Inside the ABox Mk2

Sound is E-motion. Sound is Feeling.

I wanted to share the story behind the ABox Mk2, and the choices that shaped it. Like a lot of what we make, the original ABox came straight out of our own ideas and our own play.

It all started with our Series 1. That was our first ever powerbox, the one that began everything. The ABox built on that same core, but took it somewhere n

ew. It became the first commercially produced pure audio driven E-Stim box in the

world.

The idea came from years of playing while listening to music. Real music. I have found that music has always pulled emotion and feeling out of me, and I wanted to bring that into the world of E-Stim.

Even in my normal play, I find it hard to get into a session without some kind of sound around me. Without it, things feel too sterile. For some people that bareness is part of the appeal, and that's fair enough. But for me, music adds so much more.

It isn't just about the obvious beat. A beat is easy, and chasing a beat just lands you back at a sound triggered box flashing along like a disco light. E-Stim,

at its heart, is all about sensation. So what I wanted was the feeling in the music. The swell, the tension, the quiet, the lift. Anything that could carry emotion could carry sensation.

For me, sound was never just a backdrop. Sound created emotion. Sound developed feeling and sensation.

So tuning E-Stim to the music I could listen to became the plan for the original ABox, and the Mk2 continues to carry that idea forward. I wanted something that felt closer to the music I could actually hear. Not memorised patterns or presets, and definitely none of those screechy modem noises that masquerade as stereostim tracks. Just sound in, and sensation out. I wanted to hear the music and feel it right to my core.

Why build the ABox?

The first ABox taught me what worked and what didn't. The Mk2 took it further.

Here's the part that matters most, and it's the thing a lot of people miss. The ABox and the ABox Mk2 are not sound triggered. They are sound driven. A sound triggered box waits for a noise and fires off a preset pulse, like a light flashing in time to music. The ABox does something different. It reads the actual waveform of the sound and turns the whole thing straight into sensation. When the music swells, you feel it swell. When it drops to a whisper, the output drops with it, and every rise and fall in between comes through just as it was played. It feels more direct because it is.

That idea drove our designs from the very start.

I wanted the unit smaller and lighter too. Nothing that shifts around or feels awkward in the hand. It ended up the same case size as our ElectroHelix, with more power than the original. I kept the controls simple on purpose. Complex controls just mean you spend more time fiddling than playing. So you get a couple of knobs and a couple of switches, and nothing that gets in your way once the session starts. We use knobs because they're tactile. See the theme running through all of this? It's all about sensation and feel. Even the design of the controls takes that into account.

The mic input is there because voice and ambient sound can change a session completely. Sometimes you want words to drive it, other times you'd rather let the room itself shape the output. The sensitivity knob and the LED level display make that easy to dial in. You watch the levels, you set them, you play.

The built in mixer handles stereo and mono without any fuss, so it copes with whatever source you plug in. The level display gives you feedback before anything ever reaches you.

Safety by Design

We kept the safety side solid, as always. The ABox runs on a single 9V battery, so there's no mains anywhere near you. The connection cables pull free if they're tugged, which instantly removes the voltage from the electrodes. It's built in the UK to the latest UK and EU safety standards, carries both CE and UKCA marks, and like every box we make, it's covered by our lifetime guarantee. Not the exciting side of design, I know. But it's the side that means your box lasts.

The Mk2 is the device I wanted back when I first started exploring music driven play. You pick a track you know. You lie back. You let the audio take over. The box follows the sound, and you follow the box.

How to choose your tracks

The key is to start with tracks you love. Music you actually enjoy listening to. I go for ones I know well, where I can predict the rise, the drop, and the quiet parts. I listen first. Then I connect the box, bring the level up slowly, and wait until the sensation lines up with the rhythm I'm expecting. Vocals can be really interesting too.

Then I try different moods, working through slow beats, heavy bass, soft vocals and bright percussion. Each one has its own character. Bass gives thick, rolling pulses. Sharp highs throw out little flicks, and vocals roll through as smooth waves. When a track really works, I note the levels and come back to it.

If you'd rather experiment with purpose made driver files as well, we host a free library of user contributed tracks over at e-stim.info/downloads/audio. They're built to drive the box rather than to listen to, so think of them as a different flavour of play rather than a replacement for your own music.

Positioning matters

Electrode position matters more than most people realise. The right placement can take a session from routine to genuinely mind blowing. Keep it simple to begin with, then experiment. Small changes make a big difference.

Going live with the mic

The mic input works like a live instrument. Speak a word. Clap once. Make a small sound and watch the LEDs respond. Turn the sensitivity knob until the display sits where you want it, then leave it alone. The line in gives you a more direct connection to a music source when you want it.

Start low, build up

Same advice as all E-Stim play. Always start low and build. Watch the peaks on the display, then raise the level just enough to match the track's natural range. A cleaner signal gives a cleaner sensation, and that's the whole point of the design. As ever, keep everything below the waist.

Sometimes I run a few tracks in sequence. One to warm up. One to settle into. One to wind down. The Mk2 reacts instantly, so changing the song changes the feel without touching a single menu. A session can last minutes or hours. Harsh or a slow tease. The choice, like your music, is entirely yours.

What about stereo stimming?

The ABox was never stereo stimming box in the traditional sense. It was never designed for the screeching tones and bleeps you get with dedicated stereo stim tracks. Honestly, those tracks sound like a 1990s modem dialling into AOL, and I get about the same level of enjoyment out of them. It feels like waiting for your email to download. That said, the ABox copes with a surprisingly wide range, so don't limit yourself. Experiment and see what it does.

ABox, ElectroPebble or 2B?

People ask how the ABox compares to the ElectroPebble, or even the 2B. The concept is shared. The execution isn't.

All three can generate sensation from sound, and so can the E-Stim Remote. The difference is in how they go about it. The 2B and the ElectroPebble are dual channel boxes that do plenty of other things besides audio. The ABox is single channel, and audio is all it does.

If you want two channels, more complexity, and more ways to fiddle, then consider the 2B. Its stereo mixer feeds both output channels, so you get more options, but equally more to play with. The ABox takes the other path. Single channel, audio only, nothing in your way. Is that a limitation? We don't see it that way. It's a deliberate choice. There's a purity to the ABox that electro play can lose once you start stacking up modes and menus and channels. It does one thing, and it does it beautifully. Because sometimes you just want to play.

It was never about the power

Here's the thing to understand about the ABox. It does audio, and audio sensation is the whole of it. It isn't a powerhouse, and it was never designed around the idea of more power. Too many people think e-stim is all about chasing more power.

Think about it like driving a car. If you run any E-Stim box flat out at maximum, foot to the floor, all you're going to do at some point is crash. You lose the nuance. You lose everything the musician and the composer put into the work when they created it. Their masterpiece becomes noise.

The ABox is the opposite of that. It's an extension of listening to real music, except now you can feel that music as well as hear it. Not just sound in your ears, but sensation, and emotion, running right through you.