Dyson today announced a second pair of headphones. The company’s first project is the Dyson Zone, which focuses on combining air purification and noise-canceling headphones into a single product. But this time, Dyson ditched the Bane mask and bet everything on customization.
New $499.99 OnTrac headphones come with replaceable earpads and earmuffs, allowing you to completely change their style far beyond what is possible with other manufacturers’ products. I’ve seen enough silicone cases and stickers on Apple’s AirPods Max to know that people are eager to put their own stamp on the headphones.
The basics of OnTrac – a headband, rotating gimbal arm and controller (with joystick) – are very similar to Zone. The headband still has three bumps; the left and right sides house the batteries, while the middle one just provides regular padding for your head. Dyson started mixing up the covers.
The headphones come in four different colorways. Essentially, you’re choosing the color of your headband you want – because virtually everything else can be personalized later. “CNC Aluminum” has a gray finish with bright yellow ear pads; “CNC Copper” has a purple headband and matching ear pads and shiny copper ear cups; “Ceramic Cinnabar” has light red (almost pink) tips Strap, tonal matte earcups and dark earpads. Then there’s the “CNC Black Nickel,” which as the name suggests, has everything black, making it look tame compared to the rest of the range.
From what I saw at a briefing in New York, I was most interested in CNC Aluminum. The silver and yellow combination gives me a fun audiophile vibe. OnTrac ear pads are made of foam, and Dyson will offer seven different colors of ear pads and seven different styles of covers. The cover comes off with a twisting action and only takes a few attempts to remove. Available in metallic and matte colors, each pair costs $49.99. You are free to mix the colors in some pretty hilarious combinations as you see fit. Dyson says there are “more than 2,000 customizable color combinations for the covers and ear pads.”
So the name of the game here is level customization like never before. But there’s more to justifying a $500 pair of headphones than that. To this end, Dyson claims that the OnTrac uses an eight-microphone system to provide “best-in-class” noise cancellation, and like the Zone, you can monitor the level of noise around you using a companion smartphone app.
Long battery life is another plus: these headphones can last up to 55 hours of continuous listening on a charge. That easily beats Apple, Bose, and Sony, but falls short of the 60-hour Sennheiser Momentum 4, which also offers active noise cancellation. There’s headset detection so the headphones automatically pause your music when you take them off, but unfortunately the Dyson doesn’t come with multipoint functionality.
The OnTracs feature 40mm drivers that “reproduce frequencies from as low as 6Hz to as high as 21,000Hz, delivering deep bass you can feel and crisp highs at the high end of the frequency range.” These speakers are angled toward your ears to achieve More direct audio transmission. You can use a 3.5mm to USB-C adapter for wired listening, but there’s no separate headphone jack. As for Bluetooth codecs, OnTrac supports SBC, AAC, and the little-known LDHC for higher quality wireless audio. Unfortunately, the latter only works on select phones from Motorola, OnePlus, Nothing, and a few other brands. Samsung and Google backers were out of luck.
Dyson includes a collapsible carrying case with the OnTrac canister inside, which only offers limited protection; there’s plenty of room for water or dirt to get inside, so keep that in mind.
After an unconventional first shift, Dyson is clearly not ready to give up on the headphone market. I think the OnTrac headphones make more sense for broader appeal. They have the same “I’ve never seen headphones like this” effect as the Zone, but without the “I would never wear these in public” part. I’m very interested to see how they perform when you consider the unique style and focus on sound quality and ANC. Can they really hold up in the heavyweight division? I will share more about this soon.
Now, here are some more photos for those of you who will never buy an OnTrac but still want to take a closer look.
Photography (except main image) by Chris Welch / The Verge
