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.
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TechTranscript
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.