Woojer portable wearable subwoofer review
Woojer is a portable, mostly silent subwoofer that you wear that gives you the feeling of bass without audible bass. The idea is to create a more immersive experience for gaming, music, and movies without creating much environmental noise, and it delivers.
To get a quick rundown of this – this is a strap or clip-on subwoofer that you wear in line with a wired audio device. A wire comes from your audio jack and goes into the Woojer, a line comes from the Woojer and goes into your headphones. If you’re starting to feel I’m mentioning wires a lot it’s because I am.
The Woojer delivers on the bass feeling. It shakes my shirt, I know the bass is theoretically thumping, I feel the noise from my video game, but I get a bit distracted by all the wiring required to operate the thing.
While the goal of immersive subwoofing experience is only marred by the wiring and perhaps that you’re not feeling a bass thump in your lungs, it’s not entirely silent. If you’re wearing this and nobody knows what’s going on there’s a good chance someone is going to think you’ve got a pocket rocket running.
I’ve recorded a video of me listening to a song I use for a bass test, the video is boring but you can hear the buzzing. Anyone not in your head is going to hear some tinny buzzing noises, but you’re going to feel fake bass and that can be useful in a gaming scenario.
It’s something I’d probably put on the gift list for the gaming niece or nephew, while it does add immersive mode to music I wasn’t really feeling it was a great addition although this is entirely a personal preference.
The Woojer also lights up, which ruins listening in the dark. There’s a blinking light you’ll see reflected on the walls. This is fixable with black tape, but just thought I would mention I hate lights on these sorts of things.
Above: the sound you hear when you’re not in the Woojer followed by the Woojer on a mouse pad vibrating. Really nothing particularly interesting.
The main issues I have with this though are the wires. I’ve gotten spoiled by bluetooth headsets, not having a cable dangling out of my phone, etc. You need a wire from your audio source to the Woojer, and then your headset plugged into that. If you want to use this for a TV and some late night gaming, that’s ten more feet of audio cable to buy.
The Woojer comes with a dual-port charger, however beware, it’s a 350mA charger, or it will take roughly three times the time it normally takes to charge your phone if you plug it into it. When I saw the dual-port my heart was lifted, and dashed against the ground when I saw the 350mA.
There are three settings for power: these are weak, ok, and bring it son. The bring it level is close to where I like it, but the smallness of the source footprint limits what you can accomplish.
The unit I got also came with some stickers, a micro USB charging cable, a carrying sock, a sport strap, and a manual. The only thing you’ll really get from the manual is that there’s a reasonably powered detachable magnet for better shirt-clipping.
The device also will get warm if it works too hard, so that’s something to remember.
Overall I did like the device. I really wish it were wireless even if it meant you still had to go the final foot via wires. I also wish it were significantly less than the current MSRP, but these things have a tendency to drop pretty rapidly once they get out.
The Woojer is also available in a Woojer Extreme pack, which I believe is just two Woojer units, and not any extremes, but I could be wrong.
The Woojer is available on the manufacturer’s website for $99 in many different color options. I’m a cheapskate, but my price for this is more in the mid $30 range. It’s a nice little gadget though.
