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Bowers & Wilkins PX8 Vs Focal Bathys Sound Review

Mar 20, 2024
There aren't many

review

s on YouTube about these Bowers and Wilkins px8 and no comparisons to the

focal

bath yet. This is going to be great if you buy headphones at this price, even if they are Wireless I think you are buying for the

sound

, so I want to tell you a little about the character of these headphones and the genres they work with, so I will do some comparisons in depth with rock music tracks. classic rock classic electronic rap just a variety of things to give you guys, hopefully, the best way I can think of to give you an idea of ​​what these two

sound

like in the end.
bowers wilkins px8 vs focal bathys sound review
I'll talk a little bit about ANC and transparency, um, but yeah, too. Start with an idea of ​​how I'm testing them. First of all, I got Mathis as a

focal

fan and these are my favorite headphones in the world. I had no choice but to give them to them. These are a crack, so my methodology is: I will spend them or with them, in this case I don't have a general one for everyone anyway. I spent two days with these just enjoying them using them for everything you know carrying them on the train taking them. on a walk listening to them at my desk watching a TV show, whatever.
bowers wilkins px8 vs focal bathys sound review

More Interesting Facts About,

bowers wilkins px8 vs focal bathys sound review...

I use the batys for everything for a couple of days so I logged at least 10 hours of listening on those two days and then I listened to them for two days in a row same deal exactly the same all without listening to any other audio equipment um and then for two days more I listened to just both of them um I would probably spend more time preparing this

