Sound Review by Kzw
Disclaimer:
Focus Audio has graciously provided us with this sample unit in exchange for an
honest review. The views discussed below are a reflection of Project A3's
thoughts surrounding the product. The sample has been run-in for at least
50 hours prior to reviewing in order to achieve an accurate representation of
the product.
Introduction:
On first mention, the name “Focus
Audio” doesn’t ring any bells, and that’s because it isn’t a prevalent name in
the portable-audio industry. Through the launch of 3 IEM variants with distinct
sound-signatures (Vocal,
EDM and Rythm), Focus Audio is attempting to test the waters in the
hyper-expansive IEM market filled to the brim with value propositions coming
out from both East and West. Priced at $169 USD, the Focus Vocal is a reasonably priced
product for a start-up.
Today, I’ll be reviewing the
“Vocal” variant of their current line-up. Featuring a dual cavity looped
dynamic driver, their debut IEM certainly carries both promise and potential.
But, will the Vocal be able to distinguish itself as the finest that chi-fi has
to offer?
Available for purchase at Taobao.
PROS
|
CONS
|
●
Impeccably
finished CNC’ed shells, with a satin finish
●
Comfortable
fit during long listening sessions
●
Luxurious
package
●
Smooth,
mid-centric sound signature
●
Vocal
clarity and sweet treble
|
● Only 1 color option to define 3
different models is confusing
● Soundstage and Imaging are average
|
Specifications:
●
Sensitivity: 105dB
●
Impedance: 16 ohms
●
Driver Configuration: 10.2mm high energy
magnetic tesla, double cavity moving coil element
●
Frequency Range: 5 Hz- 40 kHz
●
Plug Type: 3.5 MM
●
Interface: 0.78mm 2-pin
●
Cable Length: 1.2 m
Gear Used &
Tracklist:
Sony NW-A105 | Aune X1S | Periodic Audio Nickel (Ni) | Venture
Electronics Odyssey | Google Pixel 2XL
Genres
|
Artist
|
Songs
|
Live
Recordings
|
Diana
Krall
|
Desperado
(Live)
|
Natalia
Lafourcade
|
Soledad y
El Mar
|
|
Case Lang
Veirs
|
Atomic
Number
|
|
Depeche
Mode
|
Question
of Lust (Live 1998)
|
|
Instrumentals
|
Max
Richter
|
On the
Nature of Daylight
|
Santa
Esmeralda
|
Please
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
|
|
Nils
Frahm
|
Toilet
Brushes (Live)
|
|
Jazz
|
Bill
Evans
|
A Waltz
for Debbie
|
Chet
Baker
|
I'm a
Fool to Want You
|
|
Sons of
Kemet
|
Your
Queen is Harriet Tubman
|
|
Ryo Fukui
|
Scenery
|
|
Rock
|
Avenged
Sevenfold
|
Nightmare
|
The
Stooges
|
Down On
The Street
|
|
Avenged
Sevenfold
|
Unbound
(The Wild Ride)
|
|
Guns N’
Roses
|
Sweet
Child O’ Mine
|
|
Ozzy
Osbourne
|
Crazy
Train
|
|
Green Day
|
21 Guns
|
|
Classical
|
Niccolò
Paganini
|
La
Campanella (From Violin Concerto No.2 In B Minor)
|
Pyotr
Ilyich Tchaikovsky
|
The Year
1812 Solemn Overture
|
|
David
Arnold
|
Independence
Day
|
|
Pop
|
Hu
Yang-Lin (胡楊林)
|
Perfume
is poisonous (香水有毒)
|
Fish
Leong (梁靜茹)
|
Love Song
(情歌)
|
|
Western
Pop
|
Anamanaguchi
|
MEOW
|
Iamamiwhoami
|
Chasing
Kites
|
|
Algiers
|
Dispossession
|
|
New Order
|
Bizzare
Love Triangle (Extended Mix)
|
|
Marian
Hill
|
Breathe
Into Me
|
|
Tyler,
The Creator
|
EARFQUAKE
|
|
Tones and
I
|
Never
Seen the Rain
|
|
Red Hot
Chili Peppers
|
Around
the World
|
|
ACG
|
Saori
Hayami
|
オレンジミント (Orange Mint)
|
RADWIMPS
|
前前前世 (Zenzenzenzense)
|
|
RADWIMPS
|
スパークル(Sparkle)
|
|
DAOKO
|
Cinderella
Step
|
|
Kana
Hanazawa
|
恋愛サーキュレーション (Renai Circulation)
|
Unboxing:
Unlike its chi-fi counterparts
(in the sub $200 USD price range), the Focus Vocal comes packaged in a
gorgeous cardboard box, with an outer-sleeve adorned with a high quality
“cherry-blossom” print with the Focus logo (which looks like the sharp end of an
arrow) centered above it. Upon first glance, one could easily mistake this
offering to be substantially more expensive.
