Noble Audio unveils two new premium in-ear monitors (IEM), the Shogun and Agis II, at the CanJam Singapore 2025. NXT caught up with Jim Moulton who is the co-owner and brother of Noble Audio’s founder John Moulton.
Hi Jim! Please give our readers a quick intro on Noble Audio.
My brother John (Moulton) started Noble Audio around 2013. Our first IEM, the K10, did extremely well. Back then, IEMS were just flesh-coloured and ugly, and he was one of the first to start making IEMS pretty. After people saw the stuff he made, they were like, “Wow, John’s a wizard.” And that’s where he got the nickname “Wizard”. I believe that the trend of making beautiful IEMS was started by Noble.
Tell me about your two new IEMS, Shogun and Agis II – and how do you pronounce that second one?
It’s pronounced as “aa-geese two”. And people wonder why Agis II, when we don’t have an “Agis I”. Well, Agis II is the successor to the Spartacus IEM, and the name belongs to the King of Spartans; that’s why we chose this name for the next product in line. As you know, our product names are based on legendary people, like the Khan, the Kublai Khan, the Katana, the Ronin, and now the new Shogun. They all have different designs with different sound signatures. The Japanese line points more towards a neutral to higher detail with less bass. The Spartacus is kind of a whole new line for us, and this has better mid-range using the bone conductor drivers. The Agis II has a total of 8 drivers –
Besides wired IEMS, Noble Audio also develops wireless headphones?
Yes. We have the latest FoKus Rex5 TWS, and it is kind of revolutionary. If you look at other reviews out there, they are saying that the Rex5 is the best-sounding TWS on the market. And part of the reason is that it uses five drivers, and it incorporates Audiodo from Sweden to test the listener’s ear independently and adjusts the sound profile based on the hearing test. This profile is stored in the earbuds, and you can use it on different music players. We also developed the FoKus Apollo, the world’s first hybrid over-ear headphones that have both planar and dynamic drivers, which won lots of awards in 2024.
I see that you use a lot of drivers in your IEMS and headphones. How do you work out the number of drivers and which ones to use?
All our headphones are hybrids, which uses multiple driver technologies. Each driver has specific optimal frequency ranges. For instance, piezo-electric drivers are only good with the super highs, dynamic drivers are good for bass. That’s is why we use the best drivers for the best frequency and achieve synergy.
What is your reference sound when designing your products?
What we want to achieve with our headphones is that they just sound natural. Some headphones, when you wear them, you have to get used to them. But not our headphones. Most people would say that our tuning leans more towards a detailed, neutral sound. Lately, we have been adding a bit more bass to our lineup because there has been a demand for bass, and I like bass too. But we have to be careful in the tuning due to the upward spread of masking.
What do you want Noble Audio to be known for?
Uncompromising quality. We want to make some of the best-looking, best-sounding headphones on the market. We don’t care about how much it costs to make the product. Recently, for our 10th anniversary, we created the Chronicle, and the shell was made of titanium Damascus, and through heat, it produces different colours. That material is some of the most expensive you can buy in the world, and we made 118 of them, priced at USD 6000, and were sold out in less than three days.
Another example is the Viking, made of Stainless Steel Damascus, and we found master jeweller Chris Ploof to have him forge the metal for the headphones. We made 84 of them initially and priced them about USD 7500, and people thought there was no way the product would sell well at that price. But it was sold out.
