Dyson OnTrac Headphones | Review - video Dailymotion

Tom's Guide

In this Dyson OnTrac review, I'll take you through the biggest reasons to buy and biggest reasons to skip these $500 headphones. From the swappable designs to the battery life to what you need to know about the controls, we try to figure out whether Dyson is taking headphones seriously.

Transcript

00:00Check this out, I've been testing the new Dyson OnTrack. Yes, Dyson has new headphones and this

00:05wasn't necessarily on my bingo card for this year, but I gotta admit, there's a lot of intrigue

00:10around a vacuum company taking audio seriously. Though, are they serious enough to justify

00:15spending $499? Okay, so I didn't actually mean it when I say Dyson is just a vacuum company.

00:22They make really stunning hairstyling tools, air purifiers, etc. But it was kind of easy to write

00:28off their audio category considering the Dyson Zone air purifying headphones that launched last

00:33year were just absolutely baffling to me. I did have that really cool moment with them on social

00:37media when New York was experiencing that apocalyptic wildfire pollution, but otherwise,

00:42the Dyson Zone were chunky, expensive, and the battery life sucked. So now that Dyson has a more

00:48traditional pair of noise-canceling headphones, the OnTrack, I have a theory that Dyson has been

00:53working on these for a long time and just given the pandemic, they pivoted to the Zone to try and

00:59cater to health concerns. Regardless of if my hunch was right, I was really excited to start testing

01:04these and I have found a lot of things I like, but also some things that might make it hard to

01:09justify the OnTrack compared to the large expanse of premium headphones that are out right now.

01:15Right out of the gate, I truly think the Dyson OnTrack are worth buying because they have a

01:19customizable design. Let me show you what I mean. All right, the outer caps and ear cushions are

01:26removable and replaceable with a collection of different colors and finishes Dyson is selling

01:31alongside the OnTrack. Dyson was kind enough to send me a couple to try, though when I met with

01:37them a few weeks ago, I got to try all these super cool color combos. I'll be sure to put some pics of

01:42those up on the screen. Some people might think that this is a little gimmicky, but I haven't seen

01:47this feature before in headphones and who doesn't love the option to personalize something that

01:51they're going to be wearing out in public probably very often. Plus, as a little easter egg, inside

01:57here you get a map of the interior hardware. It's like a blueprint almost and I believe you'll find

02:02this on some other Dyson products. I don't know. As a tech nerd, I think this is really cool. I'll

02:07also quickly mention that I am obsessed with this case. It's protective, but it lies completely flat.

02:14All I'll say is that this is what the AirPods Max Smart Case should have been. Another reason to buy

02:19the Dyson OnTrack from a tech and engineering perspective is that they put batteries in the

02:23headband to power up to 55 hours of listening on a full charge. Let me repeat that. Batteries in

02:30the headband. From what I understand, this wasn't easy to pull off, especially not in a way that

02:34doesn't make these parts here pressing down on your head feel too heavy. So whereas a lot of

02:39headphones have the adjustable arms right above the cup here, you adjust the headband length up

02:45here and you can feel it. This top pad is much cushier than these side ones where the batteries

02:49are. More importantly, this results in a really long-lasting battery. It has like over 20 hours

02:55of playback over top headphones like the Sony WH-1000XM5, AirPods Max, the new Sonos Ace.

03:01I literally haven't had to charge these in the past week, even with listening like five to six

03:06hours during the workday. And because I know people are going to ask, I also haven't had any

03:11issues with them feeling warm on my head and heating up even with the batteries right here.

03:15Finally, in terms of reasons to buy, I have to applaud the active noise cancellation performance.

03:21The Dyson OnTrack uses eight microphones to sample external sounds 384,000 times a second.

03:28This, from my experience, really effectively counters ambient noises.

03:33What? There's been a lot of really annoying construction happening around my apartment

03:38recently and I literally couldn't hear any of it while using these. That meant I could really

03:42focus in on my music and really appreciate the deep bass. Don't get me wrong, the layering as

03:47a whole is very strong, but there's something especially sophisticated about the bass.

03:52I swear I can feel it like in my chest. If anything, I'd say vocals aren't as pronounced

03:57as I typically like, but overall I'm impressed with the sound and sound cancelling performance.

04:03Now for what I'm not so impressed with, starting with the controls. First complaint,

04:07this little joystick that you use to control basically everything with playback. It's really

04:12small and even with my smallish fingers, I struggled with it. I keep accidentally pausing

04:17my music when I mean to just change the volume. Maybe that's a me problem, not sure, but that's

04:22not it. To switch between A and C and pass through, you need to double tap the side of

04:27the cup. When I use just one finger like this, it doesn't really work. I literally have to hit

04:32the side of my head with my whole hand and then you hear this little swoosh sounds that tell you

04:36you've switched modes. A little aggressive for my liking. I feel like I look kind of stupid.

04:41I will say the saving grace is that the auto-pause and auto-play head detect feature works really

04:46well, though the rest, not so great. I also don't love how the OnTrack use the Bluetooth 5.0 codec.

04:54I know this may be like a little too technical and nitpicky, but we just did an episode of Tech

04:58Takedown sort of recently where I talked about the benefits of newer Bluetooth codecs like Bluetooth

05:035.3 or 5.4. With these, I feel like the range of where I can separate my phone or playback source

05:10is really short. Even within the walls of my own apartment, I would lose a stable connection.

05:14You'll find the newer codecs in pretty much all premium earbuds and headphones these days

05:19offering more reliable communication, so I'm honestly just a little confused that for the high

05:24price that there's a central spec that's aging out. That brings me to price being a big reason

05:30to skip the Dyson OnTrack. At $499, I think it's kind of hard to justify getting these over the top

05:37Sony or Bose or even like Sennheiser noise-canceling headphones. I know AirPods Max are technically

05:43more expensive, but they've been out for three years, so they're almost always on sale for at

05:47least $100 off. Even if Dyson would have just put these at $450, I probably wouldn't consider price

05:54as much of a factor. I just suspect it'll work to their disadvantage. Then again, Dyson products are

06:00expensive and fans of the brand have a good sense of the quality they're getting for the cost.

06:04Oh, but I should mention all those cool swappable ear cups I talked about earlier are an additional

06:09$49 a set. Buy or skip? This is a tough one for me. Personally, I couldn't imagine a scenario where

06:17I go out and spend $500 on the Dyson OnTrack headphones. There are options with more smart

06:23features, better specs, at a lower price. That said, the overall design, putting the batteries

06:29here in the headband, the customization, the case, all show that a lot of care went into making this

06:35product. I think people who are design-minded and can appreciate those types of things will

06:39really like the OnTrack, and it is hard to beat the convenience of 55 hours of battery life.

06:45I'm curious to see whether you agree with me though. Let me know in the comments.

06:49Do you personally focus more on aesthetics or the specs when shopping? Speaking of specs,

06:54my Dyson OnTrack spec check is now live on our socials, so be sure to check that out.

06:59Otherwise, thanks for watching, and I'll catch you next time.

Dyson OnTrac Headphones | Review

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