A note of thanks
Like the other reviewers on the tour, I first want to gush about Todd as well. Todd worked with me a while back on a Focal Radiance purchase for my dad—I was surprised (but very appreciative) that he responded to me directly and personally for every inquiry I had. During the course of several days of trading emails, he was helpful, informative, responsive, friendly, gave us a great deal, and shipped everything out faster than lightning once the deed was done. I found him to be an all-around pleasure to work with, and frankly, we need more people with his kind of enthusiasm for the hobby, balanced with a real sense of customer-focus, in the marketplace--you can feel confident about your purchasing experience if you end up doing business with him!
Putting my perspective into perspective
On to the matter at hand. First, let me say that I am serious about enjoying my music. Not “serious” in a put on a crushed velvet bathrobe, dim the lights, pour a sifter of brandy, close the soundproof door, and then spin up some esoteric limited pressing of a soul-wrenching aria so that I can hear which side of the microphone sock was closest to the stage kind of way. I mean I’m serious about finding and experiencing the magic in any of the music I’ve grown to love and just getting completely lost in the notes, melodies, harmonies, and lyrics. I’ll listen to the same song several times over, not to dissect the technical aspects of the recording or the artist’s performance, but just to let something that moved me or caught my ear wash over me again and again before hitting the skip button and moving on to something else that makes me smile, bob my head, get a little misty, or encourages me to make my afternoon run a bit faster.
I love to have music playing in the background of pretty much anything I’m doing, but I prefer not to settle for “good enough” when I know I have heard and can get “better,” which is why, even with my workout buds, I will spend the extra research, effort, and money to get a little better-quality sound squirting down my ear canals if I can. I do consider myself an audiophile, but I know I don’t necessarily have a “trained ear.” That said, I believe I have a critical enough ear to recognize the differences between compressed, lossless, and high-resolution versions of the same songs, and have built up enough experience with various audio hardware combinations to recognize when something in the listening chain is adding or subtracting something from that magic I mentioned. I am only providing this background to give you a sense of my own headspace and preferences so you have a little bit of context to help interpret my observations or perspectives during my Bathys audition.
Design, Build, and Fitment
Okay, that’s a huge buildup to the actual review—thanks for sticking with me this far. The headset itself takes virtually all its styling cues from the current Focal lineup which I happen to find quite handsome. The subtle white LED lighting of the Focal logos (which are defeatable, BTW) on the sides and the “holeshot” grillwork over the earcups communicates a bit of class (IMO) and sense of “upper mid-fi” design refinement that goes beyond the rather understated, pure black, or featureless outer shell like you’d find on the latest Sony or Bose BT/ANC headsets. It’s nothing over-the-top like how an RGB gaming headset would feel a little out of place at work, but there’s also no mistaking the Bahtys for “just another BT headset.”
The earpads feature some buttery-soft leather and squishy memory foam innards with a leather-wrapped headband top and what feels like either suede or a microfiber fabric on the underside. The headband itself offers a somewhat aggressive curvature relative to the full-sized wired headsets from which it draws its inspiration. This, coupled with the fact that the earcups fold flat (though oddly just in one direction), allows the Bathys to fit into a smaller/shorter Focal-branded storage case than the hard case you’ve probably seen for the Celestee, Stellia, Utopia, etc. This may make the Bathys easier to tote around, which I suppose is kind of the point for a premium BT headset.
That said, I personally found the Bathys inward clamp somewhat high. Mind you, it was not uncomfortable or overbearing, but the Bathys is nearly 90 grams lighter than the Focal Radiance, and yet the gentle curvature of the Radiance’s headband seemed to distribute the headset’s weight more evenly across the top of my head such that I was less conscious of wearing the Radiance over time. With the Bathys, I became aware of the headband pressing down at the very top of my head to the point of being just shy of creating a hot spot. My hat size is 7 5/8”—I typically wear an XL or XXL bike or motorcycle helmet so this may be less of an issue for you if you have a more moderately sized melon than me.
The earcups are somewhat oval-shaped, more so than Focal’s wired models, and are also somewhat smaller. On me, the Radiance (and Stellia and Utopias) are completely circumaural; with the Bathys, there was a bit of overlap at the bottom of my earlobe with a tiny bit of lobe still peaking out under the earpad. Fortunately, the pads are soft enough that I did not notice any buildup of pressure or discomfort though they did tend to heat up my ears quite handily. There is a fine mesh interior fabric that covers the dome-shaped driver, but the pads are deep enough that I have a hard time believing anyone will be able to feel the driver against their ears. The earcup swivels and hinges are smooth but not loose and headband adjustments feel firm and secure; once you’ve sized the headset to your noggin, you shouldn’t have to do much readjustment just from donning/doffing the headset during regular use. I heard no cheap plasticky creaks or groans which is definitely reassuring given the Bathys’ price point.
