Wearable tactile bass system lets you 'feel' music

In the mid-1990s, John Alexiou and his SubPac co-founder Todd Chernecki discovered the underground dance music scene and its huge sound systems that immersed clubbers in the music. Ever since, Alexiou says, the two were on a mission to bring the physical dimension of music to listeners on a personal level.

The result is SubPac—a tactile bass system that makes listening to music a full body experience.

"It's a combination of proprietary tactile speaker components, membranes that spread the experience throughout your body and electronics that make sure the stuff and sound that goes through it is optimal," Alexiou said.

The system, which is either worn as a backpack or pressed against on the back of a chair, depending on the version, transfers low frequencies to the body. Instead of being conducted through the air, as with a speaker, vibrations pass through the SubPac's membrane.

"Any time you're hearing sound, whether you're in a music environment, a film environment, an auto environment, you're going to be physically immersed in that as well," Alexiou said.

The company recently raised $6 million in Series A financing. Its investors include basketball player Carmelo Anthony's M7 Tech Partners and Google Android co-founder Andy Rubin, as well as music industry professionals.

One of its partners is star hip-hop producer Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley, who wore a SubPac M2 backpack to the Grammys in February. He hopes the technology will allow music creators to turn down the volume on their productions and still appreciate the nuances of the music while saving their hearing.

"The frequency level has changed from the 90s to now. So this is actually for real going to save hearing, because EDM stuff it's high-pitched, it's getting more pitchier. It sounds great, but you're coming home with these headaches from these shows. And you notice the headache gets more intense or something starts to impair, you don't even know, you think it's something else. So this is going to save everybody's eardrums and still get the feeling of explosion," Timbaland said.

SubPac produced its initial product run after raising $100,000 in a Kickstarter campaign in April 2013. It now produces two products: the SubPac M2, a wearable vest that sells for $349, and the SubPac S2, a seatback device that retails at $299. — Reuters