There’s seldom any innovation in terms of sound on wireless headphones. But the Sonic Lamb headphones made by an Indian startup called Rapture Innovation Labs aim to make you “feel the music” by combining air and body conduction. To achieve this, the company has fitted a proprietary 27mm impulse driver inside the headphones. It uses body conduction to reproduce the physical sensation of sound.
The Sonic Lamb headphones build on the fact that humans are more sensitive to lower frequencies because we tend to feel them more than to hear them. For example, the sound of thunder in nature or drums in music.
The Sonic Lamb makes use of 40mm dynamic drivers to handle frequencies above 120Hz and 27mm impulse drivers to handle low frequencies between 20 -120Hz. The former is a regular driver responsible for air conduction, while the impulse drivers are meant to handle bone conduction. The ear pads (called Wooferpads) then convert the bone conduction impulses to something you can feel through these ear cushions by acting as a virtual diaphragm.
Design-wise, the Sonic Lamb headphones look good. They come in Moonstone White, Ember Gray and Obsidian Black color variants. I’ve been using the black one for a couple of months now. The on-ear headphones feature a flexible headband with non-foldable ear cups but they swivel, in case you want to pack them in your bag. The Wooferpads are user-replaceable, and you can get a pair from the official website.
The right earcup houses a Type-C port for charging, a 2.5mm port that can attach the boom mic that comes in the box, volume control buttons, a power/pairing button, and a rotating switch that can be used to choose the four provided bass levels – Hear, Feel, Immerse and Beast. You’ll have to toggle between them depending on your music taste as each one amps up the sub-bass levels, with Beast going overboard (in a good way).
Apart from all the inbuilt innovation the Sonic Lamb headphones sound great. The Hear mode is meant for calls, meetings, podcasts and instrumental music as it focuses on vocals while having a neutral sound signature with details in the timbre of instruments and depth of soundstage.
The Feel level amps up the lower frequency for songs that have bass, so you can feel the sound get more heft to it. Dial up to the Immersive mode, and you get the headbanging kind bass with more immersive thumps and thuds in action sequences in movies. You’ll enjoy listening to classic rock too, in this mode.
The Beast level goes all-in on bass with vibrations coming from the ear cups. Movies with gunshots, fast-paced sequences with music building the theme, and such instances were the best experienced in Immersive mode. I found the first two modes better suited for music, while the last two modes are for action movies and headbanging kind of music.
The more I used the Sonic Lamb headphones, the more I wanted to tune the bass levels of the songs I was listening to. The ease of use to do this with the dialler on the right side is appreciated (because there’s no app-support yet). But I would have liked some sort of ping in the headphones when I switched bass levels. For now, when you go from one level to another, it takes three seconds, and you can feel the difference.
In long durations, I felt the clamping force was too tight and I had to take of the headphones after 30 minutes but I got used to it. The ear cushions are comfortable too. Wearability is tight but not uncomfortable. Add the boom mic to call quality and it’s good to go for gaming too.
The Sonic Lamb headphones are rated to last up to 24 hours in Hear mode, 14 hours in Feel mode, 10 hours in Immerse mode, and up to 7 hours in Beast mode on a single charge. My usage involved a lot of Hear and Feel mode, and I found myself not worrying about the battery life.
Sonic Lamb headphones review: Conclusion
At INR 15,999 ($192), the Sonic Lamb headphones bring a lot to the table. They offer great clarity with details throughout the frequency spectrum, channel separation and dynamic range, while adding the subwoofer-like bass.
These aren’t meant for travel as they lack active noise cancellation. The great sound performance combined with the new factor of feeling the music through headphones is what gives it the edge over other wireless headphones.
Pros:
- Good performance
- Clarity in vocals at level 1 and 2
- Immersive feels for action movies at level 3
Cons:
- No app support yet
- Clamping force could be too tight for some
