Dyson Air-Purifying Headphones To Cost £820

The Dyson Zone headphones are set to go on sale in the UK next month, but faces two notable obstacles: namely a hefty purchase price and the outlandish look of the wearable device.

It was back in March 2022 at the tail end of the Covid-19 pandemic, when vacuum cleaner maker Dyson said it was entering the wearable market with a device designed to protect the user from unwanted gases, allergens, particulates, and even unwanted noises.

Dyson said at the time that its air purifying headphones, called the “Dyson Zone”, would be launched in the Autumn of last year.

Dyson Zone

That launch didn’t happen, and now a year later Dyson has begun selling the device in the United States at $949 – a price that is as expensive as both Apple and Sony’s premium wireless headphone offerings, combined.

On this side of the pond, the Dyson Zone is set to launch in the UK on 17 May.

The standard Dyson Zone in Ultra Blue will cost £749.99, while the Dyson Zone Absolute+ in Prussian Blue will cost an eye watering £819.99.

According to the Daily Mail, both of these come with a cleaning brush, charger, travel case and visor sleeve, but the latter also comes with an in-flight adaptor, dust bag and spare pair of filters.

The standard pair will be able to buy from third party stores, but the Absolute+ headphones will only be available at Dyson stores and the company website.

Wearable features

So what will that amount of money get you?

Well the Dyson Zone is futuristic (but heavy) headgear that comes with a detachable, magnetic visor that pumps filtered air into the wearers nose and mouth.

The wearable has been designed to deliver both “pure air and pure audio” to the user.

The filtration system can reportedly capture 99 percent of airborne particles as small as 0.1 microns, including pollen, dust, bacteria and some viruses like H1N1 (aka swine flu).

That said a N95 mask is advised to prevent Covid-19.

Population, noise

To be fair the Dyson wearable is not really designed to tackle viruses.

Rather it is in response to data which shows that one in five people in the EU are affected by noise pollution and that 9 in 10 people globally breathe air that exceeds WHO guideline pollutant limits.

The Dyson headphones feature oversized ear cups that host 40-millimetre neodymium drivers. The headphones offer active noise cancellation powered by eight microphones to detect and reduce the intensity of environmental noises around the user by up to 38 decibels.

Dyson says the headphones offer up to 50 hours of audio-only battery life, or between 90 minutes and four hours of combined audio and air purification run time.

However there are reports that running the air filtration system rapidly depletes the batteries.

Dyson has said the futurist looking device were developed over a six year period, and are designed to “simultaneously deliver immersive sound to the ears, and purified airflow to the nose and mouth.”

The firm apparently build more than 500 prototypes, and Dyson engineers spent a lot of time to ensure the device will be comfortable to wear, and they even used a breathing mannequin in a laboratory, as well as developing their own advanced noise cancellation system.