I don’t review a lot of $650 headphones. That’s because most audio companies sell their top-of-the-line gear around $300-$400. Noble Audio isn’t like most companies. The FoKus Rex5 earbuds, for example, cram in five separate drivers where much of the competition uses two at the most. Noble was also among the first to employ xMEMS drivers in wireless earbuds in a bid to improve bass performance.
Enter the FoKus Apollo, a $649 pair of active noise canceling (ANC) headphones with a detachable boom mic and up to 80 hours of battery life. The real star of the show is the driver setup, which Noble says is the first time this configuration appears in wireless headphones. The company is once again on a quest for the absolute best sound quality, but it may sacrifice a little too much along the way.
Sound quality is the main attraction
Noble Audio’s proposition is simple: the “world’s first” headphones that offer a hybrid speaker pairing of a 40mm dynamic driver with a 14.5mm planar magnetic driver. A dynamic driver is nothing new for a set of cans, but adding the latter makes the FoKus Apollo’s audio setup unique. For the uninitiated, planar magnetic drivers have a thin, flat diaphragm that typically offers a wider, more immersive soundstage and enhanced detail compared to dynamic drivers. Planar magnetic drivers are typically reserved for audiophile-grade headphones since they’re larger and more fragile.
With the FoKus Apollo, Noble capitalized on the best of both worlds for the stock tuning. You get the bass power of a dynamic driver with the clarity of a planar magnetic driver. Since planar magnetic units can’t move enough air for the robust bass that most of us crave, and as dynamic drivers are limited with mid- and high-range details, the company argues it has created the optimal solution.
From the first second of the first song, I could tell the FoKus Apollo was built differently. The addition of planar magnetic drivers offers the most bass-heavy genres an almost absurd amount of detail. Albums like Spiritbox’s Tsunami Sea that lack clarity on other headphones greatly benefit from the treble boost, serving up more nuance in the guitar riffs and texture in the kick drum blasts. The FoKus Apollo also excels with mellow styles, allowing you to hear every bit of sound coming from the acoustic guitars, banjo, bass and more on Julien Baker & TORRES’ “Sugar in the Tank.” Going from most over-ear headphones to the FoKus Apollo is like going from standard music streaming to vinyl. And I don’t think that’s hyperbole.
FoKus Apollo in-use: ANC, battery life and more
A pair of $649 ANC headphones better damn well provide some decent noise cancellation, even if you’re primarily buying them for the audio performance. Noble opted for a hybrid ANC setup with three microphones on each side and a Qualcomm QCC3084 chip. That processor provides the necessary digital signal processing (DSP) and algorithms to reduce background distractions.
Like a lot of ANC headphones, the FoKus Apollo struggles with voices. That means any hopes of silencing a chatty colleague won’t pan out. However, the headphones do a solid job with constant noise sources — fans, appliances, noise machines, etc. — so they do offer some relief. The noise-blocking prowess isn’t as good as the likes of Bose, but I found ample room to focus during my test sessions. While the ANC here isn’t among the best, it’s perfectly serviceable in most environments.
Noble promises a whopping 60 hours of battery life with ANC enabled, with another 20 hours of use if you turn it off. I found that those figures hold true during my time with the FoKus Apollo. After 30 hours of music, podcasts and work calls with noise cancellation active, the headphones still had 57 percent battery remaining — tracking slightly better than the company’s stated numbers.
The Fokus Apollo comes with all the accessories you’d ever need right in the box. Noble includes a detachable boom mic, 3.5mm to 4.4mm adapter, two-prong airline adapter, USB-C cable and 3.5mm aux cable. The headphones can be used with either of those two cords, and the company recommends you do so when employing the microphone for optimal voice quality.
If you’re planning to use the Fokus Apollo for calls, you can expect mixed results. In quiet spaces with little echo, you’ll sound good enough for a professional presentation. When you move to a room with some natural reverb, the mics on these headphones pick that up a little too well. What’s more, they’re not great at blocking background sounds, as fans, white noise machines and raucous appliances were all clearly heard on the other end during my tests.
