ilovespud
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Just watched Aquaman in HDR over BT from my LG B9 tv and it sounded great but would it sound better from the wired headphone out into the Bathys ?
Focal Bathys - Wireless ANC Over-Ear Headphone
- Thread starter SlydZ
- Start date
roines1987
100+ Head-Fier
Dont remember my model TV. But bluetooth tv sound is no bueno.
Bought apple tv a couple month ago and that sounded much much better.
But still Bathys are not meant for that, i feel.
i could try with another EQ
Bought apple tv a couple month ago and that sounded much much better.
But still Bathys are not meant for that, i feel.
i could try with another EQ
BenKatz
100+ Head-Fier
I'm reposting this issue i'm having - maybe i'm not the only one:
is anyone else having an issue with the Bathys used in exclusive mode in Tidal (Windows app) via USB, where randomly, after around 5-15minutes of playback, the Bathys disconnect and then reconnect? Most of the times I have to relaunch Tidal to get it to play through the headphones again? This issue never occurs while listening to them connected to USB via general content (chrome videos, etc) - just the Tidal app.
is anyone else having an issue with the Bathys used in exclusive mode in Tidal (Windows app) via USB, where randomly, after around 5-15minutes of playback, the Bathys disconnect and then reconnect? Most of the times I have to relaunch Tidal to get it to play through the headphones again? This issue never occurs while listening to them connected to USB via general content (chrome videos, etc) - just the Tidal app.
stormobile
New Head-Fier
Bathys restart on frequent sampling rate changes of the track. I assume that in exclusive mode you get bit-perfect playback so the sampling rate happens. In non-exclusive mode all the audio gets resampled by Windows to whichever setting you have in Windows audio control panel so there is no trigger for Bathys to restart. Make sure that you've updated to 1.5.7 FW - it has fewer restarts for me.
BenKatz
100+ Head-Fier
Thank you - exactly what I suspected. It is what it is. The restarts really take away from my listening pleasure. I'm enjoying them much more without it, so having everything at 16 bit 44.1khz on tidal is more than good enough for me.
BenKatz
100+ Head-Fier
So I have a few thoughts, a "Review" of sorts, after 4 weeks of owning the Focal Bathys:
1) Sound. As far as DRIVERS (be them speaker or headphone) are concerned, burn-in is real, very real. It depends on the material of the driver how strong the impact is, but that's another discussion. After 2-3 weeks of listening to them for about 5-8 hour per day, the effects of the burin in are a more de-congested soundstage, less harsh highs, punchier bass, and more noticeable sub bass. That being said, there's not much point in doing an overall characterization of the sound - there are tons of reviews online and it's hard to explain to someone without comparing them to other headphones that one person or another listened to. But the sound is as open as can be for a closed back, the soundstage is fantastic for this price and this category of headphone, and the bass is meaty without EVER offending the mids. Just awesome. Does NC affect sound? Hard to tell, you can't turn NC off, you have "Soft" - which although still keeps the NC and DSP on, is the "equivalent" of NC off, "Transparency" which is...transparent (and works great), and "Silent" which is 100% NC. With Soft it sounds the best. Is there a difference between DAC mode and BT mode? Yes, DAC is CLEARLY more...clear, mor clean, more open. But BT and DAC have the same type of signature and unless you;re doing some semi-critical listening, BT is excellent and more than good enough. Wired via 3.5mm? Worst sound. Veiled, congested (tried it with my Xperia 1 V). Not recommended, can't be used turned off. I guess it's there for listening to in-flight entertainment.
2) NC. Worse than a Sony-1000XM5 - HOWEVER, more than good enough for flights. You won't be disappointed. It's simply 100% enough. The amazing sound quality more than compensates.
4) Comfort. Supremely comfortable. Pads are soft and have memory foam, large enough for most ears (actually OVER EAR, not like many "over ears" that are on ears), headband padded just right. Of course, as always, head shape can vary comfort.
5) Battery - yeah, about 30 hours with super quick charge. Ever need more than that? I don't think so.
