IF EVER a device gives you vibes, this would be it.

The Body-Sonic Vibration Earphone makes use of bone conduction technology to blast the tracks in your ears.

What this means is that the gadget sends sound waves to your skull bones, which then passes these waves to your eardrums, amplifying the volume of the tracks. This means that you'll feel vibrations (yes, you heard me) against your earlobes when music is played.

However, the earbuds did little to up my aural pleasure.

For one, the gadget came with two knobs that allowed you to adjust the vibration strength and speaker volume settings.

According to the product packaging, the best sound quality is produced when the speaker volume is low while the vibration setting is high.

When I adjusted the settings to such, tracks sounded tinny and weak, with hardly any punch in the treble department. When I played Divinyl's I Touch Myself, her vocals sounded even thinner than usual, with obvious echoes, and the track sounded hollow.

Its winning streak, however, is its bass quality - the bone conduction technology effectively pumped up the muscle of drums and beat-boxing beats.

When I blared Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys, the strong drum beats compelled me to bop my head along to the chorus.

What I also liked about this gadget is its comfortable in-ear earpads. Accompanied with three earpieces of different sizes, you are sure to find a pair that will fits the size of your earlobes.

The waterproof rubberised material of the earphones also makes it an ideal partner for your jogging sessions, as your sweat will not seep into the device.

Too bad though that the earphones did not effectively block out unwanted environmental noise - bad news for people who want to tune out nags.

Final say

People who enjoy meaty bass may settle for this gizmo.

By Stephanie Gwee, a freelance writer.

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life on 31 December 2008.

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