Look like Bane, spend like Batman with Dyson's $949 headphones
- Reference: 1670574609
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/12/09/look_like_a_batman_villain/
- Source link:
The [1]Dyson Zone headphones come with a removable "visor" that uses a pair of compressors and electrostatic filters to "project purified air at the wearer's nose and mouth." Don't go thinking this is actually a protective device, though – the visor doesn't make contact with the wearer's face, meaning there's no seal protecting you from contaminated cross-breezes.
Instead, Dyson sees the headphones and their air filtration system as something designed "to tackle the dual challenges of city noise and air pollution" – if you have a spare $949 lying around, that is.
[2]
The British biz, which moved its headquarters to Singapore a few years ago, is known primarily for vacuum cleaners and bladeless fans and other stuff that moves air around. It's made its first foray into audio products with the Zone, which gets its filtration power from a pair of 9,750rpm compressors in the ear cups that are paired with negatively-charged electrostatic filters.
[3]
[4]
Without knowing how loud the dual compressors in the ear cups are, it's tough to say how much work the Zone's noise canceling system will be doing just to reduce the hum generated by the headphones themselves.
The only potential clue comes in the form of Dyson's word about how many microphones the Zone has: eleven, eight of which are used to capture and reduce up to 38 decibels of environmental noise. Dyson nominates a single microphone as being used for phone calls, leaving two unaccounted for – possibly used solely to eliminate compressor noise.
[5]
Dyson claims the filters in the Zone last for 12 months and can pick up 99 percent of particles as small as 0.1 microns 2 , as well as nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and ozone. Dyson Zones will have an associated smartphone app for controlling airflow speed, equalizer and noise cancellation features, as well as showing local air quality.
Oh, and they produce sound, too
Dyson took six years and 500 prototypes to arrive at the Zone's final design. Initial prototypes included "a snorkel-like clean air mouthpiece paired with a backpack to hold the motor and inner workings," the announcement [6]revealed .
[7]
Much of that time seems to have been spent in an effort by Dyson teams around the world to integrate the visor and solve "a problem of Dyson's own creation" – namely noise that required "an advanced noise cancellation system."
[8]NTT claims it can stop the noise leaking from annoying people's headphones
[9]Logitech Zone Vibe 125: Weightless comfort on the ears that won't break the bank
[10]Someone has to say it: Voice assistants are not doing it for big tech
Headphones-wise, the set seems to be at least [11]comparable to devices like Apple's [12]AirPods Max – a similarly designed pair of over-the-ear headphones. Like the AirPods Max, not too much audio specification is provided for the Zone, aside from promises that it can reproduce frequencies from 6Hz to 12kHz and promises of "absolute clarity" across sound ranges.
As for battery life, the Zone apparently gets up to 50 hours of listening time. With the air purifier running that drops to a mere four hours – and [13]possibly less if the air purifier is turned up to a higher setting.
Then there's the issue of weight. The Dyson Zone, with its visor attached, weighs in at 670 grams, or around a pound and a half. The AirPods Max, on the other hand, weigh just 384 grams, or a little under one pound. Even with the visor removed, the Zone still weighs around 595 grams – a heftyish thing to carry on your head.
If you're still keen to get a dose of clean air from your audio device – as much as you can expect from a forced-air visor that doesn't attach to your face – you'll have to put in a bit of leg work to get a pair once they're available next year.
The Dyson Zone will go on sale in China in January 2023, while customers in the US, UK, Hong Kong and Singapore will have to wait until March. Even at that point, Dyson isn't making it easy to get: At least for US customers, the Zone will only be available at launch for preorder by appointment , with stores and the internet getting stock "shortly after." ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.dyson.com/newsroom/news/product/dyson-zone-audio
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y5MVTZ0-YXvc41HmBqPWLAAAAAQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y5MVTZ0-YXvc41HmBqPWLAAAAAQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y5MVTZ0-YXvc41HmBqPWLAAAAAQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y5MVTZ0-YXvc41HmBqPWLAAAAAQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.dyson.com/newsroom/news/product/dyson-zone-announcement
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y5MVTZ0-YXvc41HmBqPWLAAAAAQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/10/ntt_anti_noise_leak_headphones/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/05/logitech_zone_vibe_125/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/23/voice_assistants_fail/
[11] https://www.dyson.com/headphones/zone/announcement?ranMID=36310&ranEAID=tv2R4u9rImY&ranSiteID=tv2R4u9rImY-Y1FRtigq3bQWbaKNEHzmmQ&siteID=tv2R4u9rImY-Y1FRtigq3bQWbaKNEHzmmQ&utm_source=Skimlinks+%28Variable+Pricing%29&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=us_en__na__na__na__purchase&utm_term=&utm_content=rakuten_1
[12] https://www.apple.com/airpods-max/specs/
[13] https://gizmodo.com/dyson-air-purifying-headphones-filter-price-release-dat-1849831922
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: [Checks Calendar] ...
"It's not April, is it?"
A Fool and their money etc, etc
Re: [Checks Calendar] ...
At $950 a go, you’d be a fool all year long if you bought these.
Re: [Checks Calendar] ...
At $950 a go, you’d be a fool all year long ...
A fool?
More like a certified idiot with too much money in their pockets.
The things we see these days.
O.
Great
Now we have a quick visual check for idiots with too much money who want to look like utter prats.
What?
