[arkfi]

Are you in the UK? If so you will be covered by the distance selling regulations if you buy online.

https://www.gov.uk/accepting-returns-and-giving-refunds

I am not.

 

[WatchWinder]

I am not.

I have had the Bathys PX8 and the ML5909. If you can stretch to the ML5909, I would go with them. I know they are more expensive but they out perform the Bathys and PX8 either as a wireless ANC headphone & a passive headphone with a reasonably cheap portable DAC (I have an IFI Hip Dac 2) I am even thinking of selling my Focal Clear MGs, the 5909 are that good!

 

[arkfi]

I have had the Bathys PX8 and the ML5909. If you can stretch to the ML5909, I would go with them. I know they are more expensive but they out perform the Bathys and PX8 either as a wireless ANC headphone & a passive headphone with a reasonably cheap portable DAC (I have an IFI Hip Dac 2) I am even thinking of selling my Focal Clear MGs, the 5909 are that good!

Unfortunately the 5909 are just too expensive for my budget. Depending how long it takes me to make up my mind and how much budget I can clear, I may consider it. That being said, I hear very differing opinions on the 5909 and that would make me that much more nervous to shell out that much money. Thanks nonetheless for the valuable insight!

 

[Mikstick]

Hey, I owned both and returned the Focal Bathys. Both have good sound, the Focal sounds slightly better. I returned the Bathys because it doesn't perform as a mobile headset - it performs as a desktop headset. The Bathys have a really annoying diaphragm pop every single time you take a step, which is very distracting from the music - so does the 5909. The PX8 doesn't have that problem and still sounds really good, especially though the B&W app. It also looks great, has decent noise cancelling, and performs like it's supposed to - as a mobile set of audiophile headphones. If you want really good sound quality while sitting down, get a desktop setup. Or, a good set of IEMs and a DAP.

Thanks for this breakdown I'm looking to expand my wireless headphone collection and needed a good explanation on the bathys

 

[BrokeAudiophileMan]

I have the Bathys. Excellent excellent headphones. Worth the money 100% and they sound great wired or wireless. I tend to use them via usb cable so the digital bits get to the headphones via the USB C cable instead of bluetooth which makes them sound better, but they sound terrific no matter what.

 

[BrokeAudiophileMan]

Thanks for this breakdown I'm looking to expand my wireless headphone collection and needed a good explanation on the bathys

I just want to say I have the bathys and have not noticed any pop whatsoever when walking. They are actually excellent when walking compared to something like Momentum 4 which I also have.

 

[arkfi]

I have the Bathys. Excellent excellent headphones. Worth the money 100% and they sound great wired or wireless. I tend to use them via usb cable so the digital bits get to the headphones via the USB C cable instead of bluetooth which makes them sound better, but they sound terrific no matter what.

Thanks, that's great to hear. I still haven't got mine because "life", but I'll definitely get a pair as soon as I can!

 

[arkfi]

For posterity I figured I'd share my thoughts after finally buying the Bathys.

In short: I love 'em! Sound quality is near perfect to me, got some positive feedback on the mic quality during calls, and battery life is great to boot.

Here's some pros and cons, in case someone is debating getting a pair, like I was.

Pros:

• Very clear sound; hearing things in songs that I never heard before.
• Bass is deep and punchy while controlled, and loud enough for acceptably enjoyable EDM listening. (see cons below for caveats)
• Soundstage is vast; got some awe-inspiring moments while listening to particular songs (try Peaceful by Heavenly Trip to get my meaning).
• Multipoint support works great; listening to PC and can still receive phone calls through the headset, returning to the PC after I hang up.
• Not sure if it's some sort of active filter, but I hear zero sound compression artifacts (at least when playing from my iPhone), as if those MP3s were WAVs!
• Battery life is better than I expected, apparently down to half charge after listening for roughly 15 hours over 3 days, sometimes with loud bass which I would suppose drains the battery the most.

Cons:

• Takes a while to get used to the controls, at first pressing buttons I didn't mean to press, especially the ANC one when taking off the headset. Nothing too egregious though.
• Would have definitely liked full multipoint support on such a recent and expensive headset, but no, you can't have sound from two devices at once despite some multipoint support. Gotta wonder, though, how controlling the volume on two devices would even work.
• Bass heads beware: While the bass is way above par imho, you don't really feel most of the kicks and rumble. You do feel them but nowhere near as much as I did with my defunct Denon D2000's. I simply can't make the bass as loud as with the Denons, not without serious distortion. Maybe this is as good as it gets with wireless cans?
• Probably due to battery power limitations, bass-y music in general simply cannot be played very loud. This may look like the previous point above, but it's one thing to not get the bass rumble that you like, and it's another thing entirely to not be able to fully enjoy EDM music that is so much more fun when played very loud. EDM on the Bathys mostly sounds great, but for me, on my iPhone I have to play it 2 to 4 notches down from max volume for the bass not to muddy up the music to the point where it just doesn't sound good anymore. I could EQ the bass down to allow a higher volume level, but then the bass would feel lacking. (God I miss my Denons...) Again, maybe it's all about battery power, and maybe all wireless cans suffer from this; I wouldn't know, never tried others.

Note that I haven't touched the EQ yet and probably never will; the Bathys sound amazing right out of the box.

Also notice I didn't comment on the ANC. That's because it was never an important feature to me. It works well enough but I actually mostly use the Bathys in transparency mode. Maybe if I had the occasion to try them in a very noisy environment I could then comment on how much they made my life better, but that hasn't happened yet.

HTH any future potential buyers.

 

[arkfi]

Small update...

Turns out the "lackluster bass loudness" I was experiencing might in fact have been a "burn-in" issue. After many more hours of listening, I'm able to listen to bass-heavy music at max volume without much distortion, if any.

Note that despite this, the Bathys still comes short of the Denon D2000's bass head heaven, but I'll admit it is pretty close!

 

[Launedernatur]

Small update...

Turns out the "lackluster bass loudness" I was experiencing might in fact have been a "burn-in" issue. After many more hours of listening, I'm able to listen to bass-heavy music at max volume without much distortion, if any.

Note that despite this, the Bathys still comes short of the Denon D2000's bass head heaven, but I'll admit it is pretty close!

I experienced the same thing. The bass on the Bathys became much cleaner after a few hours of playing in. And deeper. I also lowered the 125 Hz and 250 Hz frequencies in the poweramp app, and for me the sound is even cleaner. With the flat EQ, the bass blurs the mids a bit, which I don't like. It gives the music something like the atmosphere of a live concert, I prefer studio quality. I did the same with the B&W Px7, and since then I've also really liked these headphones.
Imho.