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Just like you can find exotic cars, you can find exotic massage chairs!
In fact, it’s the most expensive massage chair I’ve yet to review. Is it worth the exorbitant price? Well, we will touch on all that a little later in this post. For now, let’s look at 8 key features that make this such an epic massage chair!
There’s a lot to talk about here, so let’s try to break it down piece by piece so it’s easy to understand. Let’s start with rollers. What are rollers?
If you’ve ever sat in a massage chair, you’ll have felt this contraption move all around your back, up, down and side to side; these are the rollers. Essentially they’re a set of mechanical wheels designed to intelligently massage the back!
Today you can find 3 different types of roller technologies in massage chairs: 2D, 3D, and 4D.
Now let’s look at how each roller type works!
This roller type moves in 2 dimensions. It moves along the vertical i.e. up and down, and along the horizontal i.e. side to side. 2D rollers are the most basic.
The same as 2D rollers but with one difference. In addition to the vertical and horizontal motions, this roller type can also move inward/outward.
4D rollers are the same as 3D rollers but with one difference. 4D rollers will automatically determine and adjust speed and rhythm at any given time.
There’s a lot of confusion between 3D and 4D and the differences between both, so let’s look at that in some more detail.
Yes, you absolutely can! However, in a 4D chair speed control is done automatically by the rollers. In other words, you don’t need to go in and physically change a setting. The difference with a 3D chair is that speed can only be changed physically on the remote.
A simple way of stating the difference is to say 4D rollers are simply closer to the “real thing” (AKA a human masseuse) compared to 3D rollers! Now that you have a basic understanding of roller technology, let’s look at roller track.
Note: this is the first chair I’ve seen that has 4D rollers with an extended SL Track. You’ll see this later in the comparison section, but most chairs with 4D rollers are only S Track!
If you’ve been following my review posts, you’ll know how strongly I feel about heat therapy. In my opinion, it’s one of the few areas that’s often neglected by massage chair manufacturers.
Heat therapy is the application of heat to specific areas of the body. Heat is important because it loosens up the muscles, thereby resulting in a more effective massage experience.
Majority of the massage chairs I’ve reviewed all have heating elements/pads integrated to the lumbar area. The Pro Maestro is different because it has no heating pads. Instead its 4D rollers heat up as they massage from the neck to the hamstrings. This is game changing, and here’s why!
Auto massage routines are great because you don’t need to fuss around with manual settings. Simply push a button on the remote control and away you go! The 8 auto routine are:
Lady—A massage routine designed specifically for the female physique. Expect a soothing, relaxing massage!
Gentleman—Just like the ladies have their program, so do the men!
Relax—A low intensity routine designed to loosen up the muscles. Recommend this mode before sleep!
Scraping—In this mode, the rollers will move from the center of the back to the outer most regions.
Swing—One of my favorite modes in the Pro Maestro! The chair performs a massage while swinging back and forth. It’s like getting a massage while on a rocking chair!
Demo—Demo mode is essentially all the other 7 modes lumped into one. Who says you can’t have the best of everything!?
Shiatsu—True to its origins, Shiatsu is a massage technique designed to target and relieve pressure points in the back. Expect high intensity!
Stretch—In this mode, the airbags inflate to hold your legs, hips, and arms firmly in place, and then the chair automatically reclines and declines to stretch the body.
The remote control has a touch screen menu. “Auto” is one of the options you want to press from that menu. As you do this, another menu will load showing you all 8 auto modes to pick from. Pick from one, sit back, and relax!
Note: you can also use the quick control keys located on the side of the inner armrest to cycle between auto modes.
Airbags are another critical component to a massage chair. Without airbags:
Lastly, airbags target the areas which the rollers cannot. In a sense, airbags complement the rollers! The image below shows where all the airbags are located.
Let’s look at each section in more detail.
There are 2 large shoulder airbags on either side that inflate to compress the shoulders inwards. This not only provides a compression massage, but also pins the body in place so the rollers can work at their best.
Similar to the shoulders, there are hip airbags on both the left and right side of the chair. Their purpose is to squeeze and massage the hips, while also keeping them firmly in place for the roller massage.
Ever had your blood pressure taken at the doctors? That’s what this feels like, except at a much higher intensity! The airbags are designed to massage both the top and bottom of the arms. If you look closely, you’ll see the airbags are lined with small rubber bumps. These are there to prevent the hands from slipping out.
