Dyson OnTrac review: Custom looks, not custom sound

Dyson isn't known for dabbling in the personal audio space but the OnTrac are actually a second attempt. During the pandemic, the company released a pair of over-ear headphones called Zone — complete with an air-purifying face mask. Despite the unusual attachment, it signaled Dyson was willing to take a serious look at making audio products.

The OnTrac don't split the focus, leaving these to serve only as high-end headphones. They're built with a unique modular design that lets you swap out the ear cushions and outer caps for the ultimate aesthetic personalization, but is there enough incentive here to pay more for the experience?

It's a worthy question when you're talking about $500 over-ear headphones. Branding isn't enough to justify the price, so there has to be something truly special here to warrant choosing the OnTrac over established options.

Standing out in a crowd

Dyson likes to try things from a design perspective, and in a category (like headphones) that sometimes stagnates, the OnTrac look like something fresh. Whether you find them attractive or not is certainly subjective. Either way, it's innovative to place the battery in the headband, as well as make both the ear cushions and outer caps removable.

The headband comes in four different colors, along with a variety of colorways for the cushions and caps. All told, there are 2,000 different combinations, which I assume also includes the idea of mixing and matching different colors. In my case, I had the CNC Aluminum variant with silver caps and yellow cushions, along with copper caps and purple cushions as separate backups. I could outright replace them or mix them up. The only constant is the color of the headband.

Going this route makes the OnTrac heavier than your average over-ear pair. At 451g, they're a bit hefty, though never feel that way wearing them over time. Credit to how Dyson distributes the weight symmetrically and eases the clamping pressure to offset all that.

Using microfiber material for the cushions is not typical, as most headphones use a variation of memory foam covered by faux leather and vinyl. From the outset, it makes the OnTrac feel softer, but fabric tends to heat up faster than fake leather does, which is why your ears will eventually feel the perspiration, regardless of whether you're moving with them or sitting still.

The good news is they do a great job of providing strong passive noise isolation because they're big enough to cocoon your ears. The cushions don't let much, if anything leaks out, giving you a solid foundation that only benefits the active noise cancelation (ANC) even further.

Easy setup, canceling out the noise

Dyson claims it's figured out how to deliver a sonic experience that will be easy to appreciate, and the OnTrac mostly deliver on that front. They're simple to set up with the MyDyson app, where you can then access a limited set of controls and learn more about what you can do with them. You should be up and running with these in five minutes, including if there's a firmware update to install.

Some of the details matter from the beginning. The OnTrac support the SBC, AAC, and LHDC codecs. Technically, that means you have at least one hi-res codec in there, but it's the least supported, so you may not get higher fidelity as often as you'd like from these cans. The other thing is Bluetooth 5.0, which is an ancient standard for any audio product in this price range. It means you don't get multipoint support, so if you wanted to, say, connect to both your phone and laptop simultaneously, you can't do it here. Having to manually disconnect from your laptop to take a call from your phone is counterintuitive, to say the least.

There's no spatial audio, either, though missing that isn't a major deal-breaker unless you really want that virtual surround effect. Moreover, the app doesn't offer any customization for ANC, onboard controls, or the EQ. You get three EQ presets, and that's it.

One feature that is quite interesting is the app's "Sound exposure" section which uses the headphones' eight onboard mics to sample all the ambient noise around you, alerting you when the graph spikes too high indicating a dangerous sound level. This works both ways, since it also monitors the volume levels you're listening at, helping you hold off on damaging your hearing long-term.

Dyson's trying hard to make noise, or lack thereof, a key pillar of what the OnTrac are all about. The company claims the headphones can monitor all noise 384,000 times a second and reduce up to 40dB in background sound. The results are impressive, and while they won't unseat the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones and Sony WH-1000XM5, Dyson certainly earns a spot at the table of the elite in that regard.