Design that matches the sound
The FoKus Apollo is really expensive, so Noble couldn’t just give us a set of headphones built mostly out of plastic and call it a day. Thankfully, the company chose a mix of anodized aluminum, premium protein leather and a soft Alcantara headband. The leather-wrapped memory foam ear pads are replaceable, which will extend the life of the headphones under heavy use. There’s also a nice textured cloth pattern on the outside of the ear cups and headband that provide both tactile and visual contrast.
Noble Audio provides physical controls on the FoKus Apollo, so you’ll never have to struggle with tap or touch gestures to make changes. On the right side, there’s a dedicated button for ANC modes (on, off and transparency) with a three-control array just below it. Here, the top and bottom buttons handle the volume and track adjustments while the center one is used for power, Bluetooth pairing, play/pause and to summon Google Assistant, Siri or some other virtual helper. On the left ear cup, a single slider allows you to mute all the microphones, even the boom when it’s attached, without reaching for your phone or keyboard.
The lack of advanced features
The FoKus Apollo is really only focused on the basics, so it doesn’t offer any of today’s advanced features. Heck, there aren’t even tools that have been on other sets for years — like wear detection. Although you’ll get support for Sony’s LDAC codec along with AAC, aptX, aptX HD and SBC, there’s no mention of Dolby Atmos or any form of spatial audio. You don’t find any discussion of adaptive audio or adaptive ANC that makes automatic adjustments to both overall sound and noise cancellation either.
Look, I’m well aware the premise here is pristine sound quality above all else. But at $649, which is $100 more than the AirPods Max by the way, I expect some degree of convenience that allows me to keep these headphones on for most of the day. Automatic pausing or wear detection should be standard at this price and it would be nice to have some additional sound/ANC options. I’m not picky about whether those are the automatic, adaptive type, or whether they’re settings I have to toggle on in the app. Just, please, give me something more than EQ adjustments when your sound out of the box is already incredible.
The competition
Once you hit $500 and above, you’ve surpassed what most companies charge for their flagship-level wireless headphones. You’re also in a price range where I’ve only reviewed a handful of models. If money is no object, the $699 Px8 from Bowers & Wilkins delivers excellent sound quality in a design that might be preferable to some folks (there’s at least multiple color options). Its ANC performance isn’t earth shattering either, and one of my biggest gripes with the company’s products is the lack of advanced features like the FoKus Apollo.
There’s also the AirPods Max and Dyson On-Trac, but neither of those are easy to recommend. Apple’s over-ear headphones have barely been updated since they arrived in 2020, except for an upgrade to USB-C and the upcoming addition of lossless audio. Dyson’s headphones have long battery life and a unique design, but they didn’t impress me sound-wise, have average ANC performance and lack the modern features I expect for $500.
I also need to mention Master & Dynamic’s MW75 in the over-$500 discussion. If you’re after high-end looks, no other company consistently nails its trademark aesthetic like M&D. True to its lineage, the company pairs leather and metal on these headphones, along with tempered glass panels on the outside of the earcups. I’ve always enjoyed the balance of M&D’s stock tuning and the ANC performance is solid. You won’t get any advanced features here either, but like the Px8, there are multiple color options if you’re after something other than Noble’s black and silver paint scheme.
Wrap-up
I have no doubts there are a lot of people that will thoroughly enjoy the FoKus Apollo. If you crave the absolute best sound quality on the market, these headphones are the best I’ve tested in that regard. For me, to pay $649 I expect more in terms of features. The first item would be better ANC performance, but I don’t feel like spatial audio support and wear detection are too much to ask. Even without any of that, you do get a novel driver setup that produces some ridiculously detailed sound across diverse genres.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/noble-audio-fokus-apollo-review-the-high-price-of-pristine-audio-141521043.html?src=rss
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