6) Build - more than good enough for the price. Here, we must take certain things into consideration. The Bathys are basically the Wireless versions of the Elegia and Celeste (yes, this characterization is the best way to position the Bathys into the Focal lineup, because they use the exact same Driver as Elegia and Celeste). And they cost 800$. The Elegia and Celeste cost between 9-1000$ (I'm talking pure MSRP here, local discounts don't matter). So how can a headphone that has the same driver but offer bluetooth, an internal DAC, noise cancelling, and also a flashy illuminated logo, cost 200$ less?? Simple, the Elegia and Celeste, and every other Focal is made in France, integrally. The Bathys are made in China (drivers still made in France). The Bathys uses a lot more plastic, whereas the Elegia and Celeste use a lot of aluminium. This way, the production costs of the Bathys went down significantly. Enough to offer you a similar audio quality to headphones from the same brand that cost more. So yea, the build is more than good enough.
7) App and sound enhancers - App is good, stable, no bugs. EQ - here, there's NO doubt in my mind that at least for me, the flat EQ sound best by FAR. Fiddling with it or setting it on "Dynamic" made the sound smoother, but at the same time CLEARLY made the presentation more intimate and decreased the width of the soundstage by 25% at least. Leave it on flat. MIMI sound tester - yeah, this thing is the BEES KNEES, man! I did the sound test twice - once out of the box, the 2nd time after 2 weeks of burn in. To put it simply, for me, set at 30%, this really changes the headphones for the better. MUCH MUCH more air in the highs, more separation between the instruments, even the sub-bass feels more "physical". Definitely do the test and activate it. The setting is baked into the headphone - it remains active in DAC mode also - this is confirmed by FOCAL as well on their website (FAQ section).
8) The USB CABLE. Yes, there is something to talk about her. In relation to the reason they cost -only- 800$ (see "Build"), the USB cable is of a "Crap"-tier quality. It's a bottom basic rubber cable that is unwieldy and retains whatever bends you apply to it. The length (1.2m) is the only good thing about here. Focal could have done better here, maybe a braided cable. So the first and only thing to swap if you get this headphone and intend to use it in DAC mode (why the hell wouldn't you? that's how you get the real deal) is the cable. I've had quite the adventure with cables here. The first cable I got was the AudioQuest Forest 1.5m USB-C to USB-C. The problem with that cable was that the sleeve is very plasticky, and whenever it hit my desk/laptop/keyboard or any solid surface when listening to it at my desk, it would produce a VERY audible drum-hit like sound that would absolutely travel all the way into my ears. This material also made the cable way to stiff. Shame. Of course, this cable is made for table-top DAC connections on a desktop or a rack. The best cable I found and I stuck with is the UNIQ HALO 1.2m usb-c to usb-c cable (image below, it's the lightning to usb-c version, all I could find on google). It's braided, it's malleable, and the color of the cable PERFECTLY match the headphones and particularly the case. Differences in sound? I can't tell and it's really not possible to tell. I tried A/Bing them (both cables connected to my laptop, swapping as fast as possible). In case you didn't know, auditive memory is VERY SHORT. Combine that with the fact that, as per any post by anyone that ever said there is a sound difference in digital audio cables, the differences are small to minute - no, it's impossible to tell if the AudioQuest Forest cable sounded better. This kind of test requires a lot of equipment - probably a miniDSP Headphone tester, then editing the recording to be able to have 0 seconds between the 2 files. I'm not getting a miniDSP for this. As far as I'm concerned and taking into account the short audio memory, I could tell that there were exactly 0 differences in sound quality.
So there you have it. Amazing headphones. Best of all worlds. This is -THE FUTURE- of hifi headphones.
EDIT: Adding some SIGNIFICANT feedback regarding the cable. Spoiler alert: I was wrong at point 8. Here is my review of the Audioquest Forest cable:
The only place in my entire Audio devices where I use a USB cable is with my headphones - Focal Bathys (in USB DAC mode). I wanted to replace the stock cable as soon as I got the headphones - not because it sounded bad or anything, but because of the lousy quality. I ended up buying 2 cables - a "generic" braided cable that aesthetically fit with the headphones (UNIQ brand, 1.2m), and I wanted to try out something more hifi, even though I had 0 trust digital would make a difference - I found a Audioquest Forest (1.2m) cable for 50 euros - so I bought it.
For the fist week of using it I was working heavily and although I had some spare time here and there, I didn't have a proper time to fully listen and switch cables to tell if there is a difference. To my ears, with those limited tests, they sounded absolutely identical.
