Twelve rigs agree on the graph, a hundred listeners argue about the headphone — the wireless Focal that sounds like a Focal and behaves like a first draft.
How the score adds up
60neutral+12praise−1criticism=71score
Tonality16%+3.2 points; counts for 16% of the score
Detail7%+1.7 points; counts for 7% of the score
Bass10%+1.6 points; counts for 10% of the score
Mids10%+1.4 points; counts for 10% of the score
Soundstage6%+1.0 points; counts for 6% of the score
Comfort12%+1.0 points; counts for 12% of the score
Imaging5%+0.9 points; counts for 5% of the score
Dynamics4%+0.8 points; counts for 4% of the score
Build7%+0.1 points; counts for 7% of the score
Value7%+0.1 points; counts for 7% of the score
Isolation4%−0.1 points; counts for 4% of the score
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The short version
What to know.
A closed-back wireless headphone that twelve independent fixtures describe the same way: a full closed-back sub-bass shelf that sits roughly on the Harman/JM-1 target (8–12 dB above an HD 600 at 20 Hz, yet 3–11 dB less bass than a WH-1000XM5, Px8 or QC Ultra on the same rig), a 3–5 dB dip at 700 Hz–1 kHz, a recessed 2–5 kHz presence region whose depth doubles on clone rigs and moves with every head, and a top end that reads mildly dark on a GRAS and slightly hot on a 5128. Everyone agrees on the resolution, the punch and the imaging — for a Bluetooth headphone it is still the one to beat, and it gets tighter and clearer wired or over USB. From there the record forks seven ways. Tonality: warm, musical and 'not far from neutral' to most, a processed, head-dependent voicing to a weighty minority. Treble: extended and clean, rounded and dark, or peaky and fatiguing, with no camp in charge. Soundstage: the widest in wireless or an intimate, left-right closed-back. Comfort: plush for large ears and long sessions, or a 360 g headphone with a thin headband that hotspots inside an hour and slides off when you look down. Build: magnesium, leather and a three-year warranty on one side; LED coil whine, ANC hiss on some units, creaking yokes, pads peeling at ten months and a support line owners struggle to reach on the other. Noise cancelling: a near dead heat between 'excellent, natural, no pressure' and 'a step behind Sony, Bose and Apple, with footstep pumping, always-on fatigue and open-back-grade leakage'. Value: a bargain at the $450–600 it now sells for, hard to justify at the $799–849 list. The physical explanation runs through most of it — soft wrinkled pads and an angled driver make the seal, and therefore the bass and the presence region, unusually sensitive to head shape — and the Bathys MG that replaced it at nearly twice the price fixed the pads first.
About this product
The original 2022 Bathys — Focal's first wireless headphone: a closed-back Bluetooth 5.1 over-ear with 40 mm aluminium-magnesium 'M'-dome drivers made in France, three-mode active noise cancelling (Silent / Soft / Transparent — there is no ANC-off), aptX Adaptive / aptX / AAC / SBC (no LDAC), a built-in USB-DAC mode that takes PCM up to 24-bit/192 kHz over USB-C, and a 3.5 mm input that still runs through the internal amplifier, so nothing plays with the power off. Magnesium yokes, aluminium headband, real-leather top band and leatherette pads, a backlit Focal flame logo, 350 g claimed (359–362 g measured); 30 / 35 / 42 h claimed over Bluetooth / jack / USB. Sold in Black-Silver (later 'Deep Black') and Dune. Launched at $799 in October 2022; some US dealers now list it at $849 while it sells for $599–649. NOT the Bathys MG (2025, magnesium dome, softer pads, $1,299–1,499), which is its own record.
Focal's Bathys was the French high-end brand's first wireless headphone, a bet that the people who buy Clears and Stellias also fly economy. It arrived in October 2022 priced like nothing else in the Bluetooth aisle, carrying Focal's aluminium-magnesium driver, a made-in-France badge, a proper USB-DAC mode and a three-mode noise canceller that cannot be switched off.
