These $899 headphones compensate for hearing loss — I’ve got tinnitus so I put them to the test

The Noble Audio FoKus Artemis are the latest over-ear ANC headphones from high-end, although slightly niche IEM manufacturer Noble Audio. The Artemis follow up the FoKus Apollo Pro, adding an extra set of drivers to take the tally to three: each side now has a dynamic, a planar magnetic, and a balanced armature driver.

There’s also a slew of other upgrades, from Bluetooth and codec compatibility to water resistance. Most importantly, they sound utterly, and I mean utterly divine — those triple drivers aided by a clever personalized EQ that compensates for per-ear hearing loss.

Even so, they’re not perfect. At $899, these cans are competing with some serious players — your Bang & Olufsens; your Bowers & Wilkinses. While premium, the Artemis can’t quite match the luxurious build or polished companion apps of rivals.

But do the Artemis still rank as some of the best noise-canceling headphones for audiophiles? Find out in my full Noble Audio FoKus Artemis review.

Noble Audio FoKus Artemis review: Specs

Noble Audio FoKus Artemis review: Price & availability

As I mentioned above, at $899 / £799, the Artemis are pricey enough to mix it with the big boys — the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H95 ($1,250 / £879), and the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 ($799 / £675). I own both the H95 and Px8 S2, so I’ve tested all three.

In short, if all you care about is sound, the FoKus Artemis edge it, with greater audio finesse thanks to the triple-driver array and excellent personalized EQ. If, however, you want a holistic luxury package for your close-to-a-grand, it’d have to be the H95. The Px8 S2 are the cheapest of all three but still feel more luxurious and put-together than the Artemis, plus they sound fantastic.

In the U.S., the Artemis are in pre-order at Noble Audio as I write this, although they're already becoming available via its established retailers in Britain.

Noble Audio FoKus Artemis review: Design

There’s no denying: the FoKus Artemis are hella pretty headphones. The glorious swirling matte patina on the outer cups is borderline addictive to behold. The sliders and earcup hangers are polished to a semi-matte, with a muted, syrupy luster as the light catches them. The hangers feel reassuringly chunky, I ought to add.

But while the Artemis look charming and feel premium, they don’t convey luxury, which I’d expect at this price. As I mentioned above, when you charge $899 for headphones, there’s nowhere to hide, and some incredibly fierce competition. Noble is splashing around in Bowers’ and B&O’s paddling pool — and that means it’s a pool constructed entirely of titanium and lambskin leather.

The Artemis simply cannot match the opulence of the other two, who leave no detail without attention. The Artemis’ milled edges are just that little rougher; the etching slightly less sharp; the ear pads (while comfy) not nearly as pillowy-soft. The buttons look plasticky and cheap, while the legends look either very slightly mis- or double-printed on both my test units — you wouldn’t find a basic error like that on a set of Bowers, no siree, and I’m pretty sure someone at B&O would be facing a firing squad for it.

There’s a felt-like material on the back of the Artemis earcups, which unless cossetted will doubtless grubby up quicker than you can say ‘balanced armature’. And the headband fabric looks uncannily like that on the Jabra Evolve3 75 conferencing headset I tested recently — there’s nothing overtly wrong with it, and it’s perfectly comfortable… but $900 to look like you’re on a work call?

By $500 headphone standards, the Artemis sure are lovely. But Noble has chosen the $900 mark, so by that yardstick shall these cans be measured, and shall they ever-so-slightly disappoint.

Still, the Artemis boast some worthy design features. The earcups and battery are replaceable, theoretically benefitting longevity. IP52 dust-/water-resistance means they’ll survive a light shower and the odd workout — although I dread to think what that earcup felt will look (not to mention smell) like once sweated into. You can replace the earcups on both the Px8 S2 and H95, but only the latter is water resistant (also IP52) and neither can have their batteries replaced (not by you anyway).

The Artemis come with a hardened fabric carry case. It’s a little slimmer than the Px8 S2’s equivalent and wholly easier to travel with than the H95’s chunky, scratch-magnetic hard-shell case. I’ve travelled with all three and prefer the Artemis’ case, as it took up the least space in my bag.

Controls

Their cheap-ish looks aside, I’m a big fan of the Artemis’ buttons and controls. They’re reliable, unfussy and sensibly positioned, which is all I really want and need. I had no issues locating and operating the Artemis’s controls by touch, even while walking around Copenhagen on a press trip. Sure, I like the physical and touch controls on my Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H100 and H95, but how many do I really use day-to-day? Four: power, volume, playback and ANC.

