Dyson is dropping the mask. The British manufacturer known for its vacuums, chic hairdryers, and heating or cooling fans is continuing its push into wearable tech with a new pair of headphones.
The OnTrac Headphones are priced at $499 / AU$799 and are available for order now (not until August 28 in Australia). They look to have some good hardware on the inside and outside, with a promised 55 hours of battery life, cozy earcups, and a top band. Custom neodymium drivers offer advanced, excellent sound. You’ll also find active noise cancellation, which, alongside these features, is pretty much par for the course for a nearly $500 pair of cans.
Where things get truly interesting is with the design. For one, Dyson is placing the batteries for that promised lengthy runtime in the headband for comfort and better weight distribution. Furthermore, they’re suspended, so they don’t press down on your skull. In a brief hands-on, I found the OnTracs to be pretty cozy, but the ear cushion impressed me the most.
Rather than opting for memory foam, Dyson is using PU open-cell foam, which has some bounce but is mostly there to reduce pressure. I suspect the foam won’t run out of pep in its step anytime soon. The wrapping of the ear cushion is where Dyson is pushing away from headphone norms, as you can customize the ear cushions in a range of shades, including vibrant colors or more neutral ones. It’s really fun, and you’ll have seven styles for ear cushions.
Dyson’s also giving that same treatment to the outer ear cups, which you can screw on and off to swap for several shades. Regardless of the color, it’s CNC aluminum with either a glossy – think copper or silver – or a matte, ceramic finish – think orange or blue. The extensive customizability reminds me a bit of the Moto X from many moons ago and, even more recently, of Nothing’s CMF – One could even argue that these are the Lego of headphones with swappable parts.
In a sea of headphones that all look the same or only come in a few colors, Dyson will let you mix and match, but there is a cost. Either a set of cushions or the outer ear cup caps will cost $49.99.
When ordering, you’ll have four styles to choose from: CNC Aluminum, which strikes with a silver/gray build and yellow ear cushions; CNC Copper, which is a Dyson purple with copper ear cups; Ceramic Cinnabar, which is a muted orange outer and black inner; or CNC Black Nickel, which is a take on matte black all around with a pop of silver. You also get a case that folds completely flat but pops up to let the OnTrac slide in and a USB-C cable for recharges.
In terms of audio, Dyson’s powering the OnTrac with custom 40mm neodymium drivers that are tilted to the ear for a better listening experience. In a brief test, they sounded quite good with a stronger lower end, but again, it’s something we’ll need to test out more formally. Via the MyDyson app for Android or iOS, you can swap between three presets – Bass Boost, Enhanced, or Natural –but there will be no custom equalizer at launch.
And compared to the Zone, these earcups are much thinner and have a pretty slimline profile. The entire set of cans weighs in at 451 grams as opposed to 589 grams.
For noise cancellation, you’ll get some passive work thanks to the ear cups and a system of 8 microphones, and a Dyson-made algorithm powers the active system, which promises to block up to 40 decibels of noise. The microphones are split up into four on the left cup and four on the right, working with three onboard processors. Dyson says it samples external noise 384,000 times a second. That same tech can also power the transparency mode, which lets a bit of the world in.
You can tap on either cup to cycle through a listening mode. The promised 55 hours of battery life is with active noise cancelation turned on. I imagine that will stretch pretty far when off, and we’ve reached out to Dyson for clarification.
There is a joystick control, which will be used for playback control. You can hold it down to trigger a connected voice assistant. Two microphones are also dedicated to voice pickup.
Lastly, for tech specs, the OnTrac headphones will detect and automatically play or pause content when you remove or put them on. Like the Dyson Zone’s air quality alerts, you can track sound levels within the companion app. Dyson’s OnTrac headphones don’t support multipoint for Bluetooth and are up to 5.0 Bluetooth standard.
The team here at TechRadar will be going hands-on with the OnTrac’s again soon and will report back once we’ve fully tested them. But at $499 / UK / AU$799, they certainly compete in the upper echelon of headphones and have some stiff competition from the likes of AirPods Max and Sony WH-1000XM5. If you’re sold, though, you can check them out at Dyson here, and yes, they will live alongside the $699.99 / AU$999 Dyson Zone.
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jacob.krol@futurenet.com (Jacob Krol)