review

, but to be honest, I think I have a pretty good idea of ​​the differences between them now. I've definitely logged enough hours because it was over a weekend so I was listening to a lot of music and I know a lot of people are buying these right now so I wanted to post the video because I think it's helpful.
bowers wilkins px8 vs focal bathys sound review
It bothered me a little that there was so little in the px8 and it certainly bothered me that there was nothing to compare them. Great, so let's start with the first pair. of songs I want to talk about I want to do a couple of Wolf Alice songs so this is a more classic rock band you have a couple of guitars you have a drama you have a voting class and a base um These guys present the music in a way very different and in Rock it is less evident how different they are. Still, you realize in the bathroom, you have this feeling of spaciousness, it's almost as if the instruments are dispersed in space and you can tell very clearly and distinctly that there is one guitar and another. the bass is the singer Etc., but obviously it's not like a stage because the way the focal image is quite holographic, so it's spherical, but all the things are divided um and immediately you go.
bowers wilkins px8 vs focal bathys sound review
I haven't heard a Nancy earbud like this, I just had the Airpods Max that I sent, they can't do anything like what these guys are doing and it's very clean, the sound is clean and clear, in that sense it's great, meanwhile on the px8 you will get a more compact one. sound the way the sound is presented is almost like a pair of speakers um I think if you look inside the headphones there's like an angle the unit is at an angle but I think it's also in the bathroom but for some reason they did this.
So these guys make it feel like the sound is coming from a stage in front of you. It's more compact right away, you feel more intimate with these headphones, but it's also meatier and more emotionally engaging, so if you listen to the song Giant Peach by Wolf. Alice has a very strong opening riff. I think the first minute of the song is just guitar and drums and it's a high energy ref on the pxa. It feels much more like it's dragging you through the midrange. The thicker guitars have a lot more kind of bite and growl, while on this one they feel like they feel very clear but don't have as much weight, so they go for the bass so that the drums sound much more impactful on the px8, at that point I want say. the bass on this is pretty tight but it's a little weak uh and on the px8 it's not like the bass for me was overdone on this track uh, it was that it didn't bleed into the mids, it didn't affect the mids in general, the mids still They were more complete in this than this, in my opinion, for the guitar, but the base is much stronger, it is definitely improved compared to these, but not, you know, with lack of taste, it is not close to something like what that I had. boost three That base was too much, it's actually very well done, so that's the difference you get in these songs with this, you get spacey air around the separation of the instruments, very nice separation details are highlighted in this, details so small in the song. they're going to show up, it's not like they're not on the px8, but they are highlighted in this and I mean the little details, the things you don't normally pay attention to, the ambient parts of the song, in general, for Wolf Alice .
I prefer these, um, for rock, I want a high energy sound, I want the guitars to have a lot of punch, I want a lot of thickness in the midrange for those vocals and those guitars, and these provide that and just for me. It was more exciting, although some of the songs I really liked, I mean I also really enjoyed the batys, it was a great performance, it was very clean, it was really nice, so I tried them, these are just some of the tracks. I've tried a lot more, but I don't want the video to be too long.
I will say that in general, if you listen to rock and you like a good, thick electric guitar, which I do, it's the only instrument I play. pretty important for me, I prefer this for that, I just think it was a nice thicker tone on electric guitars, so let's move on to some electronic music, this is where the presentation differences of these two headphones become much more obvious and It gets a lot harder, so some of these songs I had to go over the parts five or six times because I really want to nail down the differences, so it's a bit of Grimes.
My name is dark, so this is a track with a lot of vocal effects and a lot of things happening what you notice right away about these is that it's wicked, it's cool what they do with the effects, these remind me more of estelia or um declare for electronic music, right? They're different, they're a different kind of sound. They're a little more relaxed than those two. Definitely more relaxed, especially in the treble area. And at the base, much more relaxed in Australia, but the way the details pop out and move through the soundscape is just incredible on the batis.
I was really impressed for an NC headset on the px8 you don't get the same details, the same details appear but they don't come through with the same level of clarity as them. don't be surprised like that um the other thing in my name is dark there's a lot of uh uh there's a lot of bass lines and bass there's this electronic music and again it's Fuller in this there are points where you know, there's a really cool bass line playing, my name is dark and it's fuller and cooler on the px8, I think overall, although I think I prefer the batys for this song, not by much, but I liked the image, it made another one.
Grime song bloodless flesh very similar story the electronic effects sound evil on these the visual is really nice the clarity works great its very exciting on the pxa um would i notice there are some guitar sections in this song that can sound fuller and longer? um, more interesting on this um, I like the vocals on this song on the px8 a little bit more and they're also a little bit more interesting to feel a little more detailed. This was close, but I think overall I was more into the px8 because of that thicker sound, the bass and guitar, and some of the effects sound a little thicker due to the midrange being a little more.
I don't know what it is about these in the midrange, but it's a little nicer. for me, but it was close on that song, um, then I heard Galvanize by The Chemical Brothers, this was the first song I thought was all loud, easily better with one of these headphones than the px8. everything about that intro and the car is very, I mean, go listen if you like the first 30 seconds, this song comes right out of the beginning, super catchy, super heavy, um, there's like a periodic instrumental at the beginning. I found it more. punchy and compelling on the px8 the bass that plays around 18 seconds in is much more authoritative and deep on the px8 um in this intro, what should be one of the most epic openings to a song just sounds a little weak um, I've heard the song a lot, you know, I listened to it with all my headphones, so I have an idea of ​​what I like about that song and I heard it live a couple of months ago and I just don't.
