When you are out in the market to get a pair of headphones, the first brands that you come across are the ones with years of legacy behind them. These players have been dominating the headphones market for years, and for good reason. Their products offer great value for the money you spend on them most of the time. Their performance is of the highest order, and their features and build are refined. However, once in a blue moon, we see an underdog come in and take on these legacy brands purely on the merit of their product. In recent times, the Sonic Lamb Headphones are the best example of this.
Developed on our own home turf by two ambitious engineers, the Sonic Lamb Headphones have created waves of excitement in India and overseas. All of it is just because of their tuning, usage of cutting-edge technology and the experience they give the users. I was fortunate enough to be one of the few people chosen to get hands-on experience with these headphones, and I am not going to lie; it seemed too good to be true before I started testing these headphones. By now, you may have guessed that I was impressed by these headphones a lot. However, there are a few kinks in the armour, which I would love for the makers to hammer out and make these, hands down, the best pair of headphones in the market in their budget category. With that said, let’s find out what made these headphones stand out and grab the runners-up spot in the Digit Zero1 Awards 2023 and what held them back –
The Sonic Lamb Headphones impressed me with their build and design, hitting the right notes from the get-go. These headphones sport a complete plastic design, which on paper seems to be something that would hold you back from getting these headphones for ₹15,999. However, the engineers behind these headphones have ensured that the headphones’ build quality is not affected by the plastic used. It is robust and stands through the creaking test that we do with all the headphones that come into our Test Centre. The ear cups are replaceable and extremely comfortable. They do a great job of passive isolation as well. The makers of these headphones are calling the ear cup pads “Wooferpads”. More on that later. These pads are some of the best I have seen on headphones, especially at this price. The headband is made out of metal, which is also a great thing to have on these headphones. And there is adequate padding there as well.
Coming to the design, these headphones sport a mostly monotone design with accents on the cans. In the black colour variant that I received, these headphones had grey accents. The same trend continues on the white and orange/grey colour schemes available. There is an indicator LED on the earcups, with the bass toggle, buttons, and the boom-mic/USB-C port making an appearance on the bottom side of the cups. There is some subtle branding on the headband and the earcups. Nothing too flashy.
The buttons on these headphones are also built well, with a nice and satisfying tactile feel and a tight and snug fit. Same is the case with the bass control wheel. Talking about being snug, these headphones sport a swivel design on the ear cups, which means that you get a nice and snug fit on the head, which, as I said, ensures good passive isolation and minimises sound leakage, even at high volumes. Overall, the Sonic Lamb Headphones are well built and bring to the table, a design that many can sport without being conscious about the colours and appearance of the headphones. Moving on to the features.
The Sonic Lamb Headphones are not the most feature-rich pair of headphones out in the market. However, when I spoke to the makers of these headphones, their rationale was fairly convincing. They said that they wanted to ensure that these headphones functioned well and performed above and beyond the industry standards before they went in gunning for features. And, given that this is their first attempt at making a pair of headphones, it is worth giving them a pass.
However, it’s not all bone dry here. These headphones support audio codecs like aptX and aptX HD, which means you can play back high-quality audio on them. Additionally, you get customisable sound, which is achieved through their Sonic Lamb app. And, unlike some of the other headphones in the market which support audio tuning based on your head, the one included on these headphones actually works. I tried it myself and was surprised to see the difference it made. However, note that the sound signature testing was done without any special tuning, as is the case with all the headphones that come into the Digit Test Centre.
You cannot tune the audio using an in-app EQ. However, there is a bass level customisation wheel on the side, which you can use to change the intensity of the bass that you’re getting from the special bass drivers on these headphones. There are four different modes that you can choose from — Hear, Feel, Immerse, and Beast. Now, I will use the wording of the makers to explain these modes because they did it really well.
That’s about it in this department. Features like ANC, talk-through mode and the rest of the shebang have been left out in favour of redirected development costs put towards better tuning and development of the proprietary subwoofer on these headphones. Now, let’s have a look at what actually made these headphones special and stand out. The performance.