However, today, I spent all morning really listening to any differences and taking notes. And to my COMPLETE surprise, I'm genuinely astounded.
Yes, I am a skeptic when it comes to digital audio cables. Yes, I understand that what we can measure doesn't really show EVERYTHING when it comes to audio and it's very complicated.
But I can absolutely now guarantee that there is a difference. Notably, listening to Michael Jackson - Liberian Girl, Steely Dan - Aja and Tool - Fear Inoculum, what I can say in short is that 3 things are very obvious:
1) Instruments like the snare and other sounds with high frequency that sparkle have a MUCH more natural and longer decay and they simply sparkle more, are more obvious, there's more "air" up there
2) The vocals, especially Michael Jackson's, has more weight and is more present
3) On Fear Inoculum it's quite obvious that the soundstage is wider - I can literally feel some instruments from coming from further back behind my ear canal, while on a generic USB cable it comes in front of my ear canal. Think of it like this: With the generic cable, the literal stage of all the music and instruments is let's say 90 degrees in front of me, arranged on a semi-circle, while with the Audioquest it has at least 10 more degrees of horizontal 3 dimensionality on both left and right. IT's more... 3d i guess? Holographic some people use? It's more complete, more encompassing, in plain English.
No, I don't know why it is. Spec-wise, the Forest has 3 things standing for it: A well isolated live wire for the charging, semi solid conductors (vs braided on generic ones), and they are also 0.5% silver. Do with this info as you wish, but overall, there is a difference, and it's very positive. Now I'm curious how the AQ Carbon sounds.
Yes, I have listened for half a day, it's very fresh in my memory as I'm writing, the difference is real, it's there. I never bought high end USB cables in my life before or used them.
My stereo system is completely connected via Van den Hul cables (speaker and interconnects) and I have a Coax digital Van den Hul cable connecting my CD transport to the DAC. My power cables are all Supra. I have no idea how good they are or if they sound better than cheaper cables. I got them as a package after negotiating for my stereo setup for a very good price, so these were my 1st and only cables I ever used out of the box. And no, I'm definitely not affiliated with AQ - this is the only AQ cable I've ever had.
1) Sound. As far as DRIVERS (be them speaker or headphone) are concerned, burn-in is real, very real. It depends on the material of the driver how strong the impact is, but that's another discussion. After 2-3 weeks of listening to them for about 5-8 hour per day, the effects of the burin in are a more de-congested soundstage, less harsh highs, punchier bass, and more noticeable sub bass. That being said, there's not much point in doing an overall characterization of the sound - there are tons of reviews online and it's hard to explain to someone without comparing them to other headphones that one person or another listened to. But the sound is as open as can be for a closed back, the soundstage is fantastic for this price and this category of headphone, and the bass is meaty without EVER offending the mids. Just awesome. Does NC affect sound? Hard to tell, you can't turn NC off, you have "Soft" - which although still keeps the NC and DSP on, is the "equivalent" of NC off, "Transparency" which is...transparent (and works great), and "Silent" which is 100% NC. With Soft it sounds the best. Is there a difference between DAC mode and BT mode? Yes, DAC is CLEARLY more...clear, mor clean, more open. But BT and DAC have the same type of signature and unless you;re doing some semi-critical listening, BT is excellent and more than good enough. Wired via 3.5mm? Worst sound. Veiled, congested (tried it with my Xperia 1 V). Not recommended, can't be used turned off. I guess it's there for listening to in-flight entertainment.
2) NC. Worse than a Sony-1000XM5 - HOWEVER, more than good enough for flights. You won't be disappointed. It's simply 100% enough. The amazing sound quality more than compensates.
4) Comfort. Supremely comfortable. Pads are soft and have memory foam, large enough for most ears (actually OVER EAR, not like many "over ears" that are on ears), headband padded just right. Of course, as always, head shape can vary comfort.
5) Battery - yeah, about 30 hours with super quick charge. Ever need more than that? I don't think so.