Connectivity

The Artemis use Bluetooth version 6.0, providing greater connection stability and lower power consumption than earlier versions. Even the Apple AirPods Max 2 launched in 2026 with the older version 5.3, so (unfortunately) the latest iteration isn't something you can take for granted.

The Artemis support hi-res codecs, including LDAC, aptX HD, and now aptX Lossless — an upgrade from the Apollo. Again, you can’t take these for granted, as the $2,500 B&O H100 only support basic AAC/SBC codecs, meaning no hi-res wireless.

The Artemis also pack wear detection with customizable auto-off timing, multi-point connectivity and smartphone control via a (rather janky) companion app. You can also run the cans truly lossless via USB-C, and there’s a USB-C 3.5mm adapter included.

Annoyingly, multipoint didn’t work too well during testing — when taking work calls, I occasionally had to turn the Artemis off and on again for Google Meet to recognize them as an audio/mic source. Could be a Meet issue, though.

Noble Audio FoKus Artemis review: Sound quality

I tested over Bluetooth using AAC, and over USB-C in hi-res on Qobuz. As I mentioned above, the Artemis sound insanely good. The three-driver setup comprises a dynamic driver for bass and mid-range impact; a planar magnetic driver for super fast response, particularly in the mid- and upper ranges; and a balanced armature driver for fine treble detail. It’s a heavenly ménage à trois.

Treble is ultra-precise, airy, and rarely fatiguing — I was caught out a couple of times by songs with inherently sharp treble baked into their master, although admittedly I was hungover on both occasions. For the most part, though, I found the treble comfortable enough for hours on end.

The balanced armature (BA) drivers and ultra-responsive planars offer exceptional detail. In Blusher’s Your Love Is My Drug, I heard every minute enunciation, every mouth noise, every lip smack, and the gentlest whisps of the breathy vocals during harmonies. The balanced armature drivers also help with airiness and space — the subtle pop of interference at the start of Queens of the Stone Age’s Medication was imaged perfectly, crackling upward and forward in my left ear like a firing nerve ending.

Vocals steal the show, though. They sound mesmerizing across the board, always perfectly isolated from percussion and other mid-range noise. In Stereophonics’ Just Looking, Kelly Jones’ voice commanded the track, his husky vocals floating around my head like tobacco smoke in an 80s dive bar — I almost forgot the song had a riff and drum track.

That fast mid-range response also works wonders elsewhere, with strong instrument and tonal separation. Guitars sound fantastic. I could hear the individual plucks and natural stringy timbre during the acoustic guitar bridge of Porter Robinson’s Cheerleader. Distorted stuff works, too, with bags of texture and definition in sludgy metal riffs.

The Artemis aren’t overly bassy headphones — no Bose QuietComfort Ultra Gen 2 tuning for the masses. But when you need the bass, it’s there, impactful and well-controlled. The powerful warbles of Burn Water’s Ikigai were thick, rich and velvety-textured.

Sub-bass response isn’t the strongest, at least not on my personal EQ. The last 20 seconds of Sohn's Antigravity — essentially just a wave of the deepest sub bass you can get before feeling rather than hearing it — sounded fairly thin. But that stuff is tricky for pretty much all headphones I’ve tested save the $2,200 Beoplay H100 and $4,500 Audeze LCD5-S.

As I mentioned above, these headphones are surprisingly spacious for closed-backs, but there’s an extra mode to supposedly increase three-dimensionality: Audiosphere, available in either Subtle (weak) or Immersive (strong) settings. Like most software-based 3D modes I try, it’s pretty poor, making everything sound metallic and echoey rather than actually increasing spatiality.

Listen along to my audio testing playlist on Qobuz, our favourite music streaming service for audiophiles.

Personalized EQ

The Artemis’ standout software feature is undoubtedly its personalized EQ, courtesy of the audio algo-nerds at Audiodo, a Swedish company specializing in personal EQing. The personalized EQ runs a hearing test and then adapts the EQ profile to your individual ears, compensating for any hearing loss at different frequencies in one ear or the other. As a tinnitus sufferer, motorcyclist and former DJ, this is exactly what I need!

I was blown away by the results. My personal EQ was highly effective, brightening up the treble and bringing noticeable space to the sound without compromising anything else.

There’s also a standard 10-band EQ, plus various presets. I like that your EQ is also saved onboard the headphones, too, so if your app goes kaput (which, spoiler alert, it probably will), your chosen EQ should remain on the cans... and yes, that is some not-so-subtle foreshadowing.

