I review sex toys for sextoy.com. You can find the Club Vibe and other vibrators on their site. Disclaimer: Although I don’t receive any money for these reviews (unless you purchase something via an affiliate link to the vendor), I am receiving free toys.
The Club Vibe from OhMiBod is a sound-powered vibrator. I tried it out with my pet on her last visit; I gave it to her partly as an offering to replace her wireless vibrator which unfortunately vanished after a Roman Bacchanal play party some months ago.
I was a bit cruel to her because I told her I had a surprise for her days in advance of her visiting from Houston, but not what it was. I revealed to her that she would get it just before the “Tiki House Party” we planned to attend and that she’d have to wait to receive it if we didn’t make it to the party for some reason. This all but ensured we went!
We unboxed the Club Vibe together as we finished getting ready to go out. It ships in a plastic insert in a simple black cardboard box, but happily the set includes a velvety OhMiBod pouch for later storage. The package also contained the control unit, a vibrating egg, a cord for use with mp3 players, two AAA-batteries, and a pair of panties with a little pocket for the egg. The panties are a nice touch, but if they don’t fit or don’t match your outfit, it should be easy enough to position the vibrator in another pair.
Setting up this toy is easy. You place two AAA-batteries in the control unit, which is the size of a beeper. The vibrating egg plugs into a jack on the top of the controller, while on the opposite end of the toy is a standard headphone-jack for use with the included splitter cord (which allows you to plug the toy into your mp3 player while still listening on your headphones). The vibrator jack is also a standard one, meaning you can replace OhMiBod’s egg with any egg or other toy compatible with this now-commonplace plug.
This toy has three modes, accessed through a simple slider. In its most basic mode, it operates like a normal vibrator. A large circle button on the controller cycles through various standard vibration patterns. The nearby X-shaped button turns the vibrator off.
You can also plug an iPod, mp3 player or almost anything else with a head phone jack into the toy, using the cable described above. In this mode, the vibrator will pulse along with whatever music or sound is playing on the device. As the volume of the music increases, so do the intensity of the vibrations.
The “ambient sound mode” is the one that sets this toy apart from others. In this mode, the controller’s built-in microphone is used to determine the frequency and intensity of the egg’s vibrations. You can obviously use it with music on your home sound system, but it’s also designed to be tucked surreptitiously into a set of panties with the controller tucked in a pocket. A little creative placement of clothes can even hide the cord.
It all sounds very complicated — and there are certainly more buttons than on most vibes. I wouldn’t recommend this toy for someone very new to sex toys, as the number of options might be intimidating. On the other hand, for someone with some experience or a lover of music with a heavy beat, this toy is a wonderful innovation. The instructions were mostly clear but did not explain the intensity-control knob at all. This is a little dial which controls the sensitivity of the microphone in ambient mode and because of the poor instructions we didn’t figure it out until after we left the party. My only other complaint is that the plastic of the controller feels a little bit lightweight and potentially flimsy but we haven’t had any problems yet.
So how did we test this toy? Before leaving the house I had my pet place the egg in her panties and the control unit in her pocket but we left it switched off till we arrived at the party. At the house party, we tried the toy out on the dance floor, where the driving bass of the dubstep music made her legs rubbery. Because the microphone was so sensitive, even the sound created by a person brushing past her in the crowd was enough to create some vibration. However, we had the most fun with the party’s live music — an electric guitar and drums-based jam-band called Interstellar Transmissions. As always with this kind of public play, it felt like we shared a wicked little secret as we stood amongst friends listening to the music and watching the fire spinners. At one point my pet gave a barely suppressed yelp and clutched my arm tight to stand up — as a rousing guitar solo reached its crescendo, she had simultaneously reached hers.
Back at home, we experimented just enough to know that ambient mode has other potential applications. Properly placed, the microphone can respond to the sound of toys used in impact play. Further, my pet tends to giggle a lot in the bedroom, and this allowed me to create a delightful vicious cycle, with each giggle or moan moving the egg which in turn produced more giggles and moans. We also realized it would be fun for me to select songs for her to experience as a way to play in between visits.
This is really a great toy for anyone who enjoys dance music and especially public play. With this toy you can all but guarantee that you or your lover will be enjoying the dance floor more than anyone else there. Though the included egg is not anal safe by itself, the modular vibrator jack means you could easily make it safe for use on boys. The Club Vibe just might be the coolest toy I’ve reviewed.
Update: Read more about how to use the Club Vibe safely for anal play.
