Once best known for its vacuum cleaners, Dyson has grown into one of today’s most in-demand tech brands, expanding its range to include beauty gadgets, lighting and even cooling devices. The Dyson supersonic hairdryer and airwrap put the company on the map with the TikTok generation, who now rave to their parents about a brand previously known for its hand dryers and floorcare.
Developing quirky-looking appliances and hair tools in bright colours, the company has entered a new era, now offering audio gear with Gen-Z appeal. In 2023, Dyson launched its weirdest product yet: the Dyson zone – a pair of noise-cancelling wireless headphones that also act as a personal air purifier. It went even further from its roots last year with the launch of its ontrac headphones, a regular pair of high-end headphones (no air purifier) clearly designed for the brand’s new target market, who adore customising their gadgets.
In fact, the brand has pledged to invest £250m over the next three years in advancing its audio technology. When it comes to design, Dyson clearly isn’t cutting corners either. The latest ontracs come in bold, industrial-inspired colours, with a modular design that allows for maximum personalisation.
As The Independent’s tech critic, naturally, I was quick to take Dyson's cans for a spin when they launched, and below, you can read my full review. In a nutshell, I was really impressed with their sound, the design and the active noise cancellation. However, I just couldn't get over the price tag. At full price, they’re £449.99, the same as the AirPods max and the Bose quietcomfort ultra, but they lack some of the features of these competitors.
However, thanks to Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days sale, the ontrac headphones are now a fraction of that price with an impressive 40 per cent off (was £449.99, now £269.99, Amazon.co.uk). That’s a massive £180 saving and considerably cheaper than the competitors mentioned above.
It’s worth noting that Dyson itself has recently reduced its ontrac headphones by £150, but Amazon’s deal goes one better, offering an extra £30 saving. If you’re still on the fence about whether to make the most of the offer, keep reading for my honest thoughts.
How I tested
I’ve been putting the Dyson ontrac headphones to the test for a week (after previewing them at Dyson’s offices a month ago), using them to listen to music across different genres, podcasts and films, as well as taking calls. I’ve paid particular attention to the strength of the active noise cancellation and transparency modes – were the cans as good as the AirPods max or Bose quietcomfort ultra?
I also looked at the design and build – a major selling point of these headphones, thanks to the eye-catching, modular style – plus comfort levels and features, such as EQ profiles, and controls. Battery life was also important, as well as latency, charging times, and Bluetooth connectivity on various devices.
Dyson ontrac wireless headphones
Type: Over-ear
Noise-cancellation: Yes
Weight: 451g
Battery life: 55 hours with ANC on
Connection type: Bluetooth 5.0 without multipoint, NFC, USB-C port
Bluetooth codecs: SBC, AAC and LDAC
Voice control: Yes, integrated Alexa and Google Assistant
Why we love it
- Class-leading active noise cancellation
- Fantastic modular design for ultimate personalisation
- Excellent audio quality
Take note
- Missing multipoint connectivity
- No spatial audio
These might be the best-looking headphones I’ve ever laid my eyes on – and I’ve tested a lot of headphones. Think the allure of a pair of Beats but for a 2024 audience. They look a lot like the Dyson zone, but they are more refined. Though fairly chunky, the ear caps are much slimmer than those of the zone, so, they don’t jut out from your head like you’re a walking Cyberman.
It’s the colours, however, that make them really pop, offering a unique proposition for wireless headphones. You can buy them in a choice of four different colour combinations, with a different headband colour, a different ear cushion colour and a different ear cap colour (in two materials).
Default colour combinations include a Prussian blue headband with a CNC copper ear cap and Prussian blue ear cushions; a CNC aluminium headband with yellow ear cushions and aluminium ear caps; a ceramic cinnabar headband with dark iron cushions and ceramic cinnabar caps; and a CNC black nickel colourway with dark iron cushions and nickel ear caps.
But here’s where it gets exciting. You don’t have to stick with the base ear cap colours and ear cushions. There are more than 2,000 different potential colour combinations to choose from, if you want to get creative and really personalise your gear. The super wacky amongst us could even use four different cap and cushion colours in one bold Frankenstein creation.
Read more: We review the best wireless earbuds
There are seven different ear cap colours, including blue, khaki and titanium, as well as seven different ear cushion colours, including ultra blue, oyster pink, Prussian blue and more. Dyson has a digital lab where you can visualise all the different colour combinations in 360 degrees, giving you a completely customised look.