It's a close call in certain settings, too. On a plane or train, I give Bose and Sony the edge, but find the OnTrac headphones are really good at handling street noise and home office situations. Generally speaking, they prove more than capable of drowning out the background, making it very easy to enjoy music or podcasts while roaming anywhere. 

I would say the same about Transparency mode when you want to hear your surroundings. Again, you don't have any way to manage or adjust the effect, but you won't have a hard time hearing anything around you when enabling it. They won't match the Sonos Ace in pure clarity, but they do a great job, nonetheless.

Strong sound and clarity, with a twist

The default Neutral sound profile is a very balanced one that doesn't veer too far in either direction. If you want more bass, you can definitely feel that with Bass Boost, where the lows rumble to life in ways that skew any genre you're listening to. My favorite of the three presets is Enhanced because it gives the entire spectrum a nice bump.

Vocals resonate while instruments and melodies don't feel like you have to fish them out by raising the volume. By looking at them, the sturdy and bulky body might suggest the OnTrac are all about power but they actually play audio in a very measured way. Dyson says this is by design because it wanted to present all audio in a more accessible way that didn't rob creators of how they intended their music to sound.

That's noble but also not exactly under Dyson's control. If it supported more hi-res codecs, that argument might hold more water, but as is, the soundstage is too restrained off the hop. A customizable EQ would also enhance and backstop the company's ethos. Giving consumers only three presets feels too restricting in finding ways to really hear what these headphones can do.

That also applies to watching content while wearing them. The OnTrac also support wired playback via USB-C but only when you use a 3.5mm-to-USB-C adapter, which doesn't come with the OnTrac. While great, you have less control over how they sound in that scenario.

What you have is a pair of over-ears that sound great, yet feel like they can do even better with just a modicum of additional tinkering. I could argue that's also true of the onboard controls, though I find all of them work really well. Double-tap either of the outer caps to toggle between ANC/Transparency. One catch is that if you want to turn both of those off entirely, you need to go into the app. The joystick lets you skip/repeat tracks by moving right or left, as well as up and down to control volume. The power button doubles as a Bluetooth pairing button as well.

Wear sensors on the cups also automatically pause playback when you take off the headphones, resuming again when you put them back on.

Long battery life, an unusual case

Any pair of headphones that can deliver 55 hours of playback — with ANC on — is hitting an impressive feat. The OnTrac live up to that, seemingly lasting forever when you listen to them at volume levels that don't exceed 60%. Indeed, these headphones can do marathon flights with ease, probably taking on an entire cross-continent journey with tons of battery to spare.

In a pinch, you can fast charge them for 10 minutes to gain 2.5 hours of juice. They also have a built-in feature where they power off after 30 minutes of inactivity.

The battery figures absolutely trounce top competitors like Sony, Bose, Sonos, Sennheiser, Apple, Bowers and Wilkins, and Bang and Olufsen.

The protective case is actually more like a sleeve that you slide the headphones into. The OnTrac only lay flat rather than folding in, so the footprint is going to be larger than competing headphones that can fold up smaller. As is, the case leaves the headband slightly exposed, and snugger fit leaves no room for any extra outer caps or cushions, should you want take them along. You'll have to use something else to transport them.

Stiff competition needs more customization

Dyson chose to make headphones aiming to compete with the best wireless headphones. The company's own branding already infers quality and cachet, but even in a somewhat new category for Dyson, expectations are going to be high. The OnTrac headphones have plenty of upside and serious potential, yet come off as constrained by the very features that are supposed to make them a cut above.

It's just odd they would offer so much customization in how they look, but not how they sound. Great sound and outstanding battery life, coupled with excellent noise cancelation, make these headphones very viable. But at this price, everything missing is magnified, especially when other brands continuously tick the right boxes. There's no doubt Dyson finds a way to be creative when it comes to being modular.  It's just unfortunate you can only make them look like your own pair, rather than sound like your own pair.

If Dyson can rectify some of the omissions via firmware or software updates, then it could potentially mitigate the missing pieces. If not, then it may be better to wait until a successor pair comes out that covers all the things, and then some.