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Earlier this year, Dyson unveiled its first audio product, a headphone that promised to block not only noise but also unwanted particles in the air thanks to a built-in filter system and mask. Today the company announced more details about it Dyson Zoneincluding when you can buy a pair and how much it will cost you to get some fresh air anywhere.
Dyson is a company best known for its innovations vacuum cleaner, eliminating the need for disposable bags and ensuring maximum suction power even as the cleaners fill up with dirt. Over the years, the company has slowly expanded its product offering, but mostly stayed with devices that move air, which is Dyson’s specialty – you think fans, air filterand even hair dryer.
The Dyson Zone headphones also fall into this category, with an unorthodox design that integrates the smallest 10,000rpm electric motors the company has ever designed into each earcup, allowing the air purifier on the front to pull air through dual-layer filters in order Remove particles such as pollen, bacteria and dust as well as gases such as nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and ozone. However there Dyson has already pointed this outthe Zone headphones do not form a perfect seal and are not a solution to minimize the risk of Covid-19 exposure.
The clean air is then channeled to the wearer’s mouth and nose through a magnetically attached mask, which also blocks wind. It’s a personal air filter system designed for situations where a standing air filter fan is useless, such as. B. a daily drive through a city congested with cars. Dyson says these filters need to be replaced about every 12 months, with an accompanying app providing reminders when replacement is needed.
Active noise cancellation seems to have almost replaced sound quality when it comes to what premium headphone makers focus on, but the Dyson Zone has a unique challenge, with electric motors and fans sitting right next to a user’s ears. Both Apple’s AirPods Max and Sony’s WH-1000XM5 Use eight microphones to capture and cancel out ambient noise and the Dyson Zone does the same, relying on eight microphones to reduce ambient noise by up to 38 decibels. However, it also includes two additional microphones for processing noise from the air filtration system, as well as one for recording the user’s voice for phone calls.
The Dyson Zone’s 40mm neodymium drivers are said to reproduce frequencies from 6Hz to 21kHz, while a 2,600mAh battery, which can be fully charged in around three hours, offers up to 50 hours of audio enjoyment even with ANC switched on. However, the Dyson Zone’s battery life will suffer quite a bit with the air filtration system activated. With the air purifier on its lowest setting, the Dyson Zone’s battery life tops out at just four hours, but drops to 2.5 hours on the medium setting and just 1.5 hours when the air filtration system is working as hard as it can. That’s more than enough for the average daily commute, but not really long enough to provide fresh air on most domestic or international flights, at least without an external power source.
These aren’t lightweight headphones either. That Sony WH-1000XM5 Weighing in at just 249 grams, they are among the most comfortable premium wireless ANC headphones we’ve ever tested. We are also big fans of Apple AirPods max, but with premium materials like aluminum (which is used for the earcups), they weigh 384.8 grams, which you can definitely feel after longer listening sessions. With the visor in place, the Dyson Zone is actually heavier than the WH-1000XM5 and AirPods Max combinedat 670 grams. But even with the visor removed, they still weigh a whopping 595 grams.
But an hour and a half of maximum air filtration on a single charge and a real neck workout isn’t what will stop most consumers choosing the Dyson Zone over other premium headphone options. The $550 Apple AirPods max and $400 Sony WH-1000XM5 seems almost like a bargain compared to the $949 Dyzon Zone, which is available for pre-order by appointment only in Dyson stores from March, with wider availability via the Dyson website “soon after”.
Dyson is known for its premium pricing, so a nearly $1,000 price tag for its first set of headphones isn’t entirely surprising. But you could buy the best ANC headphones from Apple and Sony for the cost of the Dyson Zone, and it remains to be seen whether the Zone’s performance, even as regular noise-cancelling headphones, outshines the competition enough to justify the cost.