I can only assume that, somehow, an early prototype ended up getting contaminated with Bolivian marching powder and this was accidentally blown up the noses of the collective design team.
Why else would a product like this ever escape from the - frankly rather dubious - mind of a creative?
Re: What?
I'm feeling a deep Cyberpunk vibe, perhaps they're a fan of CD Projekt?
"Like the AirPods Max, not too much audio specification is provided for the Zone"
Not necessary for the target market, which is people who are mostly interested in showing you how much hipper they are than you.
"Not necessary for the target market, which is people who are mostly interested in showing you how much hipper they are than you."
Jeez, you guys are so unhip it's a wonder your bums don't fall off.
In those 6 years and 500 prototypes no-one had the bravoury to say this is just a terrible idea from the start.
It's not supposed to seal
That would appear to be a design decision for comfort reasons, it throws a breeze of filtered air in your face.
It's sad so many live in such polluted areas. Probably the same areas such gizmos are produced, emitting further pollution.
Re: It's not supposed to seal
Yeah, a conjunctivitis-generator!
Re: It's not supposed to seal
At least the battery doesn't last very long in that filter mode anyway.
Snot Cannon
This is actually danagerous to health of those around the user and should be banned. Blowing air onto & into the user's mouth and nose will spread any pathogens to the surrounding area as it is not then filtered. It's moronically stupid and dangerous and will cause more infections and potentially kill people, not the wearer, no that selfish prick will be fine...
A fan powered costume caused a super spreader event in a US hospital as the fan spread around everybody near it the wearer's unknown illness. This a snot cannon and really REALLY dumb (and studpidly expensive to boot).
Engineers! Engineers EVERYWHERE!
Depending on your source, Dyson (that being the same Dyson that rolled out a fleet of Hoovers with a design fault in the On/Off switch) have about 1500 engineers* in the UK.
1500.
One thousand, five hundred.
* With nary a grey hair amongst them, I'll wager...
Re: Engineers! Engineers EVERYWHERE!
... have about 1500 engineers* in the UK.
Which have to make a living while (unfortunately) working on stupid ideas/designs.
It is not really their fault, although the lack of grey hair is probably an impediment.
The real issue at Dyson is that there are a group of people, most probably of the marketing species that thought this up.
Once those abortions of nature pitched the idea, a few higher ups with an absolute lack of common sense thought this thing was actually a good idea and then some CXX that actually gave the go ahead because they are certified idiots, just like the destinataries of the new Dyson product.
Actually, I think thatthe engineers had no choice but to go along.
I have seen that sort of thing happen far too many times.
O.
Dyson had a very good idea years ago. Since then he doesn't seem to have had another, so he employs people to have good ideas on his behalf. They don't seem to have had any good ideas recently either.
The trouble is that if you set yourself up as a company that sells revolutionary products then you have to keep coming up with revolutionary products in order to keep the brand in the public eye. I can imagine brainstorming meetings where people run ideas up the flagpole (and all that shite) where people throw out increasingly desperate ideas for new products. It makes me wonder what utter tripe got rejected if this was the one that made it through to production.
Even the good idea (has there really been more than one) he had years ago has been executed fairly poorly in my experience.
I own one of his vacuum cleaners, and the bagless part of it (which is all he actually did) works reasonably well. I mean you still need a bag to dump the dirt out, but at least it doesn't have to be a premium branded job with cardboard wings. The rest of the functionality and features are decidedly mediocre at best and utterly moronic at worst.
It's not often one sees an entire corporation jump the shark, is it?
GJC
Re:
IMO, Dyson jumped the shark years ago.. I've had three Dyson cleaners.. The first was brilliant, and lasted for 10 years of fairly heavy use. The second lasted a couple of years, then failed. Because the first one had been so good, we assumed the fault was a one off and got a Dyson engineer in to fix it. He said it wasn't viable to repair it, and suggested we buy a new one. Stupidly, we did. That lasted a couple of years, then started blocking on every use. I've stripped it down as far as I can, cleaning out everything I could, but it still blocks every time.
As a result, I bought a Shark with a couple of batteries. That's a brilliant little hoover and picks up most of the rubbish, and we still have the Dyson for the heavier stuff, just need to make sure it's unblocked first..
Dyson's suck ...
Oh wait a minute.
They sometimes suck.
The rest of the time they don’t work at all.
Not a fan.
So it removes 38 decibels of environmental noise for the user, how much does it add to other peoples environment nearby with the fan noise?
Re: Not a fan.
You think about other people? What are you, a bloody communist?
/s
== Bring us Dabbsy back! ==
Dyson peaked with the Ballbarrow
Since then he's devoted his time to becoming a poundshop Steve Jobs and I can't stand him.
What the experts are saying
With this device I can disguise myself and infiltrate the collective. - Jean-Luc Picard, Star Ship Captain
Does it have friggin lasers and will it fit on a shark’s head ? -Dr. Evil, Investor
Acme engineers worked on something similar but with rocket powered noise cancellation -Wyle E Coyote, Genius
Google Glass 2.0
Alas Dyson doesn't rhyme with 'Asshole'.
The ball barrow was fine - except over rubble, where the ball was too fragile.
His vacuum cleaner works - but not as well as those from other brands.
The rest of his stuff just seems pointless.
And his beloved Brexit is a disaster.
Dyson is a triumph of marketing over substance.
[Checks Calendar] ...
It's not April, is it?