I purchased the mark levinson 5909s when they first came out. I was enamored with their clarity and ANC. Bluetooth totally failed before 12 months. They replaced them with new ones and Bluetooth failed almost immediately. I use them wired but sometimes inconvenient. Nice to have the passive non-powered sound when I don’t need ANC. this week I tried he Bathys and so far I am more than pleased. In direct comparison on numerous tracks that I know well, they sound the same. Weird, but there is a quality of the sound that I cannot pin down that makes me love the Bathys, but not love the 5909s. Most importantly the Bluetooth has not failed so I will listen a lot more :).
This thread has me so concerned about the app that I haven’t installed it yet. Which makes the ANC settings a bit tricky. No direct feedback like on most headphones. So I will install it and hopefully not hate them. The Dali’s are twice the price so not worth it when I don’t use headphones that much.
Not Impressed
Have been extremely pleased with my Bathys headphones (wearing them every evening after my wife has retired to bed).
Until the unexpected happened! the swivel mount on one side collapsed and I was left with one earpiece dangling from it’s wiring.
I regard my care of my hifi equipment as paramount and was mortified to discover that the actual swivel mount is tiny and had snapped in two from around the headband shaft.
No worries I assumed, I will inform the dealer I had purchased them from who immediately responded and off they went for inspection by Naim/Focal as to repair.
The dealer replied to me within a few days and sheepishly explained that there is nothing Focal will do and would I Like them returned to me !
This I replied is a given as they are now £600 worth of 22 month old headphones that are worthless except to me and I will tape or cable tie them together until they fall apart again.If this is the attitude of a
"top quality " company I will never buy another focal product as long as I live!!
I would warn all Bathys owners to be extremely careful when laying them down inside their case as this is what I did every evening having never left the house with them. Obviously the reliability is suspect and wonder if my pair are just the tip of the iceberg.
Focal , shame on you
This is strange. Even if Focal deems an issue to not be in warranty (generally for headband breaks) they do offer a quote for repair.
Have you tried reaching out to Focal directly to find out why they would not repair it?
The original email was from Focal/Naim,
Quote” I have now had a reply from Naim Audio about the headband issue.
What they say is that this is not a warranty fix and they can not do anything regarding the headband problem.
I am sorry that this time there is nothing more we can do after the reply from Naim.
Would you like me to return them to you ?”unquote.
I cannot fault the dealer as they are well regarded in the UK and have dealt with them previously.
Since my post I have discovered via other posts that this is not the first time this kind of problem has been ignored by Focal .
I was happy to pay for the repair knowing full well that the warranty had expired but this was regarded as irrelevant as far as I was concerned.
I choose not to ever recommend this company to any of my hifi loving associates after this unsavoury experience.