Vollebak's New Sonic Jacket Fires 180 Speakers Into Your Body - Yanko Design

The Sonic Jacket uses 180 inward-facing, laser-cut speakers embedded across the body, arms, and hood to transmit sound into the wearer. The speakers emit frequencies from 4 Hz to 20,000 Hz straight into the body rather than toward the ears. The design emphasizes tactile perception, with the stated goal that the sound is felt through skin, bones, and tissue. The jacket is engineered by FBFX, a London special effects studio known for functional, high-precision work in demanding film environments. Control is provided by a unit with an MP3 player preloaded with 10 frequencies, a physical tuning dial, and a Micro SD slot supporting up to 1,000 personalized frequencies, with a Bluetooth app planned.

"Vollebak’s latest creation, even if just barely. The Sonic Jacket doesn't pump sound into a room. It pumps it directly into you. Vollebak has built a jacket lined with 180 inward-facing speakers. Each one is 32mm in diameter and 10mm deep, laser-cut into the fabric across the body, arms, and hood. The speakers fire frequencies ranging from 4 Hz to 20,000 Hz straight into the wearer's body. Not at your ears. Through your skin, your bones, your tissue. The brand's own description puts it plainly: "You don't listen to this jacket. You feel it.""

"The jacket was engineered by FBFX, a London-based special effects studio with 30 years behind them and credits that include Gladiator, Dune, The Martian, and Project Hail Mary. These are people who build functional spacesuits worn by real actors in demanding production environments. They brought that same precision to the problem of turning a jacket into a distributed speaker system. The wiring is intentionally left visible, all yellow and exposed, because FBFX co-founder Grant Pearmain's position is straightforward: it looks like a science experiment because that's exactly what it is."

"Control is handled through a unit fitted with an MP3 player preloaded with 10 frequencies, a physical dial for fine-tuning, and a Micro SD card slot that can hold up to 1,000 personalized frequencies. A Bluetooth app is in development."

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