Headphones that are both affordable and high-quality often seem like a pipe dream. All too often, cheaper options disappoint with flimsy construction, muffled audio, and uncomfortable designs that become unbearable after just an hour of use. The cycle of replacing these substandard headphones can quickly become more expensive than investing in a decent pair from the outset. OneOdio aims to change this narrative with their Focus A6 model, promising both affordability and a comfortable listening experience. The question is, can they deliver on this promise?
Unboxing and First Impressions
The OneOdio Focus A6 arrives in a well-presented, three-part packaging system. A branded outer sleeve gives way to a main box with a lift-off lid, revealing a custom-moulded tray that securely houses the headphones. It’s worth being careful when removing the tray, as the USB-C charging cable is cleverly concealed in a corner underneath.
Design and Build Quality
Weighing in at 240g, the Focus A6 is light. This lack of heft might initially raise concerns about the quality of the materials used, particularly the adjustable band. However, despite initial worries about its fragility, the headband proved surprisingly resilient. Weeks of use have shown it to be robust enough for everyday wear.
It’s worth noting that the headphones aren’t indestructible. A small crack appeared in the headband after an accidental drop at the gym. The lack of water resistance also means they require careful handling. These aren’t headphones you can casually throw around.
On a positive note, the Focus A6 headphones fold up to 90 degrees, making them easy to stow away in a backpack compartment for convenient portability.
The earcups are wrapped in soft protein leather and feature a spacious internal cavity, ensuring that your ears don’t press against the driver mesh. The seal is snug, and the clamping force strikes a good balance, securing the headphones comfortably during movement without causing headaches or pressure, which is particularly important for glasses wearers.
The right earcup houses the power button (which also functions as a pause/play button), volume controls, a USB-C charging port, a dedicated Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) toggle, and an LED indicator. All the buttons offer a satisfying click. While there’s no 3.5mm audio input, the USB-C port supports audio playback, which works well when enabling OTG connection in your phone’s settings.
This feature allows the Focus A6 to serve as a decent replacement for studio headphones for live recording, as wired connections are essential to avoid the input lag inherent in wireless Bluetooth audio devices. While a 3.5mm input would offer broader compatibility, the USB-C option is a welcome alternative.
Noise Cancellation and Codec Support
For discerning listeners, Bluetooth codec support is crucial. A codec acts as a two-way communication protocol between your device (phone or laptop) and the headphones. The Focus A6 supports three major Bluetooth audio codecs: SBC, AAC, and LDAC.
SBC is the universal default codec for all Bluetooth audio devices, compatible with both Android and iOS. However, it’s the most compressed and offers the least detail. AAC performs well on iPhones due to Apple’s optimisation, but its performance on Android can be inconsistent, with some phones throttling the bitrate or introducing lag, impacting sound quality and battery life.
LDAC, Sony’s high-resolution codec, is the best option for Android 8+ phones, streaming at up to 990 kbps with less compression and greater detail. iPhones don’t support LDAC, so they can’t fully exploit the Focus A6’s audio potential.
The Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) is rated up to -48dB, which is impressive for consumer headphones. This means the headphones use microphones both inside and outside the earcups to detect and cancel a wide range of incoming sounds.
The ANC effectively blocks out consistent noises like engines, fans, and air conditioning hum. Human voices and sudden, high-pitched sounds are also significantly reduced. It’s estimated that around 80-90% of noise is cancelled. However, some close-range sounds may still be audible, as ANC systems typically struggle with unpredictable waveforms like loud chatter.
Connectivity
The Bluetooth 6.0 label is somewhat misleading, as Bluetooth hasn’t yet been standardised beyond version 5.4. While Bluetooth 6.0 is emerging, very few devices currently support it. Even the latest flagship smartphones often top out at 5.4. Despite this, the Focus A6 offers stable connections and fast pairing, even without utilising Bluetooth 6 features.
Sound Quality: A Deep Dive
Aesthetics are secondary to audio quality, so let’s examine the Focus A6’s sound performance.
Bass and Treble Testing:
A frequency sweep test revealed that the Focus A6 is audible at 20Hz, the lowest edge of human hearing. This is a remarkable achievement for budget headphones, which often roll off around 30-40Hz, meaning the very bottom of your music is lost.