Whatever ground the Sonic Lamb Headphones lost in terms of features and build, they make that up in the performance department. Let’s start by looking at the sound signature first. As you can see, the readings in the sub-bass region are almost absent, while the rest of it is pretty balanced until you get to the high mids, which have been boosted. Why is it? Well, these headphones employ a new way of producing sub-bass. They do it using a combination of the Hear and Impulse drivers.
The Hear driver is what produces the frequencies above the mid-bass region, and the Impulse driver is responsible for the sub-bass, which you feel as the rumble in action scenes and bass-heavy tracks. Instead of a membrane, like traditional drivers, the Impulse driver, which the makers of these headphones have developed, sends out a series of mechanically generated pulses, which are transmitted to you via the ear pads, hence the name Wooferpads.
This is a really interesting development and implementation of audio reproduction, unlike what we have seen so far. This is also what allows for the controlling of the different levels of bass reproduction on these headphones. While the highest level, which is the Beast mode can be a bit overwhelming for many, the Hear and the Feel modes are what I believe will see the most use amongst the people who buy these headphones.
Now, coming to the experience of using these headphones. In tracks where there is a distinct bass line, like Uptown Funk, you get an excellent representation of the instrument, and the bass does not overshadow the rest of the frequencies. And, given that we at the Test Centre compare every headphone’s response to the flat response of Pink Noise, these headphones stand tall in my rankings. The boost in the highs can introduce sibilance, which is the distinct and sharp representation of “S” and “T” sounds, which can cause discomfort to some people. However, when I used these headphones, it was not an issue. In vocal-heavy tracks as well, like Rescue Me by One Republic, the representation of every instrument, along with Ryan Tedder’s voice, was on point. And, given the bass customisation, these headphones pretty much cover all the demographics that will be using these headphones. Now, that is what we can call a well-rounded product.
However, it is not all there is. When I was gaming on these headphones or listening to tracks that had densely packed instruments in them, sometimes I experienced a separation of the sub-bass from the rest of the frequencies, which was slightly off-putting. This was especially true when I was using the Immerse mode. Now, this is not something that is a plaguing issue on most tracks, and I found it difficult to reproduce myself. So, keep that in mind, but I would say it shouldn’t be a deterrent to getting these headphones for the most part. They are still in their first iteration of commercial production and they will improve over time, I believe.
As for the mic, in-games, my team mates were able to hear me clearly, and there was minimal noise picked up by the headphones. And, wired connectivity meant that there was no noticeable lag in the audio as well. Another box ticked off by these headphones. There is no ANC, but the passive isolation on these headphones is great. You will not want to carry these on a flight as such, but for regular use at home, it should do the job.
Given that there is no ANC on the Sonic Lamb headphones, they can last up to 24 hours when you have the Hear mode toggled on. In my testing, these headphones gave me 22.5 hours of listening time, which is pretty close to the claimed numbers. As you increase the intensity of the bass, the listening time reduces, with the Beast mode giving a claimed battery of only 6 hours. So, you will want to use that sparingly. They charge via USB-C, and the makers claim that they go from 0 to 100 per cent battery in two hours. This is something I would like to work on in future iterations, with the introduction of quick charge technology.
Sonic Lamb Headphones have a very distinct position in the market. They bring a sound signature that would appeal to the purists but lack on the features that are in demand by the masses. The only pair of headphones I would compare them to, are the ATH-BT line of headphones by Audio-Technica, which I reviewed earlier in the year – Audio Technica ATH-M50xBT2 and the Audio-Technica ATH-M20xBT. Both these headphones, too face a similar dilemma. I will make it simple for you if you are at crossroads.
If you are someone who is a fan of a flat-sounding pair of headphones but would also love to use them for content consumption and gaming on the go, I will say go for the Sonic Lamb Headphones over the Audio Technica offerings. These headphones bring a level of customisation that we have not seen so far while sounding great and offering most of what you would expect from a pair of such versatile headphones. However, if you are someone who works with audio professionally, and is looking for a pair that you can wear outside the studio environment, then I would recommend the Audio Technica headphones.