Upon unsheathing its outer sleeve
and lifting up its cardboard lid, you’ll be greeted by the IEM shells on the
left-hand side, tightly hugged by the surrounding foam-insert. On the right,
there’s an instruction manual written in English, detailing Focus Audio’s
corporate goals in boilerplate form, what is to be expected in the box and
after-sales service.
Below the top foam insert, lies
its grey leather case with a magnetic lip and several eartips (S,M,L) in grey
and white-silicon variants. The instruction manual doesn’t specify if the
color-coded tips alter the sound-signature.
Lastly, the twisted 2-core cable
can be found stuffed inside the interior of the grey leather case.
At $169 USD, you’d be
hard-pressed to find any faults with what is included in the box. Overall, a
complete offering from industry upstarts.
Fit:
The Focus Vocals carry a
unique design language that I’ve never across in other chi-fi brands.
Oftentimes, the universal adoption of hypo-allergenic acrylic shells while
streamlined, lacks any visual flair or distinctiveness. The CNC hexagon-shaped
shells with its bead-blasted, satin finish is sure to catch everyone’s
attention. That, and the smooth lacquer on the knurled wood faceplates. I have
to give praise where praise is due; Focus Audio has carved an aesthetic niche
for themselves.
However, comfort trumps
outer-appearances, and the Focus Vocal doesn’t fail to deliver in that
area either. Its milled shells lie nicely on the outer ear canal. Despite its
short nozzles/spouts, the Vocal achieves an excellent seal. The cables are
incredibly supple and malleable. It barely retains memory and any kinks are easily
unraveled with little to no conscious effort. Because of its flexible
sheathing, the cable wraps around the outer ear, its weight barely noticed.
A good old violent head-shake test
failed to displace the earphones from my ears. In addition, on my commute to
the city, the Vocal’s isolate well enough despite the pinhole-sized vent next
to the spout on each shell.
The Vocal’s are not a sight to
behold, but the excelling shape and fitment of the Vocal’s make it a great
long-listening companion.
Sound Sig:
The Focus Vocal is tuned to focus (no pun intended) on the
midrange as the star of the show. The midrange is blanketed by a “warm”
veil. Paired that with a sweet treble, and you have an earphone that allows
vocals to breathe freely.
Bass:
Bass on the Focus Vocal is relatively taut, with a
good following up of sub-bass that is neither thunderous nor over-zealous in
its presentation. However, there are moments where the sub-bass rumble carries
too much body.
On Denzel Curry’s Ricky (a track
no featured on the list), the voluminous bassline has a propensity to
drown out Denzel’s verses as the song progresses.
However, on many acoustic tracks such as Natalia Lafourcade’s Soledad Y El Mar, the string
sections juxtaposed by Natalia’s saccharine vocals are given enough weight and
low-end warmth to create a “cabin-like” atmosphere, favouring an
analogue-sounding timbre.
Mids:
As mentioned earlier, the midrange is its
outstanding feature. Focusing on even-harmonics instead of the coarse and
rough edges commonly associated with poorly mastered recordings, the Focus Vocals are forgiving and smooth in its presentation. Instead of
incisively replicating what is ascertained to be “accurate”, the Vocals favours
dynamism. Its midrange is sweet-sounding, with a slight emphasis on the
upper-mids. There is no harsh edges; they taper off early to avoid on-set
fatigue.