6) Build - more than good enough for the price. Here, we must take certain things into consideration. The Bathys are basically the Wireless versions of the Elegia and Celeste (yes, this characterization is the best way to position the Bathys into the Focal lineup, because they use the exact same Driver as Elegia and Celeste). And they cost 800$. The Elegia and Celeste cost between 9-1000$ (I'm talking pure MSRP here, local discounts don't matter). So how can a headphone that has the same driver but offer bluetooth, an internal DAC, noise cancelling, and also a flashy illuminated logo, cost 200$ less?? Simple, the Elegia and Celeste, and every other Focal is made in France, integrally. The Bathys are made in China (drivers still made in France). The Bathys uses a lot more plastic, whereas the Elegia and Celeste use a lot of aluminium. This way, the production costs of the Bathys went down significantly. Enough to offer you a similar audio quality to headphones from the same brand that cost more. So yea, the build is more than good enough.
7) App and sound enhancers - App is good, stable, no bugs. EQ - here, there's NO doubt in my mind that at least for me, the flat EQ sound best by FAR. Fiddling with it or setting it on "Dynamic" made the sound smoother, but at the same time CLEARLY made the presentation more intimate and decreased the width of the soundstage by 25% at least. Leave it on flat. MIMI sound tester - yeah, this thing is the BEES KNEES, man! I did the sound test twice - once out of the box, the 2nd time after 2 weeks of burn in. To put it simply, for me, set at 30%, this really changes the headphones for the better. MUCH MUCH more air in the highs, more separation between the instruments, even the sub-bass feels more "physical". Definitely do the test and activate it. The setting is baked into the headphone - it remains active in DAC mode also - this is confirmed by FOCAL as well on their website (FAQ section).
8) The USB CABLE. Yes, there is something to talk about her. In relation to the reason they cost -only- 800$ (see "Build"), the USB cable is of a "Crap"-tier quality. It's a bottom basic rubber cable that is unwieldy and retains whatever bends you apply to it. The length (1.2m) is the only good thing about here. Focal could have done better here, maybe a braided cable. So the first and only thing to swap if you get this headphone and intend to use it in DAC mode (why the hell wouldn't you? that's how you get the real deal) is the cable. I've had quite the adventure with cables here. The first cable I got was the AudioQuest Forest 1.5m USB-C to USB-C. The problem with that cable was that the sleeve is very plasticky, and whenever it hit my desk/laptop/keyboard or any solid surface when listening to it at my desk, it would produce a VERY audible drum-hit like sound that would absolutely travel all the way into my ears. This material also made the cable way to stiff. Shame. Of course, this cable is made for table-top DAC connections on a desktop or a rack. The best cable I found and I stuck with is the UNIQ HALO 1.2m usb-c to usb-c cable (image below, it's the lightning to usb-c version, all I could find on google). It's braided, it's malleable, and the color of the cable PERFECTLY match the headphones and particularly the case. Differences in sound? I can't tell and it's really not possible to tell. I tried A/Bing them (both cables connected to my laptop, swapping as fast as possible). In case you didn't know, auditive memory is VERY SHORT. Combine that with the fact that, as per any post by anyone that ever said there is a sound difference in digital audio cables, the differences are small to minute - no, it's impossible to tell if the AudioQuest Forest cable sounded better. This kind of test requires a lot of equipment - probably a miniDSP Headphone tester, then editing the recording to be able to have 0 seconds between the 2 files. I'm not getting a miniDSP for this. As far as I'm concerned and taking into account the short audio memory, I could tell that there were exactly 0 differences in sound quality.
So there you have it. Amazing headphones. Best of all worlds. This is -THE FUTURE- of hifi headphones.
EDIT: Adding some SIGNIFICANT feedback regarding the cable. Spoiler alert: I was wrong at point 8. Here is my review of the Audioquest Forest cable:
The only place in my entire Audio devices where I use a USB cable is with my headphones - Focal Bathys (in USB DAC mode). I wanted to replace the stock cable as soon as I got the headphones - not because it sounded bad or anything, but because of the lousy quality. I ended up buying 2 cables - a "generic" braided cable that aesthetically fit with the headphones (UNIQ brand, 1.2m), and I wanted to try out something more hifi, even though I had 0 trust digital would make a difference - I found a Audioquest Forest (1.2m) cable for 50 euros - so I bought it.
For the fist week of using it I was working heavily and although I had some spare time here and there, I didn't have a proper time to fully listen and switch cables to tell if there is a difference. To my ears, with those limited tests, they sounded absolutely identical.
However, today, I spent all morning really listening to any differences and taking notes. And to my COMPLETE surprise, I'm genuinely astounded.
