Dyson OnTrac review: Veering slightly off-course

Dyson’s patented technologies have helped revolutionise vacuum cleaners, fans, heaters, air purifiers and hair-care products over the past three decades. However, it took until 2022 for the brand to make its first foray into the world of headphones with the peculiar Dyson Zone.

Simply calling the Zone headphones is doing them a disservice, however. They come with a detachable visor and have fans and filters built into their earcups to purify the air you breathe. Their design is undeniably innovative, catering to a post-pandemic audience for whom wearing a facemask had become the norm.

The manufacturer’s new over-ear headphones, the Dyson OnTrac, are far more traditional. There’s no air-purifying tech or visor, so you’re left with a pair of visually arresting but otherwise largely unremarkable noise-cancelling headphones.

I say largely as the OnTrac offer a level of design customisation unmatched by their premium competitors. Personalising the OnTrac adds to their already high price, however, and despite being capable sonic performers and noise-cancellers, there are superior all-rounders available for similar money.

Dyson OnTrac review: What do you get for the money?

There are four variants of the Dyson OnTrac, all of which cost £450. I was sent the CNC Aluminium model with yellow ear cushions and silver outer caps; the other options are CNC Black Nickel, CNC Copper and Ceramic Cinnabar.

Unlike similarly priced competitors such as the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones, Sonos Ace and AirPods Max, you can tailor the OnTrac’s appearance to your liking by splashing out on replacement cushions and caps. These come in various colours and finishes and cost £50 apiece, so you’re looking at a total outlay of £550 for a fully personalised pair.

That’s a lot of money for over-ear headphones, especially as some of their specifications are a little behind the times. They use Bluetooth 5.0, meaning they lag behind the likes of the Sonos Ace, which support Bluetooth 5.4. They’re also more limited than most of their rivals when it comes to codec support. Here, you get compatibility with the basic SBC and AAC codecs along with LHDC, which supports high-resolution streaming but isn’t widely used by smartphone manufacturers.

Elsewhere, they’re up to snuff. They house eight noise-cancelling microphones, matching the number found on other flagship models, have a dedicated mic for telephony and deliver audio via 40mm drivers, which is the norm for headphones such as these. Like a lot of their contemporaries, they use a mix of physical buttons and capacitive touch controls, support wear detection and have a companion app in which you can check their battery level and access three EQ presets.

There’s a protective case included in the box but it’s not the standard zip-up style. Instead, you slip the OnTrac between two hard-shelled sides joined by elastic. This design provides a reasonable level of protection and lets you quickly fish the headphones out and collapse the case flat when empty. A small pouch inside the case provides enough space to store the braided 1.2m USB-C to USB-C cable used to charge the OnTrac.

READ NEXT: Best on-ear headphones

Dyson OnTrac review: What did we like about them?

The OnTrac’s standout feature is active noise cancellation. I wore them on several flights when making my way to and from Berlin to cover IFA and was very impressed. The “Isolation” mode is highly effective at blocking out external noise, while the “Transparency” mode pipes in just the right amount of ambient noise in a natural manner.

Low-end frequencies were attenuated to the point where environmental distractions were a non-issue when listening to music with volume set around 30% and I found the noise cancellation good enough to fully focus on a book without audio playing. They’re less capable when trying to cancel out voices; I still picked up on the high-pitched cackles of a hen party on the train and could hear colleagues chatting in the office, but only when I had the volume turned down low. At reasonable volumes, the OnTrac do everything you could reasonably ask of them on the noise-cancelling front.

I also like that you can monitor the level of both in-ear sound and external sound in the MyDyson app. This tracks both in real time and can be used to check that you’re not exposing yourself to ear-damaging levels of sound. You can also look at session data from the past seven days if you’re into that kind of thing.