During bass shaker testing, a tactile vibration emerged from the headphone shell around the 10-20Hz region, possibly due to sympathetic resonance between the driver diaphragm and parts of the housing. This mechanical flex suggests that the headphone’s physical structure can’t fully dampen or absorb the energy produced by the driver. However, the vibration isn’t loud enough to disrupt music playback.
In high-frequency sweep sampling for treble testing, the headphones began producing an audible tone at 17kHz, slightly shy of the theoretical 20kHz ceiling that audiophile gear aims for. The performance was impressively clean, with no sudden volume jumps, indicating well-tuned and stable drivers under high-frequency stress.
A slight discrepancy in transient attack timing was noted, meaning that fast sounds, such as drum hits, claps, and sharp consonants in vocals, don’t always arrive at exactly the same time in both ears. Ideally, both drivers should respond simultaneously for accurate centering, but the attack edge of a transient sometimes felt microseconds ahead in one ear, most often the right cup.
Internal Composition:
Correct channel wiring is crucial for accurate panning and spatial effects. On the OneOdio Focus A6, the stereo image leans slightly left, and centered vocals drift off to the side, affecting the sense of space and making the audio feel uneven.
A 125 Hz sine wave test revealed that the drivers can reproduce low-end content with tight control and minimal self-noise.
Overall Bass Quality:
While the bass is thick and heavy, it lacks depth and tends to overshadow the mids. Instead of sitting in the background and supporting the music, it pushes forward and smothers the mids, blurring details in busy arrangements, particularly in R&B, EDM, or orchestral music. The low-end lacks texture, sounding broad and soft without clear shape.
Sound Leakage:
Sound leakage is noticeable on the Focus A6. At higher volumes, people nearby can hear what you’re listening to, indicating that the earcups don’t contain the sound as tightly as they should.
Spatial Audio:
The Focus A6 handles binaural recordings well, creating an immersive experience. However, a slight imbalance was noted, with sounds coming from the right being sharper than those from the left.
Battery Life
The Focus A6 boasts impressive battery life. Even with hours of Bluetooth playback on ANC mode and at the highest volume setting, it continues to perform. With ANC on, approximately 34 hours of playback have been achieved, with the battery still at 40%. This suggests that battery optimisation and use case variability may extend the battery life beyond the claimed 40 hours with ANC on. Without ANC, OneOdio claims up to 75 hours.
Mobile App Experience
The OneOdio Focus A6 app provides basic control rather than deep customisation. The interface is clean, displaying the connected headphone’s name, battery percentage, and current mode. Users can easily toggle between ANC, Transparency, and Wind-resistant Transparency modes.
The app features a grayscale design. While the all-white interface can feel stark, especially at night, the option to toggle on dark mode would be a welcome addition.
Users can change equaliser presets by swiping through visual thumbnails. A simple 7-band equaliser under Custom Settings allows users to tweak frequencies between 60Hz and 15kHz and save their profiles.
The app also includes toggles for Dual Device Connection, Game Mode, and LDAC support. A Max Volume Limiter option highlights 80 decibels as a WHO-safe recommendation, and an over-time wear reminder helps reduce listening fatigue.
However, LDAC and multipoint connection can’t be used simultaneously. Enabling LDAC for higher sound quality disables the ability to stay connected to two devices at once, and vice versa.
The app includes extras like Auto Power Off, a Movie Sound Effect toggle, and a Find My Headphones feature. Users can rename the device, update firmware, access the manual, and switch between English and Chinese voice prompts with adjustable volume.
Final Thoughts
The OneOdio Focus A6 offers excellent value for its price. The battery life is particularly impressive, and the ANC performs better than expected for this price range. The app offers enough options to feel modern.
However, the bass performance is somewhat inconsistent. OneOdio needs to decide what this product is trying to be. As an affordable lifestyle headphone with ANC and LDAC, it’s a success. However, marketing it as studio-grade sets expectations that it doesn’t quite meet. While enjoyable, the Focus A6 is more about vibe than precision.