When you hear the words “Dyson headphones”, the first thing that comes to mind is probably something like Bane. Zone. The company debuted air purifying wearable 2022, but unfortunately the short battery life kept the product from being useful on a day-to-day basis. Now Dyson is back with another version, and its sole purpose is to provide audio and active noise cancellation (ANC) for “normal” use. The OnTrac headphones (500 dollars) has a classic Dyson color scheme and is built with long battery life, but the lack of advanced features keeps this premium box set from competing with the best.
Dyson
The almost infinitely customizable design is unique to Dyson’s first headphones (without air purifiers on board).
- Crisp, clear sound
- Long battery life
- Hearing health features
- Personalization options
- Price
- The audio lacks depth and immersion
- No spatial audio or advanced features
- Average ANC performance
Design
If you feed the AI image generator the command “Dyson headphones”, I’d bet you’d get something similar to OnTrac. There’s no doubt which company made these boxes, which clearly point to things like vacuum cleaners, air purifiers, and hair care devices. This is especially true of the copper, blue and silver color combination on my review unit, a trinity seen on Dyson’s previous products.
To maintain the premium look of these very high-end headphones, the company has used a combination of metal and ceramic for the outer shells of the headphones. Depending on your color choice, options include copper, aluminum, black nickel, blue, green, gray or red. Then there are the micro-suede, fabric-wrapped ear cushions in seven other colors. Dyson says it will sell additional sets of outer covers and cushions, with more than 2,000 possible combinations between all components. It’s highly customizable if you’re willing to pay more than the initial $500.
These interchangeable materials accompany a segmented headband and a rotating, gimbal-esque design that once again harkens back to earlier Dyson gear. The company says it placed two battery cells in the headband for better weight distribution, so the two sides of this component are stiff and only the center is plush and cushioned. Along the rear edges of the earcups are power/connection controls on the left, and a playback joystick on the right. This last option allows you to play/pause, skip tracks and adjust the volume, in addition to enabling the voice assistant.
While I commend Dyson for using mostly physical controls here, the joystick takes some getting used to. You have to be very precise so you don’t hit anywhere when you try to move up, down or sideways. Even after a few weeks of use, I still have the music stop regularly when trying to change the volume. The outer portion of both ear cups is touch-activated, allowing you to toggle ANC and transparency mode with a double tap. It works well, reliably accepting inputs even when only accessing the edge of the panel.
Dyson’s decision to attach the battery to the headband helps with overall comfort. The OnTrac headphones stayed very comfortable for hours at a time and never felt heavy despite their size. My only complaint here is that the earcups are round instead of oval. I don’t mind them from an aesthetic point of view, but when I go to put them on my oval-shaped ears, I have to adjust the earbuds with a few movements to get a good fit. Not like most sets where I just put them on and my ears are in their sweet spot. Plus, the OnTrac is big and bulky. So even if they are comfortable, you’ll want to keep this in mind if you plan on using these for travel.
Features and software
OnTrac headphones work with MyDyson software, but there aren’t many features. You get the usual battery percentage, volume controls, EQ options and an onboard control guide right away. The EQ menu is limited to three presets – Enhanced, Bass Boost and Neutral – the first being the default (and the best). Accessing the settings menu via the gear icon allows you to disable automatic head detection and keep the listening volume below 80dB.
One of the unique things that Dyson has put into the main software interface for OnTrac is a real-time sound exposure graph. It shows both in-ear volume and external noise over the last 30 seconds. For in-ear measurements, staying below 85dB will keep you out of the red here. This corresponds to about 75 percent volume, which is almost painfully loud in these headphones.
OnTrac lacks advanced features like automatic speech detection or adaptive ANC, both of which you’ll find on Sony’s 1000XM5. There’s also no spatial audio option, which has become a staple of most flagship headphones and earphones in recent years. Not only does the Dyson lag behind the competition in this area, it’s also significantly more expensive than most alternatives. The basics are well covered in terms of features, but that’s about it.
Sound quality
The true measure of headphones is the resulting sound quality. The Dyson packs in 40mm drivers with a frequency range of 6Hz to 21kHz. While this provides great clarity, OnTrac headphones lack the immersiveness offered by top-of-the-line models these days.
The OnTrac headphones are pleasant to listen to in terms of overall detail, but the stock tuning lacks the depth offered by many flagship models. Sony, Bose, Sennheiser and Bowers & Wilkins all provide deeper, richer sound that surrounds you, even if you’re not listening to surround sound.
Killer Mike Songs for sinners and saints the album lacks the low-end punch that other headphones like the 1000XM5 deliver. There’s great detail for some genres, like what you’ll hear from Koe Wetzel 9 Life. With OnTrac, I was able to get clear texture in the song’s drums and guitars, while the country singer’s vocals cut through the mix. Billy Strings’ latest bluegrass live album also sounds great on OnTrac, but when you try something like Jack White’s No Name, There’s an airiness that’s missing from the overall sound profile. Things that would fly in other sets, like White’s guitar riffs, are a bit muted, and the overall sound effect is subdued when you’re surrounded by sound on a competing device.
ANC performance
Dyson says the OnTrac’s ANC setup uses eight microphones to detect unwanted sounds 384,000 times per second. Combined with passive noise isolation from the headphones, the headphones can block out distracting sounds up to 40 dB. It looks pretty good on paper, but ultimately the OnTrac does only an average job with constant humming from fans and white noise machines. Fights strongly with human voices and TV voices. These headphones will be fine in certain situations, but the one-size-fits-all approach to noise cancellation doesn’t silence the world like Sony, Bose, and others can.
Call quality
The OnTrac headphones do a solid job of blocking out background noise during calls, but overall sound quality falls short of comparable flagship headphones. My voice was strained and lacked the energy you want in a call. Dyson may have dedicated eight microphones to ANC, but there’s only one for calls. And, of course, you can say.
Battery life
Dyson promises up to 55 hours of listening time with ANC, which is just the figure Sennheiser Momentum 4 (60 hours) among the headphones I reviewed. Plus, it’s over 25 hours Sony WH-1000XM5this is our current top pick best wireless headphones. I got 48 hours of use with noise cancellation at a comfortable 50 percent volume. If you need it, the quick charge option gives you two and a half hours in 10 minutes or nine and a half hours in 30 minutes of ANC activation.
Competition
At $500, Dyson competes with the likes of Apple and Master & Dynamic, which sell on-ear headphones for a higher price than the OnTrac. However, only M&D MW75 ours did best wireless headphones list, mainly due to the company’s premium design and natural sound profile. Unlike the Dyson, the Master & Dynamic combines metal and leather covers more like a headset and less like a piece of machine.
If you’re looking for better value, my advice is to save yourself a lot of money and go for Sony’s WH-1000XM5. For significantly less, you’ll get great sound quality, powerful ANC, and a host of advanced features to make your life easier. These include automatic speech detection that will pause your music when you need a quick chat, and the ability to change sound settings based on activity or location without using an app. They’re more comfortable and a better travel companion, plus you get 360 Reality Audio where supported and DSEE Extreme scaling to restore detail in songs lost through compression.
Collection
If you’re a fan of Dyson design, you might be inclined to spend big on this one OnTrac headphones. With an excellent sound profile and average ANC performance, the lack of advanced features means you’re settling for a decent set of headphones when better options are available for less. The customizable design is a plus, as is the impressive battery life and hearing health feature, but you can get longer runtimes elsewhere. At the end of the day, I’m not sure the design is enough to make these headphones stand out from the crowd.
