Anika Begay
The first Dyson headphones, the Zone (4/10, WIRED Review), with its attachable air filter for cynical techno-futurists, were so ridiculous and silly that I had a hard time taking the company seriously. Let’s face it: Dyson’s vacuum cleaners and hair care products are very nice, but many of its other products have been flimsy design gimmicks that quickly fade away under media hype. Sure, you’d see a few Dyson “fanless” fans or air purifiers in upscale establishments after they first came out, but they never achieved the market ubiquity of its sleek, plastic-sucking machines.
All of which is to say: I had low expectations for the new $499 Dyson OnTrac headphones. With everyone from established brands like Apple, Sony, and Bose to newer brands like Sonos at the top of their noise-canceling headphone game, it was just hard to imagine Dyson making a product that competed in anything other than extruded plastic styling. But after a few weeks with my review unit, I think these are some of the best headphones on the market.
These are visually customizable over-ear headphones with great sound, excellent noise canceling, and 55 hours of battery life. I’m surprised to admit that I like almost everything about them.
Licking ass
A large, sleek box accompanies the new OnTrac headphones, but the hard case you use to protect the headphones between uses leaves a lot to be desired. Much like the case that comes with the AirPods Max (8/10, WIRED Recommended), the one that comes with the Dyson headphones is a snap-on case with holes in the bottom and top of the case that allow dust and other debris to enter when you throw them in your bag. It does little to protect the headphones from bumps and bruises, which is annoying when you’ve dropped that much on a pair of headphones.
Photography: Parker Hall
The headphones themselves are a bit like Dyson vacuum cleaners: they’re maximalist, plasticky, and chock-full of color options. The units I reviewed came in a bold metallic copper with navy blue accents, with the option to swap out the earcups and eartips for different colors. Given the price, I really like that you can swap things like this out so easily, because it means you can replace them when they wear out.
Unlike recent competitors like the Sonos Ace (8/10, WIRED recommends), they’re big and bulky, not sleek or lightweight, weighing in at 1 pound (451 grams) compared to the Ace’s 10.2 ounces (311 grams) and the AirPods Max’s 14.2 ounces (385 grams). That said, a comfortable, well-padded headband and thick fabric earcups give them a great seal around my ears for good passive noise isolation, and they don’t feel heavy on my head.
Bells and whistles
When you want to turn the headphones on, you press a small physical button on the bottom of the right earcup until you hear a pop and see a small light flash to indicate they’re in pairing mode. From there, you’ll control the headphones with a joystick (another nod to Apple’s AirPods Max) on the right earcup or by tapping the left earcup with your hand to toggle between transparency and noise cancellation modes. This mix of touch and physical controls is perhaps the only annoying thing I found with the OnTracs; I kept accidentally grazing the earcup and disabling ANC when I was doing yard work. I wish it was just another button on one side or the other, rather than touch-controlled.
Photography: Parker Hall
