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My very first review of a Kyota chair was a few weeks ago. I reviewed the E330 Kofuko and while I wasn’t expecting to be, I was impressed! All in all, good value for money, pretty good functionality, and finally user experience was up to par.
Coming into this review, I now have high expectations of the M673 Kenko! We’ll dive into the key features next, but before we do, what is it that defines the M673 Kenko?
That’s a quick overview on Kyota chairs and my limited exposure to them. Take it for what it’s worth. As I review more of these chairs, I will definitely know more. For now, let’s dive into the M673 Kenko and see what this bad boy is all about!
Roller technology is all the craze when it comes to massage chairs. If you go to a massage chair showroom, everyone is talking rollers and airbags. We’ll touch on the former for now.
Ever been to a car dealership before? Most of us probably have! For those of us who haven’t, we’ve probably dealt with a car salesman at one point or another. Anyways, a car salesman looooves to talk engines! Oh it’s got so many horsepower, and this sort of camshaft, and this much torque….blah blah blah….you get the point!
Which explains why all the massage chair salespeople love to talk about rollers. They could probably talk about them from morning to night. Does that mean everything else is not important? Absolutely not! As we’ll see there are several other aspects one should carefully consider when buying a massage chair, and rollers are only one of them, albeit an important one.
To get a full appreciation of 3D rollers, you need to have an understanding of 2D rollers. And since we’re talking 2D rollers, we might as well throw in 4D rollers so you get a full picture of what all is available at the current time!
It’s not that straightforward, so let’s take a moment to break it down:
The rollers themselves are important, but just as important is the track the rollers travel on. The track is essentially a long span of steel designed to allow the rollers to move from point A to point B. Just as there are different types of rollers, there are different types of roller tracks. The main 2 are an S-Track and an L-Track.
The biggest difference between both is that an L-Track has the added advantage of giving extended coverage down to the glutes and hamstrings, something that you won’t find in a shorter S-Track, but….
S-Track chairs have better stretch routines because the track is shorter and therefore the chair can “stretch out” much further than an L-Track could. If stretch routines are important, you may consider an S-Track!
All that being said, the M673 Kenko comes equipped with a high performing 49” L-Track. Because it’s 49” long, you get massage coverage from the neck basically all the way right down to the glutes and hamstring muscles. To most people coverage is more important than stretch, therefore an L-Track chair is usually more preferred!
When it comes to massage, there’s 2 types of people:
If you’re someone who likes to have many options to choose from, you best pick a chair with lots of auto modes! The M673 Kenko doesn’t disappoint as it comes pre-loaded with 10 pre-programmed auto massage modes, all of which can be easily activated directly from the remote control.
If you’re someone who prefers consistency, then a large number of auto modes might not be super important to you. Even still, it’s never a bad idea to opt for a chair with more auto modes versus one with fewer.
The 10 auto modes are rest and sleep, working relief, extension, neck and shoulder, waist and spine, sports refresh, all air, deep shiatsu, healthy breathing, and massage extend. All 10 can be accessed by following the steps outlined below:
One of the things that most impresses me with Kyota chairs is the sheer number of auto modes they come loaded with. This was evident on the E330 and is also true for the M673. Kudos to Kyota for taking user experience seriously!
Space saving recline is one of those things that’ll either be a gamechanger, or it’ll be a moot point for you. If you have tons of room in your home, space saving is not critical. On the flipside, if you’re short on space, then this becomes incredibly important!
It’s pretty simple. As the chair reclines further backwards, it simultaneously slides forward on a base. It’s this sliding forward action that ends up saving a ton of room from backrest to the wall, and as a result you require less clearance. For the M673 Kenko, the required clearance is 4 inches. All things considered, not too shabby!
This is what Kyota have claimed. What does it mean to have the “longest” calf massage?
These airbags are able to provide massage from the knees right down to the feet. It is pretty impressive no doubt, but for me it’s not the best way to massage the calves.
If you ask me, the best design is to have independent calf rollers working in tandem with calf airbags. This approach works best because it massages the calves using rolling, kneading, and compression massage. This will be much more effective than massaging the calves just through air compression.
But that’s not to say Kyota’s design is not a significant improvement. It most definitely is, but it would be even better if they would have integrated calf rollers as well! I guess you can’t have everything.
As newer massage chairs continue to be released, foot rollers are becoming more and more of a norm. Before it used to be something you’d be expected to pay a premium for, but now you can almost come to expect that most massage chairs are all equipped with foot rollers.
I definitely think so, and I speak from some experience being the owner of a chair that does not have foot rollers. My advice is to always look for chairs which come equipped with foot rollers. Of course this won’t be too hard considering most chairs these days all have them.
At the present time and with 2020 coming to a close, there’s tons and tons of massage chairs to choose from. Of course this is a good thing because it gives consumers lots of options! However, it can become stressful if you’re looking at 20 massage chairs and have not the slightest of clue what to pick.
To give you a quick and dirty idea on how to compare and contrast, we will be comparing the M673 Kenko to 2 other massage chairs, both from Osaki.
One of my favourite 3D chairs for the longest time! Just like the First Class, it’s got a good balance of features!
In terms of price, the cheapest option is the Kyota M673 Kenko, and that too by quite a bit! However, both the Pro Admiral and Pro First Class eclipse the M673 in terms of overall features and specifications. It’s obvious that these 2 are the better chairs, that there’s no question.
However, you will have to decide what’s more important you: spending an extra $1-2K for a superior chair with a lot more auto modes, and some additional features, or forgoing those in favour of cost reduction?
That brings us to the end of this post. If you have any burning questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch, irrespective if whether your question is about this chair or any other.
Best of luck, happy holidays, and we’ll see you next week!
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