Dyson Zone Headphones Review: They're Real, And They're...

Are you ready to review the headphones, sir?

Yes, Admiral.

We've reviewed more than 50 pairs of headphones over the last few years.

Some great.

Some awful.

And some downright ridiculous.

But nothing we've reviewed quite matches the uniqueness of the Dyson Zone headphones.

In a lot of the reviews we've seen, the audio quality is actually kind of an afterthought.

So we're going to take a listen and let you know how it goes.

I just want to blast these to the highest level real quick.

Here we go.

It's your funeral.

Yeah, oh my god.

You can't hear them.

You can't.

You have to max the volume out on your phone to hear them at all.

Right.

They're too quiet.

But in terms of...

Let's try it without them.

Okay.

Let's try them without the visor.

Okay.

Without the visor.

All right.

Well, they definitely sound better without the visor.

I didn't think they sounded better without the visor.

I mean, they sound without...

You can't hear the fan, but they sound the same.

They're the best headphones I've ever heard that have a visor.

They're also the only headphones I've ever heard that have a visor.

That's true.

The big issue I had is that we had to turn up the volume on this phone all the way.

And it's still not loud enough.

It's not loud enough.

Especially with the...

I mean, with the visor off, I think maxing out your phone's volume is enough.

With any visor setting, it's not.

Right.

And we're in a very quiet room right now.

Yes.

So you get in the city.

The biggest thing is you're not going to be able to hear your music.

There's a 0% chance you're going to hear the music.

So I felt like in terms of sound quality, if I'm not talking about visor, they had the

opposite problem of a lot of headphones we've tested, where the high end was very clear,

which is what we see on the Bose headphones, the high end Sony headphones.

But then the low mids, the low end was not too present.

So you end up with kind of a very treble heavy sound, which at first I started ranking things

very highly.

But then I started to notice that there really was no bass.

So then there's an EQ, which has no customized ability.

You just get three sort of random EQs that they picked, none of which are actually flat.

I don't understand that.

They need to build in a good EQ that lets you customize it.

The headphones have the potential to be really good, but the software is blocking that from

being the case.

Right.

Well, I mean, with the enhanced, there was no bass.

With the bass boost, it almost sounded like...

Too bass.

Too bass.

It was almost, you know, sort of balanced.

It wasn't too heavy on the bass for me, but I also like bass more than you do.

My main complaints are volume.

Give us some volume, people.

We need to be able to hear the headphones to be able to test them.

I don't know if any of the reviewers are talking about that because if they're not...

I haven't seen anyone talk about this.

If they don't talk about it, they're crazy.

I also need to talk about the weight of these things.

With the visor, 670 grams.

That's a lot.

That is more than the AirPods Max and the Sony XM4s combined.

Really?

It's not very heavy, and after a while, you start to feel it.

The other, you know, red flag for me is that without the visor, you get 50 hours of battery

life.

Great.

With the visor, at the lowest setting, four hours of audio.

At the medium setting, two and a half hours of audio.

Battery life.

Two and a half hours total battery life before you need to charge it up again.

At the highest setting, an hour and a half.

And I wonder what that would do for, like, you know, charge cycles with the batteries.

Like, if you're putting them through all those charge cycles, I feel like the batteries

on these, if you're using the highest air purifier setting, is going to need to be replaced

relatively quickly, especially compared to other headphones.

Not to mention the fact that you're going to lose all your friends.

A lot of people listen to headphones in the library, right?

Can you imagine?

Oh my God.

No, you can't.

You'd get thrown out.

You'd get thrown out, yeah.

They're a statement in terms of style.

Yeah, no, I think-

This is going to stand out.

People are going to say, wow.

Yeah.

So there's no price involved and there's no visor involved.

Where are these headphones?

I think they're maybe a little less-

Three, three and a half, four.

They're average.

Four, 4.25?

They're not as good as, like, the XM4s, the 5s, or the Bose headphones, the high-end Bose.

Not as good as the AirPods Max.

Because the AirPods-

You're right.

