Background: I’ve had the Bathys for a week and the AirPods Max for a year. I edit reality tv as my job. I listen to music from Apple Music Lossless
AirPods Max are the better ANC(make flying so much better)and watching movies on my laptop or iPad(I’ve got a dope bath tub and love watching movies while enjoying a bubble bath, come at me). The surround sound is dope and I can barely hear the tub filling up.
Bathys just sound beautiful! You hear new details in music you’ve never heard before(I heard a crackle in Stairway to Heaven that I thought was a mistake from the headphones. Nope it’s from the original recording just masked by worse headphones). These headphones make me want to listen to music all day long. And then you use DAC mode and it gets even better!! The anc seems to be ok but I haven’t tested it out and about .
The AirPods Max are great headphones. But my ears are open and I can’t go back to what I realize now was kind of fatiguing sounds from the max.
Size wise is another story the Bathys are comical in size. Like you look in the mirror and you just look kind of dumb. I noticed none of the Bathys images from focal show what these look like straight on. You look like a cyberman from doctor who.
I’m glad I have both headphones as they now serve different jobs. Max, movies and plane rides. Bathys, music music music.
I don't know what your buying but I've never had anything battery related due that fast. I got the bathys recently so I can't speak for those yet but I've been using galaxy buds 2 pro at work for close to a year and they haven't gotten any worse at all.
It’s mostly been Sony stuff. Their XM3/4 buds died on me every 4-5 months. I got the XM4 replaced under warranty twice then the third pair died on me 6 months in out of warranty and I just gave up. Currently on the AirPods Pro 2 for TWS stuff.