French audio company Focal is known for its high-end speakers and headphones. You might call it the Bowers & Wilkins of France. And now it’s finally done what a lot of high-end audio companies have had to do in this age of on-the-go wireless music listening: Make an active noise-canceling Bluetooth headphone. Over three years in development, the Bathys costs $799 (?699, AU$1199) and feature not only wireless connectivity but a built-in DAC (digital-to-analog converter) for USB wired listening with any computer, smartphone or tablet with USB-C. It’s easily one of the best-sounding wireless headphones.

Focal makes some hefty wired headphones for home listening, including the $3,000 Stellia that weighs in at 435 grams. For the Bathys — the name is inspired by the bathyscaphe, the first submarine exploration vehicle, with the headphone being the “embodiment of calm, depth and absolute silence,” according to Focal — it created a headphone that shared a similar design aesthetic but is more compact and weighs in at more reasonable 350 grams with a magnesium yoke used to help cut the weight. By comparison, the AirPods Max weigh 384.8 grams.

Read more: Best Noise-canceling Headphones for 2022

While they’re not quite as comfortable to wear as the lighter Bose QuietComfort 45 or Sony WH-1000XM5, I did find them comfortable to wear over longer listening sessions and they didn’t feel too tightly clamped and the headband didn’t create any pressure points on the crown of my head.

While they may be more compact than Focal’s other headphones, they’re still pretty large.
Focal

I haven’t had enough time with the Bathys to post a full review but here are some quick first impressions:

While they’re more compact than Focal’s wired headphones, the Bathys are still large headphones and will look that way on your head. The noise-canceling is good though not excellent, with a low and high mode (“silent” and “soft”) as well a transparency mode. ANC has a tendency to degrade the sound so there’s always a delicate balance adding ANC when sound quality is the priority.The Bathys are equipped with Bluetooth 5.1 and have multipoint Bluetooth pairing (so you can pair them to two devices like a smartphone and computer simultaneously). I had no problem driving them with iPhone and Android devices and they do support AptX Adaptive on Android and other devices that are compatible with that audio codec (they use the AAC audio codec for iPhones).I streamed music using the Qobuz app, which does offer high-resolution files. I connected the headphones via USB-C to a couple of Android phones as well as a MacBook Pro. There’s also a USB-C to Lighting adapter if you want to go wired on your iOS device (you switch into DAC mode to go wired). Going wired gives you a slight bump up in sound quality (it does help to stream high-resolution audio files for optimal sound). In wired mode, the headphones deliver up to 24-bit/192kHz resolution. But the headphones also sound quite impressive in wireless mode with excellent clarity, detail, accuracy and powerful, well-defined bass. They have a wide soundstage and allow you to hear each instrument distinctly in complicated tracks where several instruments are playing at the same time. The Bathys use Aluminum-Magnesium speaker drivers while Focal’s higher-end wired headphones have Beryllium drivers that offer even more clarity and accuracy with the right set up. The headphones fold flat (but don’t fold up) into a nice carry case. Along with the USB-C to USB-C cable you also get a standard analog headphone cable for use with in-flight entertainment systems.Overall, I was pleased with the voice-calling performance. Callers said I sounded good and could hear me well on the noisy streets of New York, where they heard some background sound leak in but the noise reduction was good. They measure up well to the Master & Dynamic MW75 ($599) for voice calling and while they may not be exceptionally good like the Sony WH-1000XM5 for voice calls, you shouldn’t be disappointed with the telephony performance. That can sometimes be the case with headphones that tout sound quality first. With a press of button, they offer access to either Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant or other phone voice assistant (Siri or Bixby, for instance). An equalizer in the companion app doe iOS and Android allows you to tweak the sound profile. Since these are an audiophile headphone, you can expect a flat default sound profile. Depending on what I was listening to, I ended up boosted the bass a bit.Battery life is solid at up to 30 hours, with a quick charge feature that gives you 5 hours of use with a 15-minute charge.The headphones fold flat but don’t fold up. A nice carrying case is included.
David Carnoy/CNET

In recent months, we’ve seen an increasing number of “high-fidelity” active noise-canceling wireless headphones released following the launch of Apple’s AirPods Max, which list for $549 but frequently sell for $479 or less. There’s the aforementioned Master & Dynamic MW75, the Mark Levinson No. 5909 ($999) and the just-announced Bowers and Wilkins PX8, which I haven’t tried yet but lists for $699. They’re all great headphones but in terms of pure sound quality, the Bathys may be the best of the bunch and I particularly liked the built in DAC and the ability to switch easily between wired and wireless modes.