Focal Bathys – true audiophile headphones with incredible perks, at a price£699, focal.com
French audio expert Focal has a proud history of designing high-end hi-fi speakers and pro audio monitoring systems. It also makes premium wired headphones. With the new Bathys, the brand finally steps into wireless terrain – but with a twist. The headphones boast a wireless option, a wired analogue connection and more unusually, a fully digital USB-C connection providing up to 24-bit, 192kHz listening.

READ MORE: JBL Tour Pro 2 brings a whole new way to control your wireless earbuds

Focal is striving to cover all bases by offering the convenience of wireless and the fidelity of full-quality audio transmission. Their £699 price tag might seem extravagant but some of Focal’s other models cost over £4,000, and audiophile headphones rarely come at under £1,000. So what’s Focal’s play here?
The headphones come in a hard carrying case and are supplied with two 4-foot cables, one 3.5mm jack and one USB-C, which can also be used for charging. The Bathys’ battery life is impressive, with 30 hours of full noise cancelling playback, 35 hours over analogue connection (they still need to be powered on), and a stunning 42 hours when used in USB DAC mode. They’re fast-charge compatible too, so a 15-minute top-up will give you five hours of use; handy if you’ve forgotten to charge them before a journey.
Focal bills the Bathys as portable headphones and, while they don’t fold down to a very small size like some models, they certainly don’t feel bulky, weighing just 350g. The finish is excellent too, with an aluminium and magnesium frame, leather and microfibre headband, and soft, replaceable earpads. In use, they feel comfortable to wear even for long periods while also securely fitting to the head.
Focal Bathys headphones. Image: Sylvie Bessou
Google fast pairing is supported and the headphones sport Bluetooth 5.1 – it’s not the newest, but Bluetooth 5.2 and 5.3 standards mostly contain features that aren’t relevant for the Bathys. What it does provide is a signal range of up to 15 metres and, crucially, multipoint connectivity. The latter lets you switch between several different devices without re-pairing. So switching between a laptop and a smartphone, for example, is a seamless experience..
Happily, the Bathy’s companion app is relatively simple compared to the likes of Anker’s app, which packs a ton of tweaking options, hearing test personalisation and more. With the Bathys, it’s more straightforward. Noise cancelling can be set to off, ambient, medium or strong, and there’s also an EQ section with six adjustable bands of +/- 6dB. There are a couple of presets and you can also store your own.
The EQ here is quite subtle and while some competitors’ EQs produce fierce boosts or cuts, this one makes sympathetic changes. It’s nicely implemented and you may find a few small nudges will tailor the sound to your personal preferences.
The headphones have eight microphones built-in for making phone calls – where we find voice clarity to be excellent – and noise cancelling, which can be toggled either from the app or using buttons on the headphones.
Focal Bathys headphones. Image: Sylvie Bessou
A transparency mode lets some ambient sound through for when you’re using them while travelling, for example. Soundguys’ review found the noise cancelling less impressive, but we find the noise cancelling on the Silent setting to be immensely effective, helped by the over-ear design – sound isolation is comprehensive even in noisy environments. The medium cancelling setting works as described, though we find no real use for it.
The Bathys use 40mm drivers with a frequency response of 15Hz-22kHz, slightly wider than the 20Hz-20kHz found in many models. The sound reproduction is superb, exhibiting quite a revealing, neutral character. Like many of the best headphones, they stay true to the source material without colouring it in any appreciable way. Differences between albums, in terms of stereo separation, the loudness levels and so on, are quite apparent but that’s a positive – there are plenty of ‘phones that will simply approximate every track down to the same tonal shape for playback. The Bathys’ low end in particular is robust and rich without ever becoming boomy or overwhelming.
So what about connectivity? It’s there aplenty, but it’ll depend on your device. SBC, AAC, aptX Adaptive and aptX codecs are supported, but Apple products only support SBC and AAC; these sounded up to scratch in our tests. Switching to the 3.5mm wired connection sounded essentially the same except for a noticeable drop-off in the maximum volume achievable.
Turning to the USB-C connection and switching into DAC mode, you have to remember firstly to go into your computer’s audio settings and manually switch up the sample and bit rate for the headphones to use the maximum 24-bit/192kHZ option (by default, they run at 16-bit, 48kHz).
Focal Bathys headphones, Image: Sylvie Bessou
Remember also that you’ll only notice the full benefit if your source material reflects these high rates – lossless files, full-quality WAVs and even DAW projects that have been recorded at higher-quality settings. USB mode sounds impeccable, and when playing back lossless files we can discern a noticeable increase in the overall depth and sharpness of the playback.
The Bathys are excellent headphones that actually sit at the more affordable end of Focal’s lineup. In its review, Wired concurs that we’re sort of playing in a different league where Focal is concerned. They are relatively unusual in offering three methods for connection – wireless is commonplace but fewer wireless headphones have a wired option, and even then, it’s almost always analogue rather than digital. Apple’s ageing AirPods Max (£549) have an optional USB-C to Lightning cable though the Lightning standard is likely about to be phased out. Master and Dynamic’s MW75s come with USB-C to analogue and digital cables for up to 24-bit, 96kHz playback, also for £549. So you’ll pay a premium over those models for having this choice but, if you want it, you probably will do so willingly.
The Bathys straddle a line between premium consumer headphones – like Airpods Max – and the more rarefied arena of audiophile hi-fi, where people consider paying thousands for a product. They could be an entry point to the audiophile world, for people who appreciate excellent fidelity but aren’t ready to go all-in with a huge investment.
Sonically, these are gorgeous headphones. For the price, you will be serious about your audio and want the unusual offering of three different connection methods. They’re a taste of the higher end of the hi-fi world without the full cost of admission, and with enough tech to satisfy today’s listeners.
The post Focal Bathys – true audiophile headphones with incredible perks, at a price appeared first on MusicTech.

