OneOdio Focus A10 (Updated Version)

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Model: OneOdio Focus A10
Price: £69.99 Amazon UK
Website: OneOdio Focus Series
Review Reference: RC094

Manufacturer Specification:

• Brand: OneOdio
• Model: Focus A10
• Driver: 40mm Driver
• Impedance: 32Ω±15%
• Frequency response: 20 Hz–40 kHz
• Sensitivity: -42±3 dB
• Chipset: BES 2300
• Mic: 4 mics with ENC
• ANC: Up to 35dB Hybrid ANC
• Codecs: AAC, SBC
• Hi-Res Audio: Yes (Wired only)
• App Support: No
• Volume Control: Yes
• Multipoint Connectivity: Yes
• Headphone Weight: 295g
• Quick Charge: Yes - 2 hours from 5min
• Total Charge Time: 2 hours
• Playtime: Up to 40 hours (ANC+BT), up to 50 hours (BT only), up to 62 hours (ANC only)
• Bluetooth Range: 10m advertised
• Bluetooth: Bluetooth® 5.0
• Bluetooth Protocols: HFP 1.7 / A2DP 1.3 / AVRCP 1.5
• Water Resistance: Not listed

Includes:

1* OneOdio A10 Hybrid ANC Headphone,
1* EVA Carry Case
1* 3.55mm Audio Cable
1* Type C Charging Cable
1* User Manual

YouTube Review:



Introduction:

Welcome to the @regancipher review of OneOdio's over-ear hybrid ANC headphones, the upgraded for 2022 Focus A10. With the glut of TWS passing through the RC test bench, it has been a while since I've documented a review of a wired/wireless headphone here at Headfi - the last ones being the Soundcore Q series and Tronsmart Apollo Q10 - but the competitive price and impressive feature set definitely catch the eye with the A10, and with OneOdio being a specialist over-ear vendor, rather than a TWS manufacturer going off on a tangent, this has been a review I've been really looking forward to doing, having put the product rigorously through it's paces over the course of the last few weeks.

Buying an A10 today rather than when the first incarnation was released back in 2020 gives you a number of advantages, both cosmetic and under-the-hood. The shells have been upgraded to aluminum-feel, giving the product a more durable feel. ANC has been boosted to 35dB, taking advantage of both feed-forward and feed-back mics. Battery life has also seen a jump with a handy quick charge feature, and they can now be used in wired mode once the battery has run out. They are now capable of Hi-Res audio too (although only on wired), and all of these improvements have been facilitated with the deployment of the ever-reliable Bestechnic BES2300 chipset, used almost ubiquitously by audio tech vendors throughout 2022.

Unboxing

The unboxing experience with OneOdio certainly has a more premium feel than the price tag would suggest, with a robust cardboard 'gift box-style' enclosure housing the release and its accessories.



On the front, a striking depiction of the headphones is accompanied by the Hi-Res Audio and OneOdio logos in the corners, with the back listing the key parameters, what's in the box, and contact details for OneOdio's customer services. So far, so good.



In terms of accessories, you're getting pretty much everything you're going to need. The instruction manual is quite small, but it details very clearly using mostly diagrams what the LED status means, how the controls correspond to listening to music and taking calls, and how to toggle the different ANC modes. You're also getting a USB-C to A charge cable and an auxiliary 3.5mm jack cable, which enables the headphones to be used in wired mode. The cable is a little short, so you may not end up using this - I found it too short to use at my desk, at least.



A final addition to mention is the EVA case. Whilst it isn't anything fancy, it is certainly nice to receive one as part of the package. It comfortably stores your headphones and charge cables, with the OneOdio logo screen printed on the front. A pocket inside to hold the cables would have been nice, but it's a very minor quibble.

Design

First impressions of the A10 are very good - the headphones have a robust feel, without feeling too heavy, thanks to a combination of smart ergonomics and quality materials.