I'll be honest, I don't think that did it justice. I think the bass was too polite and things were too distant, it didn't confront you enough and grab you the way it did, so it's very big. one for me on that one for the px8 so electronic music is a little split you know you love cool. Images of small effects about all this, you love the kind of emotional engagement or the bass or a thicker sound than I do. I would say px8 um voice I listen to Adele's Skyfall um the voice this is the voice of these two they are really interesting they are different and we will talk later with my girlfriend who tried both um and she knows what she does when As for the voices, she was a professional voice actress and notice the difference in these also in the voices, so Adele's voice sounds a little bit in these, it sounds a little bit like you're watching it and you're like, wow, that's a really clear voice that's really nice and clean and on this it's like wow that appeals to me it's thick it's a human it's full of emotion it's colorful um on these it's a little more distant and a little flatter on these it feels a little more detailed and fuller um there was a point in the song where both headphones got a little hard on one of the uh oh no, wait, I'm sorry, that would be the next one, that was the next track, um yeah, and I think because this had a more intimate presentation and with the way this song goes, it's a pretty emotional song, i just felt a lot more engaged with the px8, and the batys are kind of analytical, more of an observer feeling i have, which didn't work out so well. then I heard another vocal track, uh Blue Jeans, by Lana Del Rey.
I really liked how the batys turned out with some of the details. This has many Lana Del Rey productions that have interesting details in the song and details to highlight more. the bathhouse the details are still there here once again once again with the voice these were sweeter warmer and a little bit more like this it feels more like a person for some reason um they both perked up with the voice at some point like this I thought I'll listen to it on the stalia to see if what's going on and it wasn't hard on the Stelio, it was a part of the whole song, I don't know why, but yes, I prefer the px8 a little for this song. but both were really great and then I heard another vocal but very instrumentally heavy song, as well as innocence from Aurora.
You are a wonderful Norwegian singer and a very good test for the voice because she has phenomenal ability, so on this one. there are many types of great, there is a great transition in this song. Pretty early on, I think around the minute mark or something like that and that transition is a lot more behind this on these headphones, um, compared to the batys, which again sound a little bit. a little bit weaker for some reason the voice on the proprietary part um is oh yeah it's 40 seconds when that transition is um the voice on this was a lot more open at the beginning um it sounds like you're just singing in your ear while on this it feels a little more distant and a little thinner, yes there is another part in the song where after the transition the vocal continues with a new instrumental and the bathroom is vocal backs off a little and highlights the instrumental a little and doesn't it feels totally right to do that and on the px8 it actually feels more appropriate where those two things have a similar position.
This is something I will say about focal headphones in general that I have noticed, particularly, that The Celestine Elijah had. Sometimes it's kind of, you know, it's not necessarily a fault because it works really well on some songs, like some of the electronic music, but they bring certain things right in your face, um, instruments or details that is evil on a level. because you're like, oh, I've never heard a song like that or it's so exciting, but on another level it's like this is appropriate for this song right now and this was one of those cases where I was like No, it's um, I think the The voice should be more direct than the instrumental and that is the kind of double-edged sword of the focal points, they highlight the details, but sometimes in an inappropriate way, sometimes the song should be the voice, I think it is the focus or the la guitar and then the other things step back a bit and support it, you don't get as much with these, the details are similar, whereas the px8 actually does it a lot more where they seem to give things a relative importance, I really prefer the px8 for this one Aurora song.
I really thought it was a lot more fun and engaging. The transition was just better for me. It was much better. I felt more like I was observing the music. in Bathurst, so I tried some classic songs on both, one from someone who recommended Headphire andMoonlight Sonata, um, pretty intense test I think the timbre of the px8 is a little better than classical, it's a little sweeter and it's a little softer and smoother um, I found it more pleasant um I think the great kind of foundation of classical music, the kind of expansiveness of listening to an orchestra is a little better represented in these, the space between the instruments, the kind of feeling of everything happening around you in a big room, I think it's better represented in these, um, I think the quality of things like pianos, flutes, brass, brass. more colorful and kind of alive in these, um, so it's hard, you know?
Maybe I prefer the song structure on these, but I prefer the song texture on these, that makes sense, um, ultimately I think I prefer the px8 for classical just because it's a little bit more important to me, the timba and the tone of the instrument, but I thought this was cool too, so yeah, I did a little test and my girlfriend saw these. and she really liked looking at them, so she picked them up and listened to them. Now, comparing them, you must understand. She surprised me a little. She surprised me a little. I felt a little like these. not my expectations I'm a vocal guy so I like that's what I listen to this is what I this is my baby I listen to it every night um so when I saw these two announce there were even posts I made on the top five forums yes Do you ever say I think these batys will be miles ahead of the Thousand Wilkins?
These have the clear mg driver and they or a Celeste are adequate high-end drivers, but I was surprised and after the six days. up I prefer these and it's not a small amount I really prefer these um, these are like I love them, they're a lot of fun and they're a pair of headphones that I can happily have next to the other guy, you know, clearer and more Stella, because they provide something that those who don't know, they provide something new, a kind of fresh look at music that's really fun and anyway, I thought maybe this is just one of those strange cases where they somehow tickle somewhere special of my brain. which won't happen with other people and I just found a little match for myself so when my girlfriend picked them up I thought, oh perfect, I'm going to have her compare them.
I haven't told him about what. I'm doing it, you know, she just came and saw them and I haven't told her what I think either, so she had a lesson on these. I said, oh, what do you think she said? I really like them, they're great. and they're really fun um and she said they feel really attractive I want to dance was basically what she said those were her words um so I said can you try it? Can you give me a comparison between these? She was just like she's trying to decide, you know what I like more, so I gave her both and she listened to the song Run boy by Woodkid.
