Dyson today announced its second pair of headphones. The company’s bizarre first attempt, the Dyson Zone, aimed to combine air purification and noise-cancelling headphones into one product. But this time around, Dyson is ditching the Bane mask and going all in on customization.
The new $499.99 OnTrac headphones have replaceable ear cushions And earcups, allowing you to completely change their style, far beyond what’s possible with products from other manufacturers. I’ve seen enough silicone covers and stickers on Apple’s AirPods Max to know that people like to put their own stamp on their headphones.
The OnTrac’s fundamentals—the headband, the rotating gimbal arms, and the joystick controls—are pretty similar to the Zone’s. The headband still has three bumps; the left and right ones contain battery cells, while the middle one is simply soft cushioning for your head. It’s the outer pods where Dyson shakes things up.
The headphones come in four different colors. Basically, you choose which color you want for the headband, because almost everything 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 with shiny copper ear cups; “Ceramic Cinnabar” has a light red (almost pink) headband, matte ear cups in the same color, and dark ear pads. And then there’s “CNC Black Nickel”, and as the name suggests, this one is all black and looks tame compared to the rest of the lineup.
Of the ones I saw at a briefing in New York, I was most drawn to the CNC Aluminum. The silver and yellow combo just gives me a nice audiophile vibe. The OnTrac ear cushions are foam, and Dyson offers a total of seven different colors, plus seven different styles of outer cups. The caps come off with a twisting motion that only took a few tries to loosen. There are both metallic and matte options to choose from, priced at $49.99 a pair. You’re free to mix and match colors as you please for some pretty crazy combinations. Dyson says there are “over 2,000 customizable color combinations for outer caps and ear cushions.”
So, the name of the game here is a never-before-seen level of customization. But it takes more than that to justify a $500 headphone. To that end, Dyson claims the OnTrac delivers “best-in-class” noise cancellation using an eight-microphone system, and as was the case with the Zone, you can check how much noise is around you using the accompanying smartphone app.
The long battery life is another plus: these headphones can last up to 55 hours of continuous listening on a charge. That blows away the likes of Apple, Bose, and Sony, but falls slightly short of the 60-hour Sennheiser Momentum 4 , which also offers active noise cancellation. There’s on-head detection, so the headphones automatically pause the music when you take them off.
The OnTracs feature 40-millimeter drivers that “reproduce frequencies from as low as 6Hz to as high as 21,000Hz, delivering deep sub-bass you can feel, and crisp highs at the upper end of the frequency range.” And those speakers are angled toward your ears for a more direct audio delivery. You can connect them for wired listening with a 3.5mm to USB-C adapter, but there’s no dedicated headphone jack. As for Bluetooth codecs, the OnTrac supports SBC, AAC, and the lesser-known LDHC for higher-quality wireless audio. Unfortunately, the latter only works with select phones from Motorola, OnePlus, Nothing, and a few other brands. The Samsung and Google crowd are out of luck.
Dyson includes a collapsible carry bag with its OnTrac vacuums, which offers limited protection. However, there is plenty of room for water or dirt, so that is something to consider.
Dyson clearly isn’t ready to give up on the headphone market after its very unconventional first attempt. I think the OnTrac headphones make a lot more sense for broader appeal. They have the same “I’ve never seen headphones like these before” effect as the Zone — just without the “I would never be seen in public wearing those” part. I’m very interested to see how they stack up when you take the unique styling aside and focus on sound quality and ANC. Can they really compete with the heavyweights? I’ll have more on that soon.
Here are some more photos for those who would never buy the OnTrac but still want to take a closer look.
Photography (except main image) by Chris Welch / The Verge