Focal's five-star Bathys headphones dive deeply into darkness

We're big fans of Focal's luxury headphones, having given them the full five stars in our Focal Bathys review. We praised their clarity, spaciousness and good looks.

However, if you've been holding out for another colour other than the beige-y Dune, you're in luck – there's a new option on the scene, which Focal calls Deep Black.

Just like the original pair, the Deep Black over-ears are made with a magnesium yoke, a real leather headband, and an optional illuminated Focal logo.

The spec and price are unchanged, so you can expect to pay £699 / $799 / about AU$1,199. And, the new Deep Black version is available now from major retailers.

Focal Bathys: why we think they're brilliant

The Bathys are up against some serious competition in the best headphones category. The likes of Bowers & Wilkins and Mark Levinson each manufacture exceptional rivals, for example.

However, we felt that Focal's wireless over-ears deliver even better sense of space and scale than most. They provide up to 30 hours of playback (42 hours in USB-DAC mode), with 15 minutes of fast charging giving you five hours of listening time, and there are three noise cancelling modes. The headphones work with Google Assistant and Alexa, too.

We explained in our review that the ANC wasn't as good as you'd get from the likes of Bose, but it does a decent enough job of filtering out background sounds, so you can focus on its sonic strengths.

The most important thing here, of course, is the audio performance. And we really like the way the Bathys handles music. The wide soundstage and precise detail are highlights, as well as the low frequencies that are punchy without overpowering the rest of the frequency range.

We also found during testing that high frequencies were as "crisp without straying into hard", while the midrange communicates "in an almost indiscreet manner".

The Focal Bathys are available now in Dune and Deep Black from a wide range of audio retailers.