sanyo 8700 Massage Chair!!

Monday, December 21st, 2009

I just found out from a client (it seems I always get the news 2nd hand) that Sanyo has a new model called the 8700 massage chair. I didn’t believe him, so I called my Sanyo rep and, sure enough, 3 weeks ago Sanyo launched this new model. It is in the same family as the 6700 and 7700 massage chairs, but has some upgrades. Here is what I got:

  1. The ottoman extends 8″ instead of 6″ – to make it comfortable for folks up to 6’4″ tall.
  2. The GK roller “balls” are larger on the 8700 than on the 6700/7700 models. This lends to a more gentle roller feel….less of a “shiatsu” feel. This client told me that it is a more comfortable massage than the 6700/7700 roller “balls”.
  3. The foot and calf mechanism is two pieces as opposed to the one piece on the 7700.
  4. 3 zero gravity positions vs 1 or 2 zero gravity positions.
  5. On top of the regular pulse, perspiration, and temperature sensor that the 7700 has, the 8700 massage chair now has a “stress” sensor to measure “mental fatigue” (I have no idea how they measure that, but I am very curious to find out).

The price point is $5999.

We will have this chair on the website by next week, but you can call us anytime for more information or place the order.

Dr. Alan Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com