Dyson, known for vacuum cleaners, fans and hair straighteners, is entering the headphone market with a variant that also cleans the air around you. The announcement of the device happens at a somewhat unlucky moment – namely around April 1 – but this product is real. This is the Dyson Zone.
The Dyson Zone are noise-canceling, hi-fi headphones that bring “rich sound to the ears” and “cleansed airflow to the nose and mouth”. The Zone must tackle urban air quality and noise pollution problems, the company said. Because it turns out: nine out of ten people inhale too many pollutants when they are outside.
And that while things went so well during the pandemic. Many people stayed at home and did not take to the road with a motorized vehicle. Nature was given space for a number of months, which improved the air quality. But now that we have come to the end of that – admittedly sad – period, air quality is turning back to the old normal.
How does the Dyson Zone work?
The Dyson Zone is based on several of the company’s airflow, filtration and motor technologies, as well as “in-depth knowledge of indoor and outdoor air quality”. The compressors in each earcup draw air through the dual-layer filters and project two streams of purified air to the wearer’s nose and mouth through the non-contact visor.
The shape of the visor ensures that the purified airflow is kept close to the nose and mouth and is diluted as little as possible by external crosswinds. The Dyson Zone also keeps out unwanted city noise thanks to active noise cancellation, for less external stimuli. The headset has a neutral frequency response to faithfully reproduce music or audio.
Dyson further promises “pure, rich audio” and “advanced noise cancellation”. Despite the limited space, the engineers there have developed a high-quality neodymium electro-acoustic system in each ear cup. A wide frequency response, precise left-right balance and distortion that is significantly low provide faithful reproduction as it was intended.
Horse saddle design
Comfort is important, which is why Dyson pulls out all the stops to make the headphones feel comfortable. The design of this product is inspired by a horse saddle. The design is designed to distribute the weight on the sides of the head instead of on the top. So you can think about that when you actually wear the Dyson Zone on your head.
The Dyson Zone will be rolled out globally from the fall of 2022. The timing will vary by region. Full product specification and further details on availability in the Benelux will be announced in the coming months. That still makes us a little apprehensive about whether this won’t turn into a belated April 1 joke, but time will tell.
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