Tokenization is “securitization done on steroids" — Franklin Templeton CEOSpeaking at CNBC’s Delivering Alpha event, Jenny Johnson discussed how digital assets are disrupting securitization and the financial markets.

Tokenization is “securitization done on steroids" — Franklin Templeton CEOSpeaking at CNBC’s Delivering Alpha event, Jenny Johnson discussed how digital assets are disrupting securitization and the financial markets.

How to raise a Series A in today’s marketThree investors shared their perspectives on what’s changed, what’s working today, and what advice they’re giving founders at this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt.

Silsila Prism Echo IR Reverb Pack The Prism Echo IR Reverb Pack is a collection of impulses in 24-bit 48kHz .wav format to use with your favourite convolution reverb. demos on soundcloud This is... Read More

Lunacy Audio’s latest CUBE expansion The latest CUBE add-on includes 15 new sound sources captured from wooden acoustic instruments such as guitars, vihuelas, kalimbas and more.

Incognet Bass Bomb Bangers Incognet Samples releases Bass Bomb Bangers Sounds & Presets Pack, saying: We present you new sample pack, called Bass Bombs Bangers, that contains over 700 sounds + 7 FL... Read More

Ether futures ETFs launching, SBF trial to begin and 3AC’s Su Zhu arrested: Hodler’s Digest, Sept. 24-30Ether futures ETFs to debut in the United States, Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial to begin and 3AC co-founder Su Zhu arrested.

Tinder goes ultra-premium, Amazon invests in Anthropic and Apple explains its new AirPodsIn this edition of Week in Review, we cover Tinder's pricey new subscription, Amazon's investment in Anthropic and the features of Apple's next-gen AirPods.

Xenos Soundworks Cyberpunk 2086 for Serum 'Cyberpunk 2086' contains 135 Serum presets, 30 new wavetables, 11 new Serum "noises", AND a pack of 30 drum and FX samples to use in any drum machine or sampler. Each preset has modwheel,... Read More

Xenos Soundworks Retroscapes 'Retroscapes' contains 90 presets for Cherry Audio's CA2600 synthesizer, including retro sci-fi soundscapes, powerful vintage basses, expressive analog leads and other synth sounds. ... Read More

Getting It Done: Last week in D.I.Y. and Indie MusicLast week, our tips and advice for the independent, do-it-yourselfers out there covered how to get into music production, how to get more streams, and more… The truth behind why. Continue reading
The post Getting It Done: Last week in D.I.Y. and Indie Music appeared first on Hypebot.

REWIND: The new music industry’s week in reviewA busy week by any definition, the music industry was no exception, with Live Nation launching a new merch fee initiative, more songs surpassing a billion monthly streams and more…. Continue reading
The post REWIND: The new music industry’s week in review appeared first on Hypebot.

GForce update Oberheim SEM soft synth GForce Software have announced the release of an update to their officially endorsed recreation of the Oberheim SEM.

Dominican Rapper El Alfa Signs with Sound RoyaltiesEl Alfa announces his signing of a multi-million-dollar, eight figure deal with Sound Royalties, a subsidiary of GoDigital Media Group and the music industry’s leading finance firm for nearly a decade. After evaluating several offers from major industry players, Alfa turned to Sound Royalties because of his close relationship to their team and the company’s long track record of providing well-structured and priced funding to music creatives.

El Alfa is a Dominican rapper also known as “The King of Dembow,” a musical genre that draws upon the roots of Jamaican dancehall riddims. With eight albums under his belt and over 22 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone, El Alfa has his sights set on his continued growth trajectory. On Oct. 19, 2023, Alfa is scheduled to release his latest project, El Rey Del Dembow, which he credits as his “most important album to date.” The music will incorporate different melodies alongside African and Conga rhythms, infusing other cultures into the Dembow genre he popularized and brought to mainstream radio.

“I’ve been speaking with Sound Royalties for years, and the time finally made sense for us to work together. The best advice I ever received was from Alex Heiche and his team, telling me to register and organize my royalty streams and that whatever I do – don’t sell,” El Alfa recalls. “It was because I didn’t sell that I am now able to leverage my back catalog to invest in my future. This multi-million-dollar funding  will be instrumental in continuing to build my legacy and cement my influence in the Latin music space. Beyond that, it is foundational for promoting and marketing my music, launching new career opportunities, and releasing more work through my own music label, El Jefe Records.”

Learn more at soundroyalties.com