Dyson’s high fidelity, active noise cancelling headphones with

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• Fly the world twice: The Dyson Zone™ noise cancelling headphones provides users up to 50 hours¹ of ultra-low distortion audio, advanced noise cancellation and faithful, full-spectrum audio reproduction.
• Advanced noise cancelling: 11 microphones feature within the product. The ANC system uses eight to reduce the sound of the city up to 38 dB these microphones monitor surrounding sounds 384,000 times a second.
• Faithful, full-spectrum audio: The Dyson Zone™ goes beyond the audible to reproduce frequencies from 6Hz-21kHz, ensuring every note or word is heard.
• Ultra-low distortion: The speaker driver and electronics, mechanical system, materials, and acoustics have been carefully designed to minimise distortion. The driver output is further equalised by intelligent signal processing 48,000 times a second which combines with the noise cancellation to neutralise harmonic distortion to inaudible levels across the full frequency range (0.08% @ 94dB @1kHz).
• Scientifically tuned to hear more detail: A unique EQ setting optimises the frequency curve for clear, pure audio across the full audible frequency range.
• High-efficiency filtration to tackle pollution on-the-go: A detachable visor projects purified air to the wearer’s nose and mouth. Electrostatic filters capture 99% of particle pollution as small as 0.1 microns², whilst K-Carbon, potassium-enriched carbon filters target prevalent acidic gases most associated with city pollution. 
• Immersive listening, engineered for comfort: Through testing on diverse head sizes and geometries the headphones achieve the same immersive, audio for all.
• Telephony: Dual microphone beamforming and noise suppression technology enable clear voice calls, voice recording and voice control.

London, UK 08.12.2022. Today, Dyson announces the full specification of the Dyson Zone™ headphones, which go on-sale from January in China and March in the US, UK, Hong Kong SAR and Singapore. Announced earlier this year, the Dyson Zone™ headphones provide a pure, immersive listening experience and on-the-go air purification when you need it. Following six years of research and development, the headphones deliver up to 50 hours of ultra-low distortion¹, advanced noise cancellation and faithful, full-spectrum audio reproduction. The Dyson Zone™ also captures 99% of particle pollution as small as 0.1 microns², whilst K-Carbon, potassium-enriched carbon filters target prevalent acidic gases most associated with city pollution, including NO₂ and SO₂. 

The urban pollution problem

More than half of the global population lives in cities. This is expected to reach 7 in 10 by 2050³. As urban populations grow, so does associated infrastructure – transport, construction, traffic – all of which impact the environment in which we live, polluting the air and generating noise.

• An estimated 90 per cent of New York City mass transit users are exposed to levels exceeding the recommended decibel limit⁴. In the EU, noise pollution affects 1 in 5 citizens⁵.
• Air pollution is also a global problem. 99% of the world’s population live in areas that exceed the World Health Organisation (WHO) safe levels for pollution⁶.
• In many geographies, local man-made pollution isn’t the biggest threat – in Europe, West Asia and Africa, the primary source of air pollution according to the United Nations Environment Programme is windborne dust⁷.

The Dyson Zone™ solution

The Dyson Zone™ headphones are engineered to tackle the dual challenges of city noise and air pollution. Powered by advanced lithium-ion batteries and USB-C charging, the headphones offer 50 hours of audio-only run-time¹, or 4 hours of combined purification and audio run-time, charging to 100% in 3 hours.

The Dyson Zone™ air-purifying headphones are borne of Dyson’s 30 years of expertise in airflow, filtration and motors technologies and deep understanding of indoor and outdoor air quality. The compressors in each earcup draw air through the dual-layer filters and project two streams of purified air to the wearer’s nose and mouth, channeled through the non-contact detachable visor. Electrostatic filters capture 99% of particle pollution as small as 0.1 microns², whilst K-Carbon, potassium-enriched carbon filters target prevalent acidic gases most associated with city pollution, including NO₂ and SO₂. 

The product has also been engineered to deliver high fidelity, immersive audio with ultra-low distortion and a broad frequency range for clarity across bass, mids and highs. The Dyson Zone™ incorporates an additional microphone for telephony, allowing phone calls, voice recording and voice control. The telephony microphone combines with the feed forward ANC microphone to provide dual microphone beamforming. Beamforming creates greater clarity of voice transmission by combining the signals from each microphone in a way that allows the system to reject noise from behind and to the sides of the wearer.

Dyson approach to audio engineering

The Dyson Zone headphones deliver an exceptional immersive listening experience. Many audio developers rely on a golden listener; this has become common practice across the audio industry, where a trained individual determines what ‘good’ sounds like. Dyson engineers opted to take a more scientific approach, led by audio research and validating the resulting specification targets with extensive user trialling.

