Reseña de Noble Audio Fokus Apollo: Precio alto para un audio limpio

I don’t review many $650 headphones. This is because most audio companies sell their top-of-the-line equipment around $300-400. Noble Audio is not like most companies. The Fokus Rex5 headphones, for example, feature five separate drivers, whereas much of the competition uses a maximum of two. Noble was also one of the first to employ Xmems drivers in wireless earbuds, aiming to improve bass performance.

Enter the Fokus Apollo, a pair of active noise-canceling headphones priced at $649 with a detachable boom microphone and up to 80 hours of battery life. The real star of the show is the driver setup, which Noble claims is the first time this configuration has appeared in wireless headphones. The company is once again aiming for the best sound quality, but it may be sacrificing too much along the way.

The sound quality is the main attraction

Noble Audio’s proposition is simple: high-end headphones that offer a hybrid speaker setup of a 40mm dynamic driver with a 14.5mm flat magnetic driver. While a dynamic driver is not new for a set of cans, adding the latter makes the audio setup of the Fokus Apollo unique. For those unfamiliar with flat magnetic drivers, they have a thin and flat diaphragm, which typically provides a wider and more immersive soundstage and enhanced details compared to dynamic drivers. Flat magnetic drivers are usually reserved for high-quality audio headphones because they are larger and more fragile.

With the Fokus Apollo, Noble has combined the best of both worlds to regulate stocks. Get the powerful bass of a dynamic driver with the clarity of a flat magnetic driver. Since flat magnetic units cannot move enough air for the robust bass most of us want, and dynamic drivers are limited in mid and high-range details, the company claims to have created the optimal solution.

From the first second of the first song, you could tell that the Fokus Apollo was built differently. The addition of flat magnetic drivers offers the most challenging types of bass, an almost absurd amount of detail. Albums like Spiritbox’s «Tsunami» benefit greatly from the boost in highs, providing more shine in guitar riffs and texture in drum beats. The Fokus Apollo also excels in softer styles, allowing you to hear every sound coming from acoustic guitars, banjos, bass, and more in Julien Baker and Torres’ «Tank.» Transitioning from most over-ear headphones to the Fokus Apollo is like switching from standard music streaming to vinyl. And I don’t think this is hyperbole.

Fokus Apollo in use: ANC, battery life, and more

A $649 pair of headphones should offer decent noise cancellation, even if you’re buying them primarily for audio performance. Noble has opted for a hybrid ANC setup with three microphones on each side and a Qualcomm QUCC3084 chip. This processor provides the necessary digital signal processing (DSP) and algorithms to reduce background distractions.

Like many ANC headphones, the Fokus Apollo struggles with voices. This means any hope of silence when a colleague speaks. However, the headphones do a solid job with constant noise sources (fans, devices, road noise, etc.), providing some relief. The noise cancellation isn’t as good as Bose’s, but I found enough space to focus during my testing sessions. While ANC here isn’t among the best, it’s perfectly functional in most environments.

Noble promises battery life with ANC, with an additional 20 hours of use if you turn it off. I found these figures to be accurate in my time with the Fokus Apollo. After 30 hours of music, podcasts, and work calls with active noise cancellation, the remaining 57 percent lasted a bit better than the company’s stated numbers.

The Fokus Apollo comes with all the accessories you need in the box. Noble includes a detachable boom microphone, a 3.5mm to 4.4mm adapter, a dual-threshold air adapter, a USB-C cable, and a 3.5mm AUX. The headphones can be used with either of the two cables, and the company recommends doing so when using the microphone for optimal voice quality.

If you intend to use the Fokus Apollo for calls, you can expect mixed results. In quiet spaces with a slight echo, it will sound good enough for a professional presentation. When you move to a room with some natural reverberation, the microphones in these headphones pick it up too well. Additionally, they are not great at blocking out background sounds, as fans, white noise, and other devices were clearly audible on the other end during my tests.

Design that matches the sound

The Fokus Apollo is quite expensive, so Noble couldn’t just offer us a set of headphones made of plastic and call it a day. Fortunately, the company has opted for a mix of anodized aluminum, premium protein leather, and a soft white headband. The memory foam earpads wrapped in leather are replaceable, extending the headphones’ lifespan under heavy use. There is also a beautiful textured canvas pattern on the outside of the ear cups and headband, providing a tactile and visual contrast.

Noble Audio provides physical controls on the Fokus Apollo, so you never have to struggle with touch or gesture controls to make changes. On the right side, there is a dedicated button for ANC modes (on, off, and transparency) with three controls just below. Here, the top and bottom buttons manage volume and track settings, while the center is used for power, Bluetooth pairing, play/pause, and calling up Google Assistant, Siri, or other virtual assistants. On the left ear cup, a single slide allows you to switch all microphones, including the boom when connected, without reaching for your phone or keyboard.

Lack of advanced features

Fokus Apollo focuses only on the basics, so it doesn’t offer any of the advanced features available today. Heck, there aren’t even tools that have been in other sets for years, like wear detection. While you’ll get support for Sony’s LDAC codec with AAC, APTX, APTX HD, and SBC, Dolby Atmos is not mentioned, nor is any form of spatial audio. There is no discussion of adaptive or auto-adjusting ANC that makes automatic adjustments for both overall sound cancellation and noise.

Look, I’m well aware that the focus here is on clean sound quality above all. But at $649, which is $100 more than AirPods Max, by the way, I expect a certain level of comfort that allows me to wear these headphones for most of the day. Wear or break detection should be standard at this price, and it would be nice to have some additional sound/ANC options. I don’t care if they are automatic and adaptive types or if they are settings that have to be adjusted in the app. Just please give me a little more than EQ adjustments when your box is already amazing.

Competition

Once you reach $500 and above, you have exceeded what most companies perceive for their wireless headphones. You are also in a price range where I have only reviewed a handful of models. If money is no object, Bowers & Wilkins’ $699 PX8 offers excellent sound quality in a design that may be preferable for some people (there are at least more color options). Its ANC performance is also not earth-shattering, and one of my biggest gripes with the company’s products is the lack of advanced features like the Fokus Apollo.

There are also AirPods Max and Dyson in the mix, but neither is easy to recommend. Apple’s over-ear headphones have barely been updated since their arrival in 2020, except for a USB-C update and the future addition of lossless audio. Dyson’s headphones have long battery life and a unique design, but they haven’t impressed me sound-wise, have average ANC performance, and lack modern features I would expect for $500.

I also need to mention Master & Dynamic’s MW75 in the discussion of headphones over $500. If you value high-quality aesthetics, no other company consistently nails their brand’s aesthetic like M&D. True to their line, the company combines leather and metal in these headphones, along with off-the-beaten-path tempered glass panels. I’ve always liked the balance of M&D’s regular actions, and the ANC performance is solid. You won’t get any advanced features here, but, like the PX8, there are multiple color options if you’re looking for something beyond Noble’s black and silver paint scheme.

Wrap-up

I have no doubt that many people will thoroughly enjoy the Fokus Apollo. If you want the absolute best sound quality on the market, these headphones are the best I’ve tested in that regard. For me, paying $649, I expect more in terms of features. The first item would be better ANC performance, but I don’t think spatial audio support and wear detection are too much to ask for. Even without them, you get a driver setup that produces ridiculously detailed sound across various genres.

This article originally appeared on Engadget in. 

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