Noble FoKus Rex5 review: Incredible sound, if you’re willing to pay for it

$449 is a lot to pay for earbuds. When you consider the quality of the options at $100 and below, it may seem exorbitant. However, Noble Audio hasn’t just crafted another set of high-end wireless earbuds. The company is offering something unique on the FoKus Rex5: five drivers. Most earbuds have one or two, but Noble has put its in-ear monitor (IEM) expertise to work here, packing in a 10mm dynamic driver, a 6mm planar driver and three balanced armature drivers.

The result is absolutely incredible sound quality for a set of wireless earbuds. A wide, immersive soundstage surpasses every other set I’ve tested, and I’ve tested a lot of them. However, audio performance alone doesn’t make a complete product. There’s still battery life, active noise cancellation (ANC), customization and other features for Noble to contend with. And the company needs to check all the boxes to justify that price.

Design of the FoKus Rex5

The FoKus Rex5 earbuds are very green. From the charging case to the aluminum and acrylic housing, the company is dedicated to that hue on this model. Its gold accents won’t be for everyone either. The styling is akin to a set of IEMs, which Noble also makes in spades. If you’re looking for other colors from the company, the pricier FoKus Prestige ($599) will be available in black and blue when they’re back in stock.

Other than the color scheme and marbled acrylic shell, the FoKus Rex5 looks like standard earbuds — at least in terms of its shape. The rounded, triangular frame mimics a set of generic in-ear monitors and it fits well in the ear. Weight is nicely balanced too, with nothing sticking too far out from your head. This all leads to a secure, comfy fit that never becomes a burden, even after hours of constant use. Additionally, Noble includes nine sets of extra ear tips across three shapes in the box. One of those is foam instead of silicone, if you’re into that, and the diversity of the pack should help you find an ideal fit for your ears.

Software and features

All of the settings and features for the FoKus Rex5 reside in the Noble FoKus app. Here you’ll find battery percentages for each earbud, quick access to the personalized EQ, media controls and noise-cancellation toggles up front. On the right side, an expandable menu offers a 10-band EQ, EQ curve, personalized EQ and touch control settings.

Noble opted for Audiodo’s customizable sound software to power its Personal EQ feature. Like some of the competition, this tech takes you through a setup process to calibrate the audio to your hearing. The FoKus Rex5 has a Qualcomm QCC3091 chip inside that stores these custom profiles on the earbuds. This means that the audio tweaks stay with you on any device you pair to without having to download the app multiple times. Noble says Personal EQ works well for people with uneven hearing, offering balanced sound at the appropriate levels.

For me, the test determined that I needed a boost in the high frequency range, which raised the volume for vocals and guitars. I don’t love it. The stock tuning is a better blend of all the instruments and I prefer the balance of that mix. This doesn’t mean the feature won’t help you, it just means that you might want to keep the default settings rather than opt for Personal EQ.

The FoKus Rex5 is equipped with multipoint Bluetooth connectivity, which adds convenience to daily use. The earbuds seamlessly switched between my MacBook Pro and my iPhone whenever I got a call or started playing audio there. What you won’t find on the Rex5 is automatic pausing as the earbuds don’t have a proximity or wear sensor on the back side. Perhaps the company needed every millimeter for all of those drivers, but this is a handy feature that would have been great to have.

FoKus Rex5 sound quality

Billy Steele for Engadget

It’s amazing how much nuance five drivers will allow you to hear when listening to music. Noble says its driver array “effortlessly delivers rich, full bass, detailed mid-tones and crystal-clear highs,” and I found that to be true across a range of genres. Where most earbuds have a frequency range of 20Hz-20kHz, which is in line with the capabilities of the human ear, the FoKus Rex5 extends that a bit to 20Hz-40kHz. Am I confident that I can hear that extra high frequency? No. Does that impact my rating of the sound quality? Not at all.

I’m well aware that artists, producers and recording engineers make the decisions on how to split instruments on the left and right channels. But for the first time, I could clearly hear the separation in the guitars on songs like L.S. Dunes’ “I Can See It Now…” and across the entirety of Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit’s latest live album. There’s a sonic division on these earbuds that’s more segmented, yet everything still blends well for a great immersive sensation. It’s like you’re standing in the middle of the studio. You can hear that the lead guitar is situated to the right while the rhythm player is on the left. A lot of earbuds would smash them together.

There’s also minute detail in guitars, drums, vocals and more with the FoKus Rex5. You can hear the texture in the vocals on Julien Baker & TORRES’ “Sugar in the Tank,” and it sounds like you’re almost inside the acoustic guitar on that track. There are a number of flagship-quality earbuds that deliver fine details well, but I’ve never heard the level of subtlety that the FoKus Rex5 provides song after song. And the earbuds do so with a robust soundstage that, once again, envelops you like you’re standing in the middle of a performance rather than simply streaming tunes.

Noble offers support for aptX Adaptive and Sony’s LDAC codecs on the FoKus Rex5, in addition to SBC and AAC. I tested primarily with Apple Music, including a lot of albums in either lossless or Dolby Atmos. All of the songs from the service sounded incredible with these earbuds, although the crunchy, layered guitars on that L.S. Dunes record sounded particularly stunning (that album is Dolby Atmos, Lossless and Apple Digital Master).

ANC performance

Billy Steele for Engadget

Noble doesn’t go into too much detail about the ANC setup on the FoKus Rex5, other than saying the “sophisticated” tech “effectively minimizes external noise.” Unfortunately, that effectiveness is just average. The earbuds only dampen constant noise sources like fans and noise machines. And while they slightly lower the volume of human voices nearby, they suffer the same inefficacy as much of the competition there. Simply put, you’re not buying the FoKus Rex5 for the ANC performance, it’s the sound quality that’s the primary draw. But I’d argue you should have both if you’re spending $449.

Call quality on the FoKus Rex5

Call quality is another area Noble could improve. The FoKus Rex5 is usable for calls, but the audio performance is average at best. If you’re looking for something to use for virtual meetings, or any situation where you need to sound crystal clear, these earbuds aren’t a great option. What’s more, the ambient mode doesn’t beam your voice back through the buds on calls. I kept feeling like I was shouting just to hear myself during those chats.

Battery life

Noble promises up to five hours of listening time with ANC on, or up to seven hours without. What’s more, the company packed an extra 35-40 hours of use in the wireless charging case, which is longer than most of the competition can muster. There’s a 15-minute quick charge feature that will give you two hours of use as well.

During my tests, the FoKus Rex5 easily met the stated figures, and even went beyond them by about 30 minutes. Five hours of noise-canceling use is standard these days, but it’s nice to see that Noble delivered on this, even with the additional drivers and codec support.

The competition

In terms of sound quality, only Bowers & Wilkins’ Pi8 comes close to the pristine audio performance of the FoKus Rex5. Unfortunately, those earbuds don’t offer a complete package either. And at $399, they’re still a bigger investment compared to the likes of Bose, Sony and Sennheiser. You’ll get excellent sound on the Pi8, though the level of detail and separation isn’t on the level of the five-driver Rex5. ANC performance is slightly better, but still not robust, and there’s a lack of advanced features that are offered by much of the competition on products that cost less.

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