The Lowdown
It’s a great innovation, looks cool and is something everyone would enjoy trying out. It takes a little bit of getting used to before you feel the real effect. I’m not a massive fan of the strap that comes with it but you can switch that out for any watch strap using the tool included.
Video Review
First Impressions / Setting up
The Basslet comes in a sleek black box containing: the Basslet, sender, charging cable, an additional, shorter strap and strap changing tool. Instructions are provided for charging and operating, but to be honest, it’s really easy to pick it up, plug and play.
The Basslet itself is kind of the same shape as an Apple SmartWatch and is in a stylish matte black design. It seems to be a sturdy piece of kit. The two buttons on the side for increasing / decreasing the power of the vibrations also double up as a charging connector with the sender. The sender is a little dongle with a mini jack on it, with two magnetic connection points and a micro USB charger port.
After a little trouble, I managed to get the Basslet fitted snugly to my wrist. The strap is a bit clunky but it can be replaced with any regular watch strap, so no drama here.
In Use
I’ve used this for almost a week now and you certainly get used to the sensation on your wrist after a few sessions. The difficulty of getting a snug fit remains but when it is on, it is really comfy. However, at times, the sensation still feels a little too localised on your wrist.
The most amazing thing is there is no noticeable lag or latency. The way the Basslet replicated the low frequencies is fantastic. You feel the different subtleties of the low end frequencies, not just one type of vibration like your mobile phone. It lives up to the hype in this respect. After listening to a few tracks, you will start to forget that you are wearing it and then the bass kind of spreads across your body, which is a cool feeling.
It also has a decent range, if you wanted to hook it up to your hifi and walk around the house with it on. One thing I didn’t like is how when manually turning it up to full, it would drop back down when the music lulled but not come back up. Surely, if you manually override it, it should stick at that level until you adjust it?
Conclusion
Overall, I definitely recommend you try it. You would be right to be skeptical. At first, it seems inconvenient to carry around and wear just to “feel” the music you are listening to. However, when the mind trickery kicks in, it offers something completely different to your listening experience in or out of headphones. A second use I thought up whilst listening with the Basslet would be for a guitarist to use it to monitor a drummers kick in live band performance.
While US$199 is pretty steep for a product that without trying you’ll have no idea what to expect, Lofelt offers a 14-day money back guarantee. So, if you have the spare cash, you have nothing to lose.
I gave it four stars taking into consideration the price and because this is the first design, there is always room for improvement. This is an excellent product already and it will be even more exciting to see what they come up with in the second incarnation of the Basslet.
