Dyson OnTrac headphones: A battery beast with a bold design, but there’s something missing

The over-ear headphone market has long been full of great options from trusted brands like Sony, Bose and Bowers, but in the last few years, new players have slowly been sliding their way in to shake things up. Apple arrived in 2020 with its AirPods Max, still renowned for their excellent noise cancellation and great sound performance even four years on, while this year saw the arrival of Sonos to the headphone party with its Ace headphones. 

Sonos isn’t the only brand to dip its toe into headphones this year however. Dyson is back and while the British company has dabbled in headphones in the past with the Dyson Zone, this time around it’s ditching the air purifying element and just going for the big boys with the Dyson OnTrac. So what can the company that is known for its vacuum cleaners and superb haircare products bring to your ears?

All about customisation 

Customisation, that’s what. I saw the Dyson OnTrac headphones ahead of their announcement in London and it’s fair to say they certainly bring character. They look very much like a Dyson product, with a premium build quality and industrial design that will more than stand out on the heads they adorn. Apple’s AirPods Max have a distinctive design, while the Sonos Ace and Sony ULT Wear opt for a more subtle take, so Dyson is definitely sitting more in the Apple camp with its approach.

What particularly stands out is the ability to customise them. The OnTrac headphones come in four standard colours – CNC Copper, CNC Aluminium, Ceramic Cinnabar and CNC Black Nickel – but there are then seven different coloured ear cushions and seven different coloured ear cups, all of which are interchangeable. Want a bright orange headband, pink ear cushions and blue ear cups? No problem. Switching the ear cups and ear cushions is nice and easy and I have to say, I am absolutely here for the customisation.

The ear cushions are made from microfibre, while the batteries are placed within the headband on the right and left sections, which don’t actually rest on your head, taking a horse’s saddle approach to weight distribution. When it comes to controls, there’s a power button, along with a joystick on the back of the right ear cup, which allows you to control music, adjust volume and access your phone’s voice assistant. For switching between noise cancellation and transparency modes, you just tap the outside of the ear cup. 

Dyson OnTrac features

OK, so you now know the Dyson OnTrac has active noise cancellation (ANC), which won’t come as a huge surprise. Dyson is however claiming “best in class” here, saying that noise is cancelled 384,000 times per second to reduce up to 40dB thanks to a couple of engineering feats and 8 microphones.

I tried out the ANC in London but an office environment isn’t going to be able to determine its effectiveness outside and on transport. I was told that some of the extra noise cancellation comes from the seal of the ear cushion to the users head, with Dyson opting for an open cell foam in the cushion that offers a higher rebound rate to traditional memory foam. This will need further testing but it will be interesting to see if Dyson can top Apple on drowning out the noisy passengers on a plane.

There’s also enhanced sound range on board, designed to reveal hidden detail with sub-bass and high end. The Dyson OnTrac offers a range between 6Hz and 21Hz, which is beyond the range a human can hear.

Elsewhere, the Dyson OnTrac will connect to the MyDyson app to present a range of extra features, including tracking and reporting external noise in real time. They wouldn’t be a Dyson product without some fun scientific stats wrapped up in there, after all. Automatic software updates happen through the MyDyson app too and you can also adjust EQ with three preset EQ levels offered – Bass boost, Enhanced and Neutral.

The last couple of things to mention when it comes to features are the OnTrac headphones offer head detect so they will automatically pause and play audio depending on whether you have them on your head or not, and the battery life. Battery life is claimed to be a whopping 55 hours with ANC enabled. To put that into perspective, the AirPods Max offer 20 hours, while the Sonos Ace offer 30 so Dyson is punching hard here with nearly triple what Apple offers and double the Ace headphones.

What’s missing from the Dyson OnTrac headphones?

That’s not to say the Dyson OnTrac are on track to deliver everything however – see what I did there? You might be able to get to Australia and back from London without charging them (and then some), and there might be more than 2,000 colour combinations, but if you want to listen to the Beatles in spatial audio, you are out of luck, my friend. 

There is no support for spatial audio or Dolby Atmos, which given the price (we’ll get to that in a second), seems like an odd omission. There aren’t any additional fancy pants features either like Conversation Awareness mode that you’ll find on the likes of the AirPods Pro or the TV Audio Swap feature you’ll find on the Sonos Ace. There’s real time sound tracking and based on my initial experience, the OnTrac headphones sound good from what I have heard so far, but there are certainly some missing features compared to rivals at this price.

Dyson OnTrac headphones price and availability

Time to talk about that price then, hey? The Dyson OnTrac headphones will cost £499.99 and they will be available on 1 August, 2024. It puts them above Sonos Ace which are £449, and even Apple’s AirPods Max that launched at £549 but rarely cost over £480 now. 

If you want to customise the OnTrac with different ear cups and ear cushions, each set costs £49.99.