• Engineered for ultra-low distortion: The speaker driver and electronics, mechanical system, materials, and acoustics have been carefully designed to minimise distortion. The driver output is further equalised by intelligent signal processing 48,000 times a second which combines with the noise cancellation to neutralise harmonic distortion to inaudible levels across the full frequency range (0.08% @ 94 dB @1 kHz).

• Advanced noise cancelling: 11 microphones feature within the product. The Dyson Zone ANC system uses eight microphones which monitor surrounding noise 384,000 times a second. The Dyson Zone offers up to 38 dB of noise cancellation from 20 Hz to 20 kHz.

• Faithful, full-spectrum audio: The Dyson Zone goes beyond the audible to reproduce frequencies from 6 Hz – 21 kHz, ensuring every note or word is heard. It is more difficult for audio reproduction to be accurate at the extremes of the speaker’s frequency range, so by going beyond human hearing, the Dyson Zone achieves greater clarity across the audible portion of the spectrum. Such a broad frequency range is down to the electroacoustic engineering system engineering and base components: 40mm, 16 ohm, neodymium speaker drivers sit at the heart of the audio system.
• Scientifically tuned to hear more detail: Driven by scientific metrics and validated by broad user trialling, Dyson engineers identified the specification that gives the most clarity and detail across the full audio spectrum. Dyson has created a unique EQ setting that optimises the frequency curve for clear, pure audio across the full audible frequency range, to deliver a high-fidelity audio experience.
• Immersive listening in complete comfort: No two heads are the same and this variation impacts many elements of comfort as well as audio performance, including the clamp force of the headband, the geometry and materials of the detachable visor, the adjustability of the product and much more. The ear cushions are purposefully flatter than conventional ear cushions for both passive attenuation and comfort, and the cushions are angled to align with the ear for optimal comfort.

High-level filtration in real-world conditions

Across the world, an average of 190 million people travel on the subway – exposing passengers to a mixture of pollutants such as particulate matter (PM2.5 & PM10), which in some cities it can reach higher levels than at street level.

Tackling city air pollution is a specific job, be that when you commute to work, travel abroad or traverse the city in which you live. The filtration system and air delivery mechanism in the Dyson Zone™ are engineered specifically to tackle such tasks. Precision-engineered compressors, spinning at up to 9,750 rpm, draw air through the dual-layer filters. The negatively charged electrostatic filter media captures ultrafine particles such as allergens, and particles from sources such as brake dust, industry combustion and construction, to an efficiency of 99% for particles as small as 0.1 microns². These particles are of most concern to health bodies, and investment in researching their long-term impact on health continues. A second layer, K-Carbon, is a potassium-enriched carbon layer which specifically captures city gas pollutants like NO₂, SO₂ and O₃, as well as nasty city odours, like construction fumes, sewage or stale air in metro systems, for example. Filters will last up to 12 months, depending on geographical location.

Sensing, connectivity & app development

NO₂ is one of the most prevalent gaseous pollutants in cities, a byproduct of combustion, with sources including traffic and construction. Alongside other acidic gases like SO₂, the potassium-enriched carbon filters within the Dyson Zone™ target these acidic gases specifically to meet the challenges of city air. An on-board sensor monitors the air for NO2 levels, tracking these live via the MyDyson™ app, alongside real-time environmental noise levels. Like Dyson in-home purifiers, The Dyson Zone™ provides actionable, understandable information about the user’s environment at their fingertips to inform healthier habits. An on-board accelerometer monitors the user’s activity, adjusting the purified airflow appropriately when in auto mode with the visor attached. Head detection enters the product into standby mode when not being worn, and dipping the detachable visor activates conversation mode, stopping purification and pausing music, intelligently optimizing battery life.

The MyDyson™ app can also be used to control the Dyson Zone™, adjust airflow speed and noise-cancellation mode as well as adapt the audio equalization to preference, choosing from three modes: Dyson EQ (enhanced), Bass Boost (bassy) and Neutral (flatter response curve). In the MyDyson™ app you can opt-in to loudness limit in line with aural health guidance.

The Dyson Zone™ air-purifying headphones have been engineered by teams across the UK, Singapore, Malaysia and China, with a particular focus on software on our South-East Asia campuses. The app development and integration was a critical project to ensure a smooth connection journey and provide intelligent, meaningful air and noise pollution tracking features.

As with all Dyson machines, the Dyson Zone™ noise-cancelling headphones with air purification have been tested to the extremes – in temperature-controlled chambers, drop-testing, material and fabric wear testing, button robustness and much more. Our expert test engineers in the Dyson Malaysia Development Centre are integral to this, as is the geography – putting it through its paces in warmer climates and higher humidity in addition to UK-based testing. User trials have been conducted in the US, UK, China and Singapore.

