If you want the cleanest wired, open-back planar sound and do your listening in a quiet room, choose HIFIMAN HE600; if you need active noise cancellation, wireless freedom and a detachable boom mic for motorcycle use and everything else that happens away from a desk, choose Noble Fokus Apollo Pro. That's the honest short version. One is a stripped-down analog listening tool, the other is a fully loaded Bluetooth headphone built around a hybrid driver array — and once you see what each was actually designed to do, the decision gets a lot easier.
• HIFIMAN HE600 — biggest strength: a planar-magnetic driver with an 8Hz–65kHz range, a Gen.2 diaphragm stated at roughly 60% of the original's thickness, and a magnet design built to approach rare-earth sensitivity without rare-earth materials.
• HIFIMAN HE600 — biggest trade-off: no noise control, open-back cups and a 3.5mm cable only. Wind, engines and traffic noise go straight to your ears.
• Noble Fokus Apollo Pro — biggest strength: a coaxial 40mm dynamic plus 14.5mm planar driver on each side, hybrid ANC rated to -35dB, LDAC and aptX HD over Bluetooth 5.3, and up to 80 hours of playback with ANC off.
• Noble Fokus Apollo Pro — biggest trade-off: it's a busy product — touch controls, an app, five onboard mics, a battery to manage. If you want a cable and nothing else, you're carrying electronics you'll never use.
• Buy HIFIMAN HE600 if you listen at a desk or in a quiet room, and accuracy matters more than convenience.
• Buy Noble Fokus Apollo Pro if you want one headphone for the road, the office, flights and calls, without carrying a separate amp.
The HE600 does one job, and it does it with a cable. Everything in the spec sheet points at accuracy over convenience: a planar-magnetic driver covering 8Hz–65kHz, 28Ω impedance and 94dB sensitivity. That frequency range is wider than any music needs, but it tells you HIFIMAN isn't rolling off either end early. The Neo Supernano Gen.2 diaphragm is listed at 60% of the first generation's thickness, which in planar designs usually means less moving mass and quicker, cleaner transients — snappier drum hits, better decay on strings.
How We Research
We compare products from their published specs and features; the verdicts below are our independent editorial opinions.
Updated: 2026-10-20 · 7 min read · Independent comparison
Who should buy it: someone with a quiet listening space, a decent wired source and no interest in ANC, apps or charging. If you want to hear what a planar driver does with texture and space, this is the kind of headphone you build a small system around.
Who should skip it: anyone whose listening happens in motion. Open-back cups leak in both directions, there's no noise control of any kind, and it terminates in a 3.5mm jack. That makes it the exact opposite of what you want if you're shopping for headband headphones for motorcycle use — wind roar would sit right on top of your music. There's also no mic for calls, no app, no carry case in the box, and the warranty is one year. None of that is a flaw in what the HE600 is. It just tells you plainly that it isn't a travel product.
The Apollo Pro goes the other direction entirely, and the driver arrangement is the reason to pay attention. Each side runs a coaxial 40mm dynamic driver alongside a 14.5mm planar magnetic driver. That's a genuinely clever pairing: the dynamic unit carries weight and punch, the planar handles speed and detail, and mounting them coaxially keeps both aligned so the sound arrives together instead of smearing. Add the QCC3084 chipset with LDAC, aptX, aptX HD and AAC over Bluetooth 5.3 with multipoint, and you have a wireless headphone aimed squarely at people who care about codecs.
Noise cancellation is the headline for travel. An ADI chip drives a hybrid ANC system using five onboard mics plus a detachable boom mic, rated up to -35dB of reduction, with a transparency mode for when you need to hear what's around you. Battery is rated at up to 80 hours with ANC off and 60 hours with it on — long enough that charging stops being a daily thought. Touch controls on the cup, tuning through the Noble FoKus app, and an unusually complete accessory set (3.5mm cable, 3.5mm-to-4.4mm adapter, 1/4-inch adapter, airline adapter, USB-C cable, replaceable ear pads, EVA case) round it out. Aluminum housings in peacock green, 32Ω, 102dB sensitivity, a 40kHz ceiling and a two-year warranty.
Who should buy it: the person who wants one headphone for everything — desk, commute, flight, calls, gaming. The boom mic with its mute switch is a small detail that makes a big difference if you're on calls all day. And for riders it's the more sensible of the two by a wide margin, though even here it's worth thinking about how much isolation you actually want on a bike.
Who should skip it: open-back purists. You won't get the same sense of air and space a genuinely open design gives you, because this is a closed, noise-cancelling headphone with a battery inside. And if app pairing, touch panels and remembering to charge things irritate you, the HE600's simplicity will feel like relief.
• Best for noise reduction → Noble Fokus Apollo Pro. Hybrid ANC up to -35dB with five mics; the HE600 has no noise control at all.
• Best for a quiet-room critical listen → HIFIMAN HE600. Open-back planar driver, 8Hz–65kHz, nothing between you and the music.
• Best battery life → Noble Fokus Apollo Pro. Up to 80 hours with ANC off, 60 with it on. The HE600 is passive and wired, so there's nothing to charge.
• Best for calls and meetings → Noble Fokus Apollo Pro. Detachable boom mic with mute switch, five onboard mics, multipoint pairing.
• Best for riding → Noble Fokus Apollo Pro, in my opinion. ANC and Bluetooth mean no cable snagging and less engine drone; the HE600's open-back cups are close to the worst possible match for wind noise.
• Best for a pure analog chain → HIFIMAN HE600. 3.5mm only, 94dB at 28Ω, so a standard headphone amp is enough to get it going.
• Best for long sessions → HIFIMAN HE600 on paper. 389g with a 20g reduction and rotatable hinges. The Apollo Pro counters with replaceable ear pads and a two-year warranty.
• Best for travel accessories → Noble Fokus Apollo Pro. Airline adapter, EVA case, 1/4-inch and 4.4mm adapters, USB-C cable.
If I were buying with my own money and motorcycle use was anywhere on the list, I'd take the Noble Fokus Apollo Pro. The hybrid driver array is the more ambitious engineering, but the decision really comes down to ANC, LDAC Bluetooth, a detachable boom mic and up to 80 hours of battery — the things that matter when you're not sitting still. The HE600 is the better headphone for exactly one job: quiet-room, wired, open-back listening, and if that describes your whole use case I'd send you there instead. For most people buying one headphone to cover everything, the Apollo Pro covers more ground.
Is the HIFIMAN HE600 good for motorcycle riding?
In my opinion, no. It's open-back, has no noise control and connects only through a 3.5mm cable, so wind and engine noise come straight through. The Apollo Pro's ANC and Bluetooth make it the more practical pick, and neither one replaces a proper helmet comms unit — check your local rules on helmet audio too.
Do I need an amplifier to drive the HIFIMAN HE600?
HIFIMAN rates it at 28Ω and 94dB and says the design reaches its performance on standard headphone amplifiers rather than a power amp. That's the whole point of the rare-earth-free magnet work — high sensitivity from an efficient design. A dedicated amp will still give you headroom, but the spec sheet doesn't insist on one.
Yes. It ships with a 3.5mm analog cable plus 3.5mm-to-4.4mm and 1/4-inch adapters and an airline adapter, so you can plug into a phone, an amp or an in-flight system and not be locked into Bluetooth. Ear pads are replaceable as well, which is rare at this feature level.
That depends on what you're counting. The Apollo Pro bundles ANC, a dual-driver array, a boom mic, an app, a case and a two-year warranty; the HE600 gives you a planar driver, a cable and nothing else. Worth checking the current price on Amazon for both before you commit — these are different tools, not two versions of the same one.
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