It’s not a stretch to say that the Dyson Zone air-purifying headphones weren’t for everyone. They launched with a nearly $1,000 price tag and the included “visor” — the detachable bar that directed the flow of air into your mouth/nose area — proved to be one of the internet’s favorite things to mock at the time. And yet, while the air-purifying system was met with skepticism, reviewers were generally impressed by the quality of the headphones themselves.
It seems Dyson has taken this feedback to heart. The company best known for its line of high-tech vacuums is back with a new set of wireless, noise-canceling headphones called the OnTrac. At $500, they cost half of the Zone’s original price. Gone is the visor and its air induction system, but the OnTrac will still stand out in a crowd thanks to Dyson’s versatile color customization options.
You can buy the OnTrac in three different aluminum based color themes: CNC aluminum, copper, and nickel, plus a ceramic based version called Ceramic Cinnabar. Additional outer ear cap and ear cushion pairs can be ordered from Dyson in an array of matching colors for $50 per pair. In other words, you’ll spend $100 to completely change the set that comes with the OnTrac. Dyson claims that with the four base colors, plus optional cushions and caps, there are more than 2,000 possible combinations.
The company is also talking up the OnTrac’s sound quality chops, saying that the 40mm drivers reproduce frequencies from 6Hz to 21kHz, “providing deep sub-bass that you can feel, and clear highs at the upper end of the frequency range.” Inside the earcups, the drivers are tilted 13 degrees toward the ear.
As with the Zone, the OnTrac have active noise cancellation (ANC). Dyson claims the feature is best-in-class, with a reduction of 40 decibels thanks to 384,000 samples per second of the surrounding environment. New to the OnTrac is real-time sound tracking within the MyDyson companion app, which monitors in-ear and external volume, alerting you to potentially harmful levels. The app also has three EQ presets that can be applied to the sound: Bass Boost, Neutral, and Enhanced.
Unfortunately, for fans of high-quality Bluetooth audio, the OnTrac is only compatible with SBC, AAC, and LHDC Bluetooth codecs. LHDC is capable of reproducing lossy hi-res audio, but to date, very few smartphones are compatible with LHDC.
On the other hand, the OnTrac’s USB-C charging port can be used for both lossless digital audio and analog audio, so there are still ways to maximize the headphones’ sound quality if you’re willing to go wired.
Disappointingly, Dyson has chosen to follow Apple’s lead on the analog audio option: the OnTrac ship with a USB-C cable, but you’ll have to pony up for the proprietary 3.5mm-to-USB-C cable (just like Apple does with the AirPods Max). You do, however, get a fold-flat travel case to protect the OnTrac when not in use.
The OnTrac uses two types of controls — a small joystick-style knob on the rear of the right earcup for volume, playback, and call management, plus touch sensors on the outer earcups that can be tapped for ANC control. You also get wear sensors if you want to enable auto-pause/play.
Dyson says the rechargeable battery will last up to 55 hours on a full charge with ANC enabled; meanwhile, a quick-charge of 10 minutes will buy an extra 2.5 hours of operation and 30 minutes will give you 9.5 hours.