Focal says: “Bathys comes from the word ‘bathyscaphe’, the first submarine exploration vehicle. The embodiment of calm, depth and absolute silence, this vessel is the inspiration behind the name of these ANC headphones.”
To me the problem is paying $800 for a headphone with a battery that’s probably not easily replaceable meaning it’ll become e-waste when the battery dies. At least if I buy a Focal Clear or something I know it should last.
That’s exactly what I was going to write. Apple nowadays has technologies that can hardly be surpassed. Samsung is behind them more technology and then there is everyone else!
Right - I think they’re trying to compensate now with all
The marketing they’re putting into the Bathys. I watched the video this morning that Headphones.com put up and while it does seem very inspired and Focal does seem to genuinely care about the product, I know for a fact that once the reviews come out, audio quality will be after NC, app support, battery life, connectivity… ect ect.
I will admit, I am interested with how well they do. I hope they’re a good product, I think focal is a great company and I definitely want to see them succeed.
Well Apple uses OLED screens researched and developed by Samsung. Qualcomm is closing the gap between the A series chips and their newest generation. Also Apple’s bluetooth codecs are currently no different than the industry standards and doesn’t even provide the best from those standards. It is possible that they are using a propriety bluetooth codec that is better but they haven’t announced anything in regards to that being better (afaik), and there is little reason to suspect that it’s better as they can’t even make use of the hi-res music on their own earphones and headphones.
So I don’t view them being more advanced compared to the mobile competitors, and not sure why anyone would think otherwise. The only thing that Focal can be considerably less good at would be in ANC which Apple is amongst the leaders.
Can’t say it’s not disappointing to see or not a bit irritating, though I understand one of the issues they found was the hinges and redesigned and reinforced them.
I agree with this. The battery is the kicker for me as well. If you can’t replace it (and chances are you can’t) there is no way I would pay that much for this product. After less than 2 years, my Beyer Lagoons are almost done because the battery is going away. And it can’t be replaced. At least, not that I am aware of. Good thing I got them for cheap. On their own, they don’t sound bad, so I could cable them if I wanted to - but that is not why I bought them in the first place. So there is that.
28-Sep, GoldPlanar is proud to announce GL-AMT16, the world first closed-back full range(15Hz–50kHz) Air Motion Transformer in-ear. Engineered with micro-AMT headphone transducer(15.5mm) technology inside a precision-milled aluminum alloy housing with 5 replaceable acoustic earbuds nozzle. This electrodynamic transducer allows air to move significantly faster than conventional voice coil, electrostatic, or planar designs; the AMT uses a folded diaphragm that squeezes air out of multiple Kapton folds four times faster than a traditional driver’s piston-like movement would permit. Their amazing speed translates to stunning transparency and effortless resolution of quick transients, GL-AMT have fast and accurate transient response, moves air faster for stunning transparency. GL-AMT16 delivers heightened detail retrieval and sonic accuracy with a soundstage and dynamic range. The miniaturized 15.5mm single micro-AMT driver has no crossovers, resulting in superior cohesion across the entire frequency spectrum. And GL-AMT16 still boasts an incredible 102 dB/mW efficiency and a max SPL well over 100dB, giving it the highest dynamic range of any in-ear in its size category.
GoldPlanar GL-AMT16 is available for purchase now at www.linsoul.com, sells $1,499.00USD.
Yeah I can see this going the same way as Planar IEM’s did…Expensive to “Really that fucking cheap”…The graph looks ok but what else does this bring sonically to the table at that price
Would be nice to see more options for AMT in iem, was super impressed by the obravo eamt-1c which is a coaxial amt and dynamic setup, but they were super source demanding so they ended up being super hit or miss depending on what you drove them with. Ended up selling it because it only really sounded it’s best on desktop gear which really limited the benefits of it being an iem. Hopefully that’s not the case with future AMT options (although I should really revisit it now that there’s more and more capable dap and portable amp options out there). Ah and having tips that didn’t sit too deep in the ear were important too.
Wouldn’t really immediately call it overpriced, there’s different levels of quality when it comes to AMT, and it’s not only the driver that determines the cost of an iem, it’s getting that driver to actually work well within the iem (implementation), the R&D aspect basically (which also includes the cost of the amt driver development if it’s a self developed driver, but don’t know, haven’t looked into it). Only way to know if it’s worth the cost or not is to hear it, since the final sound is what should really justify cost or not in the end
cheapest AMT headphone is going for what $1200 on sale?
probably be a while before these start dropping in price mainly because there’s hardly anything in the “wearable” space that uses them