In the last year I’ve covered a dearth of different headsets, headphones and earbuds. One of the clear highlights has been Noble’s Fokus Apollo, one of the best-sounding pairs of headphones I’ve ever put on my head. Their latest, the Noble Fokus Amadeus, have a certain weight of expectation behind them then, and I had to wonder whether they could repeat the same trick with a pair of wireless earbuds. The answer is an emphatic ‘yes’, though, as with their other offerings, this sits well towards the premium end of the market.
In the box, you’re getting the Fokus Amadeus earbuds, a 42-hour charging case, USB-C to USB-A charging cable and a selection of eartips. On first impressions, the Fokus Amadeus are certainly eye-catching, with the bright red jewel-like design of each earbud an immediate visual highlight, and one which ensures that they’re not going to be mistaken for one of those boring bland earbuds everyone else is wearing. Everything feels like an event with the Amadeus, and every visual detail has been covered, right down to the Noble logo on the tiny metal speaker grilles.
Detaching the foam tips, it’s apparent that they’re a slight touch heavier and more substantial than some wireless earbuds you might own, though they’re only a spot larger than Sony’s WF-1000XM5, and smaller than the older XM4s. They feel rock solid, and the design and build quality reflect the premium price point.
The red jewel design is mirrored by the metal lid of the case, but this feels thin and lightweight in comparison to the earbuds themselves. It doesn’t scream quality, though the rest of the case is solid enough, but it’s a chunky thing to drop into your pocket, being considerably thicker than the case for the AirPods Pro 2 and the elongated case for the Bose Sport Earbuds that I also carry around with me – you might think I have too many earbuds considering I only have two ears, but I would disagree. It’s not huge – we’re not talking anything like the enormous Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 case – but it’ll definitely put a lump in your pocket. I took to chucking them in my bag.
The Fokus Amadeus is equipped with Bluetooth 5.4 and Active Noise Cancellation, boasting a battery life of 8 hours with it enabled, and 12 without. That’s right around the ballpark of other premium wireless earbuds, such as the newly announced AirPods Pro 3 or the Sony WF-1000XM5. It’s going to last you a whole day at work then, and with the 42hrs of charge from the case they’re a solid companion that’s unlikely to let you down when you’re ready to block out the world.
There’s a set of six different ear tips, with three standard tips, and three with dual fins for a tighter fit. The Fokus Amadeus need a twist into your ear to sit properly, and while I had no problem at all with the fit in my right ear, I had to test a few different tips to get my left ear to feel as solid as its partner. In the end, and in a first for me, I used a smaller eartip in one ear over the other, before finally opting for the largest pair of dual tips. It’s well worth taking the time to find the best ones, because the Fokus Amadeus reward you for your perseverance, but this is a pair of earbuds with a particularly pernickety fit.
Thankfully, the touch controls aren’t as fussy, and while I do prefer swiping for volume rather than repeated taps, I soon got used to using the left earbud for volume and toggling ANC while the right looks after your music controls and Siri/Gemini. The most impressive thing is that they all work relatively reliably.
The accompanying Noble Fokus app includes Audio presonalisation, which means you get a hearing test before it provides you with a bespoke EQ setting for your ears. I have to say, I didn’t particularly like the curve it gave me for the lower frequencies, but the top end was definitely improved by its tinkering. You can, of course, completely override whatever it suggests, and though there’s a disappointingly slim selection of genre-specific EQs, you can completely customise the EQ so that it fits exactly where you want it to, with both a 10-band option, and an easy-to-parse three-point one.
The Fokus Amadeus is capable of dealing with most modern Bluetooth codecs, including two of the highest bitrate offerings we currently have access to – if your device supports them. I was interested to discover that my new Honor Magic V5 defaulted to using AptX Adaptive at first, before then more commonly connecting via LDAC. Both of these offer high-bitrate connections, and while you might find more detail with LDAC, AptX Adaptive offers lower latency, which might suit you if you’re going to do a spot of mobile gaming along the way. If you’re an Apple user, you’re going to be stuck to AAC or SBC, so you won’t be getting the best out of them at all.
With lossless audio, the Fokus Amadeus sound stunning. The amount of detail their custom-made triple-layer diaphragm drivers are capable of reproducing will make you wonder just how much you’ve been missing listening to music elsewhere.
While I did eventually check out Falco’s Rock Me Amadeus sounded with these earbuds – you’d have to, wouldn’t you? – it fell to my current heavy rotation track, Specter by Bad Omens, to really put the Amadeus through its paces. This soaring slab of emotional metal opens with plaintive piano and a host of reverb that the Fokus Amadeus picks through with care, creating an enveloping soundscape that brings Noah Sebastien’s vocals to the fore, grasping every nuance of this melancholy opening before ripping it apart with chugging guitars and heavy beats. If you’ve got the fit right, I love the rounded and well-balanced bass delivery here, but it’s almost too easy for an earbud to slip out of that sweet spot. My most enjoyable listening sessions with the Fokus Amadeus were static, at home.
I’ve got a full playlist of songs I like to use to review headphones and headsets, and after playing some Death Stranding 2, I’ve found myself drawn back to the music from the first game. That means that Don’t Be So Serious by Low Roar stood out as one I had to try out with the Fokus Amadeus, and its multiple instrumentation types and multi-layered soundscape were an ideal fit. The earbuds’ wide soundstage made it feel as though there was plenty of room for each different instrument, and the precision of the Fokus Amadeus meant you could pick out and focus on each part, even in a busy environment. Seriously, there were elements of this song I’d never heard before that the Amadeus brought out.
It’s all aided by the inclusion of active noise cancellation. It does a good job of removing background sounds from your listening experience, even if it’s not quite as powerful as the ANC you’ll find in Sony and Bose’s top-tier audio products. A recent train journey was ably dimmed, allowing the music and the odd episode of Kaiju No.8 to shine through, while walking around town with an audiobook cranked up proved that the Amadeus was capable of more than just delivering excellent audio.
At $320/£279.99, the Fokus Amadeus are putting themselves right amongst the world’s priciest earbuds, and in terms of audio and build quality they absolutely deserve to be there. However, their fit remained idiosyncratic throughout my time with them, something which I’ve never struggled with while using the Sony WF-1000XM5s and AirPods Pro 2s. If you’re looking for the best ANC though, then you’re going to want the Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds, which tune out the world to an incredible degree.