Features, Functionality, and Usability
The package includes a Focal-branded 3.5mm cable and a USB-C to USB-C charging cable. While you don’t *need* to download the Focal & Naim app to access all the headset’s functionality, I went ahead and pulled down the companion app and poked around the settings that were offered. Despite the Focal pedigree, the Bathys seems clearly aimed at the mobile listener’s likely desire to “get me close enough while I’m out and about” as opposed to offering more OCD-levels of fine tuning for the sound signature that gets you within spitting distance of studio-quality/reference-levels. There were a few EQ presets to pick from, but the custom EQ only affords 6dB of boost/cut at one of five predetermined frequencies with no indication as to the width of the frequency bands affected. The app also allows you to quickly select one of the three ANC levels, as well as adjust the logo lights to bright/dim/off, auto standby activation, and selection of voice assistant (Siri, Alexa, etc.). Information displayed in the app includes battery level and CODEC currently in use; but frankly, once I adjusted the logo lighting to my preference, I didn’t use the app any further beyond initial setup and kept the EQ flat for all listening sessions.
If you forgo the app to make adjustments to the headset while in operation, you may find usability a bit of a mixed bag like I did, especially if you’re accustomed to what have become more “traditional” BT control schemes over the years. First, virtually all primary controls, the USB-C port, and 3.5mm jack are on the right earcup, except for a single button that controls ANC mode, which is on the left cup. This layout is reversed from most of the BT and gaming headsets I’ve used over the past several years and it took me a little time to re-learn which earcup had the “important” buttons on it. The BT button (it’s actually called a “multifunction button” in the manual, but it’s labeled with the Bluetooth symbol) is flanked by two larger + and - keys that control volume; but in an unfortunate bit of usability engineering, the + and – keys ONLY control volume, while the BT button serves quadruple duty to also provide play/pause (1 click), skip forward (2 clicks), and skip back (3 clicks). Why the volume +/- keys couldn’t provide for more intuitive Skip+/Skip- functions with a long press is beyond me. Note that the multifunction button ALSO serves to answer/hang up phone calls, though honestly I did not test call quality during my audition.
Similarly, there is a single button next to the power port that is only used to activate the voice assistant—relocating that button to the other earcup which only features a single ANC mode button would have helped make the right earcup a bit less cluttered when fumbling around for the controls in the blind. Speaking of the ANC button, it sadly does not feature an intuitive toggle that simply runs sequentially between Transparency (hear-through), Soft, and Silent ANC modes. Instead, you activate Transparency with one click, then shift between the other ANC modes via a 2-second press of the ANC button. There are no spoken prompts to indicate which mode you’re in at any given time, the changeover between modes is not instantaneous, and the change itself is obscured by random watery-sounding audio tones that frankly made it hard for me to determine whether I was in “soft” or fully “silent” ANC mode
until several seconds had passed and I could hear either more or less aggressive cancellation of the ambient noise. The additional delays and intrusive tones also made it very hard to determine what (if any) impact ANC was having on playback quality because you can't quickly A/B between settings. FWIW, I didn’t notice any significant reduction in audio fidelity going from soft to silent ANC modes, but there is also no way to tell for sure what the Bathys can actually do with an *unaltered* signal (more below).
Along with supporting more common AAC and SBC codecs, the Bathys also offers higher-resolution BT playback via aptX and aptX-adaptive and works in USB-DAC mode supporting up to 24bit/192kHz decoding/playback. You can also use the included 3.5mm cable to run the headset in “AUX” mode; however, this is NOT a passive or unpowered input you can use in hopes of scaling performance based on improvements in the DAC or amplification stages. Regardless of whether you are using BT, USB, or AUX modes, you CANNNOT use the Bathys without some form of ANC or the hear-through mode activated. So long as you’re primarily after a BT headset with some high-fidelity chops, this may not be a deal-breaker for you, but it may come as a disappointment if you HAVE invested in a slightly more capable DAC, DAP, or desktop amp and wanted to see if the Bathys could hold its own against other head-fi hardware, or if you’re simply concerned about using your Bathys after the battery dies on a *really* long flight (though with BT and ANC running, you should still get around 30 hours from a full charge).
