Skip rent, buy these! - Focal Bathys

Focal is a fancy French headphone company that usually makes extremely expensive "audiophile" audio equipment, but these new "affordable" headphones are meant for the "average" person. Does Adam think these will break into the mainstream, or are these still not a great investment for the average Joe?

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CHAPTERS
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0:00 I don't think he's actually French
0:48 Box and unboxing
3:09 Design impressions
4:25 Pricing thoughts and expectations
5:55 Buttons and IO
8:13 Sponsor - Brilliant
8:48 Fit and feel
10:00 Listening experience and Labs testing
12:40 ANC Labs test results
14:11 App experience and EQ
16:41 Overall thoughts and competitors
17:59 Outro

[rohan]

Skipped rent, bought these landlord threw me out but these headphones kept my ears warm in this winter. Best decision I ever made, had I not bought these my ears would have been so cold.

[shawndiaz]

As concepts like the Harman targets get introduced more in these videos, taking the time to specify over-ear vs in-ear targets will eventually pay off. Y'all will eventually review a TWS IEM and viewers may be confused by the Harman target seeming to change.

[Sand_]

Focal doesn't use metal in the top part of the headband. The plastic used in that part frequently cracks for a lot of Focal users.

[andym]

As a french guy, i did not expect that intro. I enjoyed it.

[arankeshm]

Would love to see LTT Labs revisiting the Etymotics and other headphones with significant passive noise canceling out of the box

[romantchoub]

What it is great about them, that they actually sound great wireless. I'm in love with them, and I don't have to mess around with equaliser. Their Dynamic settings works with pretty much everything

[scruffy]

Been using the. Bathys since the beginning of November. I personally love them. The only thing that bothers me is that the LED keeps turning on. I think my work computer uses the led as a notification light. UPDATE: Focal seems to have fixed the light coming on issue.

[SweejitOfficial]

I work in a HiFi shop, I use these on the regular (mainly to block out coworkers) when customers aren't using them.
I can vouch that these are fantastic headphones if you want something that is bang in the middle of high-end hifi and casual comfort for everyday use.
As someone who knows how good headphones can sound (having heard rigs that cost almost $25, 000), these are a good bang for your buck if you're looking to invest some extra dough on your next cans.

[headphonesuser]

This is like kinda a review, I like seeing more in depth stuff like this on short circuit, more interesting than just the usual unboxings

[LinoAckermann]

Realy appreciate the more scientific approach you are having recently for headpones and in ears. Espacialy giving references to something more commonly available like in this case the air pods pro. Usualy someone in your vacinity has them, so i can abstract from that point quite fine.
And Adam did a very nice job in this Video.

[sassthedrummer]

After trying the Apple AirPods Max, the Sony xm5 and the B & W px7 s2, I did not get the wow factor from any of these options. I tried Bathys on in the shop with no intention of buying them because they were out of my budget. As soon as I did, any idea of a budget went out of the window. These sound so good it sends a tingle down your spine. No matter which genre you like, it sounds perfect without needing EQ. and the DAC mode just gives it more depth. Sure the ANC is not class leading and don’t even think about trying to make phone calls with this. But they are extremely comfortable and the best sounding Bluetooth headphones on the market. I’m so happy I found them with a £150 discount from Premium Sound (London, UK) at only £550!

[dece]

Be interested to hear these, I know their car audio speakers are supposed to be just stellar.

This video makes me miss my old headphone setup, spent something like $1, 500, included some HE-500 headphones. Honestly, I think a high end headphone/headphone setup is something everyone should at least experience once in their life. You'll never be able to really appreciate/comprehend how good headphones can sound until you hear some of those high fi setups.

[martinv]

CORRECTION: Aptx Adaptive is not backwards compatible on all devices. The device needs a very specific set of Qualcom chips to be enabled and is the newest of the 4 major BT formats. So they are correct by calling it out explicitly on the label because the headphone device also needs to be engineered to send that improved format.

[vanillawaluigi]

It’s hard to give Focal a second look after how they treated their customers with the Elex and Clear driver clipping issues. No to mention a headband design that breaks from normal use. It’s sad because their design language is a breath of fresh air and they have such a storied history in the speaker market.

[josuad]

LTT labs need to educate more people who go in front of the camera on how to read these graphs, or at least, make them look at bunch of other graphs so they know what something looks like in comparison to other FR graphs. This is not a neutral pair of cans by any stretch, compare it to FAR cheaper set like AKG K371 or Shure SRH440, the Focal Bathys isn't really something you can call neutral with dark treble and that wonky midrange.

But hey, at least I'm happy that LTT has FINALLY show some effort into moving to objective audio reviews instead of the good ol' "it's good bro, trust me" approach. Appreciate the effort my man. it was somehow flawed, but it's a good first step.

[LogsMaggot]

That Fibonacci-like pattern gave me the urge to buy them just to listen to tool all of a sudden

[DanCollier]

I work in hifi and have the full focal range of headphones in store, i was very impressed with these straight out the box. The Utopia are just stunning too if you get the chance to try.

[johnfstockland]

Actually like the design, not some bland minimalist silicon valley design like so many other headphones.

[samtansleyphotography]

12:04 ok so soundstage is NOT the same as imaging. soundstage is more overall distance and 'closeness'; it can almost be summarised in how wide and airy the sound feels. imaging is direction and separation of the instruments; can you point to the individual trumpet, or just section as a whole? of course this is mostly reliant on the recording, though.

[theyruinedyoutubeagain]

I had the Focal Clear MG for a while and it's a superb headphone. Can wholeheartedly recommend them for someone looking to the next step up in audio quality from the typical Sennheiser HD 6** models that are thankfully so popular now.