Yes, I am a skeptic when it comes to digital audio cables. Yes, I understand that what we can measure doesn't really show EVERYTHING when it comes to audio and it's very complicated.
But I can absolutely now guarantee that there is a difference. Notably, listening to Michael Jackson - Liberian Girl, Steely Dan - Aja and Tool - Fear Inoculum, what I can say in short is that 3 things are very obvious:
1) Instruments like the snare and other sounds with high frequency that sparkle have a MUCH more natural and longer decay and they simply sparkle more, are more obvious, there's more "air" up there
2) The vocals, especially Michael Jackson's, has more weight and is more present
3) On Fear Inoculum it's quite obvious that the soundstage is wider - I can literally feel some instruments from coming from further back behind my ear canal, while on a generic USB cable it comes in front of my ear canal. Think of it like this: With the generic cable, the literal stage of all the music and instruments is let's say 90 degrees in front of me, arranged on a semi-circle, while with the Audioquest it has at least 10 more degrees of horizontal 3 dimensionality on both left and right. IT's more... 3d i guess? Holographic some people use? It's more complete, more encompassing, in plain English.
No, I don't know why it is. Spec-wise, the Forest has 3 things standing for it: A well isolated live wire for the charging, semi solid conductors (vs braided on generic ones), and they are also 0.5% silver. Do with this info as you wish, but overall, there is a difference, and it's very positive. Now I'm curious how the AQ Carbon sounds.
Yes, I have listened for half a day, it's very fresh in my memory as I'm writing, the difference is real, it's there. I never bought high end USB cables in my life before or used them.
My stereo system is completely connected via Van den Hul cables (speaker and interconnects) and I have a Coax digital Van den Hul cable connecting my CD transport to the DAC. My power cables are all Supra. I have no idea how good they are or if they sound better than cheaper cables. I got them as a package after negotiating for my stereo setup for a very good price, so these were my 1st and only cables I ever used out of the box. And no, I'm definitely not affiliated with AQ - this is the only AQ cable I've ever had.
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BenKatz
100+ Head-Fier
+ I want to add one more thing. Regarding enhancing the sound quality, I also bought an iFi iSilencer+ usbc to usbc to try out. This was much easier to AB test than swapping cables. I observed 0 differences in sound, so I returned it. I think it's down to a) my 2023 Dell XPS laptop being really noise-free as far as the usb-c port is concerned, and b) the Focal Bathys electronics, particularly the DAC section, is very well designed and is not that affected by jitter, EMI, RFI, etc to begin with. Don't bother with USB signal "cleaners", or even hifi cables for this headphone. Just get a nice cable to your liking and that's it. Again, the stock usb cable is crap - not due to it's sound, but it's build.
JamesCanada
100+ Head-Fier
This is exactly the issue!
Thank you very much I was going crazy during teams calls! hahaha
snettocs
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2011
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If you're using a Mac it's an apple problem. Open the Audio MIDI app on your Mac and you'll see that the L and R Channel levels are not balanced. Just equalize them and you're good to go.
flutocrack
New Head-Fier
Glad I was able to help you, it took me several weeks to think about this workaround haha
As far as I know this issue isn't quite resolved, it comes and it goes depending on peripherals used
Another matter, did someone got something back from Focal to resolve the DAC mode issue with Windows 10 and Tidal, where sound is playing 1 or 2 seconds after clicking play ? FW 1.5.7
Still trying to figure out if there is a fully-off mode for the ANC system.
I think i will sell Bathys and buy Solitaire T.
Awesome, thanks for the clarification.
discombob
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
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The 1.5-2 seconds between starting an audio source and it actually playing on Windows 11 is starting to really annoy me. Did anyone find a work-around? Hopefully, if it is firmware related (because I don't remember this happening before), there will be a fix soon.
Sound is just unreal with Mimi at 33% and a little tweak of the EQ to taste. I've never heard anything better and I've been to a lot of head-fi meets where people chased $1.5k headphones around with a plethora of $2k DACs and amps desperately trying to get a natural tonality. Personalized audio is the future, for sure.
Sound is just unreal with Mimi at 33% and a little tweak of the EQ to taste. I've never heard anything better and I've been to a lot of head-fi meets where people chased $1.5k headphones around with a plethora of $2k DACs and amps desperately trying to get a natural tonality. Personalized audio is the future, for sure.
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