Dyson OnTrac. Dyson gets serious about cans.

Chris Cables

Chris Cables

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#1
I've been looking for a decent set of noise-cancelling headphones for a while. The Sony WH-1000XM5 and Bose QuietComfort are the 2 main contenders in this market segment but after trying both I thought they were crap at both noise-cancelling and sound signature.

So, I'm very curious to see this offering by Dyson today. I know they r&d the shit out of their products and this looks to be ticking a lot of boxes afaiac.

Fun factoid; when I was studying product-design at University back in the early 90's (UCL) I got James Dyson to come and give a lecture on technology development. He was relatively unknown back then and had been banging away for years at trying to promote his Cyclone vacuum cleaner in probably one of the most aggressive/cut-throat market sectors for domestic appliances. It was an inspiring talk and even students from other courses filled the lecture hall! I'm glad that he finally managed to realise success with his company even though it took him a lot longer than it should have!

I thought the Dyson Zone were a bit gimmicky, with that air purifier thing and I passed, but I'm probably going to pull the trigger on a pair of these when they become available. I doubt they will be cheap but as I'm 'in the trade' I can write off the tax, which makes the purchase a little more attractive.
Lots of colour/materials options available too, so that will be fun to choose...

I'll post up a review when they're in...

Curiously, nothing announced on head-fi yet. I wonder if Jude was asking too much for the top advertising spot. lol
 
Chris Cables

Chris Cables

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Well, I can affirm that his products have followed the obvious product delvelopment trend of being made to a price-point these days sadly as they're definitely not the same quality from 20-30 years ago.
When I graduated I received a DC02 vacuum cleaner from Dyson. It was a nice surprise as it was 2 years before graduating that I got him to come and do the lecture. So somebody somewhere in his organisation must have been keeping tabs on me or something! Probably gaining insights into developing brand loyalty or something lol

In any case that vacuum cleaner is now 30 years old and still going strong! The plastic of the wand is brittle and cracked and the cable rewind mechanism is busted but it still sucks like it did the first day I used it!
I have a few other of his cleaners dotted around my two places that I've bought over the years, including a relatively new (months old) handheld thing, in which the battery is now going bad and doesn't hold as much of a charge as it did. I also noticed tha tthe plastics are really poor quality and don't look like they would survive any sort of drop without cracking or breaking. The overall design is over-complicated too. Not over-engineered, just questionable in that the 'design-for-manufacturing' phase of the final design development phase has obviously dictated how many components and the type of materilas used, all probably to a strict price point.
I've been around product-development for over 30 years so it's relatively easy for me to see where certain compromises have been made.
I stripped one of their DC05 models down and I think that's where things started to go south for them in terms of quality.
It's just how it is in any successful, mass-produced products unfortunately. Don't get me started on BMW's build quality these days!

Hoping to be pleasantly surprised by these headphones though.
Tbc....
 
Chris Cables

Chris Cables

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Well they went on sale today and I decided to do a u-ey and hold off for a bit until credible reviews come in.
There are already reports of them being unsuitable/uncomfortable for prolonged wearing which kind of goes against my main 'end user need'.
I also note that some of the tech is pretty outdated in these headphones too - BT 5.0, no multipoint BT etc.
The main functionality that I'm looking for is the ANC, closely followed by music PB quality and in that respect and being double the weight of the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra puts them in second place for now.
But I'm still open to be swayed, so the jury's out for the moment....
 
BlazeES

BlazeES

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#7
Sony WH-1000XM4 when on sale ... and prosper.

I would expect these Dyson cans to be WAY over priced and not commensurate performance wise to the attributes of Bose, Sony, etc etc.
 
Chris Cables

Chris Cables

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Mohawk said:
I haven't heard the Sony's but from what I have read they are superior to the Bose....

Thoughts ?
Click to expand...
I think I'm going to hold off to see if/when the Sony WH1000XM6 is released. If the same 2-year market-release cycle as for the XM3/4/5 is used then they should be arriving imminently.
The main problem with the XM5's though, for me at least is the cup size; they're just too small and subsequently there's too much physical interference which would lead to irritation and discomfort. Hopefully the XM6 cups will be better ergonomically. Sony should have perfected this headphone by now due to its' long development path/evolution.
They're also half the weight of the Dysons and some of the tech (namely the bluetooth version and codecs) even on the 2 year old XM5's is newer which keeps it ahead of the Dysons.
I looked at the new Sonos ANC headphones and I'll be auditioning them as well as the Bose QC Ultras.
I hate everything Apple stands for so I won't even waste time on the Airpods Max on principle alone.
 
Chris Cables

Chris Cables

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#15
It was Dyson's first totally misguided foray into headphones, with a built-in air purifier.
The words 'dystopian' and 'ludicrous' and 'potentially unsellable/unmarketable' obviously never featured in those early concept design critique/product-development meetings.
I imagine there's a warehouse full of them somewhere, just waiting to be re-purposed or junked.
 
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