Focal BATHYS Over Ear HiFi Bluetooth Wireless Headphones with ANC (Black Stealth)

For a pair of Bluetooth closed-backs, these are absolutely impressive. I'd describe them as warm but still audiophile friendly, bass is great and accurate which, while not as surgical as say that of BA drivers, is still quite controlled, textured, and has good oomph. Resolution is spectacular, it's certainly better than I expected. Highs are not harsh, rather decently sparkly and give life to the music, while the bass and mids give it body. Tuning is pretty relaxed and the soundstage is respectable given they're closed-backs, and oddly enough, depending on how their placed on the head (moved forward or back), the soundstage changes considerably (likely because of the angle of the drivers). They sound better on DAC mode (thought not by a crazy amount), and the provided USB-C cable has a really good "grip" in the ports, which I like.I found the best genres to listen to on them are those with full-bodied songs with some slow atmospheric bass and female vocals, e.g. Nordic folk, viking, darkwave, and such sound absolutely amazing on them. But very fast and very complex songs like certain subgenres of metal don't blow me away on them, I think speed isn't their strong suit, though normal pop kind of speed is totally fine on them.ANC is okay, I don't really have much experience with ANC but I've tried much better headphones for that, so of note is that there's a light ANC mode and a transparent mode, though there isn't an off mode. I imagine the engineers realized it's difficult to tune drivers in a way that sounds as best as it could both with and without ANC, so they tuned it with ANC assumed on and didn't provide an off option. App is good enough, though the customized sound made them sound less pleasant to me so I didn't enable it. App also has an EQ and logo light control (bright, dim, off), but I like their Focal tonality out of the box. They're pretty comfortable, not too heavy, with a good battery life. I also really like the case, it's quite portable, more than you'd expect knowing how thick the pads are (which I also really like). Build appears pretty solid and the headphones are very comfy, I wore them the majority of the time in the past few days.Nothing majorly bad to say about them really. If you're looking for the best of both worlds, the closed-back audiophile one (resolution, control, tonality, soundstage, etc) and the convenience one (Bluetooth, ANC, lightweight, etc) then you'll get a perfect balance with the Bathys. They won't blow your mind if you're coming from anything high-end, especially couple kilobuck+ IEMs, but they will definitely scratch that itch of just wanting something convenient without being bombarded by faults you can't unhear.There are some design flaws in terms of convenience/utility, but as I said, it's a balance. E.g. No passive mode, no LDAC or aptx HD, jack implementation isn't great, volume increments are pretty large, etc. But I stand by my main message: Bluetooth + audiophile grade? There's hardly a better pair, not without going much more expensive.

SIMPLY SPLENDID! Like others I had Bowers & Wilkins PX7 SE, Bose Quite Comfort and both were defective and had to return! Although these two sounded very nice for the audiophiles but the Focals Bathys have much more detail on all ranges blows away the competition the audiophile quality is NUMBER ONE IN SOUND! The noise cancellation isn't the champion but it does the job very well! The Bathys are extremely comfortable! The ear cups fit my 2 3/4" ear length (measure your ears before buying any over ear headphones, and find out the ear cup sizes online!). The Bathys are very high quality and are a luxurious headphone indeed! I love the button controls and disagree with criticism about the layout and form! I love the Black Stealth color! The Black Stealth color is over $100 cheaper than the boutique colors!TRULY THESE HEADPHONE ARE LIKE WALKING AROUND WITH MY FOCAL CHORUS FLOOR-STANDERS ON MY EARS! Oh by the way I am using a Astell & Kern SR35 portable number one rated music player and of course an iPhone for podcasts and such. I AM KEEPING THESE UNTIL THEY WEAR OUT! BUY THE BATHYS NC AUDIOPHILE HEADPHONES YOUR EARS WILL LOVE YOU FOR IT!

Cons: (1) the user guide videos have no sound, making it a little difficult to understand. In addition, the user guide provides mostly pictorial illustrations to demonstrate its functions and features. Some patience and logic are required to understand the headphone's diagrams and meanings. But once you figure out what the silent videos and the illustrations are depicting, the headphone is actually quite simple and intuitive to use. (2) the App doesn't do much, it only allows you to set the equalizer, the active noise cancellation, the Focal led logo lights, and the sound personalizaition which allows the user to set sound according to their own preference for a better enhanced experience. (3) the cushion pads get drenched in sweat in the summer season. You sort of have to wipe away the sweat after each use. (4) It does not come with a power charger. You either have to use your own or buy one. (5) Replacement ear pads will set you back $100 for a pair.Pros: (1) The quality of the sound is excellent. Some of the songs' lyrics used to be difficult to understand come off clear and distinct. This is quite a pleasant surprise for me. (2) The headphone allows for three ways to enjoy music through Bluetooth, a usb-c cable, and a 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable, Both cables are provided (The USB-C cable doesn't work with my MacBook Pro. I had to buy an additional USB-C cable to make it work.) Using the usb-c and the 3.5mm method will make your battery last a bit longer. And one exceptional bonus is that when you listen with a USB-C cable, the audio quality can reach up to 24bit 192khz, the high resolution audio standard. (3)