How Jake Dyson turned the lessons of the Dyson Zone into OnTrac headphones

Ask anyone in a developed country what comes to mind when the name Dyson is mentioned, and chances are most would say vacuum cleaner or hair dryer. 

So it was a bold move when the leading premium brand in these product segments brought to market an invention called the Dyson Zone in 2023, drawing polarising reactions online, with some questioning its unconventional aesthetic.

Dyson marketed the Dyson Zone as a wearable air purifier designed to tackle urban pollution and noise – a two-in-one device that filters out gases, allergens and particulate matter while delivering purified airflow directly to the nose and mouth, alongside high-fidelity audio and noise cancellation. In essence, it was a pair of headphones with a detachable, muzzle-like attachment covering the nose and mouth.

To be fair, the device was a groundbreaking piece of technological wizardry. The headgear was unlike anything the market had seen – except in sci-fi films set in dystopian futures. But that very distinctiveness may have made it a harder sell.

In theory, the pandemic that brought the world to a standstill in 2020 did signal a need for such a device. But by 2023, many people had grown tired of wearing masks after years of restrictions. So the Dyson Zone found a more limited commercial audience than the company had anticipated. Dyson has since announced that it will discontinue production of the device.

According to the company, however, the Dyson Zone was the result of more than a decade of research and development, meaning the idea had been conceived well before COVID-19 triggered a global shutdown.

So was it simply a matter of bad timing?

“People didn't manage to adapt to the format fast enough,” said Jake Dyson, Dyson’s chief engineer, over a virtual call from the United Kingdom.

“We take these risks because we want to solve problems, and we recognise that city pollution is a problem. So we thought it would be great to have a device which gave you purified air in polluted cities,” he added.

SOUND DECISIONS

As the eldest son of billionaire founder and inventor Sir James Dyson, Jake is the only one of his three children to work in the family business, which moved its global headquarters to Singapore in 2022. 

One of the key projects he led was the Dyson Zone. Although the device was short-lived, some of the technology behind it has since been adapted into more market-friendly products in Dyson’s growing audio business. 

“We didn't want to waste the lessons we learned and our achievements in noise-cancelling [tech], so we developed that platform into audio-only headphones,” Jake explained.

In 2024, the company launched its first audio-only headphones, the Dyson OnTrac, going head-to-head with established premium audio players such as Sennheiser, Bang & Olufsen, Bowers & Wilkins and Bose’s higher-end headphones.

To distinguish itself from competitors, Dyson decided that a design-forward approach was just as important as the high-fidelity audio the headphones had to deliver.

“It very much follows the philosophy of form follows function, at the intersection of geometry,” Jake said.

“The headphones are slightly retro [in design], but it's something we appreciate in old hi-fi equipment,” he continued. “I’ve always loved Sony and back in the late 1980s, the design of their products was sort of geometrically simplistic with wonderful colours, and that’s something that’s been missing for a while that we wanted to reintroduce to headphones.”

That, and material tactility. “We wanted them to be engineered with real metal and machined parts to make it structurally strong yet very, very thin. So there are manufacturing processes here that haven’t been explored in headphones before,” Dyson added.

FORENSICALLY ENGINEERED, PRECISION-CRAFTED

Like his famous father, Jake is also a trained industrial designer. In 2004, the Central Saint Martins graduate established his own namesake lighting company, Jake Dyson Products, which was acquired by Dyson just over a decade later. This marked his return to the family business, where he took on more executive roles.

“We want to execute things as well as we can, and improve on things by exploring new materials and manufacturing processes, and designing products that we think people want to cherish,” Jake said. 

To this end, the Dyson OnTrac headphones offer several distinctive features for audiophiles on the go.

For starters, the headphones are said to optimise the listening experience with best-in-class noise cancellation, powered by a custom Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) algorithm that uses eight microphones to sample external sound 384,000 times a second. This, combined with premium materials and carefully designed internal geometry, helps cancel up to 40dB of unwanted noise.

Its 40mm, 16-ohm neodymium speaker drivers, together with advanced audio signal processing, reproduce frequencies ranging from 6Hz to 21,000Hz, delivering deep sub-bass and clear highs. Meanwhile, the speaker housing is tilted 13 degrees towards the ear for a more direct audio response.

Naturally, the housing for these advanced technologies ought to be made from high-quality materials. The outer caps, for instance, are machined from high-grade aluminium for a lightweight yet durable finish.

Then there is the 55-hour battery life – about double the market average. If you are going to wear a device on your head for that long, it had better be comfortable.

“We did a lot of work on the weight distribution – the comfort on the head and fit around the ear, as well as the ventilation – and they're very, very comfortable,” Dyson said.

The ergonomic design features ear cushions crafted from ultra-soft microfibre and high-grade foam for a superior acoustic seal, along with multi-pivot gimbal arms that help relieve ear pressure. Meanwhile, the battery placement in the headband helps distribute weight evenly.

The product comes in four core colourways: CNC Aluminium, Copper, Nickel in an anodised finish, and Ceramic Cinnabar, which has a ceramic-feel painted finish. But what really sets the OnTrac headphones apart is the ability to customise them with easily interchangeable outer caps and ear cushions, offering more than 2,000 colour combinations to match your mood or outfit.

“When you see headphones in the market, they're just all black and quite boring; largely unconsidered at a design level. So we really wanted to make them beautiful and make people proud to wear them,” Dyson said.

UNLIKELY BEDFELLOWS 

Sometimes, that emphasis on comfort and wearability extends beyond the product itself to how the wider user experience can be made more comfortable.

Enter Dyson’s rather unexpected collaboration with Porter, the Japanese maker of handcrafted bags and luggage with a storied history dating back to 1935.

The consumer tech company teamed up with the Japanese label on a limited-edition release last December, pairing a set of special-edition headphones with a matching shoulder bag. According to Jake, the partnership evolved organically, born of “a mutual respect for each other's products.”

“I love their bags and I’m very passionate about Japanese culture,” he said. “We set out to create an object that merges engineering precision with design, and Japanese design – rooted in simplicity, functionality, and beautiful forms – has always inspired us. And it seemed like a fun thing to do at the time,” added Jake, who worked closely with Porter on the project for about a year.

“There’s also something very nostalgic about their company,” he said. “We went to see them in Tokyo and they have an extraordinary history that started in 1935 to solve the problem of carrying people’s luggage in hotel lobbies. And their bags are of very high quality; handmade and highly crafted.”

Designed in navy with striking orange accents, only 380 sets were available worldwide. Each retailed for S$999 (US$780), and all were snapped up upon release.

The headphones feature anodised OnTrac caps in CNC Black Nickel, laser-etched with Porter’s iconic logo – reimagined wearing Dyson headphones. The bag, meanwhile, features an exterior-mounted headphone holder that keeps the headphones easily accessible – an original design exclusive to this release.

Like Porter, Dyson remains a family business, which helps when you are in the business of invention and reinvention. Not having to answer to public shareholders also means it can keep new projects and products in the pipeline private.

“We don't really like to talk about our plans,” Jake said. “Sure, as a company, we like to identify areas where we can improve on things and take risks, and this is definitely one of those projects, along with some other projects that will be coming out soon.”

If the OnTrac and the Porter collaboration are any indication, Dyson’s appetite for considered risk-taking is far from spent.