Four years on it is the reference point every 'audiophile ANC' headphone is measured against — and one of the most argued-over wireless headphones in the hobby. This refresh rebuilds the record from 114 sources: nine squig rigs plus oratory1990's GRAS and RTINGS' 5128 data, twenty-odd magazine and lab reviews, every Head-Fi review and two owner threads of 4,200 posts, the ASR threads, forty-two Reddit voices via the archive, and 987 retail ratings.
A good fit for
Listeners who put sound first in a wireless headphone and will forgive mid-pack noise cancelling
Large ears and long-session desk or flight use with the deep, roomy cups
Anyone who will use the USB-DAC mode — it is the headphone at its best
Bargain hunters: at $450–600 on sale most of the value argument evaporates
Think twice if
You need class-leading ANC, an ANC-off mode, or quiet-office leakage — the Sony, Bose and Apple flagships isolate better and leak less
You have a small head, short hair or a sensitive crown: the thin headband and loose seal are the most repeated returns
You want a passive headphone that outlives its battery — everything runs through the DSP and Focal's battery replacement is a paid service
You are paying the $799–849 list: the Bathys MG fixed the pads and presence region for more money, and the PX8 S2 undercuts it
Sources split on the verdict, not the description. Nearly everyone hears a warm, bass-lifted, forward-vocal Focal voicing with a relaxed top end, and the labs, magazines and most owners call it natural, musical and close to neutral for a wireless closed-back. A smaller, weightier-than-headcount camp — Headphonesty, HeadMania, listener's ranking, Head-Fi's most-read owner review and a run of returners — hears a processed, DSP-tinged signature that lands boomy on one head and anemic on the next. The rigs explain why: the ear-gain region and the ~900 Hz dip move several dB with pad compression and seating, so two owners can honestly describe two different headphones.
Measured
Twelve fixtures (nine squig rigs, oratory1990's GRAS 43AG, RTINGS' B&K 5128, DHRME) draw the same shape: a closed-back sub-bass shelf sitting roughly on the Harman/JM-1 target (oratory −2.1 dB at 20 Hz vs Harman OE 2018; RTINGS 5128 +1.4 dB vs JM-1), a 3–5 dB dip centred at 700 Hz–1 kHz on every rig, and a recessed 2–5 kHz ear-gain region whose depth depends on the fixture class — −2.4…−4.8 dB below Harman on the GRAS, −2.5 dB at 4 kHz vs JM-1 on the 5128, but −4…−10 dB on the KB50xx/KB006x clones. Bluetooth, USB-DAC and 3.5 mm modes measure within 1–2 dB of each other; the app's Dynamic preset adds +2–3 dB through 1–4 kHz and ~+2 dB of sub-bass.
vs. listeners — The 'balanced' and 'colored' camps are both reading the graph correctly: on standard GRAS/5128 rigs the deviations are mild and Harman-adjacent, on clone rigs and on some heads the same headphone shows a 5–10 dB presence hole plus a 900 Hz suck-out — Resolve's ranking note ('quite variable behavior around 1.5khz… on some heads it'll have some honk') and VSG's pad-compression sweep describe exactly that.
Where it splits
A warm-to-balanced, musical Focal signature — bass-lifted, forward vocals, relaxed top — that is 'not far from neutral' for a wireless closed-back86%
“Overall, I'd consider the Bathys to have a pleasant and mostly balanced sound signature that's not too far from neutral with a hint of flare in a couple of places, and of course that midrange dip.”
Broadly praised as full, deep, punchy and textured for a wireless closed-back — 'bold', 'fantastic', 'almost picture-perfect Harman up to the lower mids' — with the recurring note that it tightens up wired or over the USB-DAC. Two tails sit either side: a handful hear it as boomy or unpleasantly emphasized stock (Head-Fi's bfreeproductions and thomaskyhn, wildemu vs the Clear), while SoundGuys' MDAQS panel, TechGearLab's roll-in note and a few returners ('anemic', 'way too flat') find it subdued — the fit-dependence the rigs measure rather than a disagreement about the same sound.
