There is no dearth of headphones in the Indian market. Across price ranges, styles, features, and colour options, you’ll reach decision fatigue before you find the perfect pair for you. Why then did I pick up Sonic Lamb, a pair of headphones homegrown in Hubli, Karnataka to try out? I’ll tell you the reasons as you read along, but boy, let me tell you I am glad I did!

Aesthetics

At first glance, the Sonic Lamb looks deceptively like any other good-quality headphones. Weighing about 320 grams, it feels hefty as I wear it, as someone who prefers in-ear buds to over-the-ear headphones. However, the earcups are comfortable and can be changed out if and when needed. The left earcup is devoid of all buttons. On the right earcup, are the usual suspects - power/pairing buttons, and volume buttons. But the magic lies in the dial at the very bottom which lets me toggle through four different listening modes - Hear, Feel, Immerse, and Beast.

Acoustics

The experience starts with a bang. Bang! by American pop band AJR, to be specific. The orchestra of piano, trumpets and strings come through clearly, with the fun lyrics about never wanting or feeling ready enough to grow up. I’m a little taken aback by the clarity with which each instrument and the vocals come through.

The company is said to have used precision-tuned dynamic drivers for accurate reproduction of mids and highs using air conduction. I switch to an old favourite Romeo And Juliet by Dire Straits. Mark Knopfler’s signature fingerstyle guitar thumps through accompanying his smooth baritone. The song sounds so rich and resonant on the Sonic Lamb that I’m loathed to switch tracks. Safe to say, I face the same dilemma with most songs I listen to on the headset.

Most of the bass-heavy tracks I listen to have a palpable thump to it. The company says low-frequency audio is directed to skin and bone as a mechanical impulse through the woofer-pads, thus allowing the wearer to really feel the sound.

I keep toggling through the four modes I mentioned earlier - Hear, Feel, Immerse, and Beast. In this sequence, the audio gets deeper and offers more thump but at no point does it feel like it’s doing injustice to the mids and highs. According to the brand, Hear is ideal for classical and instrumental music, along with podcasts, audiobooks, calls, and meetings. Feel lets you experience the beat in the music and has the subwoofer system kick into action softly. It offers a fairly balanced sound profile, great for a wide genre of music including metal, rock, jazz and more. Immerse is aimed at bass heads and is also great for listening to some EDM, hip-hop, or rap. Beast is ideal for gaming as things explode, rumble and boom around you. This is when the subwoofer effect kicks in and delivers the most.

There’s no active noise cancellation on the headphones but honestly, I didn’t miss it either. The seal on the cups is great and keeps any chatter around at bay. I stream Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Momina Mustehsan’s Afreen Afreen from Coke Studio and I could swear Rahat Ali Khan has never sounded better! The vocals are rich - across listening modes - with every modulation reaching deep within.

I’m enjoying listening to music on this so much that I almost forget to use this for my work meetings online. I grab it for a couple of product briefings and I’m later told my voice came through very clearly. Admittedly, I did take the calls from a quiet place so there wasn’t much scope for ambient noise anyway.

There’s multipoint connectivity which works quite seamlessly between the MacBook Air I’m using and my Pixel smartphone.

Battery Life

The headset is powered by a 1,400 mAh Lithium-ion battery, which takes a couple of hours to fully charge. In my experience of mostly streaming songs and the occasional Zoom meeting, it went on for more than a week before I had to plug it in to charge.

Verdict

If I’m being honest, the kind of acoustics that Sonic Lamb delivers goes beyond what I would expect of a nascent brand. It is clear that a lot of research and fine-tuning has gone into the product. Not only does Sonic Lamb offer great acoustics, but it also packs in four different listening modes to play around with. The price tag is modest considering the sound quality and comfort it offers. The fact that it’s homegrown is the cherry on top.

Price - ₹19,999

Pros - Deep resonant sound, comfortable earcups, listening modes, battery life

Cons - App not available yet, no ANC

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