Marital Aid Test Kitchen: The Way Out Sounds Of The Hegar Sound Set

We are better people when we don't, upon hearing a close friend's sexual fetish, do a spit take (unless our friend gets off on spit takes). That is why we approached this Hegar Sound Set with respect and fascination.

The sound fetish, in which rods of increasing circumference are inserted into the urethra, vagina, or anus of a (willing) participant with the aim of particularly stimulating them, can be the sole, main, or appetizer course in a night of medical fetish play.

As with all equipment (note I don't say toys) for serious fetish enthusiasts, the Hegar Sound Set comes in no-bullshit packaging, and in a sound session I watched, each stainless steel "sound" was carefully and ritualistically removed from its velvet packaging before being heated, cooled, or inserted raw into its new fleshly packaging.

"I had no idea one could orgasm from that type of play," says fetish model, director, and dominatrix Julie Simone. "My initial reaction was surprise and intrigue.  It was cool to feel the metal rod inside the sub's cock and to feel it getting harder not just from the metal, but from the sensation."

To "sound" is a nautical term meaning to test the depth of a body of water. Over time the idea of sounding has come to mean experimenting with an object's capacity. These urethral dilators, or medical sounds, are an example of real-world objects being recognized for their sexual uses, like the way I use this Ikea Poang chair whenever you and I are together.

S&M director Jimmy Broadway says that sound play is a true partnership between the dom and sub.

"It can be as intimate as a real fucking, or it can be done cold and clinical," he says, and describes the feeling as "you are being fucked - your pee hole becomes a miniature vagina and the sound is a little steel dildo."

These substantial devices (the set of eight pieces weighs a couple of pounds, and even the thinnest sound is a gracefully bent but rigid piece of equipment) seem just a bit more menacing than even the cruelest dungeon whip, but enthusiasts swear by them.

"I love the feel of cold hard metal in my hands," says Simone. "I love that I am doing something that most men would never let someone do to them and that the person I'm doing it to loves it. I like the way the person's breathing changes once [the dilator is] inserted and seeing and feeling the cock get hard as the metal is worked in and out, stimulating from the inside."

As with all marital aids, make sure you are mentally and physically prepared for the experience and that your equipment is sterilized, lest you become sterilized yourself.

· Buy the Hegar Sound Set (erosboutique.com)