It’s a more relaxed fit but doesn’t need to be tight as it’s an open back. The larger Ananda BT has some vertical articulation in the cups but the gimbals are quite fixed making it fiddly for moving around unless stuck on your head.īoth are very comfortable, HIFIMAN’s ovoid-shaped headphones always do very well here and may have a slight edge with less vertical clamping. The distinction in usage scenarios is really very clear here.Īlso, the finishing of the Bathys is more robust with a much simpler yet no less attractive design that can fold flat and keep a low profile when required.
The Bathys is much more the high-end travel headphone with its smaller form factor, lighter also at 350g versus 460g, and of course, offering ANC with a closed-back design. However, with it lacking ANC and using an open-back design its pitch is more for portability and ease of use inside the home or office or wherever it’s quiet. Granted, the Ananda BT is wireless and comes with a carry case so there is a degree of portability to it. Both have a USB-DAC decoding capability of up to 24BIT/192kHz. The Ananda BT is not multi-point, and a grade lower for BT at BT5.0 but does offer LDAC and can decode wirelessly up to 24BIT/96kHz. The Bathys is BT5.1 multi-point though it does not have LDAC decoding capability going up to aptX Adaptive and 24BIT/48kHz maximum. All analog signals will go via the internal amplifier of both headphones. Unfortunately, Focal is less revealing about the internal topology of the Bathys but we do know both companies have the headphones set up for active audio only so neither will work in a purely wired passive mode. The HIFIMAN version that is integrated here has morphed into the separate Bluemini module and gone R2R for its DAC though that is not the case here for the Ananda BT. Two very different driving principles with hugely contrasting acoustical approaches, Open versus closed).ĭigging into the wireless side there are some differences here also.
Focal Replacement Drivers driver#
The differences though are equally obvious with the Bathys a closed-back dynamic driver headphone, (40mm aluminum-magnesium), and the Ananda BT an open-back planar driver design using HIFIMAN’s classic Neo “supernano” diaphragm or NsD for short. That is about it for immediately identifiable similarities. Technicalīoth are BT wireless-equipped, both can operate in USB-DAC but not passive by design, and both are full-sized headphones.
Focal Replacement Drivers full#
You can read our full review of the Ananda BT here. All other HIFIMAN headphones use the detachable wireless Bluemini module. The Ananda BT is the only dedicated wireless headphone in the HIFIMAN lineup and is currently priced the same as the Bathys. 5909 headphones which would be an ideal comparison so if I get a chance to bring them to the HQ and compare them both I will add a new section here.
Unfortunately, Mike reviewed the Mark Levinson No. All comparison work here was based on their wireless performance and completed using a HiBy R8 as our main BT source.
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