In use with select comparisons
Focal Bathys keeps company with the V-MODA Crossfade 2 Wireless Codex, Audeze Mobius, Bose QC 25, Focal Radiance, Focal Stellia, and Focal Utopia (OG)
With all that said, what does the headset actually sound like in use? In a few words, pretty darned wonderful! I’ll get to the ANC shortly, but in terms of sheer audio quality, this is by far and away the best-sounding BT headset I’ve used to date. Bass is full-bodied, snappy, responsive, and provides some palpable heft without feeling bloated, mushy, or indistinct. Mids and highs are clear, crisp, and detailed; but I never got any sense of overbearing sizzle or hyper-sparkly sibilance that would likely lead to fatigue over the long haul. On BT, A/V delay was minimal to virtually unnoticeable, even for talk-heavy YouTube videos or busy Netflix movie streams. Sure, there are areas that could be better and imaging was essentially "all in your head,” but that’s not to say there was anything really objectionable out of the box to begin with, and those “shortcomings” really only bubbled up to the surface when compared against much pricier and more sophisticated models from Focal’s own lineup. And while I cannot speak to the Elegias, Elears, Celestees, etc. of the world, I can say that the Bathys actually gets very VERY close to reproducing Focal Radiance-level audio performance--which, IMO, is a pretty high bar to set for a pair of BT cans coming in about $500 cheaper.
But let’s get past the elephant in the room…is the Bathys a Bose or Sony ANC killer that happens to feature some incredibly compelling Focal audio tuning and performance—NO, not even close. It’s a Focal headset that brings you a LOT of what you might like/enjoy about Focal’s sound into the BT realm, and it just so happens to offer some ANC capabilities to help tame a bit of background noise. Sadly, the Bathys will not ensconce your head in a bubble of inky black silence—I would describe its ANC as “serviceable.” In the din of a busy office or sitting near the drone of a jet engine or low frequency rumble of a commuter train, the Bathys will work to “attenuate” noise far more than it will ever “cancel” it. For comparison’s sake, I pulled out my old Bose QC 25, not even state-of-the-art ANC by Bose standards anymore, and ran a few simple tests at my PC (about 3 feet away on a tabletop at ear level). I began spinning up the triple fan cooler on my video card to 100% for 30 seconds straight. The Bose handily drowned out the fan noise to a very low/faint whooshing sound while it was still clear using the Bathys even on “Silent” mode that the fans were working *hard*. Impulse noise attenuation on my Cherry Speed keyboard was about equal between the two, with the Bose cutting just a hair more of the low frequency “thunk” out of each keystroke. That’s not to say I wasn’t caught off guard by my wife who said she had been calling me from across the house for a few minutes while I was using the Bathys, but the effectiveness of the Bathys ANC solutions just didn’t hold a candle to the Bose ANC solution that is now at least 2-3 generations older.
- Bathys vs V-MODA Crossfade 2 Wireless Codex Edition. The V-MODA is the only other full-sized BT headset I have that also features aptX so I could make an apples-to-apples comparison based on source material resolution/format. I found the V-MODA to feature much hotter and heavier (not necessarily nimble) bass with more visceral slam at the expense of feeling less taut or snappy. On the Bathys, vocals (female vocals especially) had greater definition and nuance while highs (piano, strings) were unquestionably clearer and sweeter. Switching back and forth almost made the V-MODA feel slightly restrained in the high end which is something I usually don’t associate with those cans. In the end, the V-MODAs had more kick and energy that felt well-matched for a power workout, while the Bathys was still fun but with a “cleaner” or more “refined” performance that felt better suited to “critical listening” occasions (well, as critical as Bluetooth can be). For example, during Evanescence’s My Heart is Broken, the increasingly complex layering of piano, guitars, strings, drums, and female vocals were easier to isolate on Bathys, while some of the subtleties of the synth accompaniments in the background were simply getting lost in the V-MODA’s nearly overpowering bassline.
- Bathys vs. Audeze Mobius. I have always enjoyed planars and I was amazed at how well the Mobius served double-duty as both a compelling 3D gaming headset and delivering solid musical performance in high resolution using its own USB-DAC mode. Setting windows to 24bit/96kHz sampling, I spun up some of my own HD tracks and several Amazon UltraHD streams and tried to appreciate the differences between the two. Frankly, it was no contest—the Bathys walked away with the prize even after just a few minutes of casual comparison, much less repeated, critical listening. Matched as closely as I could for volume, music on the Bathys was more-full bodied, voices were more clearly defined, individual instruments sounded more distinct from each other—there was simply more of everything. On the HD stream of The Wellerman’s amazing a cappella rendition of Misty Mountains, I could make out subtle vibrations in the individual vocal tracks, even during the last minutes of the song when all 14 bass singers were overlapping in a chilling bit of low frequency harmonizing—this effect was far less pronounced on the Mobius to the point where I didn’t bother continuing the comparison. But for grins, I did try using the Mobius in LDAC mode with my Shanling M9 to see if that made a difference, but the same tracks using the Bathys’ competing aptX CODEC produced a similar pattern of results. The Mobius is a technical marvel for its price, and while its head-tracking 3D technology makes for a compelling 3D soundfield for computer games, it only reproduces music “nicely”--the Bathys instead let me *experience* the music.