The calf airbags are my favorite in the entire chair and here’s why:
This oscillatory movement not only feels great, but does wonders for circulation in the legs. In many ways, the calf airbags are akin to having a kneading roller!
The airbags keep your feet nice and snug in the ottoman. While their main purpose is to hold your feet in place, the foot airbags also give a comforting compression massage.
And that’s 100% a valid question! See the thing is more airbags doesn’t necessarily equal better! Actually more airbags means more power consumption! (more valves, more motors!) In order to address this, Osaki have reduced the number of airbags, while increasing the airbag surface area coverage. What this means is you get the same coverage with fewer airbags!
The Pro Maestro has dual mechanical foot rollers located on the underside of the ottoman. The rollers spin underneath the feet and provide a kneading massage to the sole, heel and bridge. Meanwhile the foot airbags ensure the feet are pushed firmly down against the rollers.
In case you haven’t noticed, the foot rest/ottoman is enclosed i.e. there is no opening for the feet or toes to stick out.
It really depends on how you look at it. If we’re strictly talking massage, a closed toe design is more effective simply because it’s able to better hold the feet in place. If we’re talking cleanliness and hygiene, I tend to prefer opened toe. Imagine sitting for an hour session with your feet completely enclosed! The next person who uses the chair won’t be thrilled, I can tell you that!
Manual mode is an area often left unexplored. Most people cycle through the automatic routines and never look back! Don’t get me wrong, I love auto routines, but failing to explore how a chair performs manually is a lost experience.
And without exploring manual mode, you’ll never know. There are 4 manual programs to choose from: neck/shoulder, upper back, lower back, and full back. In each of these modes, you can fine tune different settings to suit your specific needs.
In addition to the 4 manual programs above, you can also target an area or focus down to a trouble spot.
Partial—In this mode you can target the rollers to a specific area. For example, you can target the rollers to massage the lower back area.
Spot—Unlike partial, “Spot” is much more focused. “Spot” is nice because it allows you to really narrow down and concentrate the rollers to one location of the back.
Finally, you can also alter:
Airbag Intensity—Up to 5 levels ranging from weak to strong. The airbags can be turned off altogether, or you can select specific regions you’d like the airbags to inflate e.g. shoulder, lower back, feet etc.
Timer—You can increase massage duration in 5 minute increments up to a maximum of 30 minutes in total.
Roller Heat—For those who don’t like hot massage, you have the option to deactivate the heat function on the rollers. I strongly recommend you don’t!
Calf Oscillation Speed—You can adjust how rapidly the calf airbags move up and down.
The Osaki OS Pro Maestro is a first for many things.
To be specific, it comes in black, brown, burgundy, cream, navy blue, pink, and taupe. If you’re feeling adventurous, get the pink!
In the interest of time, I’ve briefly listed all the other important features present in the Pro Maestro. If you’d like to know about these in more detail, leave me a comment and i’ll be sure to get you an answer!
Out of the 20 odd chairs I’ve reviewed thus far, zero gravity is the one feature I consistently see all the time. That being said, I wasn’t too surprised when I discovered that the Pro Maestro is capable of reclining to zero gravity. Not a biggie!
If you’ve never massaged in a zero gravity position, I highly recommend you do! I use it all the time on my massage chair, and I absolutely love it!
In order to accommodate a wide user range, the Pro Maestro has an extendable foot ottoman that works in tandem with an automatic scan. Before a program commences, the chair will perform a full body scan. During this scan the foot ottoman will extend all the way out to 8”, and then start to retract until it senses the bottom of your feet. At this point, massage begins!
Note: you can also extend or retract the ottoman manually from the remote control.
Another technology that’s common to most Osaki chairs is something called “space saver”. Space saver is a fancy way of saying the chair slides forward as you recline backward. In essence, you end up saving on clearance space from the wall. It’s simple improvements like this that make Osaki chairs some of the best!
If you enjoy listening to some tunes during massage, you can do so by pairing your smartphone to the on board Bluetooth MP3 system. Having built in speakers is definitely nice to have, but not something I necessarily look for in a massage chair. For me massage is all about complete relaxation, not only of the body but also the mind, and that means sitting still in quietness.
The Pro Maestro can be controlled in 3 different ways:
I really love how Osaki have designed the remote control for this chair. It’s sleek, small, and absolutely foolproof! Here’s how it looks:
You can see from the image above that there are only 4 buttons on the remote: an auto button to access the auto modes, a recline forward button, a recline backward button, and a home button. All the other settings can be accessed from the remote control’s touch screen LCD display.
