Dyson takes on Apple with new headphones, undercutting the US tech titan by $100

Dyson doesn’t enter a new category for the hell of it so its second attempt at cracking the personal audio market comes with some serious swag. Can it rival Apple?

Dyson's new OnTrac headphones come with customisable ear cushions and outer caps.

Dyson has muscled into the headphones space, launching its second attempt at cracking the personal audio market.

And it’s easy to understand why.

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Pros

Great noise cancelling

55 hours of battery life

Faithful sound reproduction

Cons

Case doesn’t offer much protection

Doesn’t support spatial audio

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Headphones represent new growth opportunities. In the US alone, market research firm Circana estimates about $US2.2bn worth of headphones were sold last year – almost 50 per cent more than wi-fi audio speaker. Audiophiles, it seems, are immune from the cost of living crunch.

Dyson’s new OnTrac headphones are priced at $799, putting them at the premium end of the market between Apple’s AirPods Max ($899), Sonos Ace ($699) and Bose QuietComfort Ultra ($645.95) – all fantastic headphones and representing stiff competition.

Dyson's new OnTrac headphones retail for $799.

But the British tech titan – known for its cyclonic vacuums and ritzy hair dryers – says it doesn’t enter a new category for the hell of it. When it decides to launch a new product, it says it’s aiming to solve a particular problem. Although this, at times, has delivered bizarre results.

Its first attempt at making headphones made wearers look like some villain out of Batman, with their mouth covered by an air purification filter.

These Dyson Zone headphones – which seemed targeted more at germaphobes than audiophiles, have now been discounted from $999 to $699. I was eager to get my hands on a pair to understand how Dyson had evolved its audio offering but had no luck.

Dyson Zone air purifying headphones represented its first attempt at cracking the personal audio market.

However, on my desk are a pair of AirPods Max, Sonos Ace, and a Sennheiser’s new HD620s, which are the cheapest of the lot priced at $599.95 but offer no wireless connection.

So how did the OnTrac compare to these premium headphones, and has Dyson lived up to its big claims that it is offering something new to the personal audio market or in its words “headphones, remastered”?

Unboxing

The OnTrac come with customisable outercaps and ear cushions to display a listener’s style – Dyson says it offers more than 2000 combinations. My Pair came with the cushions in Dyson’s standard purple livery, which I could swap out for an orange pair. For the caps, I had two choice: black and brushed aluminium.

They are big and heavy, weighing 451 grams compared with the AirPods Max (385g) and Sonos Ace (314g).

But they don’t feel bulky on the head, with their heft distributed evenly. This is partly due to its lithium-ion battery being “suspended” in the headphone, with the larger battery able to offer class shattering 55-hours of battery life.

A disappointment was the case. It doesn’t offer complete protection like the one that comes with the Sonos Ace.

This is not unusual in the premium market, however, with Apple’s case – while being ‘smart’, supporting a sleep mode – also not offering complete protection. And Sennheiser’s HD20s don’t come with a case at all.

The OnTrac's lithium-ion battery is spread across the headphone and offers up to 55-hours of life.

Listening experience

Headphone makers have been quick to embrace spatial audio. Essentially it’s an upgraded version of surround sound that uses audio filters to provided a more 3D-like listening experience, simulating how your ears can determine the direction and distance of sounds. Surprisingly, Dyson has eschewed this technology with OnTrac.

Instead, it says it offers a listening experience – via its 40mm, 16-ohm neodymium speaker drivers – closer to what the recording artist intended.

This provides a balanced sound, with a frequency range of 6 hertz to 21,000 hertz, allowing listeners to hear more detail or sub-bass range that you can “feel”.

I found after listening to the OnTrac for a couple of hours that I didn’t miss spatial audio and it still delivered an immersive experience.

Dyson says it offers more than 2000 colour combinations with the OnTrac headphones.

The noise cancelling was also very good. Dyson uses eight microphones, sampling external sounds about 384,000 times a second to cancel up to 40dB of unwanted noise.

If that sounds like a mouthful, I could wear them on a plane and not notice the engine noise too much.

The microfibre ear cushions are plush enough to also offer some passive noise cancelling.

Controls

If you want to activate the noise cancelling, all you need to do is give one of the outer caps a good tap. You hear a whoosh and then the ANC is activated. I liked this, there were no small buttons to find.

Pleasingly, it also had a power button, so you could turn it physically off. This may sound like a given, but such a simple button is missing on Apple’s AirPods Max.

It also has what Dyson calls an “intuitive” joystick on the right side to play, pause, skip, fast forward or rewind, or hold down for voice commands.

This might be helpful, but I found it fiddly and not necessary. Charging is via standard USB-C – The near four-year-old AirPods Max still uses Apple’s proprietary lightning charging port.

Should you buy them?

Dyson has released a capable pair of headphones that earns its place at the premium-end of the market. The noise cancelling is among the best I’ve tried, and the battery-life alone is reason to upgrade.

It’s just a pity Dyson didn’t invent a better case.