I really don't know, but I had to listen to her. It's a great song and I have quotes from what he said when I was listening to both of them and kind of back and forth between them etc., he said in the bathroom, this, the vocal is on this one, the vocal is further away, it's good though. and then he said that he remembers that he listened to the song completely on the px8 now, so he is making a comparison in a way that is too sharp and does not affect me in the same way regarding the network, then he said that on the focals everything is equal level, does that make sense? the instruments are the same volume, which is not how it should be.
I think in Bows and Wilkins the singer is in the center and the instruments in other places sounds more like a concert. I think these would be good for the song you showed me I showed him an electronic music song called by lawn and then he said I like Bowers' ones a lot better, now they sound more lively, I know it's pretty similar to what I said so maybe we have some areas, um. but like I said, I didn't point her out, I didn't give her any of my conclusions here, okay, she knows I like these, even though the phone rings a lot, um, she's not a complete newbie, she's got a pretty good one, I'm not saying . this to qualify or say that she is some kind of authority on this and no one is, but I say you know she has a good ear, she used to be a singer in a band for quite a while, she was a professional voice actress. a much better musical outfit than me, so when I play the guitar she might be learning something through the air.
I will request her help. One of the best musical imaginations I've ever encountered in a human being and it really bothers me that she doesn't do it. she plays an instrument, but what I'm saying is that she's not just someone who listens to beats, you know, she's got it pretty good. A good ear for things and how she thinks they should sound, at least to her taste, isn't just about going crazy. Wow, um anyway, take it for what it's worth, probably not much, but there you have it, very different headphones, um, the Bathurst, clearly separate, exciting for electronic music, a little weak at the bottom, a little distant in the voices or a little deficient. and kind of humanity px8 very strong midrange fantastic voice and guitar very natural sound very good Timbre um very fun base but not over the top doesn't question the mids at all as detailed as the bathroom is a smaller stage than the Bathurst um I think a better general presentation in the way it emphasizes certain things.
I think it feels more appropriate. That's the solid conclusion. I personally believe in ANC headphones for what I want. I would prefer this. I want something that appeals to me emotionally and that has a lot of energy that has a lot of emotion because I'm in motion. I don't really care if the cello is up there and that's nice, that's great when you're at a desk, but if it's at the expense of other things. like the growl of a song, like the core of a song, um, like the uh, the thickness of the vocals and things like that, so I'm not interested, so I think when you're in motion, those are more important qualities. but more importantly, overall I personally prefer the sound of these by a significant margin.
I think the point is that you can speculate what Focal would do with these. I think they sound really good and they sound a lot better than the airpods max, which is probably what you're comparing them to, um, but they sound very different than something like the clear, the clear, a lot higher energy than these, there's a lot more energy in the treble, there's a lot more slam in the base I like it, you know, they admit they're great, the clears are great, everyone knows they're great, but they've gone for a different sound signature, they've gone for something a little more relaxed, you know, the problem with that is I think Focal's strong point is the kind of high energy commitment that headphones bring and when you take that away, things like the Tamba problem, the kind of naturalness that is the sound in the voices and the instruments, they start to become more It's a problem because you don't have the other strengths now.
I've always had a little problem with that focal sound, which is, oh, you know, I don't have it. I don't think the vocals are even on the stelia. Sometimes voices sound. kind of like oh, that wasn't great, that sounded a little harsh, but you forgive it because the other quality is so good when you dial back those other qualities. I think the problems become a little bit more apparent and may be more It's a deal breaker, maybe, um, so yeah, I think that's what it is. It is a marked background voice. Other comfort things I had were, I mean looking at the thickness of the headband, seeing this headband gave me a little trouble for about an hour so it wasn't great, I need to compare the transparency, but the ANC on the pxa it's better than this um buy it a little bit it's actually pretty good ANC the transparency on this is very good um I've tried it in isolation not sure if it's better than this but these are getting closer to the airpods Max than I would think what I expected in terms of transparency.
I can hear pretty much everything with complete clarity, I mean it's fantastic to be honest and the ANC is really good. I wish I still had the Airpods Max here. I essentially sold my iPods Max and sent them back last week because I have these mw65s that I liked better as ANC headphones. I thought they sounded better than the iPods Max, um, but then these guys came out and I compared them to these and these are, you know, so. They are not, they are not a competition for these two um so I don't have them, but I am tremendously impressed by the pxa much more than I expected, the fact that the sound is so good in a wireless headphones and um the features are so good, that's great, oh I forgot to mention that I tried them both wirelessly without EQ.
I tried a couple of EQs on this that people posted well. I didn't think they were that good. I think Jen, you know. maybe there are some better ones and I'll give it a try but I didn't bother with either one because I don't think many users will, anyway yeah the bottom line is they're both brilliant and worth £700, hard to buy at a ledger. and um you could get an allegia and a discount, you know, you can get used airpods max, you can have both, so it's tough, these are expensive, these are also expensive, not as expensive, but to me they legitimately justify it.
I don't have the focal Celeste or anything yet, but I don't know if they sound much better than these, to be honest, in In My Memory, um, these just and by better I mean maybe technically in some areas they are better. but it's something you want to listen to and think, wow, this makes music so good, yeah, super impressed by these, completely out of nowhere, from Owls and Wilkins, yeah, great headphones. I recommend trying both if you can, if you try both, avoid going. going to the store and just putting them on for 10 minutes that doesn't really do either one justice um if you can spend a day with each one and use the return policy I think that's why it's there and at this price really You should because it's a big premium for an ASC headset, but yeah, that's my opinion.
I hope to discuss the comments, perhaps something about the Bathurst EQ. I just hope this is useful for

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