The NEW FOCAL Bathys
Written by Jenson Hutchinson - our Marketing Apprentice
>>> As you can see in the image above, the Bathys have taken the FOCAL original design from the passive headphones but placed it into a bluetooth headphone design. There is a little more plastic and a lack of leather compared to their higher end products, but priced at £699, it's built to better standards than the competitoin.
The LEDS on the side of the headphones are used to indicate if they're paired or playing. They also indicate the type of noise cancellation which is in use.
These brand new headphones from FOCAL have a lovely unboxing experience and an even better listening experience, read below to find out how to set these wonderful heaphones up and to see the unboxing process.
The FOCAL Bathys are already incredibly well reviewed - the audio quality is expressive, deep and with a wonderful airiness about it - but as they're designed to be portable, they aren't too heavy and offer a high end alternative to an otherwise emerging market of highfidelity sound in an 'on the go' product. Not only do they support lossless audio over bluetooth but they also have over 20 hours of play time. When used in DAC mode (connected via USB to a DAC), this extends to over 40 hours of playtime!
Who are FOCAL?
FOCAL are a french company who specialise in HiFi and Headphones, making some of the greatest speakers of all time and making some of the nicest headphones that we have ever heard.
FOCAL are focusing on the lifestyle side of the market rather to encourage new customers to buy into their brand and set them on a route of 'wanting more' and staying within the brand.
The FOCAL Bathys sit within this lifestyle range as they have the ability to not only be wireless but also to be plugged into a DAC when at home.
Unboxing
When the box is first opened you are greeted by the lovely carrying case for the Bathys.
Within the box you will find information on how to set up the headphones on the official FOCAl app, this will allow you to have control over noice cancellation and to unlock lossless audio.
Underneath the carrying case are the instruction manuals and a little story about FOCAL and who they are and what they make.
On the sides of the box you will see the specs and information on the product, like the amount of play time or what music file types the headphones support.
Different to the current Headfi products (i.e. the Clear MG), the Bathys are presented in a lighter packaging - starting you in the mindset of portability.
Once the carry case is opened you are greeted with the headphones and the cables which come included to charge and to connect to a wired source.
On the side of the headphones you will see a slider for power, make sure it is all the way on as it won't work wirelessly when on the DAC mode.
Once the app is finished downloading, launch it and make sure your bluetooth is turned on as this is the way oit searches for the Bathys.
Once its found the Headphones, it's going to ask you to do a software update which make take a couple of minutes. This update allows you to use the noise cancellation feature so it is recommended that you download it.
Once the update has completed you'll see this screen which shows you the current state of the headphones, so on ours it says the battery is at 80% and the audio format AAC.
From here you can change the noise cancellation mode and the EQ's. You can even change the brightness of the LED's if they are too bright for use at night for example.
There are 3 noise cancellation modes, one being transparent which is basically off but when transparent is turned on it makes the music fit in with your daily needs so for example if you were speaking to someone whilst you had music playing you would still be able to hear them and you wouldn't seem like you're shouting.
Whereas on silent mode when music is playing you cant hear a single thing from the outside world including your own voice.
And soft is a mixure between both.
Playback
To connect to the FOCAL Bathys you need to head over to the app and make sure the headphones are turned on once thats done they should be automatically connected and ready to use. When streaming through things like Apple Music and TIDAL lossless and Master Audiois supported.
The headphones will automatically switch file types to fit each songs own characteristics so if you have access to full MQA tracks then the FOCAL Bathys will happily play them.
The App
The Focal & Naim app is required to us the FOCAL Bathys to thier full extent. Without the app you won't have access to the noise cancelling or the EQ modes, the app is also neccesary to connect VIA ACC and to play MQA tracks.