The next three comparisons were all made using the OEM 3.5mm cable provided with each Focal headset fed via the Questyle M15’s SE output:
- Bathys vs Radiance. I was really interested in how well the Bathys would hold up against a few rivals from Focal itself. I started as low on the Focal totem pole as I could with the Radiance. In all seriousness, it was actually a pretty close comparison. The Radiance had an immediately bigger sense of space than the Bathys. In Jack Savoretti’s Solider’s Eyes, the leading “edges” of his vocals had just a hair more heft and throaty quality to them that lent to a more “you are there” kind of feeling. The Bathys sounded “smoother-edged” in comparison--articulate, but not necessarily ultra-delicate, which suggests to me that perhaps it would be more forgiving of lower quality or more highly compressed tracks than the Radiance would be. Back to The Wellerman’s Misty Mountains, there’s a tricky spot right around the 0:58 mark with the phrase “forgotten gold” that had just barely a hint of distortion on the Bathys--almost like there wasn’t enough resolution left to capture all that vibrato--but that minor hiccup was not present in the Radiance; it was also easier to pick out more individual singers from the busy mix on the Radiance. Spinning up some tracks from my youth, the pluck of electric guitar strings during Dokken’s instrumental track Without Warning were slightly more well-defined with the ensuing bloom sounding richer and more complex on the Radiance versus the Bathys. Finally, the very deep bass hit at the beginning of Underworld’s Underneath the Radar had similar energy and heft between the two headsets, but with a little more precision on the Radiance—the Bathys rendered that bass hit with slightly less finesse or definition at the leading and trailing ends. But all of these differences were very subtle at best--at least to my ears, the Bathys leans far closer to Radiance-level performance than not.
- Bathys vs Stellia. This was not really a fair comparison so I won’t spend too much time here, but the results of this listening session did surprise me a little. First, the initial sense of spaciousness and separation in the Stellia over the Bathys was palpable (and given the difference in price, I would hope so)…the Bathys’ performance just seemed "really good” in comparison. Much of what I noted in the Radiance comparison above bore out here as well--as layering and overlapping tracks became denser and more complex, the Stellia reproduced them effortlessly without smearing or losing detail versus some of what started to get lost in the mixes on the Bathys. BUT, I was shocked to find that the visceral “oomph” of a really hard-hitting bass note felt a tad recessed on the Stellia versus what was rendered on the Bathys. I listened over and over again to be sure of what I was hearing, and maybe in doing so I was starting to learn something about my changing tastes or hearing (or maybe my Stellia just isn’t broken in yet???), but as I repeated the same tracks focusing on deep bass guitars or quick, impactful kick drums (like during the opening minutes of Metallica’s One), I kept thinking: Stellia = quicker, snappier; Bathys = harder hitting, chest rattling. Changing the gain settings on the M15 did not make a difference. I know the adage is “quality not quantity,” and while I do not consider myself a bass head, I think maybe I actually missed some of the Bathys bass quantity in light of the Stellia’s emphasis on quality.
- Bathys vs Utopia. This one was just for funsies. As soon as I put the Utopias on, I thought, “Oh yeah, THAT’S why I love these headphones!” Bass notes were smooth, tight, snappy, and well-defined, but also that chest-thumping ‘oomph’ was back that I missed from the Stellia. Utopias are commonly regarded as detail monsters and, true to form, I did notice as time wore on that there seemed to be a bit more sizzle at the top end compared to the Bathys, especially with female vocals or bright strings that some people might eventually find fatiguing. I also noticed as bit less “presence” or audible decay after a drum or hi-hat hit on the Bathys versus the Utopias.
Whew, that’s a lot of ground to cover. But if you saw this post stretch on WAY below the fold and just TL;DR'd down to the end, here are my conclusions. The Bathys is a REALLY great-sounding BT headset that offers decent-enough ANC to tame some background distractions, but sadly does not achieve anywhere near state-of-the-art noise cancelling levels. In terms of quality of sound per dollar spent, I found it performed about where it was priced relative to the competition. Musically, it
handily outpaced other wireless headsets retailing for $250-$400, but turned in a technical performance that was
just a tad below one of Focal’s own wired offerings that retails for $1300. If it helps, I would characterize the Focal Bathys’ sound signature as a slightly more “polite” Focal Radiance. Assuming a very simple linear relationship between price and performance against my admittedly small sample size, the Bathys seems fairly priced at its current MSRP, especially when you throw BT and ANC into the mix. There are a few usability niggles that bother me personally as a student of interface and user-centered design, and I wish a non-amplified/non-ANC’d passive mode was available, but for a BT-centric listening experience that still offers some refinement and room for critical listening, the Bathys seems pretty hard to beat.