The other area in which they excel is battery life. With a stated battery life of 55 hours with ANC on, the OnTrac are the longest-lasting premium headphones I’ve tested. I’ve been using them most days for three weeks and am only just approaching needing to charge them, so Dyson’s claim seems bang on. That 55-hour figure puts the 20 hours you’ll get from the AirPods Max to shame and crushes the 30 hours you can expect from the Bose QC Ultra Headphones, Sony WH-1000XM5, Bowers & Wilkins PX8 and Sonos Ace.

When you’re paying £450 for a pair of headphones audio quality needs to be superb at a bare minimum. While the OnTrac fell short of phenomenal, they put in a compelling performance across most of the genres I threw at them.

They’re at their best when handling orchestral arrangements and other compositions that allow them to flex their detail-revealing muscle. Telemann and Vivaldi’s Concertos for Recorder, Baroque Bassoon and Strings were well-defined, each instrument was delineated extremely cleanly and each piece felt packed with audio information.

Fine details were knitted together within a convincing and spacious soundstage and the OnTrac didn’t lose composure when I pushed them to their limits, remaining distortion-free at maximum volume.

Their keenly balanced approach was particularly evident while listening to a Hi-Res Audio mastering of Nia Archives’ album Silence Is Loud. The artist’s fusion of jungle basslines and elements of soul, R&B and more posed no problems for the OnTrac and I wasn’t left wanting where low-end impact was concerned. I can’t think of a pair of over-ear Bluetooth headphones I’ve tested with a wider frequency range than that of the OnTrac (6Hz to 21,000Hz) and they benefit from this extra extension at both ends of the spectrum. Sub-bass has a hearty punch and there’s plenty of sparkle in the upper registers.

Dyson OnTrac review: What could be improved?

Unfortunately, there were several areas in which I didn’t get on so well with the OnTrac. At 451g, they’re quite bulky and heavy, and although that weight is distributed evenly, I found them more burdensome to wear than most entries in their class.

I also found their ear cushions got hot around my ears, even in relatively mild weather. When temperatures rose, I wasn’t able to wear the headphones for anything more than short listening sessions. This lack of breathability is a real issue and the sweat-absorbant nature of the cushions on the inside of the headband is far from ideal for those with bald heads prone to perspiration. With temperatures hitting 32℃ on the streets of Berlin, I simply didn’t want to have the OnTrac adding to my discomfort.

The design itself will prove polarising. It’s unmistakably Dyson, which will be a selling point for some, but for me, the OnTrac look a little too much like they’ve pieced together from parts of the brand’s vacuum cleaners. I appreciate that you can personalise the headphones by replacing the ear cushion and caps but you should be able to select your combination at the point of purchase rather than have to fork out up to £100 extra for your chosen design.

I’m sure Dyson would argue that four default colour and finish combinations are more than enough but given how easy the cushions and caps are to remove and replace I’d like to see the company give customers free rein over which their £450 gets them.

And, as I touched on earlier, the OnTrac are behind the eight ball when it comes to some of their technical capabilities. They use Bluetooth 5.0, which was released in 2016, don’t support multipoint pairing and rely on LHDC for high-resolution streaming. We’ve reviewed a few phones that support this, including the Nothing Phone (2), OnePlus 11 and Xiaomi 11T, but except for the Nothing, these are relatively niche choices. There’s also no support for any form of spatial audio, which is something most big-name audio brands currently include on their flagship headphones.

Finally, while most of the OnTrac’s on-headphone controls work well, switching between the Isolation and Transparency modes via a double tap on the left earcup requires significantly more force than it should and proved wildly inconsistent. It’s a minor frustration in the grand scheme of things but irked me on enough occasions to merit mentioning.

Dyson OnTrac review: Should you buy them?

I wouldn’t, but that’s primarily because I’m not fond of their design and didn’t find them particularly comfortable to wear.

That said, don’t rule them out if you’re a fan of the Dyson aesthetic and like the idea of being able to customise them post-purchase. Their noise cancellation is top-tier and they’re competitive in terms of audio quality. Battery life is epic too, so Dyson has the makings of a serious contender here. It still has some way to go until its headphones achieve the kind of industry prominence its vacuum cleaners do, however.