“The low-end reproduction is fantastic. They pack a punch when it's called for, but without sounding disproportionately boomy or blown out.”
“Up to the lower mids, the Bathys is almost a picture-perfect Harman Target curve with a lifted bass shelf peaking around 50Hz then a gentle slide down to 200Hz though I would hesitate to call it sub-bass dominant.”
Sub-bass 20 Hz sits +8.1…+12.5 dB above an HD 600/HD 650/HD 6XX on every rig that holds one (oratory +8.9, DHRME +11.0, Super* Review +10.0) yet within 0…−3 dB of a Harman 2018 shelf on the GRAS and clone rigs, i.e. a full closed-back shelf that is not a consumer boost: on the same fixtures the WH-1000XM5, Px8, Momentum 4 and QC Ultra carry +3…+11 dB more at 20–100 Hz. Mid-bass is flat to −2 dB at 100–300 Hz. HeadMania's EARS rig shows THD rising below ~50 Hz more than the PX8 S2's. boizoff's ideal-vs-realistic seal and Capra's wireless/wired averages move the shelf by ≤ 1 dB — the leak that owners hear comes from the pads, not the mode.
Mostly praised: linear, forward and clear, with vocals 'pulled forward' and a natural timbre on acoustic instruments — eCoustics, Headfonics and TechGearLab lead that reading. The dissent is specific and physical: the ~900 Hz suck-out that every rig measures ('can sound recessed', HSB), a 1–2 kHz region that Resolve's ranking calls 'variable… some honk' on some heads, and a few owners (evhvis, thedumbaudiophile) for whom the midrange and timbre are the weakest part of the headphone.
“The midrange and upper midrange were very linear sounding with a small degree of emphasis in the upper midrange between 1.5 and 3kHz.”
A 3–5 dB dip centred at 700 Hz–1 kHz on all twelve fixtures (oratory −3.5/−3.7 dB at 700 Hz/1 kHz vs Harman; ON-mag's raw plot −5 dB vs 400 Hz), then 1–3 kHz on target to −4 dB depending on rig class; the Bathys MG on Kuulokenurkka's rig fills the 700 Hz–1 kHz dip by ~2 dB but sits up to ~2 dB lower at 1.5–2 kHz. Blorg's ASR advice to 'fill in the 900Hz dip' with the app's 1 kHz slider is the owner-side version of the same graph.
Sources split three ways and none of them dominate: TechGearLab, Audioholics, Stereophile ('poise and sangfroid', no sibilance) and Steve Huff hear an extended, clean top; MajorHiFi, Loomis, HSB and Headfonics hear a relaxed, rounded, slightly dark treble that only wakes up in USB-DAC mode; ON-mag, HeadMania, tassardar, evhvis and Amazon's 'grating volume bump at 3khz to 5khz' hear peaks that fatigue over long sessions. The weighted centre lands at neutral only because the two complaints cancel — this is a contested aspect, and the rigs show why both dark and peaky are available depending on seating.
Measured
Above the presence dip the rigs diverge: oratory's GRAS shows 6–8 kHz −1.7…−2.7 dB and 10 kHz −4.4 dB vs Harman (a mildly dark top), RTINGS' 5128 shows +1.9…+4.7 dB at 8–10 kHz vs a tilted DF (a slightly hot top), ON-mag's head shows a 5–6 kHz dip then a marked ~10 kHz peak, and DHRME's three seatings vary by 1.7–2.3 dB at 8–10 kHz. Channel match is within ~1 dB below 2 kHz on every rig but opens to 2–5 dB at 2–4 kHz and up to 8 dB at 12 kHz on the clones.
Where it splits
Extended, detailed and never sibilant — 'sparkling detail up high' that keeps the presentation exciting and clear39%
“Though the highs are exceptional compared to most other headphones, they're not quite as impactful as the Bathys own low-end and midrange performance.”
