Most people wouldn’t associate a brand like Dyson with headphones, but then this engineering company is ready with the second iteration of its audio offering, what could be called a slightly toned-down version of its first one. The Dyson OnTrac carries forward the design language of the Dyson Zone (review), but is lighter on the head as well as on the pocket and sticks to just being an audio product.
I called the OnTrac a tone-down version, but then it is more than loud by regular headphone standards. Everything about these headphones is large, be it the headband or the ear cups, but in a good kind of way. The headband has a soft cushion on top that makes it comfortable to wear for long hours and the design itself adjusts well to the size of your head. The ear cups meanwhile cover your ears and you don’t feel hot inside while wearing them for long hours. The metal casing and the cushions of the ear cups can be changed to customise them as per your style.
The earcups can be customised as per ones liking. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
On the left ear cut is the power button which also helps you with paring. On the right is a toggle button that you can use to play, pause, adjust volume and skip songs easily. On both sides, you can also see microphones that aid the noise cancelling, which is activated by a strong double tap on either of the cups. While the metallic surface of the cups is large, they don’t support any other gestures.
Let me start with the noise cancelling first. To start with, there is a bit of theatre when you tap on the cups to switch them on — you hear a twangy suction noise that sucks in the noise and leaves you in a near vacuum. But the noise cancelling is not the type that takes you into a near negative space, almost unnatural. OnTrac’s noise cancelling is very effective, but you do hear things in the background like the hum of the fan or the clickety-clack of my wife tapping away on her MacBook if you are not listening to music. Using the Dyson app you can switch off noise cancellation completely or move to transparency mode. The app also gives you access to three present equaliser modes.
The most impressive part of the Dyson OnTrac is its sound range. Interestingly, this review happened around the time I discovered the Madras String Quarter and their rendition of Mokshamu. The OnTrac is the kind of headphone that offers distinct layers for the violin and the cello and lets you experience the soul of both these instruments. And when you move to Shankar Mahadevan’s Paani you know this can also push up the bass, without the equaliser being in the bass boost mode. You hear the chorus and Mahadevan’s vocals clearly even as the percussions push the bass envelop every now and then.
Dedicated buttons on the OnTrac headphones make it easy to change volume and control ANC. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
The call quality is great too, though the headphones seem to switch to transparency mode when you take a call. But it is clear on both sides. The OnTrac is also great for consuming content. Watching Napoleon on Apple TV, I could hear the rain of the carriage, the horse’s hooves on the road below and even the breathing of Joséphine. Again there is a very distinct sense of space that makes all this sound so good.
But then this is not an audiophile headphone and I missed the kind of tuning an audio expert could have brought to a product like this, especially given the premium price point. The premium you pay here is for the comfort and the style as well as the bragging rights of getting to wear a Dyson. The audio signature could have been distinct and Dyson could have really used some help from one of the experts in this field. Plus, for this kind of premium device, it is not enough to offer equaliser presets, there has to be full customisation.
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With 50 hours of battery life, the headphones can last for days. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
At Rs 44,900, the Dyson OnTrac is a premium headphone that caters to those who love their music and don’t want that to come in the way of their style choices. It is the best-looking headphone in the market, even though it could have also catered to a discerning audio junkie with a little bit of tweaking.
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