Focal Bathys MG Review - Raising the bar

okay so today we're going to be talking

about the focal batis mg this is the

followup from the original focal batis

which was fal's sort of first entry into

the you know Wireless noise cancelling

world and this is not just a new

colorway for the ba platform this is an

entirely different thing it's certainly

a lot more expensive but the question is

is it actually better well in today's

video that's what we're going to find

out so let's get

[Music]

going okay so where is this unit from

this is a demo unit provided by focal

for review big thanks to focal for

sending it in for me to check out of

course I haven't been paid to say

anything in particular about it and all

thoughts and opinions here are my own

okay let's get right into the review

here and the first thing you guys are

going to notice is that the new batist

mg looks similar but also different it

has this new aesthetic to it in terms of

its color scheme for you know the cups

the yolks you know the sort of external

structure to it and the headband as well

and also the pads uh but as far as the

rest of the mechanical and Industrial

design is concerned here this is

basically the same now I've kind of been

going back and forth as to which one I

like the look of better uh there is

something visually striking or more

striking about this new bronze and brown

color scheme that they have going on

here but the big difference here that

most folks will notice right away is

that the pad deformation the pad

compliance is very different between the

two headphones so with the original

batist it was already quite compliant

for the pads but with the new one it's

extreme ly compliant like just the

tiniest little bit of force and it'll

completely depress the pads and this

does have an impact on both the sound

and the Comfort imagine you have the

softest and most Supple feeling things

in the world gently pressing into the

side of your head and caressing the side

of your ears it's a nice feeling I'm not

going to go into any more detail on that

but one slight downside with the more

compliant pad design is that because the

pads compress and deform more easily

the backside of my PA does touch the

inside of the baffle just ever so

slightly on the bati mg while it doesn't

on the original batis because the pads

are a little bit stiffer here um they're

still very compliant but they're not

quite as compliant so yeah I do this and

my ear doesn't touch the inside of the

baffle with this one at all so if you

have large ears or you know if you're

really sensitive to the backside of your

P touching the inside of the baffle that

is something to consider I will note

though relative to the competition for

the vast majority of ANC headphones my

ear also touches the inside of the

baffle and you do get much larger pad

openings with the with this platform

here than most ANC headphones so it

doesn't feel like an on-ear headphone it

actually feels like a proper eree

headphone so for overall Comfort I would

say this is very very good um but just

keep in mind that one little little

scrungle about the backside of the PA

touching the inside of the baffle if you

have large ears just keep that in mind

one other nice thing about the increased

pad compliance here is that it is going

to have a little a little bit of an

easier time creating a seal for people

who wear glasses um and conforming

around any you know weird Contours that

people might have to the side of the

head while this doesn't mean that it's

going to be more consistent across the

entire Spectrum certainly when it comes

to the seal Integrity it is likely to be

more consistent on the bati mg and

that's also a good thing now one

criticism that I have of both of these

is that I wish the top headband strap

could be just a little bit wider to

distribute the weight a little bit

better but for folks with smaller heads

I'm going to recommend checking out the

Capra strap um that's something that

works for some of their other headphones

that have this kind of design like the

auris and the Hennis um for larger heads

that won't work at all like for my head

that strap doesn't fit but for the

headlights out there who are hoping to

wear these all day that might be

something worth checking out now let's

get into the sound quality but just

before I do I want to give a big shout

out to headphones.com who makes all of

these videos possible for folks who are

unaware headphones.com is the place to

learn about and buy headphones it's

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diffuse field or the head related

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next audio purchase so how does the

batist mg sound and there was their

earlier release of the clear mg versus

the original clear and some of us liked

the original clear better some liked the

new clear better I was in the camp that

preferred the original uh with these two

with the batis mg I'm pretty sure that

just about everybody is going to prefer

the batis mg over the original batis

it's just straightforwardly better than

the original it is smoother throughout

the mid-range it's a more balanced sound

overall um they fixed some of the

frequency response related quirks with

the original BSE making it overall just

a much uh more cohesive and versatile

experience and I'm going to get into the

nerd here in a moment because

there's some interesting things going on

with this platform first the general

sound signature here for the batist mg

is a warm Rich euphonic kind of

presentation that is highly detailed

while at the same time being a little

bit on the thick side of things

particularly to do with a forward

character in the lower mid-range when

I'm listening to anything that has piano

tones or any recordings that have

acoustic guitars instrumental music of

any kind and also C vocal music as well

I'm specifically thinking of the James

Blake recordings like retrograde the

mid-range here is absolutely incredible

and a meaningful step up over the

original batis um the original could

occasionally come across a little bit on

the you know Honky or glary side of

things depending on the the recording

that you were listening to um because it

does have some additional quirks and

colorations throughout the mid-range

that's entirely gone with the batist mg

now the base here is elevated it's full

rich not quite as elevated in the

subbase as the original batis but the

extra compliance to the pads is likely

going to make that bass response a

little bit more consistent but overall

the bass profile here is pretty similar

my main criticism of both of these

headphones has to do with the transition

between the base and the lower mids I

think it is a little bit too far forward

on both of them it tends to walk that

line a little bit for me between thick

and boomy and it's not quite that kind

of tight and tactile base that I usually

prefer

however with that said this is also very

dynamically intense it's very impactful

it's the sort of flaring effect that

when it works it really works but that

doesn't mean it always does I'm thinking

of times when I'm listening to my jazz