Closer Examination

The Focal Bathys is a statement piece when it comes to the portable wireless headphones world. It is larger than pretty much anything else I have used or seen that are intended to be worn on your head and used wirelessly over Bluetooth. This has the benefit of comfort, given the larger ear cups are associated with larger ear pads too that make this an over-ear set easily for pretty much everyone reading this review. The headband with its hybrid genuine leather and microfiber composition with foam filling is also one of the better such implementations despite the relative thinness. The flip side is these are stylish and call out for attention when you wear them outside. Not only is the Bathys more bulky overall around the ears but the design is quite striking with the magnesium yokes and aluminium frame that comes off metallic green in color depending on the lighting. The exterior of the ear cups goes further down this road with the hole patterns, to where I felt self-conscious using them outside the first few times. I still can't get myself to take it out on a local bus, but a longer commute on train/coach/plane would be plenty fine for me. The Focal branding is seen via a logo on each ear cup as well as on the outside of the yokes. The inside is more subtle in color and this ends up making the L/R markings somewhat hard to see should you need them.


Headband sizing happens courtesy the inner steel band with eight clicky steps in addition to the default fully-closed configuration. These come in handy to help you easily match the sizing on either side. Focal also has the headphones serial number etched on the steel band on the left side. Overall I'd say the sizing options are plenty for users with heads large or small alike, which is one of the benefits of the larger foot print of the Bathys.


The magnesium yokes on the aluminium assembly come together to provide an articulating point where the ear cups meet the yokes. These combine with two pivot points on the cups to allow for a good degree of horizontal cup swivel. Considering also the vertical sizing and the plentiful rotating ear cup movement on the third axis, most end users will easily fit the Focal Bathys over their heads and ears. As such, I am happy to see Focal going with a working design that gets the basics right. I would have liked to see a second articulating point to allow the cups to be folded inward for a more compact storage configuration, but at least we can lay these flat!


There is a vent on the top of the ear cups protected by a metal mesh to prevent contaminants from entering the acoustic chamber, and this helps relieve any pressure build-up in the ears too. The outside of the ear cups is otherwise anything but subtle with "Bathys" and "Aluminium-Magnesium" printed on either side of the Focal flame logo which lights up white, just in case you thought it wasn't attention-seeking enough. To be fair to Focal, the LEDs can be turned off in the app but only in Bluetooth mode at this point, hopefully there will be a firmware update coming soon to make it retain the changes onboard the headphones. The LEDs also serve actual functions as we will see soon, and then there's the aluminium grill over the plastic cups themselves to make for a lightweight and overall sturdy set at 350 g. The holes in the grill are analogous to what is present on the Focal Celestee and Stellia closed-back sets, with the same design code used.


The Focal Bathys uses leather pads which are on the softer side of average, courtesy the use of low-density foam filling. It makes for a comfortable, plush fit that is more amenable to account for any pinna deviations, but can also potentially wear out sooner. These are sealed pads without any perforations, and may perhaps run warm in the summer. Removing the pads is quite simple, given there are two guide pins and six interlocking plastic tabs as seen above so, I would like to see first-party and third-party pad replacement options sooner rather than later. A closer examination of the pads also shows a fairly wrinkly side to the inside of the pads as well as minimal contouring to the contact surface. The pads do not have mesh linings themselves, but we see that the drivers themselves contain one to help prevent dust and other contaminants from entering the transducer.


After testing was completed, I decided to go further and see what's inside the ear cups. It's relatively easy to do so given the use of four Torx screws per side, but know that at this point you are going to void warranty while also potentially affecting the sound signature of the set since there is also a thin film of glue keeping the driver assembly in place on the ear cups. Disassembly of the left side confirms the use of ABS plastic for the ear cups and there isn't any fancy design here, as with some of the Focal wired headphones that the company claims helps with reducing unwanted resonances there. The Bathys may use the same Al-Mg diaphragm but clearly the surround and magnets associated with it are smaller to account for the other items necessary here. This includes the relatively measly 1060 mAh pouch battery that is at least an easy replacement if one can source the same part or better. It's a shame then that Focal customer support mentioned that a battery replacement service for the Bathys may cost $100 in technician fees and another ~$100 for the new part when available. Focal has been infamous for expensive accessories, including ear pads, but it's still ridiculous that this five minute job coupled with a simple pouch battery would merit that asking price!

