Dyson OnTrac headphones review: When the basics aren’t enough

When you hear the words "Dyson headphones," the first thing that comes to mind is likely the Bane-like Zone. The company debuted its air-purifying wearable in 2022, but woefully short battery life kept the product from being useful on a daily 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) have a classic Dyson color scheme and build with long battery life, but the lack of advanced features keep this premium set of cans from competing with the best.

Design

I’d wager if you fed an AI image generator the prompt “Dyson headphones” you’d get something similar to the OnTrac. There’s no doubt what company made these cans, with clear nods to things like vacuums, air purifiers and hair care devices. That’s especially true of the copper, navy and silver color combo on my review unit, a trio of hues that has appeared on previous products from Dyson.

To maintain the premium look for these very high-end headphones, the company used a combination of metals and ceramics for the outer shells of the ear cups. Depending on your color preference, the options include copper, aluminum, black nickel, blue, green, gray or red. Then there are the micro-suede, cloth-wrapped ear pads in another seven hues. Dyson says it will sell additional sets of the outer caps and cushions with over 2,000 possible combinations across all of the components. That is a high degree of customization, if you’re willing to pay even more than the initial $500.

Those interchangeable materials accompany a segmented headband and rotating, gimbal-esque construction that once again recalls previous Dyson gear. The company says it put the two battery cells in the headband for better weight distribution, which is why the two side sections of that component are rigid and only the center one is plush and cushiony. Along the back edges of the ear cups are controls for power/pairing on the left with a playback “joystick” on the right. That latter option allows you to play/pause, skip tracks and adjust volume, in addition to activating a voice assistant.

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While I praise Dyson for using mostly physical controls here, the joystick does take some getting used to. You have to be very precise, so you don’t press down whatsoever when you’re actually trying to move up, down or to the side. I still regularly pause the music when I’m trying to change the volume, even after a few weeks of use. The outside of both ear cups are touch-enabled, allowing you to cycle through ANC and transparency mode with a double tap. This works well, reliably accepting inputs even when I only get the edge of the panel.

Dyson’s decision to stick the battery in the headband does help with overall comfort. The OnTrac headphones remained plenty cozy for hours at a time and never felt heavy despite their size. My only gripe here is that the ear cups are round instead of oval. I don’t mind them from an aesthetic standpoint, but when I go to put them on my oval-shaped ears, I have to adjust the headphones with a few wiggles for a good fit. It’s not like most sets where I just put them on and my ears are in the sweet spot. Plus, the OnTrac is big and bulky. So even if they are comfortable, you’ll want to take that into account if you plan to use these for travel.

Features and software

The OnTrac headphones work with the MyDyson app, but there aren’t a lot of features there. You get the usual battery percentage, noise controls, EQ options and on-board control tutorial right up front. The EQ menu is limited to three presets – Enhanced, Bass Boost and Neutral – with the first being the default (and the best). Diving into the settings menu via the gear icon lets you disable automatic head detection and keep listening volume under 80dB.

One unique thing that Dyson puts in the main app interface for OnTrac is a real-time sound exposure graph. This displays both in-ear sound level and external noise over the last 30 seconds. Staying below 85dB for in-ear measurements will keep you out of the red here. That corresponds with about 75 percent volume, which is almost painfully loud on these headphones.

The OnTrac doesn’t have any 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 core element of most flagship headphones and earbuds in recent years. Not only does Dyson lag behind the competition in this area, but it’s also significantly pricier than most alternatives. The basics are well-covered in terms of features, but that’s about it.

Sound quality

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The real measure of headphones, after all, is sound quality. Dyson packs in 40mm drivers capable of a frequency range of 6Hz to 21kHz. And while this provides great clarity, the OnTrac headphones lack the immersiveness most high-end models offer these days.

The OnTrac headphones are pleasant to listen to in terms of overall detail, but the stock tuning is void of the depth that a lot of flagship models offer. The likes of Sony, Bose, Sennheiser and Bowers & Wilkins all provide a deeper, richer sound that tends to envelope you, even if you aren’t listening to spatial audio.

Killer Mike’s Songs For Sinners & Saints lack the low-end thump that the album provides on other headphones like the 1000XM5. There is nice detail for some genres though, like you’ll hear with Koe Wetzel’s 9 Lives. With the OnTrac, I could pick up clear texture in the song’s drums and guitars, while the country singer’s vocals cut through the mix. Billy Strings’ recent bluegrass live album also sounds nice on the OnTrac, but when you venture to something like Jack White’s No Name, there’s an airy-ness that’s missing from the overall sound profile. Things that would soar on other sets, like White’s guitar riffs, are a bit muted, and the overall sonic effect is subdued, when it would blanket you with sound on a competing device.

ANC performance

Dyson says the OnTrac’s ANC setup uses eight mics to detect unwanted sounds 384,000 times per second. Combined with the passive noise isolation from the ear pads, the headphones can block up to 40dB of distracting sounds. That looks pretty good on paper, but in the end, the OnTrac does only an average job with constant rumbles from fans and white noise machines. It struggles mightily with human voices and TV sounds. These headphones will be OK in certain situations, but the one-size-fits-all approach to noise-blocking doesn’t silence the world the way Sony, Bose and others can.

Call quality

The OnTrac headphones do a solid job of blocking background noise on calls, but the overall voice quality falls behind comparable flagship headphones. My voice sounded compressed and lacked any energy you’d want on a call. Dyson may have dedicated eight microphones to ANC, but only one is afforded to calls. And, well, you can certainly tell.

Battery life

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Dyson promises up to 55 hours of listening with ANC on, a figure that’s only surpassed by Sennheiser’s Momentum 4 (60 hours) among headphones I’ve reviewed. What’s more, that’s 25 hours longer than Sony’s WH-1000XM5, which is our current top pick for best wireless headphones. I managed 48 hours of use with noise cancellation on at a comfortable 50 percent volume. If you need it, a quick-charge option gives you two and a half hours of ANC-enabled playback in 10 minutes or nine and a half hours in 30 minutes .

The competition

At $500, Dyson is competing with the likes of Apple and Master & Dynamic, which both sell premium over-ear headphones for more than the OnTrac. However, only M&D’s MW75 made our best wireless headphones list, mostly due to the company’s premium design and natural sound profile. Unlike Dyson, Master & Dynamic combines metal and leather finishes in a way that looks like headphones and less like a piece of machinery.

If you’re looking for a 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 excellent sound quality, powerful ANC and a host of advanced features that will make your life easier. Those include automatic speech detection that will pause your music when you need to have a quick chat and the ability to switch sound settings based on activity or location without having to futz with an app. They’re more comfortable and are a better travel companion, plus you’ll get 360 Reality Audio where supported and DSEE Extreme upscaling to reclaim detail in songs that’s otherwise lost to compression.

Wrap-up

If you’re a fan of Dyson’s design, you might be inclined to spend big on the OnTrac headphones. With a less-than-stellar audio 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 much less. The customizable design is a plus, as is the impressive battery life and hearing health feature, but you can get the long runtime elsewhere. At the end of the day, I’m not sure the design is enough to make these headphones stand out from the crowd.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/dyson-ontrac-headphones-review-when-the-basics-arent-enough-151518312.html?src=rss