Vocals are placed at the
forefront of the entire mix, being the centerpiece of the frequency response.
On the track, Dispossession by Algiers, the lead vocalist’s
raspy voice is quickly smoothened out, masking the obvious imperfections and
embellishments in his voice.
Highs:
The Focus Vocals carry ample sonic details. However, do not
expect a high section that is overly extended. It has reasonable amounts of
air and sparkle without sacrificing tonal balance across the frequency
spectrum.
On Chasing
Kites by Iamamiwhoami, Jonna Lee’s diffuse sounding voice remains
well-extended alongside its throbbing bassline without being suppressed by its
punchy low-end.
However, the Focus Vocals
sound particularly exciting with several tracks. Beyond the upper-mids, the
Focus Vocals starts to show off its capabilities with “My Queen is Harriet Tubman” by Sons of Kemet. The
mix of soaring saxophones and booming tubas is easily presented by the Focus Vocals, with the lead saxophone carrying enough high-aggression and bite
for it to sound faithful to its original timbre.
Treble:
The treble can be surmised as such; sweet yet detailed. It
complements the goals that Focus Audio has set to achieve with this IEM. The
“HD650” midrange and treble response makes it a remarkably smooth IEM without
contravening on its ability to playback music with verve.
On Down
on the Street by the Stooges, the dynamically compressed cymbals are
notoriously sibilant. However, the Focus Vocals manage to quell the
sharp-ringing effect that reverberates throughout the record without completely
suppressing it.
Soundstage:
The soundstage on the Focus Vocals display decent horizontal
width. Instruments and vocal placements are well spread out across a flat
plane. However, the slightly clouded sub-bass does hamper its sound-staging
abilities.
With Santa
Esmeralda’s Please don’t let me misunderstood, the snappy interplay
between the blaring electric guitars and wobbly basslines muddles the
soundstage significantly. While the Focus Vocals do a good job in keeping
up, everything starts to sound funneled.
Separation:
Like the soundstage, the same could be said about its imaging prowess; its
well-separated on acoustic tracks, but it begins to sound conjoined when the
music’s tempo is increased tenfold.
On Amanaguchi’s
MEOW (a ridiculous, chiptune track), the enervating treble from the
bit-crushed “meows”, led by a mishmash of video game backing tracks again,
results in the Focus Vocal sounding alittle congested, making it noticeably
harder to pin-point vocals and instruments.
Musicality:
The Focus Vocals are a smooth yet engaging listen, pairing well
with acoustic tracks or songs rich in even-harmonic emphasis. Classical and
acoustic guitar or female vocals in the soprano range make for a beautiful
pairing with the Focus Vocals, which accentuates its characteristic
strengths.
Comparison:
The Focus Vocal is a
completely new product in the market. To put it in its paces, it is only fair
that we selected a few popular chi-fi offerings with dynamic driver
configurations for a fair, mono-e-mono battle.
We selected the Moondrop Kxxs and
the Tipsy Dunmer; two crowd favorites in the portable-audio community. This is
an all out chi-fi brawl.
Focus Vocal
|
Moondrop Kxxs
|
Tipsy Dunmer
|
Ibasso IT01s
|
|
$169 USD
|
$189 USD
|
$119 USD
|
$199 USD
|
|
Driver
Configuration
|
10.2mm
high energy magnetic Tesla Double Cavity Moving Coil Element
|
1 DLC Dynamic Driver
|
1 Graphene Dynamic driver
|
1 DLC-coated CNT Dynamic Driver
|
Mobile/Dongle
friendly |
Mobile/Dongle
friendly
|
Mobile/Dongle
Friendly
|
Mobile/Dongle
friendly |
|
Fitting
|
Snug and
lightweight
|
Snug but heavy
|
Snug and lightweight
|
Snug and lightweight
|
Comfort
|
Very Good
|
Good
|
Very Good
|
Good
|
Sound Signature
|
Warm,
Analogue mids with good detail retrieval
|
Mild V-Shape
|
Lower-mid warmth, with a smooth “analogue”
sound signature
|
V-Shape, almost neutral
|
Lows
|
Tight
mid-bass, slightly slubby sub-bass with longer sustain
|
Fast mid-bass but realistic sub-bass decay.