These extra caps and cushions are all sold separately, however, so you’ll end up paying more per ear cap and cushion set. New pairs of ear cushions and ear caps cost £49.99 per set.
Easy to swap out, you just twist either ear cap or ear cushion in a counter-clockwise direction until it clicks and then it’ll pop off. You can then replace the ear cap or ear cushion with the colour of choice, by clicking it in and rotating it clockwise. It’s really simple to do, with a bit of practice.
I’ve been testing the CNC copper colour combination with the Prussian blue headband and black ear cushions but, whichever colour combination you go for, the Dyson ontrac is a striking pair of headphones that look absolutely fantastic.
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The micro-suede ear cushions are incredibly comfortable, with no harsh clamping force, and the multi-pivot gimbal arms help to relieve any excess ear pressure. Fully adjustable, the arms pull out in steps, so you can judge how far they extend. They aren’t the most secure, however, so they won’t be good for running – any severe movement of my head, and the cans were close to falling off.
What I really liked about the design was that Dyson decided to put two high-capacity batteries in the headband, so it feels as though the weight is more evenly distributed on the side of my head, rather than on my ears. Because of the positioning of the batteries in the lower part of the headband, Dyson has been able to give the headphones a decent amount of juice. You get a huge 55 hours per charge (or two weeks’ worth of listening), even with ANC turned on.
The ontrac never felt uncomfortable or too heavy, even after a few hours of wear, and the soft cushioning on the middle part of the headband helped it sit gently on my skull.
While they don’t fold up or away, that means the chances of the headphones snagging in your hair are reduced. The slide-in carry case is another nice design choice – headphones with hard shell cases take me an age to figure out how to use, as you have to fold the ear cups a certain way to get them to fit inside. In contrast, the Dyson headphones slip into the accompanying case, fitting snugly inside.
Controls
The controls on the Dyson ontrac are almost exactly like the Dyson zone’s. You can double tap (rather firmly) on either ear cup to switch between active noise cancellation and transparency modes (more on that below). Meanwhile, there’s a circular joystick on the right ear cup, which controls audio – toggling it up or down increases or decreases the volume; a single press pauses and resumes playback; shifting it left and right skips tracks, and holding it down activates the voice assistant. It’s so simple to use.
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The cans also turn off after 30 minutes of use. They feature on-ear detection, so your music will pause when you take the headphones off your ears and resume when you put them back on.
Active noise cancellation
These might be some of the best noise-cancelling headphones I’ve ever tested – as good (and maybe even better) as the Bose quietcomfort ultra. I could barely hear a thing with active noise-cancellation turned on. It felt like I was in a black hole, void of sound. The only thing that slipped through was the sound of racing cars outside and my family screaming for Team GB athletes while watching the Olympics downstairs.
How is it so good? Dyson says the ontrac features a custom ANC algorithm that uses eight microphones inside the headphones, to sample external sound 384,000 times a second, cancelling up to 40dB of unwanted noise. It’s pretty remarkable.
Transparency mode was also good, but not quite as good as the AirPods max. While a great amount of sound was let in, it did muffle some external noise. This didn’t get on my nerves too much, though – it’s still good, just not the very best. I did notice, however, that there was no noticeable hiss with transparency mode turned on, something I loathe when it comes to some wireless headphones.
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The ANC isn’t adaptive, however, so it won’t change according to your environment. You’ll just have complete silence when you listen to your headphones with ANC turned on.
Sound
While these don’t have lossless audio, they still sound really good. They feature 40mm, 16-Ohm neodymium speaker drivers, reproducing frequencies from 6Hz to as high as 21,000Hz. That means you get deep sub-bass and clear highs.
The deep sub-bass really came across when listening to tracks such as Skrillex’s “Push”. It felt like I was at a gig, the speakers pounding against my ears with complete clarity. The bass boost setting made the effect even heavier.
High-frequency sounds and vocals on tracks such as “I am Woman” by Emmy Meli came across as crystal clear. Honestly, they sound fantastic, with no distortion, delivering buttery smooth audio. One of the best-sounding headphones I’ve tested, and that was just on regular AAC.
They were almost completely lag-free when testing with my iPhone 15 pro max – something I’ve rarely seen on headphones that aren’t Apple-made. In terms of connections, you can pair them via AAC, SBC and LDAC, which gives you lossy-like audio, but no lossless via AptX or AptX Adaptive. You can also plug it in via USB-C, for wired listening.
