For the last few months, I’ve had my eye on this gorgeous set of cans from Focal, whose wired headphones are lauded by audiophiles – so when the legendary French firm announced the brand new Dune variant of their wireless, noise cancelling £699/$799 Focal Bathys, I just had to get my hands on them.
In this brand new sandy colourway, the Bathys looks excellent. It’s perhaps a left-field colour for headphones, but helps set them apart from the sea of black, grey and red options. Combined with this, the sea of circles present around the earcups certainly help them catch the eye. They’re a remarkably well-made set of cans with a blend of metal and plastics, although perhaps contain more of the latter than the high price would suggest.
At 350g, there’s a lot of weight here in comparison to other headphones I’ve tested, but with plush earcups and alcantara-style leather on the headband, they’re supremely comfortable. The leather used on the top of the headband is some of the softest I’ve felt, while the magnesium used on the yokes offsets the sandy colouring nicely. As a nice touch, the Focal logos on each earcup come with a white LED inside to light them up. You can turn this off in the associated app, if you don’t want it there, though.
