Headphones with a face mask may not have set the world on fire, but Dyson is coming back for round two with a pair focused on noise cancelling and customised style.
There’s clearly no shortage of headphone offerings of any variety, and the same goes for pairs that aim to block out the world using active noise cancellation technologies. You can pick between plenty out there, with recent entries from some of the more unexpected brands.
The vacuum and hair styling innovators at Dyson definitely qualify as an “unexpected” headphone variety, and when it launched its Zone headphones in 2022, that’s just what we got: the unexpected.
Dyson’s Zone were definitely different, delivering a pair of high-end noise cancelling headphones with a filtration mask built into the front. You could take the mask off if needed, but leave them on and you’d probably get more looks than if you wore the Vision Pro around town, which is also going to attract looks.
Without the mask, however, Dyson’s Zone looked like headphones, and so does a new pair that will come without a mask.
The Dyson OnTrac take some of what Dyson learned about headphones and mixes it with customisation and style, almost taking a page from the classic Nokia phones where you could change the style as simply as popping off the case.
Just like the Nokia 5110’s Xpress-On covers, you’ll be able to pop off the outer caps on the OnTrac casing, while also replacing the ear cushions, both of which will come in numerous styles, resulting in over 2000 colour combinations.
That’ll definitely make the Dyson OnTrac different from other headphones, which typically come in only a handful of colours, often resulting in black, white, and maybe a few other colours in between.
There’s more going on than a pop of colour, though. The Dyson OnTrac includes a noise cancellation technology able to sample external sounds around 384,000 times per second to deal with quelling outside noise, while the battery supports up to 55 hours of battery life with noise cancelling switched on.
Two beam-forming microphones are included on the outside for talking on calls, while the headphones can pick up on your head, pausing playback when you take the headphones off.
The OnTrack headphones should technically support high-res audio, thanks in part its 40mm neodymium drivers supporting a range of 6Hz to 21kHz, but spatial audio is not a part of the package, something Dyson confirmed to Pickr.
“Dyson’s focus for this product is audio quality, in a way that doesn’t compromise the audio as created by the artist – or distract from the listening experience. Currently, Dyson doesn’t feel that spatial audio as we know it, does this,” said a spokesperson for the company, adding “however, while we can’t say too much now, Dyson is seeing whether they can solve this problem too”.
One thing that can be said for the Dyson OnTrac is that they’re clearly built to be premium, much like Dyson’s other gadgets in Australia.
As such, the headphones are priced at $799 in Australia, available from Dyson specifically from the end of August in four colour styles: aluminium, copper, ceramic cinnabar, and black nickel. That’s already a bit of a saving compared to the $999 Dyson Zone launched before this pair.
As for how much it will cost you to customise the OnTrac headphones, Dyson hasn’t quite detailed that just yet, but given the headphones cost a buck shy of $800, we suspect these fashion-focused extras will probably start from the $20 or $30 mark depending on what you need.
