Any new tech in audio products is always one slip-up away from being dismissed as a gimmick. The stakes are all the more high when you’re a new tech outfit planning to showcase your groundbreaking innovation on your debut product. Indian startup Rapture Audio Labs takes on this gargantuan task on its Sonic Lamb headphones. Featuring an ‘Impulse Driver’, Sonic Lambs brings the subwoofer experience to headphones, offering next-level immersion that allows the user to feel the music. Currently priced at Rs 15,999, it goes up against some of the most premium headphones on the market. We used the Sonic Lamb for a couple of weeks and put it through a series of tests, here is our review of the headphones.
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In This Article
Sonic Lamb review: Design
Inside the Sonic Lamb retail box, you get the headphones, a hard case, a 1.5m USB charging cable, a boom mic attachment, and a quick start guide. There are three colour variants on offer – Moonstone White, Ember Gray (with orange highlights), and Obsidian Black (featured in this review).
Sonic Lamb’s design is simple, but not basic. The two swivelling earcups have a smooth triangular panel jutting into them from the headband. The Ember Gray colour variant highlights this panel with a contrasting orange shade. There is an LED notification light on the right earcup. This earcup also gets the control buttons and the scroll wheel to change the immersion level of the headphones.
It takes some time to get used to the position of the buttons. A stronger ‘clicky’ feedback on these buttons would have been ideal, but it is something we can excuse on the debut product. The scroll wheel’s ridge texture and ratcheted feedback are decent. Also present on this earcup is a USB Type-C charging port, a microphone, and a 2.5mm jack for the boombox mic attachment.
The quality of the materials used on the headphones imparts a lot of lushness to them. The silicone headband is padded well enough to not cause fatigue even after hours of wearing the headphones. The vegan leather used on the earpads is quite exquisite as well. The earpads, or ‘Wooferpads’ as Rapture likes to call them, can be rotated around. Being easily detachable, they can be replaced when they get worn out. An additional pair costs Rs 999 on Sonic Lamb’s official website.
The overall fit of the headphones is very comfortable. There was minimal fatigue to be felt after hours of use. The earpads cosily wrap around the ears, forming a nice, warm chamber for hearing. We can’t speak to the water and dust resistance of the device, as it does not have an IP rating. But, it can withstand sweat and minor water splashes without impeding the performance of the drivers.
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Sonic Lamb review: Performance
Powering the Sonic Lamb is Qualcomm’s QCC 3034 chipset. There are 4 codecs on offer – aptX, aptX HD, AAC, and SBC. With Bluetooth 5.1 onboard, the headphones provide a functional range of up to 15 metres. A wired connection (using a USB Type-C cable) is also supported on certain devices. The star of the show is the 27mm impulse driver that brings the physical sensation to the sonic experience. This driver is integrated with a 40mm dynamic driver on either earcup, completing the hybrid acoustic setup.
Before we get to the subwoofer immersion, let’s talk about the general soundstage. We listened to a range of genres on the Sonic Lamb and were pleased with how the 40mm driver relayed the output. The mix of frequencies is delicate and very nuanced here. Before trying on the headphones, we feared the low end would dominate and marr the mix, but thankfully that is not the case here. The mids and the highs are pronounced and easily separable from the bass. Even the subtle hits of the clapper on our favourite rock tunes found good representation in the overall mix.
Sonic Lamb has all the makings of a premium pair of headphones. Even without the integrated subwoofer tech, its audio output can easily go up against the established heavyweights in its category. If you’re used to an entry-level headset, the step-up in terms of soundstage will be immediately noticeable. But that’s not all on offer here. Let’s talk about the subwoofer.
The scroll wheel on the left earcup can be used to toggle between the four immersion modes: Hear, Feel, Immerse, and Beast. The ‘Hear’ mode is the most neutral-sounding profile on the headphones. Ideal for calling and listening to podcasts, you can also stick to this mode while listening to genres that do not need a pronounced low end. The impulse driver kicks in on the ‘Feel’ mode, banging against the membrane to produce some delightful woofer-like sensations. The same is the case for ‘Immerse’ mode, which is our favourite out of the lot.
This mode brings the right degree of power and sensation to the mix. The bass elements take full form and reverberate around the ear, creating a layer of immersion that we haven’t felt in any pair of headphones before. Every kick of the bass drum is relayed with appropriate intensity. What’s surprising is that it doesn’t meddle with the higher frequencies at all. The guitar and vocal notes remain clear and unobstructed. The final ‘Beast’ mode takes things up a notch and delivers a powerful surround which is borderline bewildering. We used this mode while watching movies and gaming. After a while, the Beast mode can get fatiguing.
While the audio performance of the Sonic Lamb is impressive, it does leave a little more to be desired in terms of features. Active Noise Cancellation is hands down the biggest miss on these headphones. At the price of Rs 16,000, the lack of ANC is inexcusable. Another mildly annoying thing about these headphones is that there is no way to tell the battery level on the device. A companion app by Rapture is supposedly in the works, which should fix this problem, but ideally, you want the battery info to be reflected in the interface of the connected device. Multi-point connection is a welcome feature, but its functioning isn’t as smooth as we would have liked. Hopefully, a firmware update can fix these issues.
There are a couple of things that deserve appreciation, though. The first is the boom mic attachment which elevates the calling experience massively. It picks up even the faintest of whispers and works perfectly in tandem with the internal noise suppression microphone to relay noise-free audio. Another nifty feature is the support for wired connection, which lets you use the headphones while they are connected to a PC or laptop via a USB cable. The quality of the 1.5m USB cable is pretty high-end, which is nice to see.
Equipped with a 1,400 mAh battery pack, these headphones last up to 24 hours in Hear Mode, 14 hours in Feel Mode, 10 hours in Immerse Mode, and 7 hours in Beast Mode. We mainly used the Sonic Lamb in Feel and Immerse modes throughout the review period. It lasted us 5 days upon 2-3 hours of daily usage. It takes up to 2 hours to fully charge the headphones using a USB Type-C product.
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Verdict
After experiencing Sonic Lamb’s immersive soundstage, you wouldn’t think it is a first-generation product from a recently founded startup. The integrated subwoofer adds a fun element to the mix without muddling the higher frequencies. It is evident that a lot of effort went into tuning this new tech so that it adds to the output without becoming a distraction. If you’re a basshead, then these headphones should definitely be on your radar.
Sonic Lamb: Pros
- Great soundstage
- Well tuned subwoofer
- Feels premium
Sonic Lamb: Cons
- Lacks ANC
