It can be tricky to find the best headphones if you don’t want to spend over $70. Trust me — I’m always on the hunt for affordable headphones that’ll please my music-snob ears. Many of the most affordable headphones skimp on important features like customizable EQ, ANC, or worst of all: have tinny sound quality. I’m always determined to find the best cheap headphones.
So I jumped at the chance to review OneOdio’s Focus A5 headphones. With ANC and LDAC support, I couldn’t wait to hear if these headphones lived up to my expectations.
Unfortunately, OneOdio shot itself in the foot with a lack of an app. I think these headphones could be much improved with a custom EQ and customizable touch control buttons. Listeners are unfortunately stuck with OneOdio’s default EQ, though, which doesn’t show off the strength of these headphones’ bass depth.
But are they still worth it, considering they’re just $69? Find out in this OneOdio Focus A5 headphones review.
OneOdio Focus A5 headphones review: Cheat sheet
- What is it? A pair of budget headphones with LDAC support
- Who is it for? Those trying not to splurge on headphones
- What does it cost? $69 / £59
- What do we like? There’s LDAC support — whether it makes a difference is another question
- What don’t we like? The sound quality is pretty disappointing, and there’s no custom EQ
OneOdio Focus A5 headphones review: Specs
OneOdio Focus A5 headphones review: Price & availability
The Focus A5 headphones are $69 from Amazon U.S. and £59 from Amazon U.K.. This makes them some of the cheapest over-ear headphones I’ve seen with premium features like LDAC support. I recently reviewed the JLabs JBuds Lux ANC headphones and was really impressed with the sound quality for the low price tag of $79. Our best cheap headphones are the 1More SonoFlow SE headphones, which are just $54 and blew us away with the sound quality.
OneOdio Focus A5 headphones review: Design & controls
The OneOdio Focus A5 headphones are quite attractive. Its soft earpads are decorated with a kind of lenticular flourish and an inconspicuous brand logo. The headband feels a little brittle and heavy, though, which makes them feel laborious to wear for long periods of time. They’re made well, though, with sturdy-feeling fabric and nice clicky buttons.
There’s a USB-C charging port on the bottom of the right cup, alongside a power on/off button, an ANC button, and volume control buttons. Given there’s no app, you can’t customize these button controls, but they’re quite easy to master — I would just like the choice of being able to do what I want with the buttons.
There’s no carry case in the box, so if that’s a must-have, you’d be better off elsewhere. I charged these headphones up straight out of the box and they were fully charged in under an hour, so great for speedy turnarounds.
OneOdio Focus A5 headphones review: Features & Connectivity
The Focus A5 headphones have LDAC compatibility, which initially made me clap my hands with glee. However, as soon as I actually enabled these settings, I realized it’s nothing more than a marketing tag.
There’s little point in licensing LDAC support for budget headphones if the actual, physical hardware of said headphones isn’t robust enough to translate the ‘lossless’ audio quality. There’s no wired connection on the Focus A5 headphones either. Obviously Bluetooth can never reach wired connection quality, and I’m not saying they can. Not even the $500 AirPods Max headphones are capable of that. But the Focus A5 headphones just can’t do the high-res quality justice. I’ll discuss this completely in the ‘audio quality’ section, but for a bit of not-so-subtle foreshadowing, the treble clipped during dance tracks and the bass was nowhere to be heard.
In terms of ANC, you might be disappointed there, too. While listening in the office I could still hear my colleagues talking over the music as if ANC wasn’t even enabled. I toggled off ANC to compare and noticed hardly any difference in sound cancelation. I wouldn’t recommend these for busy public transport or city walking. Although it’s normal for over-ear headphones, there’s no waterproofing, so maybe leave these at home when you go for your rainy walks, too.
OneOdio Focus A5 headphones review: Call quality
The headphones come with a built-in omnidirectional mic, meaning it’ll pick up sound from all sides. This doesn’t bode well for clear call quality on busy streets, but it put it to the test on a call with my partner. Usually, you’ll see me wearing AirPods Pro 2 earbuds for wireless calls, and my partner couldn’t tell the difference between those and the Focus A5.
OneOdio Focus A5 headphones review: Battery
The OneOdio Focus A5 headphones have a whopping 75-hour battery life, 45 hours with ANC enabled. This gives them some of the longest battery life I’ve ever seen on headphones. These beat even my favorite budget headphones, the JLab JBuds Lux ANC, which last for a whopping 70 hours. The battery life tops out at 45 hours with ANC on, and there are actually other headphones with even better ANC battery life now. The Sennheiser Accentum ($179) have 50 hours of ANC battery, and the Marshall Monitor III headphones have a mind-blowing 70 hours of ANC battery — but they are $349. So not budget headphones by any means, but impressive in terms of battery.
OneOdio Focus A5 headphones review: Audio quality
For only $69, you can’t expect headphones to impress audiophiles. But I’m not sure who these headphones would impress.
To give them a fair trial, I listened on my colleague’s Samsung Galaxy S24 FE via Tidal with LDAC enabled. I played ‘Von Dutch’ by Charli xcx as it’s one of those pop songs with arresting bass and addictive synths. To my disappointment, the aforementioned arresting bass was shabby and lackluster. Just to rub salt in the wound, too, the high trebles and percussion notes maxed out, resulting in an unsavory clipping sound. It was like the audio equivalent of increasing the sharpness on a low-res photograph until it’s deep-fried.
Having LDAC support is all well and good, but it means nothing if the physical hardware in the headphones (the Focus A5’s 40mm drivers don’t seem to be doing much legwork here) isn’t up to scratch.
While locked into the LDAC setting, I switched up genres to see if it was just the dance genre that the Focus A5s had trouble with. I put on ‘In Every Dream Home a Heartache’ by Roxy Music, built on Bryan Ferry’s unsettling vocals and encroaching pipe-organ keys. It could be the 41-year-old recording’s forgiving quality, but this track sounded just as creepy through the Focus A5 headphones as I’d want it to. There’s a distinct lack of clarity in the rolling synths and sliding guitar licks, though, when directly compared to higher-quality earbuds (like my AirPods Pro 2s). However, the Fusion A5 headphones are a smidge of the price of AirPods.
If you’re a retro music evangelist, you’re in a great position to get some budget headphones to enjoy semi-blurry recordings. But if you want to stream the remastered versions of those songs, well, you’re in for a bumpy ride.
OneOdio Focus A5 headphones review: Verdict
It’s difficult for me to recommend headphones that sound bad. And that’s these headphones. They do sound bad. For all their epic 75-hour battery life to their pleasing price tag, I wanted to like these headphones. But they simply cannot do justice to your music. Maybe these would suit someone who doesn’t care about fidelity recordings or someone who just needs a pair of basic headphones. But in spite of the amazing battery life, budget price, and impressive looks, these headphones do not sound good.
If you care about sound quality but you still want to stick to a budget (me to a T), you might be interested in the JLab JBuds Lux ANC headphones. They’re $79 and sound good for the price, but obviously they’re still not as impressive as, say, the Marshall Monitor III headphones. I loved testing the Lux ANC headphones and really enjoyed the quality of ANC and complex soundscapes.
The OneOdio Focus A5 headphones are not terrible by any means, but there are far better options out there for a relatively similar price.
