Massage Chair Industry Update – May 11, 2018 (Video)

May 12, 2018
 By Allison Bricker
May 12, 2018
 By Allison Bricker

Massage Chair Industry Update – May 11, 2018 (Video)


Transcript of Video Titled “Massage Chair Industry Update – May 11, 2018”

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Alan: Hi, I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com’ and today is our biweekly massage chair industry update for Friday, May 11th, 2018. This one will be a short one today, not a tremendous amount of things to talk about, but we do have a couple of new models that we have up on the website. One has been around a while.

[SCREEN TEXT: New Models: Ogawa Active L & Osaki Maestro]

Alan: It’s the Ogawa Active L massage chair. I’ve just been slow to get it up on the website, but it is another L-track, non-3D L-track. Ogawa had the Active SuperTrac a couple of years ago, and when we first opened our California store we introduced that chair to our customers, and this does not have the SuperTrac, it has a little bit longer L-track, and it’s got a good feature set for the price point. Also, the new Osaki Maestro is out, and that chair is another one of the high – what we consider the high-end 3D L-track chairs – 3D meaning that you can adjust the depth of the rollers, to go in or out, to dig in more or dig in less in to the back of the user. And L-track means that the rollers come down the back, following the S-shape of the curve, and then go underneath the seat in an L-shape, that is an L-track.

[SCREEN TEXT: SL-Track vs. L-Track]

Alan: Now, a lot of companies try to say they have an SL-track chair, as though to insinuate that an SL-track chair is different from an L-track chair, but they are basically the same chair. All L-track chairs that I’m aware of have an S-track, an S-track that follows the curve of the spine down the back, and then the L-track continues on underneath the seat. So, all L-track chairs have an S-track in it, so really, all L-track chairs are also SL-track chairs, so I hope that made sense and I didn’t confuse you. But anyway, the Maestro is a new model, and it is created in the same factory that the Cozzia chairs, and the Ogawa chairs are made in, in Xhao Ming, China, and the factory’s called Eastpau, and you will see some similarities in that chair, like the stitching. The first thing that made me think it was from that factory was the stitching on the chair back. It’s very similar to the Qi SE, and to the Cozzia Qi SE, and the Cozzia Qi. So, the Maestro, you might look at the Maestro as a kind of an upgrade, perhaps, from the Qi SE, but probably similar in a lot of the features. It’s kind of like the Novo XT from Human Touch, and the Osaki Ekon, they’re made in the same factory in China as well, and they have some similarities in the remote control. The feel of the chairs is different, I suspect they use different roller mechanisms, and different, you know, other programming features, but essentially, they’re made with the same, they’re made in the same factory. So, there are a lot of similarities between the chairs, the Maestro and the Cozzia Qi chairs, and also, to a less extent, the Ogawa chairs because Ogawa doesn’t have a high-end 3D L-track chair yet, but Cozzia does, and it’s similar, it looks and probably feels similar to the Maestro, this new Maestro. It’s priced at $8999, it’s a higher-priced chair, but it looks like a beautiful chair. We just ordered one last week, it’s at the showroom, or being delivered to our California showroom today. We should have that chair up and running later today, and on the next update, I should have a little bit more information for you on the Maestro.

[SCREEN TEXT: Osaki Maestro Features]

Alan: Some of the features of it are, let’s see, it’s got, oh, it has iPhone and Android apps that you can download to operate the chair from your phone. It’s got heated massage rollers, so that’s a feature we don’t see a lot of. The Panasonic MA70 and MA73 have that feature as well as the, now the new Infinity Presidential, and now the Osaki Maestro has it as well. It’s a space saver, it’s got Bluetooth, 30 airbags, it’s got some quick keys on the side of the armrest, so you don’t have to lift up – you know, sometimes when you’re sitting in a massage chair and you’re relaxing, the last thing you want to do is have to go, grab the remote, bring it up, look at it, take your arms out of the arm airbags, and adjust whatever you want to adjust – but now you can do a lot of the adjusting from these little quick keys that are on the side of the armrest. This is not a unique feature, this is something that we’ve seen before with other massage chairs through, like the Johnson, so the Johnson chairs have that, the Ogawa Smart 3D has that. So, quick keys are nothing absolutely new, but it is a pretty interesting feature. Oh, the Lohas, the uKnead Lohas has it as well. Let’s see, it also has calf kneading, so like the Osaki Ekon, the airbags in the calves inflate, and so they compress, but they also knead, and that really adds kind of a cool feeling to the calf massage, it’s really quite neat. The first time we saw that one was in the Inada YuMe. That chair has since been discontinued, but now this kneading feature is available on the Ekon, and, the Osaki Ekon, and now the Osaki Maestro. So, anyway, the Maestro, we’re excited to see how it feels, it’s a nice-looking chair, we’ll have, like I say, we’ll have it up in the showroom this week, or today, and hopefully soon have some good feedback on it.

[SCREEN TEXT: Infinity Presidential Price Drop to $7995]

Alan: The Presidential price, by the way, the Infinity Presidential price, which I just alluded to earlier, that chair, the price has been dropped from $8495 down to $7995, and also the Maxim is on sale for $2899. It’s usually $3299, that sale ends, I believe, on the 18th, and so that chair has a sale as well.