Noble Audio FoKus Artemis review: App

The Artemis’ Achilles heel (staying on the mythical trend) is its app. It’s a little unpolished, with a few slightly awkward something-to-English direct translations (“Go test” and the “Setting” menu), plus a somewhat boxy, dated and disconcertingly left-justified interface.

However, a more concerning issue during testing was the app’s jankiness. It sometimes failed to recognize the headphones at all, and once thought they were Noble’s Karma open earbuds. It also crashed each time I tried to update the Artemis — not ideal given my first test set was running early firmware.

I flagged this to Noble’s representative and the manufacturer quickly patched the iOS app, which is fine, although after the update one of my two personal EQ profiles was overwritten by a duplication of the other (thankfully, the one I preferred). It’s not exactly confidence-inspiring.

At $899 and in 2026, I’d expect a little more polish given the smartphone app is so pivotal to the Artemis’ user experience — personalized EQ and updating et al. The B&O app, by contrast, is wonderful and feature-packed, while the B&W app is fairly basic but at least reliable and slick.

I should mention that, thankfully, despite the jankiness, I could still use the FoKus app fairly reliably to customize the Artemis at a fundamental level (controls, ANC levels, etc), and most importantly use the EQ. Given the EQ is saved onboard the headphones, after setting that you can mostly live without the app anyway until you need to tweak EQ or update the cans.

Noble Audio FoKus Artemis review: ANC

The FoKus Artemis’ ANC is pretty good. I took the headphones on a flight to Copenhagen, and they cut out enough hubbub in the busy departures terminal for me to get on with some work in peace. On the plane, they competently drowned out the noisy Airbus A320 I flew on, the people behind me talking, plus a passenger on my row snoring. They couldn’t cut the noise of a screaming kid behind me on the return flight though, which the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 did last time I flew (returning, coincidentally, from Copenhagen).

The Artemis did a respectable job in daily life, too, cutting most traffic noise while walking around the Danish capital. I didn’t get along with the pressure levels at times, as the ‘High’ ANC setting occasionally made me feel nauseous, but your mileage will vary based on individual ear anatomy.

Noble Audio FoKus Artemis review: Call quality

For the Artemis, Noble did away with the Apollo’s detachable boom mic, which is a good thing. This is a set of ANC headphones, not a gaming headset. The new internal mic does a fairly good job for calls. I called my wife, who reported my voice sounded clear and natural, if not a little bit thin.

She noted, however, that the Artemis mic picked up literally every single background noise, from rustling paper to unwrapping a parcel to merely pulling my keys from my pocket. Apparently this was very distracting, and with no environmental noise cancelation on the mic, there was nothing I could do about it.

Noble Audio FoKus Artemis review: Battery life

Noble promises 55 hours of battery life with ANC off and 35 with ANC on. This sits between the 38-hour and 30-hour ANC figures of the H95 and Px8 S2 respectively. It’s a lot better than the 20 hours you can expect from the AirPods Max 2.

Real world results will of course vary based on your individual usage and whether you’re using USB-C for playback. In real terms, though, I used the Artemis extensively over a three-day press trip without charging them and was left with around 50% left, so there’s more than enough juice for a short trip away, and you’ll very likely be able to find a power socket in that time anyway.

The Artemis also have a neat trick up their sleeve: take off the left ear pad and you’ll see a battery held in place with a screw! That means you can replace the battery yourself, theoretically increasing the Artemis’ longevity. We’ve seen this before on the Sennheiser Momentum 5, but it’s not commonplace. Of course, it relies on Noble still making these batteries whenever in the future you need to replace yours. Despite questionable upsides, though, there are certainly no downsides to this.

Noble Audio FoKus Artemis review: Verdict

The FoKus Artemis aren’t perfect. When you’re being charged $899, you deserve a certain level of polish that, unfortunately, isn’t quite there in places. Admittedly, most of this is fairly minor, like the Artemis’ overly sensitive mic, or their lacking the sheer opulent finish and attention to detail of similarly priced rivals. The amateurism of the companion app is more worrying, though, given its importance to the headphones’ core operation. Thankfully that’s something which can be improved over time (and really needs to be, Noble, if you’re reading).

That said, I’m still head over heels in love with the FoKus Artemis, and there’s no question that they deserve my recommendation. Because that sound — mah gawd. It's what these cans are all about. Fire them up, sort out your personalized EQ, and you’ll quickly realize what you’ve paid for. The sound is simply exquisite, with detail, space, power in abundance, yet balance. The $900 finesse lacked elsewhere is made up for in triumphant fashion by just listening to the things. And that’s a compromise I can live with.