View offers Headphones | £699 | whf.cm/FocalBathys
Focal says that its first pair of wireless noise-cancelling headphones have been named ‘Bathys’ (pronounced “Bath-ees”) after their metaphorical association with the Bathyscaphe, a deep-sea exploration submersible. The French brand says that the vessel is “the embodiment of calm, depth and absolute silence”, so the connection it has made between that and something with active noise cancellation is indeed rather fitting… until you remember that that ‘something’ is designed to first and foremost bellow music into your eardrums. Still, we like the concept.
Had the Focal Bathys launched a couple of years ago, they would have arrived to a crowd of raised eyebrows and perhaps a sneering Reddit discussion, due to what would have been the unprecedented