Dyson Zone™ Noise-Cancelling Headphones

We all laughed (myself included) when these came out. They're absurd. The chinbar is so hilariously cringe. They're so bulky. And they were a GRAND. And Dyson isn't exactly known for... headphones.But now that they're seemingly sunsetting the product (or just lowing the price to a humane level) they are competitively priced against the Focal Bathys, so I figured I'd try it since many reviewers said they sounded fantastic.And they were so right. These are better than the Focal Bathys. Let me pitch these as a real product that you might be interested in.For starters, just ignore the chinbar. It's kinda cheap feeling and looks absurd. I'm going to give it a shot MAYBE when the pacific northwest fire season rolls around and we're all breathing campfire smoke, It might be fun to try. But the headphones still work without the chinbar, and I'm going to review them like that. As a pair of headphones.Based on looks, these are stupidly good looking. They're very big, quite heavy, and very ostentatious, so if you require subtlety and light weight, these won't satisfy. But they are EXTRMELY comfortable, with a perfect clamp force on my large motorcycle helmet sized head and average ears, and the headband has given me no hotspots in hours of use. It almost feels like a suspension setup. The pads are just lovely to touch. The whole thing is frankly. Everything is gorgeously machined metal. they even painted the inside of the silver filter grates just to give it a subtle blue shadow effect. And the blue. This ultramarine blue is simply stunning. Like, this might be my new favorite shade of blue. I want a car that's this color. A couch. It's a ROYAL blue through and through, almost violet in low light, to a vivid, ultra saturated blue under sunlight. I'm seriously not capable of selling how amazing the paint/anodizing is.The whole thing (minus the cheap plastic feeling chinbar that kinda had to be for weight unless they went carbon fiber) truly feels like a thousand dollar product. From the swivels to the pivots, the fit and finish, even the case has the single most satisfying knob ever to lock it. EVEN THE USB-C CABLE has machined and custom silicone strain relief and a custom braid that matches the pouch for the chinbar, and it all fits nicely into the far too nice, far too bulky case that I kinda love to interact with.The app works. It's the same app dyson uses for their other products. It has some fun health info, the headphones (while the fans run) measure ambient NO2 levels and give you an AQI snapshot. It tells you the decibels outside the headphones and inside (so you can kinda know if you're playing your music too loudly) and it has three basic EQ settings - I went with bass boost because I want a fun EQ setting when I'm using wireless headphones. Some reviewers have mentioned an 8khz peak on graphs - it really doesn't have any sharpness around there. It's not overly warm and smooth, but it's not shouty or sibilant either. But I also would have really appreciated if they included a custom EQ option. I'll talk more about the sound later.The earcups are pretty deep and the pads are lovely - dyson doesn't sell replacements, but they are attached to a frame that quarter-turns off, and I'm thinking any good XL sized round pad from dekoni or the like will fit over the frame (you do have to peel them off the frame though so I'm not going to try, but I'd call it a 95% confidence.)The controls are a minor weak point. You have to tap on the headphones anywhere twice to switch between ANC on and transparency. I would have preferred they include an ANC off mode in that, but you can turn it off manually in the app. And you have to get used to RAPPING your finger on them, not a gentle capacitive touch, two thumps - I like doing the sides of the headband and found it the most reliable. The knob on the back is nice to use, but isn't programmable either. It'd be nice if it was.The biggest let-down to me is that they can't do wired audio via the USB-C. It only charges. I don't know if Dyson could add that function via firmware update or if they only wired that usb-c port for voltage, but I really, truly wish that I could use them wired, because eventually the batteries will wear out and I absolutely adore the way they sound, and they're built like heirloom headphones. They are somewhat disassemble-able, but I think the batteries are in the headband, which doesn't look like it is. Either way, if I can get 5-10 years out of them, I'll be happy.Now, for the ANC. It's absolutely, positively top tier. Airpods max top tier. Essentially ZERO pressure and zero white noise hiss. They iron out a good amount of high frequencies too. If you're playing anything, even at low volume, someone speaking directly to you is completely silent. And the