Is the Focal Bathys worth the upgrade from the Shure Srh1440?

Verdict

Meaningful upgrade

The Focal Bathys scores 8.0 points above the Shure Srh1440. That's a real improvement, though not the kind you'd notice on every track. The gains are concentrated in sound (8.0 to 9.5). You do give up ground on value (7.5 to 7.0). On paper it adds active noise cancelling, multipoint pairing and usb-c. Worth checking: weight goes 343 g to 350 g. That costs $520 more, or about $65 per point of score - steep unless the specific gains above are ones you care about. Worth doing if you're replacing anyway; harder to justify as a pure upgrade if what you have still works.