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Notes to editors

Dyson is a global research and technology company with engineering, research, development, manufacturing and testing operations in Singapore, the UK, Malaysia and the Philippines. Having started in a coach house in the UK, Dyson has consistently grown since it was established in 1993. Today, it has a global headquarters in Singapore and two technology campuses in the UK spanning over 800 acres in Malmesbury and Hullavington. Dyson remains family-owned and employs over 14,000 people globally including 6,000 engineers and scientists.  It sells products in 83 markets internationally.   

Dyson is investing £2.75bn develop revolutionary products and technologies. Dyson has global teams of engineers, scientists and software developers focused on the development of solid-state battery cells, high-speed electric digital motors, sensing and vision systems, robotics, machine learning technologies and A.I. investment. Since inventing the first cyclonic bagless vacuum cleaner, DC01, in 1993, Dyson has created problem-solving technologies for hair care, air purification, robotics, lighting and hand drying.   

Key Facts and Figures  

• Dyson’s latest technologies for creating a healthy home, such as the Dyson V15 Detect Vacuum and Dyson Pure Cool Formaldehyde, are the result of a £130m investment, we will invest an additional £2.75bn over the next five years.  
• In 2020 Dyson manufactured a product every 1.26 seconds.   
• Dyson undertook one of the broadest studies of Air Quality during lockdown, using our backpacks in 14 cities and 1,576,658 connected purifiers in homes around the world.   
• To understand changes in cleaning habits and awareness of dust science since the outbreak of the pandemic, Dyson launched its first annual Global Dust Study in 2020, interviewing 10,754 respondents around the world.  
• Dyson has been researching into the science of style for almost a decade. Its latest technology, the Dyson Corrale™ straightener was 7 years in the making and marked a £25m investment into research and development. Over 600 hours of user trials with real users were completed in 5 countries, including over 800 participants were conducted as part of the tool’s development.   
• To truly understand hair, Dyson commits half a billion GBP to fuel new beauty innovations. Expanding and accelerating our research and technology development across our beauty portfolio. Dyson announce plans to launch 20 new beauty products in the next four years. 
• Alongside this investment, Dyson releases the results of its most comprehensive hair research study—The 2022 Global Hair Study, deepening understanding of hair types, styling behaviours and perceptions of hair types and hair health around the world. 
• After three years of research and development and more than 700 prototypes, the Dyson Airblade 9kJ hand dryer is the fastest, most energy efficient HEPA-filtered hand dryer, and produces up to 85% less CO2 than paper towels and costs less than 99% to run in Eco mode. Globally, it is estimated that Dyson Airblade Technology dries more than 150m pairs of hands a day.   
• In 2020 The James Dyson Award reached the milestone of having financially supported over 200 young inventors and 65% of the international winners have gone on to commercialise their technology, against a backdrop where 90% of start-ups fail.   

Key Products  

• Dyson V15 Detect™: A new generation of cord-free vacuum cleaners, launched in March 2021, feature a precisely-angled laser beam that reveals hidden dust, while an acoustic piezo sensor measures and records the dust and debris that has been sucked up.   
• The Dyson Corrale™ straightener: is the only straightener to use flexing plates that shape to gather hair, this extra control enables styling with less heat and damage. It incorporates an intelligent sensor system to regulate and adjust the temperature of its plates 100 times per second. 
• The Dyson Purifier Cool Formaldehyde™: Now with precision solid-state formaldehyde sensing and catalytic formaldehyde destruction, Dyson’s newest generation of intelligent air purifiers is the most advanced yet in tackling airborne particle and gas pollutants. Its global network of connected purifiers means that Dyson has one of the most comprehensive pictures of global indoor air quality, helping Dyson engineers further understand the problems of air quality in homes and workplaces. 
• Dyson 360 Heurist™ robot vacuum: Dyson continued to increase its investment in robotics, The Dyson 360 Heurist™ robot vacuum combines the latest in mapping and navigational capabilities with patented Dyson technologies to provide powerful cleaning performance, effectively navigating the whole room and avoiding obstacles – even in low light.   
• Dyson Solarcycle™: New Dyson light tracks natural day light and intelligently transforms for different uses – providing the right light at the right time, precisely where it is needed. Engineered for versatility and inspired by natural light, it has unique local daylight tracking and delivers light throughout a room in four different formats – as an indirect, task, feature or ambient light.
• The latest Airblade™ technology, the Dyson Airblade™ 9kJ is a fast and energy efficient HEPA-filtered hand dryer. It delivers sheets of air travelling at 624 km/h that follow the contours of the user’s hands, scraping water from the surface in seconds. It produces less carbon dioxide than paper towels, and costs less to run, creating a better environment in washrooms and the world outside.