passthrough is equally phenomenal. No robotic noises at all, it's genuinely fine to just put 'em in passthrough and have a full conversation. I can even listen to media on my TV with them in passthrough and it sounds like 95% like I'm wearing nothing at all. The ANC can't quite mask the fan noise when the chinbar is running, it's still there and slightly intrusive, but as headphones alone, the ANC is on par with the kings. Doesn't have issues with loud sudden clapping/banging noises like slamming a cabinet, doesn't get confused and angry by low thrumming noises like the engines on the ferry I commute on (many ANC products fail here and try to murder me by not being able to keep up and going out of phase) and high winds don't phase it whatsoever.And now for the sound. Like I said in the title, these are the best sounding wireless headphones I think money can buy. Some people are liking the audeze maxwells, and while those are cheaper, they don't have ANC, so I consider them a different product - though wireless 90mm planars are something I very much need to get a pair of. I haven't tried some of the other megapremium options, but these are right in the focal bathys and airpods max range right now, and they absolutely demolish the airpods and I think between the bathys and these, the Dysons win handily. With the bass boost, they are fun, lively, not fatiguing, and just phenomenal all-rounders. The bass goes ALL the way down, with the sub bass rumble in something like "children of the omnissiah" being intense as it sweeps down to like 20hz. The midbass is punchy and impactful, with very, very minimal bleed into the lower mids. the mids are full and clean, with well defined layering and separation, excellent placement and imaging, and a solid soundstage. The treble is clear and clean, not too shimmery, and I honestly can't pick out that supposed 8khz peak. Whoever tuned these is a master. If your only frame of reference is bose, apple, sony XM's, or sennheiser momentum, these are in a whole other class of fidelity. These have a cohesively superb sound that's pushing up into the range that I'd put my $3000 grado GS3000's in.They use LDHC for a codec, which is the absolute highest bitrate possible, and pushing for what FLAC itself can do, so I really can't detect any loss or compression compared to my wired headphones. I've noticed no meaningful delay or lag with them either, gaming is just fine (and the imaging and placement really, really make them good gaming headphones)Which brings me to the final thoughts - at ~$550, these are maybe the best wireless, ANC headphones you can buy. The whole package is supremely luxurious, and dyson clearly spared ZERO expense in quality of build/materials, and on the professional expertise of sound engineers to tune the ANC and passthrough to rival apple, and the sound quality to go toe to toe with the real audiophile heavy hitters.But the fact that they're now at a reasonable price makes me concerned about something - support. I think we all know these were a marketing idea that dyson took way, way too seriously in making a legitimate product. But I am worried about dyson continuing to support them for 5 or 10 years with earpads, replacement chinbars as they break, extra filters (they only come with one single set) or software/firmware updates to keep them working well as technology marches on. That part gives me pause.And to be honest, Dyson could have a potential market leading idea here. Take out the air filters and fans (which I know, kinda makes them no longer "dyson") and use this audio tech and ANC in a smaller, lighter headphone, and only ask $400-500 for them - they'd be a legitimate headphone manufacturer and a seriously competitive option. But for what they are now, if you're down with a bit of a gimmick in design and potentially not much more support, they're still a super compelling product. Also the chinbar makes for some hilarious "hey wanna see the stupidest product ever made?" conversations with your coworkers.

Sound quality was perfect quality I think was a bit tight for fit battery life could use improving and would be nice if it was longer when it's purifying the Air The air purification visor Needs to be tougher Not so flimsy and prone to break connectivity was perfect no interference or problems can work universally quality is perfect as expected but was a bit of a tight fit Weight I think is a little too heavy especially on my ears and the tightness battery life is about four stars if you ask me

Headphones really cancel out darn near all sound it’s amazing, better than the AirPods Pro max, the air venting is pretty nice, the face mask is a little more flimsy than I’d expect would be nice if it was a little more rigid but it does its job, fantastic to have on airplanes I strongly recommend it.

