Sonic Lamb Headphone Review - All About That Bass

The Sonic Lamb Headphone isn’t trying to be another premium, all-rounder pair of headphones. It has one clear party trick, and it builds its entire identity around that: bass you don’t just hear, but physically feel.

Priced at Rs 18,198 with a 23% discount on the company’s website - including the optional travel case (the standard bundle with a jute bag costs Rs 16,999) - the Sonic Lamb sits in an interesting grey zone. Not cheap enough to be an impulsive buy, but not expensive enough to play in true flagship territory either.

My curiosity was piqued by Instagram ads while I was researching bone-conduction headphones. Sonic Lamb claims to use a similar effect – relying on physical vibration rather than just air movement – to amplify bass impact, which immediately sets it apart from conventional over-ear headphones.

Not a Gimmick!

From the first track, the difference was obvious. The bass boost is not boomy or messy; instead, it adds weight while keeping vocals and instruments clear. What stands out more than sheer loudness is how the low end feels layered rather than overpowering, giving familiar tracks a sense of added depth.

This experience is driven by Sonic Lamb’s headline feature: a physical bass control wheel on the ear cup. It lets you switch between four modes – Hear, Feel, Immerse, and Beast – allowing you to dial bass intensity on the fly. It’s an intuitive and genuinely enjoyable way to tailor the sound depending on the track or your mood. At its best, the Sonic Lamb delivers subwoofer-like punch – something Bluetooth speakers or conventional headphones at a similar price simply cannot replicate.

Fun First, Fatigue Later

Bass lovers will enjoy these headphones immensely. The low-end is punchy and enjoyable, and impressively, there’s no distortion even at high volumes. However, the flip side is listening fatigue. In the more aggressive bass modes, especially Immerse and Beast, extended sessions become tiring – not due to harshness, but the sheer physical intensity of the sound.

Clarity is good for music, particularly vocals, but dialogue-heavy content like podcasts or movies isn’t its strong suit. It also doesn’t mask poor audio sources – in fact, it exposes them. Older or low-bitrate recordings sound noticeably worse, as the bass enhancement tends to amplify their shortcomings.

Premium? No

Build quality is mixed. Structurally, the headphones feel robust, but the hard plastic ear cups don’t convey a premium impression. In fact, a colleague initially assumed they were priced at around Rs 10,000 based solely on how they look and feel. The Obsidian Black colour does a better job of toning things down, while the Ember Grey variant’s orange accents push the design into more flamboyant territory.

Controls are functional but unintuitive. The Bluetooth pairing gesture takes time to learn, and the LED feedback doesn’t help – the strip on the right ear cup doesn’t change colour during pairing, while the large white LED could have been used more clearly to indicate status. Once connected, however, performance is stable, with no lag or dropouts.

Specialist, Not a Replacement

The Sonic Lamb Headphones are not a replacement for premium ANC headphones, nor do they pretend to be. There’s no active noise cancellation, and the strong clamp force, combined with bass-heavy tuning, makes them unsuitable for long listening sessions.

But as a secondary, fun-focused pair of headphones for bass lovers, casual listeners, and tech experimenters, they make sense. You may not miss them every day – but when you want bass that genuinely feels different, few headphones at this price offer an experience quite like it.

And sometimes, that’s reason enough for a product to exist.