The right side contains the primary electronics on a dedicated PCB, but it's hard to get access to the components on the underside of the PCB, owing to the two sets of soldered cables on either side. I understand there are some Texas Instrument OPA1622 op-amps, possibly a Burr Brown or ESS Sabre DAC depending on whom you ask, and potentially a Qualcomm (or equivalent) SoC for the Bluetooth functionality itself. The Bathys drivers are made in France and then shipped to China for final assembly where the other parts are also sourced from. Solder quality could certainly be better here, with excess flux and large solder balls present, but also this outsourced assembly was clearly crucial to hit the asking price of the Bathys.


There are daughter PCBs hosting various connectors, buttons, and sliders alike. These are handy for the relevant physical controls on the underside of the ear cups. The left ear cup has a single button dedicated for hybrid ANC whereby you press it once to toggle between ANC and Transparency modes, and then press and hold for two seconds to switch between "Soft" and "Silent" ANC modes. This means that the Bathys' normal operating state is to always have ANC on, and the soft ANC mode would be the way to go for when you are in a less noisy environment. Silent pushes the noise cancellation further with three microphones per side dedicated for ANC, and transparency mode is for when you don't want to take off the headphones and yet be aware of your surrounding or even carry out a conversation. In practice I thought the ANC modes were decent, with the silent mode resulting in the tiniest of that pressure build-up feeling in the ears and helping drown out continuous noises such as inside an airplane or even a lawn mower, but not much for more variable noises. I'd also say the overall extent of noise cancellation is on par with Sony/Bose flagships from one to two years ago in a mixed noise environment with people talking, or if something is playing on a TV. Think of the Bathys as more suited to the business traveler on frequent airplanes, especially with the looks and build quality of the set. The Bathys could certainly do better on the transparency mode though, with a general hiss in the background owing to the SPL floor being raised to help you listen to conversations or announcements happening outside. To be fair to Focal, I don't think anything on the market really compares to the likes of the Apple AirPods Max in this regard, the hybrid ANC modes are still plenty usable and help to sweeten the purchase decision.

The right cup has far more going on and unfortunately here the relatively shallow buttons/sliders are not easy to identify or use with the headphones placed over your head—at least in the beginning as you are still getting used to the Bathys. There's a volume +/- set with a middle Bluetooth button for pairing and switching between connected devices. This Bluetooth button is also a multi-function button for media playback and call controls too. Next is an On/DAC/Off slider to help go through the various operating modes (Bluetooth, USB DAC, 3.5 mm jack) and then a dedicated voice assistant button with the Bathys having native support for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. The Type-C and 3.5 mm ports are next, with an indicator LED next to the Type-C port that flashes white during charging, and turns to a solid white when fully charged. There is one more vent on the other side to go with the vents on the upper side of the ear cups.


You can easily connect the Bathys with several devices simultaneously over Bluetooth, USB Type-C, and 3.5 mm while choosing between the operating modes and the Bluetooth source as outlined in the manual. The Bathys supports multipoint Bluetooth connectivity, with up to eight sources in total with two active at any particular time too. USB DAC mode comes in handy to get a better overall sound experience from the dedicated DAC in the Bathys that pretty much no other wireless headphones have, and thus allows for Android phones and laptops to directly connect to the headphones via Type-C connectivity. Those on iOS will need a USB OTG adapter cable as usual with such implementations. The LED indicator by the Type-C port also lights up when connected in DAC mode as seen above. The final two photos are to give you a visual understanding of how the Bathys, which is larger than usual for Bluetooth headphones, is still dwarfed by full-size over-ear wired headphones such as Focal's own flagship Utopia. It's also a teaser for the upcoming Utopia review, and also helps illustrate how this inexpensive HiFiGo headphone stand works quite well with the Bathys, should you be so inclined to listen to it at home or an office.