I've received ONE pair (of two ordered) of Dyson Zone headphones after almost a month and it's not looking good. The headphones are made of premium materials but not as much thought has been put into the usability of the product.Firstly, the headphones are not for people with small heads. My wife has never had a problem with headphones, until now. I have a large head and it only takes extending the cups by two notches on both sides to achieve a comfortable fit. Because on the tightest setting the headphones are slipping off my wife's head they have to to be tilted forward to stay on her head which means the visor doesn't come up to her nose. So the headphones are now pushed so far back on her head they are in danger of slipping off. That's just bad design.Second problem was ability to listen to music, which is not a problem you want to encounter when purchasing a pair of headphones! There is no way to pair the headphones with a device without the app and there is no way to use the app without giving up your personal details! Email is a REQUIREMENT. I want to use the headphones with my DAP (digital audio player) but I cannot load the Dyson app onto it. But it does have bluetooth, why can't it just pair without an app??? I used a smartphone that had never had a SIM put in and gave a fake email address and then had the DAP take over the pairing process once the headphones had became visible! Also, the documentation provided does not indicate what is required to pair the device, there are only 9 simplistic diagrams on the quick start and nothing in the literature. Only the app informed us that a long press on the start button (there's no way to switch the headphones off, by the way) was required to initiate pairing.Once we had the DAP streaming to the headphones (which sound very good btw) we found the controls on the right earcup to be completely unreliable. If you change volume up or down there are large jumps in volume that you will have to refine on the player. There is also what appears to be a limit to how loud you can go which doesn't make sense when the volume is not loud enough. Jumping back and forward through tracks was a completely bizarre experience; from track 1 the player jumped forward to track 5 then track 13 (the last track). It always goes back the same way it came, so back from 13 to 5 to 1. Again I tried skipping to the next track and it went from 1 to 8 to 13. I tried an album with many tracks and it was more wayward, from 1 to 12 to 28 back to 12 to 1. Then from 1 to 7 to 23 and then eventually back to 1 the way it came. Worse, there was a HUGE volume jump when I went from one album to another even though one album was NOT louder than the other. So much for Dyson trying to protect our hearing, hey?I would say stick to making floor standing air purifiers but that doesn't look like it is going so well either as we skipped purchasing a heating, humidifying, purifier from Dyson due to (customer) the global bad reviews (We don't trust the media). We have a vacuum, hairdryer and heating fan from this company but seems they have lost the plot lately.Do I regret buying the headphones? No, they are the only option to wearing a mask and I consider audio (some kind of) a bonus. If only they would allow us to connect to our player via a HEADPHONE SOCKET and skip the "smart" nonsense.In closing I would say make sure you know why you are buying this product, we had a very specific purpose in mind and the product (barely) meets those requirements. At $550 it will probably be worth it to stop wearing masks and we might get some additional enjoyment if we ignore the "lifestyle" type claims.And yes, the headphones are heavy for a pair of headphones but not intolerable, it should be acceptable for two hours use. Noise cancelling most people claim is 85% effective but I would it put it closer to 75%.****************************UPDATE************************************Having used these for a few months I can offer more insightsThe positive, having worn them for two hours straight I can say that your head and neck begin to tire after that amount of time, it's quite bearable for less than two hours.There IS a way to switch the headphones off; press and HOLD the power button for about ten seconds and the light will go from green (on) to blue(tooth) to white. WHY IS THIS NOT IN THE MANUAL?The negatives, the battery is lame, for every hour you use the headphones (on low powered fan and no ANC) you have to charge them back up for an hour.Every 15 minutes I have to remind my mate that her nose is exposed because Dyson can't make a pair of headphones that fit. I have a big head and they fit on the smallest but one notch. POOR.The online shop is perpetually out of stock of filters. I was told they refresh their stock every two weeks but see no evidence of that. I'm beginning to believe they have abandoned the product and prices continue to drop on Amazon.