Focal Bathys

Audiophile wireless over-ear with ANC & USB-DAC mode

The first truly audiophile Bluetooth headphone

Focal pulled something genuinely surprising out of the hat when they introduced the Bathys: their very first Bluetooth headphone—complete with noise cancelling, an app, and the full modern wireless feature set. And they absolutely nailed it.

Bathys shows where the upper limit is when you try to merge Bluetooth convenience with Hi-Fi ambition. It already sounds great over Bluetooth… but if you want the maximum and you can live without wireless comfort, you’ll reach for the included USB cable—because what really sets Bathys apart from many premium wireless competitors is its USB-DAC mode.

Focal’s thinking was simple: a Bluetooth headphone needs an internal DAC and amp anyway—so why not make that section seriously good and allow Bathys to run as an external USB DAC with an “integrated” headphone for your laptop or phone?

And it pays off: in wired USB-DAC mode, Bathys plays at a level that can free many listeners from the urge to own an additional high-end wired closed-back. A big statement—and the press agrees:

Soundguys.com

If you’re looking for the best sound quality you can find in the ANC space: it’s the Focal Bathys.

Wired.com

If you’re a traveling audio nerd who wants the best-sounding, most convenient noise-canceling headphones, these are the crème de la crème. They’re easier to take with you than any high-end wired headphones, and they sound as good as many wired pairs I’ve tested that cost the same price.

Headfonics.com

The Focal Bathys is an excellent-sounding debut ANC wireless headphone and certainly a considerable upgrade on all the previous wireless closed-backs I have reviewed to date. It has all the styling and material quality you would expect from a Focal-designed headphone with a balanced and enjoyable tuning that places modern pop and rock to the fore. For travel audiophiles, it represents a serious upgrade on consumer headphone choices from the likes of Sony and Bose.

Technical Specifications

Measurements

What does this mean?

The black line is something that could be called the “ideal” curve of what a headphone should sound like. The Harman Research Group has a range of scientific studies around audio and human perception—one of which asked: How should a headphone be tuned to be preferred by a majority of listeners, regardless of age or other demographic variables? The result is called the Harman target.

From left to right, we have sub-bass, bass, mids—and then the curve tilts upward where treble begins. This part of the frequency spectrum is naturally amplified by the shape of the human ear.

Of course, Bathys comes with an app that lets you adjust the sound, but this is how it sounds out of the box. In one word: amazing. A fantastic all-rounder that’s a clear step above pretty much any other Bluetooth headphone on the market.

Harman Research:

The Perception and Measurement of Headphone Sound Quality – What Do Listeners Prefer?