Dyson is dropping the mask. The British manufacturer known for its vacuum cleaners, fancy hair dryers and heating or cooling fans is continuing its push into wearable technology with a new pair of headphones.
The OnTrac Headphones cost $499 / AU$799 and are available to order now (no earlier than August 28 in Australia). They appear to have good hardware inside and out, with a promised 55-hour battery life, comfortable earcups and a headband. Custom neodymium drivers provide advanced, excellent sound. You’ll also find active noise cancellation, which, aside from those features, is pretty much standard for a pair of headphones costing nearly $500.
Where things get really interesting is with the design. First, Dyson places the batteries for that promised long runtime in the headband for comfort and better weight distribution. They’re also suspended so they don’t press down on your skull. In a quick hands-on, I found the OnTracs to be quite comfortable, but the ear cushions impressed me the most.
Instead of opting for memory foam, Dyson uses open-cell PU foam, which has some bounce to it, but is mainly intended to relieve pressure. I suspect the foam won’t lose its energy anytime soon. The wraparound ear cushion is where Dyson breaks away from headphone norms, as you can customize the ear cushions in a variety of shades, including bright colors or more neutral ones. It’s really fun, and you have seven styles of ear cushion.
Dyson gives the same treatment to the outer earcups, which you can screw on and off to swap out different shades. Regardless of color, they’re CNC-machined aluminum with a choice of glossy finishes (think copper or silver) or matte ceramic finishes (think orange or blue). The extensive customizability reminds me a little of the Moto X from many moons ago and, more recently, Nothing’s CMF – you could even argue they’re the Lego of headphones with interchangeable parts.
In a sea of headphones that all look the same or only come in a few colors, Dyson lets you mix and match, but it comes at a cost. A set of cushions or the outer earcup tips cost $49.99.
When ordering, you can choose from four styles: CNC Aluminum, which stands out with a silver/gray construction and yellow earpads; CNC Copper, which is a Dyson purple with copper earcups; Ceramic Cinnabar, which is a muted orange exterior and black interior; or CNC Black Nickel, which is a take on matte black all around with a hint of silver. You also get a case that folds completely flat but flips up to slide the OnTrac inside, and a USB-C cable for charging.
In terms of audio, Dyson equips the OnTrac with custom 40mm neodymium drivers that are angled towards the ear for a better listening experience. In a quick test, they sounded pretty good, with a stronger bass response, but again, that’s something we’ll need to test more formally. You can switch between three presets – Bass Boost, Enhanced or Natural – via the MyDyson app for Android or iOS, but there won’t be a custom equaliser at launch.
And compared to the Zone, these earcups are much thinner and have a fairly slim profile. The entire set of earbuds weighs 451 grams instead of 589 grams.
For noise cancellation, you get some passive work thanks to the earcups and an eight-microphone system, with a Dyson-made algorithm powering the active system, which promises to block out up to 40 decibels of sound. The mics are split into four on the left cup and four on the right, working with three onboard processors. Dyson says it samples external sound 384,000 times per second. That same tech can also power Transparency mode, which lets a bit of the world in.
You can tap either cup to cycle through a listening mode. The promised 55-hour battery life is with active noise cancellation turned on. I imagine that’s pretty far with the unit turned off, and we’ve reached out to Dyson for clarification.
There is a joystick control, which will be used for playback controls. You can hold it down to activate a connected voice assistant. Two microphones are also dedicated to voice recording.
Finally, for the technical specs, the OnTrac headphones automatically detect and play or pause content when you put them on or take them off. Similar to the Dyson Zone’s air quality alerts, you can track noise levels in the companion app. Dyson’s OnTrac headphones do not support Bluetooth multipoint and are limited to Bluetooth standard 5.0.
The team here at Ny Breaking will be getting hands-on with the OnTracs again soon and will report back once we’ve fully tested them. But at $499 / UK / AU$799, they certainly compete in the upper echelons of headphones, and have some stiff competition from the AirPods Max and Sony WH-1000XM5. If you’re convinced, though, you can check them out over at Dyson here, and yes, they will live alongside the $699.99 / AU$999 Dyson Zone.