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Home / News / The Basslet straps a subwoofer to your wrist

The Basslet straps a subwoofer to your wrist

Make personal music physical with this vibrating wearable

What’s this? It looks like the wearable equivalent of a NoPhone

It does look a bit ‘Apple Watch with a blank face’, but the Basslet is actually packed full of tech designed to more fully immerse you in music.

How does it do that, then?

Haptics, mostly. The creators argue bass should be felt and not just heard — it’s what connects you physically to music, and what’s obviously missing when you’re using weedy headphones.

You know that feeling when you’re in a club or at a noisy gig, and the bass punches you in the gut? This is the same, only you’re being punched on the, um, wrist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8lPZNw96og

That sounds a bit… anticlimactic

You’d think so, but your brain’s an odd thing. It turns out that with the Basslet on your wrist, you really do get a feeling akin to standing unnecessarily close to a massive speaker, having bass vibrate through your body. And because it’s silent to the outside world, you don’t get the evil glances reserved for dolts carting about ear-smashing boom boxes.

How does it work? Is there an app?

Mercifully, no. You get a ‘sender’, which is plugged into a headphone port (and which itself has a port to plug your headphones into). And then there’s the wearable itself. That’s it. There’s nothing to configure. And this means it can work with anything from a cutting-edge smartphone (although perhaps not the iPhone 7) to some beaten-up Walkman you have knocking around your office, you hipster, you.

So that means it can work with games systems? VR headsets? Synths?

Yep. Wear the Basslet and you’ll feel the VADOOM of your enemies being blown apart in Generic 3D Shooty Game XI, the ear-monstering bass of classic synths, and how a DJ set might feel in a club. And, smartly, the little unit will differentiate between all those sounds — for example, hard kicks and melodic bass ‘feel’ different.

Where can I get some of these good vibrations?

Kickstarter. The Basslet is already funded, and €139 will secure you a unit, with an estimated delivery date of December — just in time for you to more fully enjoy that thumping 12-inch remix of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Sorry, what?

Or maybe that’s just us.

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Profile image of Craig Grannell Craig Grannell Contributor

About

I’m a regular contributor to Stuff magazine and Stuff.tv, covering apps, games, Apple kit, Android, Lego, retro gaming and other interesting oddities. I also pen opinion pieces when the editor lets me, getting all serious about accessibility and predicting when sentient AI smart cookware will take over the world, in a terrifying mix of Bake Off and Terminator.

Areas of expertise

Mobile apps and games, Macs, iOS and tvOS devices, Android, retro games, crowdfunding, design, how to fight off an enraged smart saucepan with a massive stick.

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