Dyson OnTrac review: customisable headphones with spacious sound

Dyson’s latest gadget attempts to take on the best noise-cancelling headphones of 2024 — that’s no easy task when the competition includes top players like Sony, Bose and Sonos.

Similarly to those brands, the Dyson OnTrac have a smartphone app to manage the headphones’ settings and different levels of ANC. But to stand out from the crowd they feature customisable outer covers and ear cushions. There are lots of colours available so you can jazz them up to fit your personality or match them to your outfit that day. There are seven styles of outer caps available (including ceramic or anodised options) and seven styles of ear cushions.

At the time of writing, the Dyson OnTrac are available to buy for £449.99, and each set of extra cushions or caps will cost £49.99 each. Here’s everything else you need to know before you buy a pair.

The Dyson OnTrac headphones are far from discreet — these are chunky over-ear headphones with large aluminium earcups that are joined together by a thick headband that hovers above your head.

You can buy them in four colour combos: CNC Copper with blue cushions and copper caps, Ceramic Cinnabar with dark iron cushions and ceramic cinnabar caps, CNC Black Nickel with dark iron cushions and black nickel caps, and I tried the CNC Aluminium colourway which has mirrored silver plates and yellow cushions.

I like the idea of being able to tailor my headphones to my style, and the Dyson OnTrac are customisable allowing you to replace the caps and cushions with other colours (available to buy separately). There are seven different colours of ear cushions and caps to choose from and it’s very easy to replace them, all you need to do is twist and pull them off.

Most headphones pack their power source into the earcups, but to save space and give room to the large drivers, Dyson has taken a different approach and packed the batteries into the headband instead. This means it hovers slightly away from your head and makes the top of the headphones feel quite heavy in comparison to other options.

The OnTracs have padded micro-suede cushions that sit snugly around your ears without clamping down too hard on the sides of your head, but the weight of the headband meant I got tired of wearing them after a couple of hours.

It’s worth mentioning that the OnTracs won’t suit people with smaller heads because of how oversized they are and they will take up a lot of space in your bag — aesthetically and practically they are simply too big for me.

To protect the headphones when you aren’t using them, they come in a black hard-shelled case which collapses completely flat when it’s empty. Because they are so big and don’t fold up, they aren’t the best choice for travel. To add to that, the case doesn’t close all the way around so the top and bottom of the headphones are exposed.

Thanks to controls on the earcups you can manage the audio without reaching for your phone. The power button on the left switches them on or off and activates Bluetooth. To skip to the next song, there’s a small joystick on the right that you push to the side, to skip to the last song you move that same control to the left, to increase the volume you push it up and to decrease the volume you move it down. Pressing the knob down pauses or plays the music.

Tapping the outside of the earcups switches between noise-cancelling modes, you’ll know it’s worked when you hear a sound from the headphones. But sometimes it took a few goes for it to register my presses.

Dyson doesn’t have a long history in the audio space, but you’d never know that by the performance of these headphones. The OnTracs are loaded with 40mm neodymium drivers that have a frequency range of 6Hz to 21kHz — the result is a pair of headphones that will suit everyone from amateurs to audiophiles.

During my time using the Dyson OnTracs, I listened to all sorts of audio content — including rock, garage, pop and jungle tracks, as well as a few podcasts and videos. I found that these take everything in their stride, with crystal clear sound balanced across its spacious soundstage. The detail comes out in every element of each song, and thanks to a punchy low-end, it does so dynamically and energetically.

If you’re not a fan of the default tuning, there are three EQ modes to choose from in the adjoining smartphone app: Bass Boost, Neutral and Enhanced.

There are a lot of noise-cancelling headphones in the world right now, but not many of them isolate outside sounds as well as the Dyson OnTrac.

In the office, I could barely hear anything around me when I had music playing, even on a day when the people around me were particularly chatty. While not as good as Bose’s equivalents at cutting out distractions, these aren’t far off and will effortlessly dull everything from tube screeches to aeroplane engines.

There are three ANC modes: Isolation, Transparency and Off. The transparency mode allows sounds from your environment through so you can hear what’s going around you, it comes in handy when there are announcements on the train or you get to checkout at the shop.

You can also use the Dyson OnTrac to make calls, and the noise-cancelling meant I could stay completely focused on the conversation. The person on the other end could hear me clearly too without any outside interference thanks to the effective dual beam-forming microphones.

In the Dyson smartphone app, there are a few features to play around with. The most interesting is the sound exposure section which tells you how loud your music is and compares it to a recommended limit. You’ll also be able to measure how loud the outside world is at any given time.

As well as that, the app gives handy explanations on how to use the headphones’ controls, shows you the battery percentage, allows you to switch noise-cancelling modes and as mentioned, gives you the option to change the equaliser settings.

Dyson claims the OnTrac headphones have around 55 hours of listening time which is super impressive. You can charge the headphones via USB-C, and you can play music while they are plugged in too.

To help conserve the battery and stop you from missing a beat, the Dyson OnTrac automatically pause the music when you remove one or both of the earcups.

Bluetooth 5.0 reliably connects the headphones wirelessly to your devices, although it’s not the latest 5.3 version. And there’s no multipoint connectivity to switch seamlessly between them. That means if you need to change the audio between your phone and your laptop, for example, you’ll need to disconnect and reconnect them manually.

Whether you like the design of the Dyson OnTrac or not will be entirely dependent on your tastes. These are bold with a very neat and shiny Dyson-esque look and feel. For me, they are too big and not practical for travel, but the customisable design is cool and I wish it was a more common feature on other pairs of headphones.

When it comes to performance, you can’t really argue with these. The OnTracs are top performers in sound quality, and the ANC sufficiently dulls outside noise even if there are slightly more effective alternatives. The extra features like sound exposure and head detection are useful, and the longevity of the battery life means you’ll rarely need to remember to charge them.

If you’re willing to splash out almost £500, the Dyson OnTrac won’t disappoint. But if you aren’t keen on spending such an eye-watering amount of money, there are plenty of other options out there that will deliver similar performance and won’t put such a big dent in your wallet.

Dyson OnTrac

If you don’t mind paying for impressive cans, but you’d rather spend a little less, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra are a top choice. You can’t really hear any outside noise with them on, even when you don’t have any music playing, they have the best ANC available right now. To add to that, the sound is well-balanced, the design is comfortable and because they were released in 2023, you can regularly find deals for less than £380.

If you’re after good looks and comfort as well as great sound and solid noise-cancelling, take a look at the Sonos Ace. They’re less obtrusive than the OnTracs with a slim, sleek design and they perform well across the board.

Anyone on a tight budget should take a look at the best on-ear headphones under £100, we recommend the 1More SonoFlow.