Sources split by stance rather than by weight: TechGearLab, What Hi-Fi, MajorHiFi, ON-mag, Durwood and most Head-Fi and Reddit owners call it one of the widest, most layered stages in wireless — several owners call it the single reason they chose it over the PX8 — while Resolve, Headphonesty, Livestock110 ('Good imaging, bad staging'), Tanalasta and Audioholics hear a closed-in, intimate, punch-first presentation with little front projection. bfreeproductions' 'artificially boosted soundstage… they sound very big' is the bridge between the two: a big image that some hear as impressive and others as processed.
Measured
No fixture measures stage, but the angled 40 mm driver and the always-on DSP (an owner-reported crossfeed the ASR thread could not confirm) are the mechanisms both camps point at; the 900 Hz dip and recessed 2–5 kHz region measured on every rig are the kind of shape that reads as 'distant' or 'spacious' depending on the listener.
Where it splits
Unusually big, wide and layered for a closed-back — 'the most expansive soundstage we've ever experienced in closed-back wireless headphones'82%
“The Bathys manage to pull off a wider and more expansive sound than the competition.”
Consistently rated good to excellent — precise placement and separation for a Bluetooth closed-back, and one of the few points even the critical Reddit review concedes ('images well'). Only Tanalasta's live impressions ('separation of instruments challenging') and tassardar's 'average' separation pull the other way.
“the Bathys does have one of the best soundstages I’ve heard on Bluetooth over-ear headphones”
“While not exactly a wide soundstage, the distinct separation can be heard in this track and Bathys provides enough directionality to just localize certain sounds within.”
Left−right channel match is within ~1 dB below 2 kHz on all nine squig rigs; the 2–5 dB L−R differences at 2–4 kHz and 5–8 dB at 10–12 kHz on the single-seat clone rigs are seating artefacts that the 3-seating fixtures (Super* Review, Den-Fi) average down to ~2.5 dB below 8 kHz.
The most-agreed sonic virtue after the bass: 'as good as it gets for wireless ANC', resolution 'decidedly superior' to the Levinson 5909 and Px7 S2, excellent on acoustic instruments and vocals, with Head-Fi owners placing it near an Ether CX or HD 660S. The caveats are consistent too — it improves in USB-DAC mode, Bluetooth adds compression, and Loomis, evhvis and Tanalasta hear it as more powerful than revealing next to a wired Radiance or Clear.
“The level of resolution is decidedly superior to anything we’ve tried so far and that includes the Levinson No. 5909 and Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2.”
Focal specifies THD < 0.2 % at 1 kHz; HeadMania's EARS rig measures a flatter THD plateau than the PX8 S2 from 200 Hz–2 kHz but a steeper rise below 50 Hz. SoundGuys' MDAQS panel scores Timbre 4.1 and Distortion 3.4 (of 5), and notes distortion fell with use.
Widely praised as the Focal trait that survived the wireless conversion — punch, slam, 'bounce', extraordinary transients for a dynamic driver, and enough amplifier headroom that Audioholics calls it the most volume-capable wireless headphone it has heard. The counter-voices are the compression camp: Headphonesty's 'at the expense of overall dynamics', Tanalasta's 'not enough speed or dynamics', and Livestock110's 'sounds compressed' over aptX — all of whom agree it improves wired.
“transients through the Bathys are extraordinary for 'phones with dynamic drivers”
“the Bathys' claim to fame should probably be about it's ability to bring a decent sense of impact, and technical prowess to the ANC space, where those others do not - or at least not to the same degree”
SoundGuys measured 295 ms of latency over aptX and found the USB mode plays quieter than Bluetooth, while CosmoM3 and Headphonesty found it louder on their sources; Super* Review's three input modes measure within 1–2 dB of each other in frequency response.
Sources split, and the split tracks head shape. RTINGS ('very comfortable fit'), Headfonics, TechRadar, Stereophile and roughly two-thirds of owners find the deep pads and moderate clamp comfortable for long sessions; TechGearLab ('a neck workout… after 3 hours the headband began to dig in'), GoldenSound's comfort 3/10, and a long line of Head-Fi, ASR and Reddit owners report a top-of-head hot spot after one to three hours, a headband too narrow for bald or short-haired heads, and either too little clamp (drivers drifting off the ear, the headphone falling off when looking down) or, for small heads, a headache-inducing squeeze. Amazon's tallies show the same 2:1 split (comfort 50+/25−, fit 16+/20−).
