More bass is produced by beating a pan with a metal spoon. The left side sounded like there was wind blowing in my ear. Sporadic connectivity with my phone and Brand new LG TV. I had to keep turning the headphones off and back on. Noise canceling? I thought it was off and pressed the button to turn only to find out it WAS on. Focal should be ashamed of themselves for charging this much for some Walmart quality headphonesI tried their "app", as well as Wavelet to get better sound, but nothing helped. I also understand the break-in period, but no amount of time would give these any kind of bass. The "wind like noise" in the left side was very annoying. I also tried them plugged in via usb-c. They were comfortable, but so is my pillow with a soundlink beside it. Maybe I received a defective pair. They were new, not refurbished. I really wanted to like these, but back to Bose I go.

Ce casque s'adresse aux utilisateurs qui veulent une restitution sonore fidèle à l'original. Écouter vos fichiers musicaux, de préférence en qualité "haute résolution", avec le Focal Bathys est une expérience unique. Celui-ci respecte la qualité du travail d'enregistrerem de l'artiste, quelque soit le style musical.

The Focal Bathys are great-sounding headphones — genuinely impressive, and even better once you EQ them to the Harman curve. The clarity and detail are excellent, making them a joy to listen to in the right environment.DAC mode is also fantastic. Connected via USB-C, the internal DAC delivers clean, powerful audio that easily rivals many wired setups. Contrary to what I initially thought, ANC does still function in DAC mode — it’s actually the Transparency Mode that gets disabled. Either way, the audio quality in this mode is stellar.Comfort-wise, I was able to wear them for hours. However, with my larger ears, I did start to feel pressure and aching at the top corners of the ear cups after extended use. They’re well-built and generally comfortable, but may not suit everyone’s ear shape.The biggest letdown is the ANC. On a plane, they simply didn’t block out enough noise to justify being called premium noise-cancelling headphones. For that, Bose and Sony still lead the pack by quite a margin. If you’re at home in a quiet setting, the Bathys are brilliant. But if you’re travelling or commuting and expecting best-in-class ANC, you’ll be disappointed.And if you’re not after ANC at all? There are plenty of audiophile headphones that will pancake these in terms of pure sound quality — often at a lower price.In the end, I returned them. The Bathys are excellent in many ways, but they’re marketed as ANC headphones — and on that front, they just don’t cut the mustard.

I own a pair of Focal Listen Wireless, and this definitely is a big upgrade. The sound is much crisper and detail than the Listen. There are plenty of low end for all kinds of music. By default, it favors the high end a little bit, but you can easily adjust it with EQ, be aware that the Focal & Naim only have a 5 bands EQ. The sound personalization feature is interesting, I supposed if you have some hearing lose, it helps. After playing with it a little, I can tell the difference between normal and having sound personalization turned on. It is very subtle though. The controls are very tactile. It doesn't feel heavy on the head, and it feels very well made. It feels solid from headband to earcups. All the articulation points are solid. The earpads are soft and very comfortable for long listening time. It could get a bit warm though, it is a close back design after all.

