Introduction
Getting a pair of ear-cover headphones becomes particularly important as the weather turns cold. Not only do your ears feel warm, but the headset also offers a moment of peace in the chaos. In this artcle, I found a budget option that comes with pretty decent performance – the OneOdio Focus A5. It attactive me first with a stylish appearance, and then excellent sound quality and a comfortable wearing experience help me decide to turn it into a review. It could be your good companion in the winter, whether on your commute or in a noisy workfield. Enjoying a good experience in music is always the correct thing to do, more importantly, at a budget cost.
For Amazon US, use promotion code “FOCUSA5PRO” to get 10% OFF, stackable with the page discount (Valid until Dec. 31).
For Amazon UK, use code ‘PDLQERWD’ to get 10% OFF, also stackable with the page discount (Valid until Dec. 31).
If buy the headset from OneOdio shop, the code ‘XMKGFG’ to get 20% OFF will be a good option.
Design
OneOdio’s consumer products have not been very well-known actually, they are more known for designing and manufacturing monitoring headphones in professional niches, and the A5 is their second product in the wider consumer market.
From the three logos on the packaging, we can see that the A5 has excellent hardware. Get Hi-Res certified, requires the devices to receive high-spec audio data and support a wider frequency response range.
This headphone not only supports conventional AAC and SBC but also supports the lossless digital audio codec LDAC. It thanks to Bluetooth’s lossless audio transmission protocol, which has better compatibility with phones with Qualcomm or MediaTek chips. However, on PCs and iPhones, they only support AAC.
But if you want to use this high-spec audio transmission, there is another way – by plugging in a cable . Through a USB-C cable, the A5 can be transformed into a USB sound card, and then you can select your desired high-quality audio output mode in the output settings.
When I received these headphones, I found that they looked quite similar to SONY, to be honest. However, when I look at them closely, there are still some significant differences.
I believe the button controls are better. I have always hated headphones that use touch control as they are too easy to be accidentally triggered.
The OneOdio Focus A5 uses a lot of physical buttons, and I can easily understand what button I am pressing, and whether it has been pressed based on the feedback. But I think one thing that is not so good here is that these buttons and interfaces are too close together. If I use them wired, it will conflict with the USB-C.
Experience
The thing I do most with headphones is for video editing, while wired headphones generally is the first option. Most wireless headphones would bring some perceptable sound latency, especially when checking the audio correct alligning with the images. If this only happens in editing, it’s not a big deal. But if it happens during gaming, the delay can be fatal. But surprisingly, the OneOdio is usable for both with a gaming mode, though the sound quality could be shift to a less stunning level.
After long pressing to enable ANC and switch to a gaming mode, I could feel that the delay got reduced. So after that, I shift the wired options to the Focus A5 with this mode on, a lot, no matter for relaxing gaming or video editing. But it may still cause confusion when gaming like Call of Duty and PUBG, as these games require super fast response for battle.
And the gaming mode comes at a cost. Please note enabling gaming mode will use a lossy encoding format to transmit audio. However, if you want to retain sound quality, you can use a USB-C cable to connect to your computer and turn it into a wired headset.
Almost all headphones for now always come with ANC regardless of the price. First I thought that the ANC on headphones in this price range would be also ‘cheap’. But after careful comparison, I found that the ANC on this headphone is not bad. It can easily filter out the surrounding and even noise such as rustle of rain outside the window. That feels good, at least it really helps me focus on my work.
This headphone has a 600mAh battery, which is only an average level compared to other mainstream ear-covered headphones on the market. But there’s one story I should share here. I forgot to turn off the computer and the headphones for once, and they just kept playing music. When I came to the studio the next day, I was surprised to find that the headphones were still playing music with a significant battery percentage left. Not sure it’s some sort of illusion: the headphones’ battery life could last longer compared to the TWS headsets I’ve tried for the few months.
The first time I used these headphones, I wasn’t listening to music but watching Mad Max. There are a lot of engine roars in that movie, with these headphones, it feels like I was watching a movie in a cinema. However, when listening to music, the low-frequency performance is a bit too much, but after shaping the sound with an equalizer, the performance becomes much better, especially in the mid and high tones.
Conclusion
To be honest, I am not an audio enthusiast, but the performance of this headphone is impressive, especially after shaping the sound with the equalizer. They did not remove the wired connection like most headphones but replaced the 3.5mm with a more widely-used USB-C port. I have tried it with Android, iPhone, PC, and Mac, all of which are functional well.
In summary, its performance and price are well balanced, or even bring you a surprise. If you want to know more about them, it’s informative to check it out on OneOdio shop or their Amazon shop. And during sale season, the headphone is available with using codes to get discount. Again, check the buttons down below.