Measured
TechGearLab measured 359 g and ON-mag 362 g (Focal claims 350 g) — about 100 g more than a WH-1000XM5 (What Hi-Fi) and 94 g more than a QC Ultra 2nd Gen; TechGearLab's testers managed ~4 comfortable hours, and RTINGS notes they can fall off with moderate movement. The 61 × 47 mm cups are among the largest in the class, which is why large-eared listeners rate the fit highly and small heads report loose seating.
Where it splits
Plush, deep, real-leather pads with room for large ears, moderate clamp — comfortable for hours68%
“Although they're bulky, even in their carrying case, the build quality is good, and they fit comfortably, making them suitable for long listening sessions.”
Heavy (350–362 g), a thin hard headband that hotspots inside 1–3 hours, a loose fit that shifts or falls off, and a clamp that suits some heads and not others32%
“Weighing well above the average, these headphones feel like a neck workout. After 3 hours, the headband began to dig into the top of our heads.”
Sources split almost evenly by weight. The magazines (What Hi-Fi 'gorgeous and solidly built', Headfonics 'a sturdy creation', Audioholics 'rugged') and Amazon's build tally (34+/10−) back the premium reading; TechRadar's flimsy, hit-and-miss buttons and clicking headband open the other file, and the owner threads fill it: a high-pitched whine from the illuminated logo (ranel, bfreeproductions, attlo996 — it goes away with the LED off), an audible ANC/transparency noise floor that some units show and others do not, creaking yokes replaced under warranty (richardw1992), ear pads peeling at 10 months to a year (jayjay2244's 120-upvote thread, LEGENDARY_AXE twice, Amazon's zenmar), headbands wearing at 6–7 months, hinges and cups coming loose, a unit dead in five days and one that 'lasted less than a year', and Focal support that owners describe as slow or unreachable. Firmware moved from 1.00 to 1.5.7 with ANC, audio and stability fixes, and the volume-step jumps on iOS remain the most repeated software gripe.
Measured
Focal's spec sheet: magnesium yokes, aluminium headband, 350 g, 8 microphones, Bluetooth 5.1 with SBC/AAC/aptX/aptX Adaptive (no LDAC), 30/35/42 h claimed over Bluetooth/jack/USB — SoundGuys measured 31 h 30 min, eCoustics 32 h, TechGearLab 27 h and What Hi-Fi ~25 h. No passive mode: every input runs through the internal DSP and amplifier.
Where it splits
Premium and solid — magnesium yokes, aluminium headband, real leather, a quiet non-creaking frame and a 3-year warranty52%
“Although they're bulky, even in their carrying case, the build quality is good, and they fit comfortably, making them suitable for long listening sessions.”
Plasticky cups and flimsy buttons, an LED coil whine and ANC hiss on some units, creaking yokes, peeling pads and worn headbands inside a year, dead ports and units, and a support line that is hard to reach48%
“The on-ear physical buttons feel a bit flimsy and prototype-esque, and we do find them hit-and-miss during use.”
The marquee split, and it is almost a dead heat by weight. RTINGS, eCoustics ('better noise-cancelling than any other model in the category'), Future Audiophile, Steve Huff and a set of owners rate the ANC very good and prefer its lack of pressure; Resolve, SoundGuys, TechGearLab, Stereophile, TechRadar, ON-mag and the returners put it clearly behind the class leaders. Three specific complaints recur beyond raw attenuation: the ANC pumping or dipping with each footstep, the impossibility of turning it off (a fatigue trigger that sent several owners back to the shop), and sound leakage loud enough that two Reddit threads warn office and bedroom users. Amazon's noise-cancellation tally is 27+/25−.