They're better than a lot of the over-ear headphones we've tested.

Sure, yeah.

Then again, you could also buy all of the other headphones we've tested for this price.

So what's up with the price point?

Fans, filters, visor.

I know, but it's, like, cost prohibitive.

On purpose?

Do they not want these to be widely adopted because they're going to work out the kinks?

I think that's got to be part of it.

If this is, you know, attempt one, we don't want this to be mass adopted because then

if it doesn't do well-

It's mass failure.

Mass failure.

Whereas if we get a couple of people who try it out and they say, okay, well, you know.

People like us who say, well, you know, the potential is there.

It's just we haven't-

Just don't buy these yet.

Yeah, blah, blah, blah.

And then we've done their job for them, right?

Essentially.

Let's test out the microphone of these Dyson Zone headphones and see how they sound.

I'm a little bit concerned about it.

This is a test of the Dyson Zone headphones microphone during a phone call with the air

filtration setting on low.

This is a test of the Dyson Zone headphones microphone during a phone call with high air

filtration.

Microphone quality of the Dyson Zone headphones on the low air filtration setting, it's fine.

On the highest air filtration setting, it is.

It's really bad.

It's going to sound terrible.

People aren't going to be able to understand you.

And we're in a totally quiet environment, getting a louder environment, it's not going

to be good.

The My Dyson app can monitor the air quality around you, which is pretty cool, but is also

something that can be done in the weather app on your phone.

Well, not exactly, right?

So you can monitor the air quality of the weather app locally, but not in your immediate

vicinity, which these headphones allow you to do.

The electrostatic filters in the ear caps need to be replaced up to every 12 months

to keep the air purification system working.

And the My Dyson app will let you know when they need to be replaced.

How much do these filters cost?

I'm going to guess $50.

We actually don't know the price, right?

So if I go into the app, I can tap where it says filters in the upper right, and then

I can tap buy filters online at the bottom.

And I'm brought to this page, genuine Dyson parts for your machine.

Very blurry image coming soon graphic and nothing else.

So we'll see.

The Dyson purifying fan filter replacements are $70 to $80.

So I think $50 to $80 is a pretty reasonable guess.

Let's talk about the health benefits of these headphones.

I mean, that's kind of the main selling point.

Is that purified air?

Here's what Dyson says.

Dyson's two-stage sealed filtration system removes city fumes.

It also removes 99% of ultrafine pollutants to deliver purified air.

Statically charged threads capture 99% of particulates as small as 0.1 microns, such

as allergens.

The filtration system also absorbs city fumes and gases such as nitrogen dioxide.

Imagine you're somebody who gets hay fever every spring is a nightmare.

Well now, you can just buy these $1,000 headphones, pop on the face mask, and you're sitting pretty.

Did you know that 9 out of 10 people breathe polluted air?

I did, because I looked it up.

I was the one who looked it up and told me to say it.

World Health Organization.

Now, is the solution for all of those people to buy these headphones, which at maximum

air filtration have a battery life of an hour and a half?

Probably not.

Now, the air purification system is getting a lot of positive press, but there are some

concerns they could actually be a public health disaster.

Seems a little bit alarmist to me, David.

Convince me.

We need to talk about the effect the air purifier will have on the people around you.

Naomi Wu, who you may know as the sexy cyborg, has called these the Snot Cannon, aka the

wearable super spreader event.

It sounds like she's trying to get attention with a clickbait headline, right?

Well, let's dig a little deeper.

She argued that it's far worse than no mask at all, because it uses high powered fans

directed at the wearer's nose and mouth, which project exhaled aerosols outward.

If you wanted to weaponize a virus host, it would be perfect.

N95 masks.

They filter the air you breathe in as well as the air you breathe out.

There is no outward breathing filtration system on these headphones.

Dyson actually responded, right?

Maybe not to her specifically.

Just to the concerns in general.

The visor acts as a physical barrier against forward projection, which I guess is technically

true.

Anything you put in front of your mouth is going to, you know, you put your hand in front