Review: The Basslet – Portable Bass

Result

When I first saw what the Basslet is supposed to do it immediately caught my attention. One of the things you hear most from headphone users, is how they miss feeling bass in their body, like speakers make you feel it. And this Basslet seems like the perfect solution to solve that headphone “defect”.

I’v been using the Basslet for weeks now and it’s safe to say that you (logically) get the best result with bass heavy music like EDM and Techno, etc. While it certainly works with other less bass heavy types of music, the trembling just isn’t as present as when you’re playing bass heavier tracks. The Basslet itself allows you to set the intensity of the vibrations but I always have it set to maximum. You can somewhat compare the vibrations to those of your smartphone but the vibrations here are deeper and less aggressive. The Basslet is very reactive and there isn’t any delay between hearing and feeling the bass, in that regards it works perfectly.

Sound is meant to be felt, not just heard

When you first start using the Basslet, you’ll probably be underwhelmed by the whole vibration experience. Of course a tiny little watch sized unit can’t make you feel like you’re standing in front of a bass speaker but you just have to give it some time. Let your wrist, bones and mind get used to the vibrations and all of a sudden you’ll really feel the bass in your body. Again, if you want “heart popping out” kind of vibrations, you’re at the wrong address. That’s just not possible from a tiny device.

 

Once you’re used to experiencing bass via your Basslet, the whole experience is very pleasing and it really adds an extra dimension to listening to headphones or earphones. After you’ve been using the Basslet, or when its battery dies, you really miss that extra dimension as well. At the same time you very easily get used again to not having the vibrations.

So again, the Basslet does work with all musical genres but it does work best with bass heavy music. Why? That’s easy: the gear we use nowadays is very easy to drive, and as a result you don’t have to turn the volume all the way up to get to your preferred listening volume. And that’s exactly where the Basslet lets me down a little. You see, the higher volume you’re playing your music at, the bigger the vibrations are. That leads you to listening louder than what you really want to, just to have that awesome bass feeling. The answer to that of course is to use hard to drive gear, but yeah… Or you could just enjoy it with bass heavier music, as I now have mentioned way to many times already.

Conclusion

I like the idea, I like the design and I like the effect. Did I expect the impact to be bigger? Yes, but at the same time your body doesn’t really need more vibrations once your mind has adapted to it. I can only confirm that using the Basslet really adds an extra dimension to headphone listening. The best part is you can use it anywhere: at home when doing chores, at work on in the bus/train: no one will know and only you’ll enjoy bass in a different way like you did before.

While the Basslet doesn’t come cheap, I really think you won’t regret buying it. It’s fun and it adds to the sound in a way you can’t really imagine. If you’re looking for earth shaking bass which you can feel from your eyebrow to your little tow, then I suggest buying a speaker setup and carrying that around. Or maybe something like a SubPac is more suited for you then.

Buy One?

If you do are interested in getting a Basslet, click here! I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with its performance and on top of that you’ll be able to say you own a vibrator. Ha!

4.9/5 - (120 votes)
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Lieven is living in Europe and he's the leader of the gang. He's running Headfonia as a side project next to his full time day job in Digital Marketing & Consultancy. He's a big fan of tube amps and custom inear monitors and has published hundreds of product reviews over the years.

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