My massage chair doesn’t have quick control keys, so one thing I always find myself doing is reaching for the remote control mid massage! Quick control keys are convenient because they allow you to change settings on the fly with minimal interruption to massage.
Using the quick control side panel, you can power the chair on/off, increase/decrease roller intensity, cycle through the different auto modes, and even charge your cell phone using the integrated USB port!
Lastly, you have the option to control the chair entirely from your android or apple cellphone. All you gotta do is download an application, and you’re good to go!
In particular let’s look at how it compares against APEX’s Pro Regent and Osaki’s 4D Pro JP Premium, which is another 4D chair by Osaki. I’ve previously completed detailed reviews for both of these chairs. You can check them out by clicking the links below:
Let’s look at the key differences in a little more detail!
No matter how good a massage chair is, price will always be the deciding factor. And the price for all 3 of these chairs varies significantly!
As you can see, the Pro Maestro is almost double the price of the Pro Regent! Is it worth the exorbitant price? More on that later!
Roller track is an area the Pro Maestro absolutely dominates!
The Pro Maestro’s extended roller track makes it capable of massaging all the way from the neck right down to the hamstrings. This is not true for the other 2 chairs.
Both the Pro Maestro and Pro Regent are manufactured in China, although they ship from the USA.
Now some of you might think what’s the big deal, what does it really matter! Well, it is a big deal and it absolutely matters. When it comes to consumer electronics, large or small, Japanese designed/manufactured products generally tend to be of a much higher quality than their Chinese equivalents. This is true for TV’s, cell phones, and even massage chairs!
All 3 chairs are capable of producing a heated massage; the difference is in the technology.
My vote goes to the heated rollers in the Pro Maestro. As mentioned earlier, this system results in the most effective heat distribution throughout the neck, shoulders, back, and hamstrings.
Power consumption is something one should always consider before buying a massage chair!
The obvious winner here is the 4D Pro which consumes only 135 W of power!
Neither the Pro Regent, nor the 4D Pro come with foot rollers. Pro Maestro is equipped with dual mechanical foot rollers that provide a kneading massage to the bottom of the feet.
Both the Pro Regent and the 4D Pro do not have zero gravity recline. The Pro Maestro as we’ve seen earlier, does!
Both the Pro Regent as well as the 4D Pro give you the option of saving a customized massage to memory. Pro Maestro on the other hand, is not capable of doing this.
Note: There are a few more differences than what’s listed above, however I didn’t feel the need to list them since they weren’t enough to ultimately impact my final verdict!
I wanted to take the time to answer a question that’s so frequently asked.
Before I answer this question, I would like to disclose that I am an affiliate of massage chair deals. What does that mean? That means if you were to buy from massage chair deals using any of the links in this post, I would receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. I feel the need to tell you this, because I want this review to be absolutely 100% honest!
That being said, because I am an affiliate I do have certain perks and privileges! One of which is the ability to provide you a code to save you 5% off any massage chair, not just the Pro Maestro, so if I were you I’d take full advantage!
If you think about it, 5% off on a chair that costs $8,999 is about $450 saved! Tell me you have nothing better to use that $450 on! Even if you were to go for a cheaper chair like the 4D Pro which currently retails for $3,999, you’d be saving almost $200!
Well the first question you should be asking yourself is “Am I in the market for a 4D chair?”. If you are looking for a 4D chair, then you can narrow down your search to chairs with 4D rollers only. But it’s incredibly important to first determine what technology (2D, 3D, or 4D) you want!
To reiterate, it currently costs $8,999 on massage chair deals. I would say if you can afford it, the Pro Maestro is a phenomenal chair! As you can see from the comparisons above, it’s well ahead of the competition!
If you’re unable to afford the crazy price tag, and this will be most of us no shame in admitting it, then I recommend you go for the more modest 4D Pro JP Premium. It’s a fantastic chair that’s been expertly designed and manufactured by Japanese engineers!
I hope you got some value out of this review, and I hope it will help you in your quest to finding a massage chair. If you enjoyed reading, please consider sharing this post on the socials. Last but not least, if you have any burning questions, definitely leave a comment below and I’ll be sure to get back to you!
Osaki OS Pro Maestro massage chair images were used with permission from Massage Chair Deals & Osaki Massage Chair
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