The headband on the top has a plastic exterior, with a very soft padding around the inside. The padding takes the thickness to around 20mm, which makes for a very comfortable fit, even allowing for receding patches on your crown if you, like me, are a suffering with the effects of old father time. The generous memory foam padding has plenty of give, and has not misshaped in any way since I've been testing them.



The plastic headband is reinforced by a thin aluminum insert, and this insert slides back and forth to ensure you get the desired fit. This extends to an extra 35-40mm either side, which gives the profile ample customisation to suit heads of any size, and the teeth hold it in place very securely. I would say my head is larger than average size, but I don't really need to extend the band too far. The OneOdio logo is screen printed on top, looking quite subtle - the absence of any overt branding on the A10 is one of the highlights for us minimalists.



The inside of the cups is not the biggest, but not the smallest. measuring around 68mm lengthways, with a width of 40mm which extends to around 48mm. It's just about big enough for my wider-than-average ears, falling a little short of the spacious Soundcore Q series, which give you an extra approx. 5mm in the width, but even so, I didn't notice any discomfort when used for a prolonged period of time. If you do have larger ears, I'd recommend to test them out first. The protein cushions on the ears, like the headband, are very soft, spreading quite nicely, but not too thin.



The profile of the headphone is narrower than many of the ones I've tested, more in-line with the contours of your head. Thankfully, it isn't as narrow as the borderline pokey 1More Sonoflow, and looks a lot less overt than the protruding Soundcore Q35 - again, adding to the sleek nature of the minimalist design. The clamping force is low to medium - this has advantages and disadvantages.



The fit is very comfortable and the look is very subtle as far as over-ears go - I found myself only making occasional micro-adjustments, and the low clamping force means your ears won't get too sweaty, which is always a big bonus, but on the flip side it can occasionally result in some sound leakage, and comfort is optimised over noise reduction. It means that the A10 are better suited to casual listening and the daily commute over exercise, where excessive motion can result in the headphones moving around quite a bit - you'll be fine with a dash to make the train, but I wouldn't run 10km in them.

The headphones fold, twist and tilt, and everything snaps into place securely and satisfyingly. The hinges which allow the headphones to fold up quite compact have a robust feel to them, and they should, since they are reinforced with aluminum alloy. There is no squeaking, and unlike some of their competitors, they don't sound like they're going to snap in two when they lock in place. The cups can rotate more than 90 degrees, which is always nice to see, although the tilt range is quite limited, and this area is predominantly made out of plastic in order to keep the weight displacement at the optimal areas.



The exterior edges to the cups are finished in black plastic, with Rolex Daytona-esque concentric circles surrounding the OneOdio logo. It is a very subtle, very attractive look, that contrasts well with the charcoal grey 'aluminum-look-and-feel' main body, and it is this combination that gives the A10 a little character, allowing it to stand out a little from the almost unavoidable generic look that designing a set of headphones dictates, giving it fair durability whilst not compromising comfort nor portability.



The controls are intuitive and responsive - my natural inclination was to reach for the main body, but they are located on the bottom of the subsection of the cup which juts out, which is precisely where you would locate them if you were designing these from scratch! Most of the grunt work is done on your right ear, with the volume up and down buttons sitting either side of the main MFB. The volume buttons double up as track back and forward respectively (although I feel like the + and - buttons should probably be the other way around in terms of their positioning), and the MFB switches the headphones on, acts as play/pause, and hails voice assistant when double tapped. There is a good contrast to the tactile feel of each button, which helps you remember which is which.

You've also got the 3.5mm jack socket located here, at the front for easy access. On the left cup, you've got the USB-C socket for charging the headphones at the front, and behind it the ANC button. Pressing this toggles the modes between ANC on and off and Transparency. Sometimes it can take a little while to register, and it seemed to me like you have to select your ANC mode before inserting the cable if you want to use ANC in wired mode, but otherwise the buttons are fine - controls sit in a reasonably intuitive array and are responsive and tactile, and with ANC, you get a voice telling you which mode you've selected, which is extremely welcome.

