Sonic Lamb Review: Feel the beat

An Indian audio brand that’s driving innovative new features in personal audio? Sign me up, for Rapture Innovation Labs’ quirkily named Sonic Lamb headphones! Their premise is simple – not only should you ‘hear’ the music, but also ‘feel’, be ‘immersed’ in and if you’re a bass-head, be able to unleash the ‘beast’. Confused? Allow me to explain.

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The Sonic Lamb headphones are claimed to be the first headphones in the world with patented hybrid driver acoustics, via a combination of 40mm dynamic drivers for frequencies above 120Hz and a 27mm impulse driver for 20-120Hz low frequencies. The air conduction from the former is married to the bone conduction of the latter to reproduce a physical sensation of sound via vegan leather “Wooferpads” (ear cups), each of which act as a moving diaphragm when placed atop your ears. Think of it as a subwoofer on each ear. Four modes, each with increasing levels of bass – Hear, Feel, Immerse and Beast – take you from subtle bass…to extreme bass!

Yet, for something that drew inspiration from high-fidelity headphones that the founder used in his childhood, the Sonic Lamb headphones have to sound good, even without the subwoofer smarts. And they do – there’s a clean and natural sense to the audio, and depending on the music you prefer, you’d likely be switching between modes to get the right amount of heft into the instruments and the vocals. I swung between Hear and Feel modes on most tracks, and only opted for the Immerse and Beast modes when I fired up the few hip hop or EDM tracks I like – they’re simply not meant for all genres and can get rather fatiguing over longer durations. It’s while watching movies and playing fast paced first person shooter games that you can truly appreciate these modes, particularly in action sequences. 

All this is wrapped up in fairly plane-Jane black pair of closed back headphones which, while feeling well put together, is a bit plasticky, especially when you consider the competition it is up against at this price. It lacks active noise cancellation, which means these are best used in a home/office environment, not during travel. You do get USB-C charging, which also doubles up to connect the headphone in wired mode to a smartphone for high resolution music. 

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Rating: 8/10

Price: INR 19,999 (15,999 inaugural pricing)