The Sound of Innovation: Dyson OnTrac Headphones Deep Dive

They go beyond sound. I’d never heard of Dyson before, but this is a company that doesn’t play by ‘laws’ of branding and form factors. It’s a brand that leaps ahead with new and sometimes challenging products for the home, from groundbreaking vacuum cleaners to that strange-looking desk fan. So it’s no surprise that the ONTRAC headphones sound less like ordinary cans, and more like something groundbreaking. To explore the marketing hype, the design ethos and the sound quality of Dyson’s most recent product, read on.

From Vacuums to Vibes: The Unmistakable Design of OnTrac Headphones

It is unmistakably Dyson. In its copper, navy and silver colourways, the ONTRAC headphones clearly echo a distinctive design language fans of the company have come to know and love. The use of metals and ceramics as components on the ear cups of the headphones seem to both signal a premium feel but also a throwback to Dyson’s past successes with vacuums, air purifiers and hair care devices. These headphones are personalised like no others; more than 2,000 possible combinations of wearable outer caps and cushions ensure that it’s your pair – if you fork over something beyond the initial $500.

Balancing Form and Function: The Technical Mastery Behind OnTrac

It’s not so much that Dyson has decided to coat its headphones in a layer of gloss, but that superficiality of thought has infected the entire design. Why, for instance, has Dyson put two battery cells in the headband? This is a weight distribution decision, quite correct but one of those good design compromises that makes sense in retrospect, not something that the educated ear naturally chooses. Similarly, why were there physical controls? Buttons! Underneath the leatherette finish of ONTRAC there’s an aluminium base, just like premium wired headphones. These are ‘haptic’ – you have an audible response, for volume, or you can slide your fingernail across them to change tracks. Rather than having an exceptionally powerful noise-cancelling engine in a small package, you have the halfway house: the noise-cancelling engine is picked up from the highest-end phones. Alas, while it excels at dialogue noise-cancelling during calls, the voice quality isn’t as high as you might expect of the Dyson brand.

Crystal Clear or Clouded Sound? Evaluating OnTrac's Audio Quality

For an audio player, Dyson’s promise of up to 55 hours of playback with noise cancellation (NC) is best-in-class in what has been a weak category; only Sennheiser matches it. But, despite this extraordinarily lengthy battery life, the actual sound quality and NC is a disappointment compared to what you can get from either Sony or Master Dynamic – particularly at the ONTRAC’s higher price bracket.

Aesthetic Appeal vs. Auditory Excellence: The OnTrac Dilemma

The aesthetic appeal of Dyson’s trademark industrial design might be enough to sway fans of the firm, but the absence of that gear-like bezel separates aesthetics from audio in an especially apparent way. Like a lot of the firm’s first consumer product, OnTrac’s modular build is a standout feature, as is its battery life. Despite that, it’s hard to recommend the $399 headphones when their audio performance and ANC capability is about average – at least among other, well-priced headphones available today.

Price and Value: Is OnTrac Worth the Investment?

Priced at more than double the average price for on-ear headphones, Dyson has placed the ONTRAC series in the premium market, competing around the same price point as Apple and Master ‧ Dynamic. But when we look at the value proposition, Sony’s WH-1000XM5 offers better sound quality and a more robust feature set for less. In fact, other premium headphones beat out the OnTrac 800/810 at a lower price in just about every way except for fit and comfort in the ear.

The Verdict: Dyson OnTrac Headphones in the Competitive Arena

As a fashion product, the Dyson OnTrac would no doubt have an appeal to fans of the brand’s design language. But for serious users and purchasers, faced with a comparative test, the appeal would quickly sour. With mediocre audio performance and a light complement of technological features, the ONTRAC illustrates the difficulty of offering a fusion of form and supreme function in the audio market.

A Closer Look at Headphones: Understanding Your Audio Allies

As accessories, headphones first became a necessity, then an active part of the soundscape around us. In our everyday lives, they both remove us and connect us to the soundscape, whether we’re commuting, working or streaming music – and even if we’re sleeping. The ideal pair of headphones might be different for each environment and activity but, ultimately, what defines them as good or bad digital extensions of the audio self is the extent to which our ears can tune into the sound and embrace it. Whether it is a mobile listening device, a working element of the funnel of digitalisation, or a cheap, wobbly set of headphones streaming the latest Netflix thriller, in a landscape of sound, the quest for the perfect pair will continue. In the din of our headphones and the hyper-awareness they create, we are finally starting to listen. In a world of noise, the act of listening becomes clearer.

In Sum

Dyson’s OnTrac headphones are a marriage between three key areas: design, technology and expectation about the role of headphones in our lives. As the headphone market changes, our familiarity with the status quo will change too, forcing brands that dare to think differently to stay on their toes in order to transform our expectations about what the perfect audio device can be.