Dyson unveils Zone, a pair of air-filtering headphones

Dyson starts its venture into the audio industry with the unveiling of “Zone.” But wid the plethora of headphone models sporting the most high-tech features and technology in the market, can this Dyson Zone compete? Dyson knows how to give it a chance to stand out through its present air filtration technology.

Indeed, Dyson Zone isn’t just any other typical headphones we encounter each day. Unlike others that solely focus on audio production, the Zone is also designed to provide fresh filtered air to the individual wearing it.

“Air pollution is a global problem – it affects us everywhere we go,” said Jake Dyson, Chief Engineer at Dyson, in revealing the product, which still doesn’t have any pricing info and a detailed list of specs released. “In our homes, at school, at work and as we travel, whether on foot, on a bike or by public or private transport. The Dyson Zone purifies the air you breathe on the move. And unlike face masks, it delivers a plume of fresh air without touching your face, using high-performance filters and two miniaturized air pumps. After six years in development, we’re excited to deliver pure air and pure audio, anywhere.”

The Zone has an unconventional design due to the additional air-filtering function. The pair of headphones comes with a non-contact visor that channels two streams of purified air to the wearer’s nose and mouth. The air comes from the compressors integrated into each earcup that draw air through the dual-layer filters installed (replaceable every year).

The visor is designed to be comfortable for the wearer while ensuring that the air is diluted as little as possible when it is inhaled. This is possible by the sculpted returns of the design that keep the airflow close to the nose and mouth of the person. It also has different settings for airflow to match your activity, whether you are just casually walking or doing a more air-demanding activity like jogging or climbing stairs.

On the other hand, Dyson also made sure to give justice to the audio of the Zone and deliver pure, rich audio, and advanced noise cancellation. Dyson says that its audio engineers and acousticians have managed to develop a high-performing neodymium electroacoustic system within each earcup. According to Dyson, the Zone promises the faithful reproduction of music as intended by the musicians or creators through its “wide frequency response, precise left-right balance and distortion significantly below what can be detected by the human ear.”

The visor is also made to complement the audio function of the Zone. Through the hinges and a series of magnets in the visor, you can either remove it or just flip it down when you need to talk to someone. When you do the latter, the Conversation Mode of the noise cancellation will be enabled so you’ll be able to hear the talking person appropriately. When you put back the visor in front of your nose, the Isolation Mode will be activated to use the active ANC. It also has the Transparency Mode that can filter out important, urgent sounds like car horns and sirens.

Dyson said that the Zone is the product of the company’s six-year-long research and development that aims to simultaneously address the urban issues of air quality and noise pollution. The tech company said that it took over 500 prototypes to build the Zone and described how the project started as a snorkel-like clean air mouthpiece paired with a backpack to its evolution to a single piece of wearable tech it is today. It is still larger than other headphone models in the market, though, not to mention its conventional visor design. But in a world where we need techs to have more practical uses, is the Dyson Zone the start of the new era for more functional audio tools? Certainly.