I spent a lot of time testing the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2e ’s and Px8 ’s before the Focal Bathys arrived (see my review), so this review is seriously colored by the comparison review I worked on for those. The discount pricing I was able to grab was Bathys @ $600, 8’s @ $450, 7’s @ $240.TL;DR—in terms of overall rating, I would draw a line from the 7’s to the 8’s, and I would place the Bathys on that line about 1/3 of the way from the 7’s to the 8’s. So if I could only have one, I’d pick the B&W Px8 ’s. Interestingly, if I could only have two, I might still pick the B&W Px7 S2e ’s before I’d keep the Focal Bathys. But I’ll say the same thing as I said in my 7 vs. 8 review: once I put on the 8’s and start listening to music, I start to forget that I’m supposed to be testing and I just want to listen to more music—and that really cuts to the core of it.The Bathys are not punchy at all. They just lack punch. Testing against Midnight Rider by The Allman Brothers band, which I find overly punchy on both the 7’s and 8’s with a -2.0db bass cut, just for fun I turned the bass as far up as it would go on the Bathys, and I still wouldn’t describe them as particularly punchy.Where the Bathys really shine is soundstage, as many other reviewers have stated. The level of detail you get is incredible, so you can place all of the instruments in space very well, and on top of that you can really focus on the detail of particular instruments. So if you are looking for analytical headphones, these are the best of the three. But, these two features come at a real cost. The Bathys are overly trebly and tinny and lack warmth, depth, and intimacy. So if you want to analyze or transcribe music, the Bathys are for you. If you want to fall in love with music, go for the Px8 ’s.Here are some examples… The level of detail and soundstage of the percussion & typewriter at the beginning of Hold Me Now by Thompson Twins is the best on the Bathys—so if the FBI needed you to identify the model of the typewriter, the Bathys are the way to go. Also, for the last minute of Gratitude by Brendon Lake, there are a few strokes of the cello, and the placement in space and the detail you get on the Bathys are amazing, and they’re lacking in the B&Ws.But the cost of that detail and soundstage…a metaphor I might use would be that you get soup instead of stew. The B&Ws have a richer, fuller, sound. The Bathys sound thin. You might describe them as tinny. The feeling of the sound is like the frequency response that you get from a thin LCD television. I think if there were a recommended EQ for the Bathys from the guys at headphones dot com or a similarly reliable source, that might be a place to start. I’m not confident with creating an EQ myself, but I experimented with the EQ levels a bit to try to add some richness by boosting the lowers frequencies in different combinations. But I was unable to add the rich fullness that I was craving because I also had the B&Ws for comparison—it helped somewhat, but then I’d switch to the B&Ws and I’d be like, oh yeah, that’s how it should be.Two other songs for comparison’s sake that were really helpful: Ventura Highway by America and Another Park, Another Sunday by the Doobie Brothers. The guitar in Ventura Highway is most alive on the 8s… you experience it most fully and get that satisfying Living Stereo feeling. With the Bathys you get the most detail, but it’s the thin tin that makes it not as fully alive. Likewise, in Another Park, Another Sunday, at 1:30 there are three notes on the vibraphone. You can follow the decay of the third note until it gets muted at around 1:36. It’s most alive on the 8’s and 7’s because there’s more richness since there’s a set of lower frequencies that are not there on the Bathys. So you can still hear the detail of those vibraphone notes, but you’re missing the richness of the overtones (the vibe!) of the vibraphone as an instrument. Again, perhaps someone more skilled with an EQ than me could solve this problem. However—should we have to solve problems with an EQ, or should the EQ be more about personal preference? I feel like the EQ options on the B&Ws are just what I need—enough to bring down the punchiness which I do not like, without changing the overall characteristics of the headphones. I got my tweak on the B&Ws, but with the Focals I feel like I need a “remodel” or an “overhaul.”I loved hearing the detail and the expansive soundstage on the Bathys… but like I said in my review that compared the 7’s and 8’s… once I had the 8’s on, I just wanted to keep them on and listen to more music, and I just didn’t feel that way about the Bathys or the 7’s. Even with zero discount, the 8’s would still be my choice over the Bathys. In fact, call me crazy, but I even might choose the 7’s over the Bathys if those were the only two choices available to me.One personal peculiarity I should state about my ears—if I hear boosted treble for a little while, my ears will become desensitized to treble and anything I listen to after that will sound lacking in vibrance and clarity. So in going back and forth, I had to reaclimate to the B&Ws over and over for them to sound good again—it would take a few minutes with the 8’s for high-hats to sound natural and satisfyingly crisp again. So for me personally, I feel like the Bathys give me too much treble out of the box, and I wasn’t able to come up with an EQ curve for it either.In terms of physical comfort, I would say that the 7’s are the most comfortable, followed by the Bathys, and with the 8’s coming in last. For me, the Bathys do put too much pressure on my jaw bone similar to the 8’s, but less pronounced. The Bathys are less warm than the 8’s, similar to the 7’s. The Bathys would be great if you have large ears, or a wide head… There is something about the padding though that makes it so that the Bathys don’t mold (or maybe “connect” is the right word) to your head as well…so there’s more play in them when you move your head—they don’t quite becomes as much a part of you as the B&Ws. I have a narrow head and wear narrow-framed eyeglasses though.Another peculiarity of the Bathys—the options of pass through, soft and silent noise cancelation, do change the characteristics of the sounds slightly. Just something to be aware of and I don’t want to spend words on it, but I could tell a slight difference when switching. I couldn’t really tell a difference on the B&Ws unless I gave external input (snapping my fingers).Interesting learning about the apps during testing: all three headphones can play audio from one source (my laptop) while I access them from their apps and adjust the sound simultaneously. That was a very pleasant surprise.Note for the chemically sensitive—the Bathys don’t have too much odor to them. (I’m writing this on day one.) The case stinks in comparison to the headphones. However—the good news is that I’m pretty chemically sensitive and my mucus membranes don’t react to these, so hopefully that is helpful data. Similar to both the B&Ws on this front.