Sonic Lamb Review: Innovative Headphones That Are Too Good To Be True

It was a Thursday morning, just before Delhi was about to wind down for the G20 summit, and the weekend mood had already set in. A sudden call from Kretus PR beckoned me for a meeting on the same day. Given my decade-long interactions with them covering consumer electronics and their reputation with brands like Bose and Audio-Technica, I was intrigued enough to rearrange my schedule.

The product presented was a pair of wireless headphones from a homegrown start-up named Rapture Innovations. Lacking trendy features like active noise cancellation and spatial audio, these closed-back, on-ear headphones nonetheless piqued my interest from the onset. They were a culmination of an Indiegogo campaign, boasting several patents in India, with additional ones pending internationally.

I was treated to a highly selective playlist of eclectic music via Spotify, played from an iPhone. Although the songs were not part of my usual auditory test suite, they sounded unexpectedly richer, as though they were being played not through headphones but a nearby high-fidelity loudspeaker. This was thanks to a hybrid driver technology that incorporates subwoofers within the ear cups.

The bass was exceptional. I’ve encountered many bass-heavy headphones, but these were a far cry from the Beats of yore, pre-Apple when it was still Monster Beats by Dr Dre. The bass here was refined, felt just as much as heard, without being oppressive, an aspect crucial for genres like deep house where the presence of sub-bass is vital.

What’s more, the headphones featured a jog dial for fine-tuning the bass to the user's preference. One could tailor the sound to a more neutral setting, suitable for smooth jazz and blues or focused on vocals, emulating the finesse of high-end brands such as Bowers & Wilkins, Focal, or Meze.

Returning home with the Sonic Lamb, the headphones' unofficial name, I put them through a rigorous test, starting with metal heavyweights Lamb Of God. The clarity of each instrument and the separation of sounds, even with growled vocals, was impressive.

I journeyed through a playlist of rock classics, including Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine," Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb," The Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter," Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven," Fleetwood Mac's "Gold Dust Woman," Eric Clapton's "Cocaine," and Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love." The headphones delivered a mid-range that illuminated the intricate harmonics of the guitars while providing ample bass.

I even tested the new Beatles track “Now & Then” which has been revived using AI. And even it sounded superb on these headphones.

Diving into indie selections from The Strokes, ALT-J, and Portugal The Man, the headphones maintained a balanced and expansive soundstage. They truly excelled with electronic dance music, faithfully reproducing tracks from Indian artists like Blot!, Chazz Bhalla, Film, Vridian, Tech Panda & Kenzani. The audio experience was akin to being in a nightclub equipped with formidable sound systems like those from L-Acoustics or Void Audio, enveloping and precise.

Watching movies was also enhanced, as exemplified with trailers of "Top Gun: Maverick" during my session with the Kretus team. The full movies later watched at home offered a compelling cinematic experience, leaning more towards high-fidelity audio than a surround sound setup.

For video conferencing, the headphones included an attachable boom microphone, which, while functional, might merit an upgrade for professional settings.

The Sonic Lamb headphones are sonically exceptional, conveying a sense of luxury that their price does not reflect. However, the build quality could use some refinement, particularly in the ergonomic placement of the toggle switch, and the much-anticipated companion app has yet to be released.

Despite the effective passive noise isolation, they do not suffice for noisy environments, such as the cacophony of a Delhi-San Francisco Air India flight I experienced with a prototype. Here, active noise cancellation would be a boon.

Without the current vogue feature of Spatial Audio via Dolby Atmos, the Sonic Lamb headphones still stand out for their sheer audio quality. Priced at ₹15,999, the Sonic Lamb headphones are indeed, almost too good to be true.