Slightly elevated bass response
|
Thick mid-bass bloat, lingering sub-bass. Good
for bassheads
|
Speedy mid-bass, faint sub-bass. Overall flat
bass
|
Mids
|
Sweet
sounding midrange with a slight upper-mid boost.
|
Not so prominent lower mids, similar upper-mid
response to the IT01s
|
Warmish mid-tones, thick lower-midrange
emphasis
.
|
Slightly scooped out, heavy upper-midrange
emphasis
|
Highs
|
Decent
high extension, little to no harshness
|
Well extended highs, little to no harshness
|
Highs roll off quickly, somewhat muted in the
mix
|
Sonorous highs, well extended but a tad shouty
|
Soundstage
|
Decent
horizontal width, slightly congested on complex tracks
|
Extremely wide horizontal width, great
positional cues
|
Good horizontal width, slightly congested
sounding
|
Above-average horizontal width
|
Separation
|
Decent
imaging, slightly congested on complex tracks
|
Excellent imaging, vocals, and instruments are
incredibly distinct
|
Congested due to bass bloat, decent imaging
overall
|
Good imaging, easy to distinguish between
vocals and instruments
|
Vocal
Performance
|
Saccharine
vocal-performance, complementing
female vocal types (soprano in particular)
|
Superb Clarity, slightly better low-end
balance, resulting in natural balance
|
Warm, analogue-sounding vocals. Sounds more
relaxed.
|
Great clarity, lacks lower-midrange body which
thins the vocals
|
Instrument
Performance
|
Sounds
exceptional with acoustic and classical guitars.
|
Porous and realistic instrument
representation. Needs a little more lower-mid body.
|
Timbre is accurate but it lacks sparkle or
upper-mid detail.
|
Airy and shimmery. Lacks lower-range body
which affects their timbre.
|
Remarks
|
For vocal lovers who still crave mid-forward detail
without the associated harshness.
|
A well-rounded
earphone that is suited for many listeners.
|
Great for vinyl-lovers that crave a smooth, non-fatiguing listen
|
Good for people
looking for a slightly V-shaped, reference iem.
|
Sound Conclusion:
The Focus Vocal is a
product that reflects Focus Audio’s dedication to their craft. This is an
impressive first showing from a fledgling brand with a promising future. While
there is certainly room for improvement, I
have nothing but high praise for Focus Audio’s design team; they’ve crafted a
product that is positively differentiated from the rest of the market.
If the Vocal’s can achieve such a
stunning fit and finish at this price point, there’s only telling what they
could do if they released a flagship product in the near future. Focus Audio is
one to look out for.
Aesthetic talk by Steve ( Focus Audio - Vocal )
FOCUS Audio is a new company in
the Chinese audio industry, I had a chat with their boss and it was interesting
seeing that their brand concept seems to be a bit different from how the
mainstream is developing especially in China. Their debut series was 1
IEM separated into 3 different sound which they claimed as a music
genre-oriented system and the one we are looking into will be the Vocal one
called FOCUS VOCAL in which is ideally tuned for vocal lovers. In the
following paragraphs, we will be talking about the Aesthetic side which I think
it's pretty impressive for a new brand and truly deserves more attention in the
near future.
Colour
By having a quick glimpse at the
VOCAL , I think it's a pretty nice idea by using 2 different materials to
form the whole appearance design, especially on the faceplate. However,
the Colour combination is a bit too much by using 3 colors for such a small
product (yellowish stabilized wood + champagne gold faceplate frame +
silver bottom shell), which seems to be a bit weird especially on the faceplate
frame and the bottom shell part. The Colour of the stabilized wood that they
used is a relatively low profile one something more like the Swiss pearwood
color tone. It might not for everyone as speaking of stabilized wood, many
people from my experience are expecting something more vivid in hues like the
purple-blue or the pink color tone instead. So
far they used only 1 color option together with all 3 sound design concepts is
a bit confusing for customer to define which is which, so I propose focus audio
to review their color combination and could possibly produce 1 or 2 more
color options in the future like how Final audio did on the B series with a
glossy mirror finishing. The satin finish is nice on the current champagne gold
but combining with the silver color, it somehow looks kinda raw though, so
overall the idea is cool, but could be better and expansive.