Features
While these headphones are undoubtedly very good-looking and have impressive ANC and sound quality, they’re lacking a bit in the features department.
Read more: Dyson’s supersonic nural hair dryer, reviewed
There are some strange omissions: Dyson didn’t include any form of spatial audio on these cans – just bog-standard sound, and there’s no multipoint connectivity, which would let you connect it to more than one device simultaneously. You don’t get cool features such as conversation boost (which lowers the volume and turns on transparency mode when you start talking), either.
These are features regularly available on mid-range headphones, let alone higher-end headphones, which the Dyson ontrac are purported to be, with a price tag of £449.99 (the same price as the AirPods max and Bose quietcomfort ultra).
So, what do you get? Inside the app, you get detailed information about your headphones. What’s really neat is it includes an always-listening sound exposure monitor, telling you (in decibels) the level of in-ear sound and the level of external sound in the past 30 seconds. This is a really nifty little feature, and very, very Dyson. It told me if the external and in-ear sound of the headphones was too loud or OK, so I knew when to turn down my music and when to turn on ANC.
You also get a three-step equaliser, letting you choose between an enhanced mode, a bass boost mode and a neutral mode. Enhanced focuses on higher frequencies for a crisp sound with prominent treble and vocals, while bass boost focuses on lower-end frequencies for a heavier sound with strong bass. Neutral gives you a flat, equal sound.
Battery life is very impressive, blasting the competition out of the water. As mentioned earlier, you get 55 hours of battery life, even with ANC turned on. That’s a lot, compared with the AirPods max, which only have 20 hours, and the Bose quietcomfort ultra, which get you 24 hours with ANC turned off and just 18 hours with it turned on.
Buy now £449.99, Dyson.co.uk
The verdict: Dyson ontrac headphones
Getting rid of the dystopian-looking visor found on the Dyson zone and working purely on sound, design and active noise cancellation is a masterstroke for Dyson. The ontrac cans are absolutely beautiful headphones that are comfortable to wear and are super customisable. They sound incredible, have some of the best noise-cancellation I’ve encountered and boast really satisfying controls, but some things stop them from reaching five-star status.
These would be five-star headphones if they were more feature-packed. Costing the same as the AirPods max and Bose quietcomfort ultra, the eye-watering price tag is a bitter pill to swallow, knowing the headphones don’t have the same features – such as Bluetooth multipoint connectivity and spatial audio – as their rivals. I love how the ontrac cans look and sound, but a few more bells and whistles would have helped justify the price a little more.
Still, I predict people will flock to these headphones as they have to Dyson’s haircare tools. While you might not associate Dyson with audio gear, I think you’re more likely to after the launch of the Dyson ontrac.
Why you can trust IndyBest to find the best Apple deals in the Amazon Prime Day sale
As The Independent’s senior tech critic, I specialise in all things tech, with a focus on Apple products. Whether I’m reviewing the latest AirPods or predicting the specs of the next iPhone, I’ve been tracking Apple prices for years. This enables me to spot the best deals from a mile away. If you’re after AirPods at their lowest-ever price, you can count on me to be the first to report on the discount.
What is Amazon Prime Day?
Amazon Prime Day is a sale event for Prime members that’s usually held twice a year: once in the summer and again in October. The later sale, known as Prime Big Deal Days, is a great opportunity to get started on Christmas shopping, with deals across top brands from Apple to Dyson, as well as deals on Amazon’s own bestselling tech like Kindle ereaders and Echo dot smart speakers.
When is the next Amazon Prime Day sale?
You can shop offers in the Prime Big Deal Days sale from midnight on Tuesday 7 October to 11.59pm on Wednesday 9 October. You’ll have two days to shop the best deals on heated clothes airers we’ve featured on this guide.
Do you need to be a Prime member?
Keep in mind that you do need to be a Prime member to take advantage of Prime Day discounts. If you haven’t had one already, consider signing up for a free 30-day trial when the sale drops. This will give you full access to all Prime member benefits. Plus, you can cancel any time during your trial to avoid being charged when it expires.
If this isn’t an option, a Prime membership will cost you £8.99 a month or £95 if you pay annually. Young adults (18-22 years old) can get a six-month free trial, after which the membership will revert to £4.49 a month. Perks include unlimited one-day delivery, access to Prime Video and the chance to shop Prime-exclusive deals.
But for some of these deals, you don’t have to be a prime member to shop the discount price as they are open to all customers.
Want more recommendations? Check out our review of the best wireless headphones
