sonic chair – sit down, tune in, rock out

sonic chair version 5, made for iPad

sonic chair version 3, made for iMacIt’s been a while I think since I blatantly used this site for the purpose of birthday gift ideas. For me. From memory I believe it was the Olive O3HD Music Server that I rather liked. I now have another blatant suggestion to make, and it is the German company designatics’ wonderful sonic chair.

Given my love of gadgets, 60s design and, well, the occasional relax, the sonic chair is for me a built intersection of that little Venn diagram of likes.



The sonic chair is a 21st Century nod to the  mid-60s Eero Aarnio Ball Chair. It is also a 21st Century design award winner, picking up a reddot design award in 2007.

The sonic chair is available in five configurations:

  • sonic chair version 1 – with a round side table, to rest a book, iPod, etc. on
  • sonic chair version 2 – with an inbuilt iPod dock
  • sonic chair version 3 – with a swing arm to hold an Apple iMac monitor (can also be ordered to fit other monitors)
  • sonic chair version 4 – with a swing arm small tabletop
  • sonic chair version 5 – with an arm to hold an Apple iPad
sonic chair version 5, made for iPad

Each of the chairs is available in a choice of 39 colours. The sonic chair measures 144 cm high, by 120 cm wide, and is 63 cm deep. The exterior is made of leather, or a synthetic leather is available as an option. The interior is made of sueded microfiber. Inside are separate tweeter and midrange speakers, plus a subwoofer and a six-channel amplifier with digital signal processor. In addition to a volume switch, control options include input jacks to suit various devices, such as computer, iPod, or portable AV or gaming device.

So, how much might the sonic chair cost? On the designatics website are three of the scariest words in the shopping world – prices on request. I think they do this as there are so many options, colours and materials on offer. Plus I suspect it’s not cheap. I found a couple of mentions of price, one being 10,800 Euros, another of 8,000 Euros.

So, the sonic chair is well and truly on my wish list.

sonic chair, a selection of the range