Craftmanship
Judging by the sample that
I got, the built is pretty solid, no
scratches, dents or paint chip wear off, almost no gaps between the faceplate
and bottom shell, the QC process that they have seem to be quiet strict here.
Weighting for a full metal built iem is reasonable, quiet an obvious reduction
in weight compared with the IKKO OH10 and the MOONDROP KXXS in which I
would call them the heavy ones, also no fatigue for a long time listening as
well.
Design details
The biggest thing that I
appreciated on the focus audio vocal is for a new brand they started off
with something, not the typical CIEM type, insist to design their
own shell, making the focus audio looks rather unique comparing with other new
brands recently. However, the thing that bothers me or clients that I
encounter before with kinera is that the usage of the stabilized wood. If you
look at the photo above, you will see there's a slight unevenness in the
pattern side by side. the left piece remains a relatively smooth pattern while
the other one gives a more artistic wild pattern. this is the major problem of
getting this wooden stuff because they get unique patterns due to the nature of
wood grain, so it takes quite a bit of time for manufacturers to match all of them
to look more even on each pair of iem especially with such a small piece of the
faceplate. The recent release of the shozy 1.4 also used the stabilized wood as
the faceplate and during the matching process, they did better in pairing the
patterns to make the left and right piece look evener. Another minor
disadvantage on the iem is that they don't have any signs or fonts for
indicating the Left and Right piece. There are always people out there who
don't know how to define which is left or right without signs....so for a
better presentation, whether you are making a blind dot, a font or red /
blue color Signature, this is quite essential nowadays for mass production.
Silhouette
The overall silhouette is pretty
smooth,rounded edge and unique, proportion looks neat and even,
surprisingly the fit is above average, it's
a pity for some brands out there with a cool stylish design but poor ergonomic
but this vocal fits pretty well in my ear while providing a satisfying degree
of isolation as well.
Cable
The cable itself is good
considering its price, softness is average, nothing really special here
comparing with other competitors in the range. Generally meets the basic
requirements of what customer are expecting. Little suggestion is as a brand that cares about much on the product
image, they should start considering making their own design for plugs and
splitters in advance for future use.
Packaging
The package design is more on the
fashionable minimalist style, no commercial product photo or rendering on the
cover, definitely not those akg Sennheiser commercial-style you'd normally see,
IMO Since they've put much effort on the design of the iem, I think a more
commercial package sleeve could assist them in selling and projects a better
impression of what's inside the box. The inner presentation is nicely done,
reminds me of the MOONDROP KXXS, the case is also a decent add-on to the
whole presentation, overall in the
199usd category range, the focus audio vocal is one of the better ones among
all others brand in China and as a new brand, this is more than what I expect.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the focus audio
vocal is undoubtedly a big challenger to the $199 USD category, from Sound to
Aesthetic, our team thinks they have put much effort on balancing all the
aspects to be a good product. And for this certain model, we believe they have
successfully achieved what they are aiming for. On Aesthetic side, I m quite
impressed by what they have came up with in general especially for a new
brand that still insists in creating their own design with such a decent fit is
rarely seen on the market, there are tiny flaws here and there to be adjusted
but overall we can see how passionate and confident they are with their product
setup even with such numerous of new brands popping up nowadays . So if you are looking for something new and
start getting bored with the hyped chi-fi brands out there, the Focus Vocal is one of our recommendations on the list and yet well worth the money in
the $199 USD category. Hopefully, we will be seeing something exciting on the
mid-tier to flagship coming out from them in the near future.
*All
ratings are accurate as of the date of publication. Changes in price, newer
models may affect Project A3's views on the performance and value of the
reviewed product.
Where can we buy them
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