[SCREEN TEXT: New Article: Luraco iRobotics 7 vs. Luraco Legend]

Alan: And then, finally, I wrote, I just wrote an article on my blog, I haven’t written, you know, done a lot of writing lately. Of course, we’ve done video recordings and whatnot, but I’ve been a little, I’ve slacked off a bit on the writing. I’ve got a crazy schedule, but no excuses, I should be writing more reviews and whatnot, which will come forth in subsequent weeks. But I wrote an article comparing the iRobotics 7 from Luraco to its new Legend L-track chair, and they look similar on the outside, but there are quite – and there are some similarities, like they’re both very quiet chairs, they’re both, you know, US – all the electronics, and the software, and hardware are made in the US, non-critical components imported from Taiwan. The remote control has a similar touchscreen interface, you know, so, and it has the same three-year parts-and-labor warranty, with two more years of parts warranty on both of them. So, there are a lot of similarities, but there are some differences, and I go over the differences in the article. So, you can check that out on my blog, and I might just add that if you’re looking for a really intense chair, or if you’re looking for an L-track that has an intensity equal to the iRobotics 7, you won’t find it in the Legend. As a matter of fact, I don’t think you’ll really find it in any L-track chair.

[SCREEN TEXT: Dual Rollers vs. Quad Rollers]

Alan: The dual rollers of the iRobotics 7 dig in deep, and I think I explained this once before, quad rollers, you have the massage force coming through the massage arms, and that energy is dispersed through four heads. When you have dual heads, all of the energy from that massage arm goes through two heads, and so when you have more energy, the same energy dispersed through less contact points, those contact points are going to have a more intense pressure in to the spine. And I would say that that dual roller on the iRobotics 7 is quite intense, and digs in, and the Legend is not like that. The Legend is a quad roller, so it’s not, you’re not going to get – when I say quad roller, I don’t mean massaging your quads – someone asked me about it once, and I didn’t even realize it. We get so used to using lingo in our profession that we don’t realize that what is second nature to us is a completely new term to a customer. So, what is quad rollers? Does it massage the quads of my legs? No, it’s four rollers, 3D, like a lot of people – oh, that’s another thing, the Maestro boasts a 4D feature, and of course, I have opinions on 4D, I think it’s kind of just a marketing term because we really don’t have – for the every day layman, a quantifiable fourth dimension. We have three dimensions, an x, y, and z axes, and the fourth dimension that a lot of these chairs allude to, and the 4D alludes to the speed and rhythm of the rollers, so and pretty much all 3D chairs have roller speed adjustment, so pretty much all 3D chairs are 4D, but that’s just an aside on the term 4D. But anyway, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, the Legend, oh, the dual rollers also are available on like the, on the Johnson Wellness chairs, I believe, and they’re also on the Ogawa Smart 3D, and the Touch 3D, I think they are also dual rollers. So, if you want intense massages, where they really dig in, those chairs would give you that, and but anyway, just thought I would chitchat a little bit about that. So, check out the article if you’re interested in it on my blog. We still have that Japanese-made chair with foot rollers that we’re waiting on, the Panasonic MAJ7 has the foot rollers, but we’re not privy to selling that chair yet, and I don’t really know how, I don’t know anything much about it. I sat on it at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, I don’t know how popular it is, if it is popular, I don’t know, I think the price point was $9995. I don’t know if the market bears that price point for, it’s basically an upgraded MA73 from Panasonic, with foot rollers, and a few other programming issues. So, is it worth, you know, $2500, or $3000 more, or $2000 more, I don’t know. We’re not privy to selling that chair at this point, so I can’t really tell you. But this other one that’s, I think it’s supposed to come out in June, from this other company, and I can’t divulge that information, they’ve asked me not to, but that chair will be a Japanese, an 100% Japanese-made L-track chair, with foot rollers. And remember, the Japanese don’t make chairs with foot rollers, or L-tracks, for that matter, so even though the quality of the Japanese chairs is superior, the feature sets are lagging a bit behind. And it looks like maybe we’re going to start to see some changes with that with this Japanese-made L-track, or sorry, Japanese-made chair with foot rollers.

[SCREEN TEXT: 888-259-5380]

Alan: So, anyway, that’s about it for this week. I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com.’ If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at 888-259-5380, and either myself or one of my staff will be happy to answer the call. If you want to chat with us, we have a chat feature on our website. You can chitchat with us also through our Facebook page, our our YouTube channel, through Twitter, whatnot. We’re always available if you have any questions. I want you to know that I am at your disposal, and even though I don’t answer all the phones, a lot of times, I do answer the calls, and answer the email. I always answer the emails, and anyway, feel free to reach out. I’d be happy to help you in, you know, making that chair decision, or if you have any questions.

[SCREEN TEXT: Please “Thumbs Up” Like This Video!!]

Alan: In the meantime, if you found this video helpful, please feel free to thumbs up ‘Like’ us on our YouTube channel, and of course, share this video on your social media platforms to help us spread the word about massage chairs. Again, thanks so much. I’m Dr. Alan Weidner from ‘Massage-Chair-Relief.com,’ and I will see you again in two weeks. Bye bye.

Click on the following link to watch this Massage Chair Industry Update on our YouTube channel.

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