While not having ventured into making its first electric car, the British brand Dyson has nevertheless realized another of its dreams, which came to fruition in the Zone supra-aural headphones, coming with a sophisticated air purification system.
In 2020, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg reported on a curious patent, an evolution of a 2018 concept, that the British company Dyson, known for its cyclonic vacuum cleaners and for the premium bodycare for hair care, had filed at the UK Intellectual Property Office. For a long time we wondered if this patent would ever materialize in a product made and finished for commercialization: the answer, affirmative, came in the last few hours, when Jake Dyson (son of the founder) raised the curtain on the headphones ” Dyson Zone “.
The Dyson Zones, designed to protect the person from everything that can cause annoyance, from acoustic noises to polluted air, are very comfortable supra-aural headphones: the central area of the pad on the headband takes its cue from the saddle of the horses to distribute the weight not on the top, but on the sides of the head. On these, then, act the pavilions, obviously padded with foam, the compound of which has been studied to combine sound transmission, noise isolation, and comfort while adapting, for the purpose of stability, to the shape of the ear.
On the audio level, neodymium drivers come into play in the Dyson Zones, which not only minimize distortion below the threshold perceivable by the human ear, but also guarantee a wide frequency response. Obviously, a crucial role also belongs to the Automatic Noise Cancellation which focuses on the low frequencies prolonged over time, given that the noise of the side compressors hidden in the pavilions must also be neutralized. In any case, the user can set this setting according to three levels, with the “immersive” mode that will completely neutralize the noises to allow the user to concentrate, that “transparency” that will let the sounds of announcements or sirens pass. – horn, and that “conversation” which, when removing the visor with consequent automatic suspension of purification, will facilitate the conversation.
Turning to the specificity of these headphones, Dyson, taking advantage of its thirty years of experience in the management and filtration of air flows, has prepared two side motors / compressors, which suck in the external air and pass it through two filters, with the first, electrostatic, which retains particles such as residues from construction sites or industrial combustion, brake dust, and allergens, while the second, in carbon with potassium, concentrates on NO2 and SO2, i.e. on urban polluting gases. The reclaimed air, then, through two ducts placed in the visor (which has no contact with the face), is directed as close as possible to the mouth and nose, so that it cannot be recontaminated by “external cross winds”.
Being a wireless model, the Dyson Zone headphones connect to the source device via Bluetooth and, in this way, they collect the audio signal from it but, at the same time, and precisely to the Dyson Link app, they allocate the data collected about the noise and substance pollution. The price is still unknown, it has been announced that the Dyson Zone headphones will be marketed in the fall of 2022, at the Dyson Demo Stores and online.