Audio & Sound Signature

Onto the audio, and as you can see from the graph, OneOdio have gone with a very upper-mid-centric 'monitor-style' tuning which favours a clean, lean sound signature, giving prominence to female vocals and instruments with a very gentle and lightweight lower frequency response.

The A10 have a very natural, fresh tonality and head stage, with good width and depth. The focus on the midrange, with a recessed lower frequency response permits a perceived sense of depth and positioning, and allows for good separation - it's easy to separate instruments and locate exactly where they are around you. I tested with a number of different genres and found imaging to be very accurate throughout. Despite the clean nature to the sound signature, trebles are not too bright - there's texture and finesse to tams, shakers and cymbals, without ever sounding shrill or edgy.

Whilst the graph gives the impression of a deep recess in the bass, that doesn't detract from the lower frequency response altogether. There's a gentle rumble to the subbass on 'Gecko' by Oliver Heldens and 'Break Up With Your Girlfriend' by Arianna Grande that will certainly satisfy those with a preference for a more neutral sound signature, but they definitely aren't for bassheads - if you like a relentless rumble, then they probably aren't for you. That said, I adjusted the bass quite a bit through Wavelet and saw no distortion at all, so if you really do want more grunt to your subbass it is possible to tweak them to your liking.

The timbre is on the colder side of natural, and this works well with most music styles, especially electronic 80's & 90's from the likes of Tears for Fears and Seal. Switching ANC on/off doesn't have a huge impact on the sound in the way we often see it tightening the sound up on TWS. Using the headphones in wired over wireless gives you the benefit of Hi-Res Audio, and for me I did notice an upturn in the sound when plugging a cable in. Everything feels a little tighter, and the volume seems a little quieter, so you may have to crank it up a little louder.

For me, the A10 are a pleasant listen, with good detail and adequate resolution - it's a shame there's no app for users to tweak the sound to their own personal preference, and hopefully this will come in time, at least for iPhone users who don't have the benefit of Wavelet to call upon.

Active Noise Cancellation

ANC on this model negates up to 35dB of environmental sound, which on paper, is comparable to the other pretenders to the sub £100 crown. I find that with most headphones, the efficacy is very much more dependent on the fit than the documented dB level - if you can get a good seal with your ears, that's more than half the battle. That said, even though the fit on the A10 isn't tight against your ears, they still achieve very good results.

With ANC on, low rumbling sounds are handled effortlessly. Indoors, air conditioning units and nearby traffic see sizeable reductions, and keyboard taps, whilst not eradicated altogether, are reduced from a click to a tap. Nearby conversations are more difficult for headphones to handle, and unsurprisingly this is the limit to how effective the A10 are too. To date, the Sony WH-1000XM4 are the undisputed champion in this area, with others struggling to compete. I'd say the A10 perform around about on par with the Soundcore Space Q45 and a little better than the 1More Sonoflow and Tronsmart Apollo Q10.

Outdoors, the A10 don't quite perform as strongly. This is one area where earbuds tend to perform better than headphones, unless the headphones were engineered predominantly with strong ANC in mind, like the XM4. Whilst traffic and environmental sounds are comfortably muted, they don't disappear altogether. Wind noise is a particular Achilles heel for the A10, with strong gusts reverberating around the back of the cups. I took a two hour walk through a variety of scenarios today, and the A10 certainly didn't let me down at all, but if you are expecting or hoping for noise to be removed altogether, it's worth keeping a check on expectations - the A10 are £70, multi-purpose headphones i.e. they have to satisfy the lion's share of users. Whilst the ANC is still punching above it's weight, and will be more than satisfactory for the average user, it doesn't give you the feeling of jawache or vertigo like the XM4 have reportedly done for many users. And that's unquestionably a good thing.

