The price for Dyson's first-ever audio product was revealed last week. The combination headphones-air-purifier will cost you your privacy as people are going to stare at you from across the train or plane while you have it on. It will cost you $950. I had a demo of the premium version of the Zone, which comes in a navy blue and bronze color and nets you a leather carrying case and additional filters. An extra $50 doesn't sound like much when you're already spending a lot. You can tell family members about the price of your headphones and see their reaction. The N95 mask attachment is not included. If you have an air purifier and a promised 50 hours of battery life, you can get the mic active noise canceling. The lifespan can be shortened by as much as 2.5 hours by running the purifier. The benefit you can't put a price on is the cosplay that comes with the air purification system. It works with filters in the ear cups to give you fresh air as you confront Batman.
What was it like breaking the bat?
Dyson has been working on The Zone for six years and the headset still feels at odds with itself. Despite their 1.3 pound weight, the headphones felt heavy without hurting my head, but the purifier visor attachment is flimsy, even though it brings the weight up to 1.48 pounds. The purifier needs to be able to twist and bend to fit your face, but the shift from aluminum to plastic and nylon is not appreciated. The combination of headphones and a portable air purifier raises the same question as before.
Dyson told me in my demo that noise is a type of pollution, as if the idea for the purifier came before the headphones. The presence of ear cups could be used to hide the motor of the purifier or ANC could be used to block noise from the motor. Selling audio and air purification as a single product raises the price for both because people who want audio won't necessarily want air purification. The difference in build quality and material cost between the sturdy headphones and thin plastic purifier visor attachment is something that should be taken into account.
Each part of the zone works well in its own way. The visor is amazing. The fresh air in the office where I had my demo was noticeably lighter and smelled better, and the fan pushing it towards me never felt too cold on my face. Don't expect this to block covid without the N95 attachment because your face is exposed.
You can adjust the angle at which the purifying visor sits, as well as how far it sits from your face, and you can pull the whole visor down if you want to get it out of the way. An auto mode uses an accelerometer inside the Zone to adjust the purifier's speed depending on how much you're moving, both for convenience and to save battery life. I could see it making a long plane ride or a walk through a trash-strewn New York street more enjoyable, even though the health benefits of this kind of personal air purification are not clear.
The headphones are comfortable, and even though Dyson didn't give me driver or audio codec specifications, music playing through Spotify exceeded the quality I usually get on the Sennheiser headset I use at home. For Dyson's debut audio product, the active noise canceling of The Zone is impressive, even though it is less robust than Apple or Sony. Two mics are dedicated to blocking out the noise from the purifier and they work perfectly. They should be able to block the noise from the fans. If you wear the Zone and don't have active noise canceling on, you can hear the purifier running, even if you don't have active noise canceling on.
Active noise canceling controls are the only pain point here, and that is a pretty nasty point to have. You are supposed to be able to swap between ANC and transparency by double tapping either of the headphones ear cups, but this only works on about a fifth of the time. I think this can be fixed with tuning, but I had to use the app to swap ANC and transparency because I didn't want to bother with it on a crowded train.
The headset's weight is distributed and you can adjust the headband.
It is a shame how difficult it is to use both of these devices at the same time, especially since the Zone is so cheap. Attaching the air purifier visor to the Zone was an exercise in frustration, as it requires precise placement into slots on either ear cup, but also will not easily attach if both sides of the headset are pulled away from each other. If you don't attach the visor while you're wearing the headphones, you'll have to put it in manually. The ear cups will pull in towards each other if you try to put the purifier on before you wear the headphones. You would have to hold it with three hands.
It is easy to get long hair in the attachment when you attach it to the headphones. During my demo, I lost a bit of hair. A clump of my hair was with the purifier when I took it off.
The two core pieces are not the only ones that have trouble attaching. Since the invention of the product, we have gone from walking around with no clothes on to hiding our faces in public. I bet the target audience for a personal air purifier would be interested in the practice of masking, even though it isn't as common as it was last year. It is possible to use the Dyson Zone with a mask, but it may not be worth it. It is necessary to sit underneath a slot on the purifier attachment to disassemble it. There are no guides for fitting everything together in the pre-release version of the add-ons. It took about 20 minutes for the mask add-on to be attached, and the reduced air flow was a result. It made masking and wearing an air purification device feel like a waste of time. It might be best to choose one or the other.
Most of the problems I identified feel like early issues that could still be fixed by the time the product is released, but as it stands, this is not the convenience or integration I would expect from a nearly (or exactly, with the bundle) $1,000 pair of headphones that justify its price with These feel like they are taped together. Dyson could eventually sell them individually.
You can pre-order the Dyson Zone if you want to see it in its early state. On April 1st, the Zone will be available in Best Buys and online stores. Really. The beast will be in our review.
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