Measured
TechGearLab measured 21.2 / 20.7 / 39.2 dB of low / mid / high-band reduction against class bests of 26.6 / 26.6 / 46.7 dB; SoundGuys measured ~20 dB of low-frequency attenuation ('roughly as good as' the Momentum 4); ON-mag's plot shows ~17 dB at 60 Hz, ~23 dB at 200 Hz and ~20 dB at 1 kHz in Silent mode with almost no passive attenuation at 60 Hz, and rates isolation 3.5/5. Elrics' rig measures ANC and Transparency modes within 0.5 dB of each other in frequency response, and boizoff's Silent vs Soft differ by ~1 dB at 3–5 kHz — the modes change cancellation, not tuning.
Where it splits
Effective, natural-feeling ANC that kills low rumble without the underwater pressure of Sony/Bose — good enough for flights48%
Mid-pack at best: a step behind Sony, Bose and Apple, weak on voices and mids, with footstep 'plop', an always-on mode that fatigues, hiss in transparency, and leakage that behaves like an open-back52%
“This is where the Focal Bathys is definitely still behind the class leaders in the ANC headphone space.”
A weighted coin-flip. Stereophile, What Hi-Fi, Headfonics, Loomis, Durwood and the owners who paid $450–600 on sale call it a bargain for the sound; RTINGS, SoundGuys, TechGearLab, Headphonesty, MajorHiFi, HSB and the returners judge it against the whole package and find the launch price hard to justify. The price itself has moved under the argument: launched at $799, listed at $849 by some US dealers in 2026, and selling at $599 on Amazon and $649 at Music Direct while the Bathys MG sits above it at $1,299 — Amazon's value-for-money tally is 45+/48−.
Measured
US pricing on 2026-09-22: Amazon $599 (third-party sellers, Fulfilled by Amazon, 'Only 9 left'), Music Direct $649 against an $849 list and out of stock, headphones.com $799 against an $849 compare-at price with single-digit inventory; Reddit owners report $450 closeout stock in April and July 2026. The Bathys MG (2025) is $1,299–1,499.
Where it splits
Worth it if sound comes first — 'the $700 asking price seems on the modest side' for the best-sounding wireless headphone most reviewers had heard51%
“It hits the bullseye so confidently that the $700 asking price seems on the modest side.”
Overpriced for what it does beyond sound: mid-pack ANC, real weight and a first-gen feature set at a 30–100 % premium over Sony, Bose and Apple — buy on discount or buy the PX849%
“While they straddle both the casual and audiophile markets, a couple of design and performance choices may not completely satisfy either crowd, especially given their high price point.”
This is a read of where the reviews land as of September 2026, for the original Bathys — the Bathys MG (2025) is a different, pricier headphone with softer pads and a retuned presence region, and prices for the original keep dropping as it clears out.
02
How it sounds on your head is unusually fit-dependent: the soft pads and angled drivers mean the presence region, the 900 Hz dip and the bass all shift with the seal, which is why one owner hears warm and balanced and the next hears boomy or thin — audition it, and try it wired.
03
Comfort splits by anatomy — large ears and thick hair fare best; small heads, short hair and sensitive crowns report hot spots and a loose fit within an hour or three.
04
Noise cancelling is the marquee argument: measured mid-pack, felt as anything from 'excellent' to 'a first-gen product', and it cannot be turned off — if you need silence on a plane or quiet in an office, weigh that heavily.
05
Owner star ratings skew positive, and for these they sit lower and more polarised than most wireless flagships (4.0/5 on Amazon with a 16 % one- and two-star tail); the headphones.com dealer set is happier at 4.7/5, and Head-Fi's four reviewers average 4.1/5.
06
A minority of units show an audible hiss or an LED whine (turning the logo light off usually cures the whine), and there are enough reports of peeling pads, worn headbands, creaking yokes and dead ports inside a year to check within your return window and register the three-year warranty.
07
Several reviews and rankings date from the 2022–2023 launch firmware; Focal shipped a dozen updates (ANC, audio, transparency, Mimi hearing profiles) and prices have fallen from $799 to about $600, so older verdicts on ANC and value were written against a different headphone and price.