Transparency mode is adequate, but can make your own voice sound a little raspy in your own ears, and whilst there is only a minor amount of static noise that wasn't enough to bother me, it may not be to everyone's liking. It handles mid-distance conversations well, but any further and it may struggle - if someone is shouting at you from the other side of the room, you'll probably hear it, but you may not be able to decipher every word.

Call Quality

The A10 handle voice calls pretty well. Indoors, your voice comes across clearly and with good tone and articulation. Introduce some light background noise, and the ENC kicks in, trying to reduce it, and at least dulling noise where possible to a crackle. If you're in a busy office or school or college corridor, as expected, the A10 like most headphones and earbuds is less successful at negating the noise altogether, but you'll almost certainly find your voice is elevated sufficiently that a call is not insurmountable.

Outdoors, it's a similar story - in relatively sterile environments, your calls will be fine, but add wind and traffic to the mix, and dealing with multiple sources of obfuscation is more challenging. Even so, considering there are no stems, calls are certainly doable - a very credible attempt.

Battery Life

Battery life is one of the highlights of the Focus A10, with the 40 hours playtime with ANC on and fast charge feature providing two hour's worth of playtime from five minutes juice comparing favourably with the likes of the Soundcore Q series. The ability to plug a 3.5mm cable into the jack and continue to use the headphones, firstly to save battery (you can still use ANC+wired and get up to 62 hours) and secondly to just keep using them after the battery has run out altogether, is a big bonus.

On the first round of battery life, I've used around 15 hours playtime and lots of calls, and I'm still at 60%, so the 40 hour mark seems an accurate representation so far.

Connectivity & Other Features

The A10 use the industry-standard BES2300 chipset, which we've seen in the Soundcore Q Series, 1More Comfobuds Pro and a number of other high profile releases across 2022. Whilst it is only capable of Bluetooth 5.0, I didn't experience any issues with stability of signal, topping out at around 10m line of sight, even using multipoint.

The 2300 chipset allows for support of AAC and SBC - there's no LDAC support sadly, but it's possible to meet the Hi-Res Standard (as we mentioned previously) by using the headphones in wired mode.

Multipoint connectivity is always a bonus. I was able to connect to two simultaneous devices without any issue. Whilst I haven't tried the headphones out for any serious gaming, latency on videos is pretty much lip synchronised.

Summary

OneOdio's decision to return to the A10 and give it a revamp for 2022/23 seems to have paid dividends, with a solid update to the A10 that fares comparatively well with the competition in this congested price category. The comfortable ergonomics, good build quality and smart aesthetics that categorised the original have been carried over into the new model, and the upturn in sound, ANC and call quality are all welcome improvements. Battery life is also very good, and the quick charge feature is another pleasing inclusion. The result is a very competitively priced set of headphones that do all the basics very well, with sound in particular a highlight in this competitive sub-£100 category, avoiding the bloated v-shaped profiles that plague the majority of releases in this price category.

There are a few omissions and areas of improvement - app support being the main one, ANC could be a little stronger, transparency mode could be a little more natural, and arguably the +- button orientation would have been better the other way around, but these are very minor quibbles, and there's nothing stopping OneOdio from adding app support in the future - fingers crossed!

So a very solid attempt, and if you're in the market for a set of wired/wireless hybrid ANC headphones on a budget, the A10 are a sound option, especially at the current price of £69.99 here in the UK.

Price Weighted Score: 85%
Raw Score: 81%

About OneOdio

At OneOdio, everything revolves around excellent sound, tapping the visceral power of music for all. We have infused decades of experience and passion into creating music to life. Fueled by cutting-edge tech and unwavering passion for quality, we create high-end headphones and audio equipment designed to elevate your listening experience. So far we have firmly planted the OneOdio flag in the DJ, Monitor, ANC and HIFI industries. Besides, we are also devoted to the high-tech consumer electronics industry-sports open earbuds.

OneOdio have successfully branched into different product areas - now adding microphones and sports headphones to their portfolio, and this outward product development looks set to continue strongly into 2023.