Technologies

Dyson Zone Review: The Weirdest Headphones We’ve Ever Tested

With their air-purifying face visor, the Dyson Zone headphones are certainly unusual. We put them to the test.

The Dyson Zone headphones have great sound, excellent noise canceling and its visor can filter out pollution to help you breathe easy. But at almost $1,000 they’re a tough sell, especially for anyone who doesn’t live or work in a place where airborne pollution is an issue, like a major city. A lot of headphone users simply won’t benefit from the air filtration system at the core of the Zone.

Having spent some time with my review model, I’m impressed with the audio quality and noise canceling, but their significant weight, bizarre appearance and limited appeal makes them tricky to recommend, at least to most people. Those of you with deep pockets and who walk or cycle through New York’s busy streets may well see the value in these unusual headphones. Everyone else will be better served by more traditional noise-canceling headphones.

Dyson’s Zone headphones go on sale globally towards the end of April and will cost $949 (£749, which is about AU$1,395 converted).

dyson-zone-review-cnet-2 — They’re not exactly subtle.

Andrew Lanxon/CNET

Dyson first showed off the Zone headphones last year and frankly we weren’t sure what to think. They’re huge over-ear headphones with metal grilles and a quirky removable face visor that sends purified air to your mouth and nose using micro compressors and filters inside the earcups. It’s certainly a first of its kind, and Dyson thinks it’s on to something.

Dyson Zone

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Great sound quality
Excellent active noise cancellation
Generous battery life for music
Air filtration could help reduce breathing problems in big cities

Don’t Like

High price
Extremely heavy
Built-in filtration has limited appeal beyond wealthy urbanites

The Zone is designed for urban use, for those of you walking or cycling through the world’s megacities where breathing ground-level air pollution is a serious problem. Then there’s the pollutants in underground subway systems, which can be worse than at street level. Dyson says its filter system captures 99% of airborne particle pollutants, including nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and airborne dust, which are especially problematic in cities.

Now, I can’t give a verdict on how well that actually works because funily enough I don’t have my own particle laboratory to test it scientifically. But I did go and see Dyson’s labs in the UK, where it’s spent over six years testing and refining the Zone using medical-grade mechanical lungs on mannequins in rooms full of pollutants to measure how many bad gases actually get inside those lungs. They also test how well it works on different-shaped heads and how effective the system is in different wind conditions.

Wearing the visor feels a bit weird, but it’s not uncomfortable. It snaps on magnetically to the headphone cups and sits a little in front of your face to blow a stream of cooling air around your mouth and nostrils. It feels nice.

The airflow is powered by the smallest motors Dyson has ever made — one motor in each earcup — but having them so close to your ears is a bit like having two hair dryers strapped to your head. The canceling helps reduce that noise, but you can still hear it, especially if you’re listening to gentle music or podcasts. I listen to a lot of metal from bands like Periphery and that certainly drowned out the motors when I cranked the volume up.

dyson-zone-review-cnet-11 — The air filters sit beneath the metal grilles. They’re easy to replace and each set should last a year.

Andrew Lanxon/CNET

The bigger issue for me, though, is that I personally just feel a bit silly wearing the visor out and about. I feel conspicuous, and it certainly attracted plenty of odd looks while I tested it. That said, I live in Edinburgh, a relatively clean city that isn’t the target for the Zone, so there’s little need to wear them here. I may feel differently on the streets of Paris or Beijing.

dyson-zone-review-cnet-13 — I like the overall look.

Andrew Lanxon/CNET

But it’s new and anything new often looks a bit odd at first. Face masks weren’t common on Western streets until the pandemic hit and now they’re perfectly normal to see out and about, so maybe this type of technology is something we’ll eventually get used to seeing. And Dyson does have a good track record of its unusual products going mainstream, with its bladeless fans and hand dryers being commonplace now, and its Air Wrap hair styler dominating TikTok beauty feeds the world over.

The filters are easy to access beneath the metal grilles of the earcups and Dyson says each set should last around a year before you need to replace them. The Dyson app tells you when they need replacing, while also giving information about the air quality in your area.

dyson-zone-review-cnet-5 — The Dyson app shows air quality in your area.

Andrew Lanxon/CNET

Pull the face mask off and they just become a standard pair of headphones — albeit big ones. Thanks to those motors, they weigh in at nearly 600 grams (21 ounces), making them extremely heavy. Significantly heavier than Apple’s AirPods Max, which we criticized for being too heavy — and they’re only 390 grams (13.6 ounces). Even so, the earcups are deeply cushioned, which helps make them comfy to wear for a couple of hours at a time. The headband fits securely, making them feel lighter than they are. I never felt they were at risk of slipping off while walking.

I’d be interested in a version where not just the filters and visor are removable, but the whole filtration unit can be disconnected when not needed. It’d make the headphones more comfortable for general use — say, while sitting at your desk for eight hours, or watching a movie at home — when you don’t need to worry about breathing outdoor pollution. It might also allow for models to be sold without the filtration for less money, while still letting you buy the filter system as an optional extra should you decide you need it. I’ll certainly be interested to see what a second-generation Zone looks like.

The active noise canceling is excellent though, with road noise kept to a minimum and the general background hum in cafes and bars removed almost entirely.

They offer a great, balanced tone too, with 40mm drivers providing excellent bass that gives a meaty but controlled kick on EDM tracks that doesn’t overwhelm the rest of the tones. As a result, higher frequencies from acoustic guitars, cymbals or strings sound crystal-clear. Tesseract’s track Hexes was reproduced with rich, warm bass, powerful hits on the kick drum and bright, defined cymbals and vocals.

dyson-zone-review-cnet-15 — Those are some big headphones.

Andrew Lanxon/CNET

Meanwhile, the shimmering high notes of the acoustic guitars and close-miked vocals in Enter Shikari’s acoustic version of Dreamer’s Hotel sounded superb.

Battery life for audio is a generous 50 hours, although that’ll drop to between 90 minutes and four hours with the air filtration on. But that should be enough for your commute into the office, where you can whack them on a charger for your journey home. Dyson says they can withstand being worn in the rain, but there’s no official water resistance rating here. So keep them tucked away during torrential downpours and try not to take them swimming.

There’s no question, then, that the Dyson Zone performs well as a set of headphones, but the fact remains that $949 is a hell of a lot of money and a huge chunk of that cost is for the air filtration system. So you’ll really need to consider how important that is to you in your everyday life. If you commute daily through the heart of polluted megacities walking alongside traffic or experiencing the stale air of a subway for hours every day, it could be a good investment in your long-term health. If you just want a pair of headphones, you can save yourself a bundle and look elsewhere.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Monday, May 19

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for May 19.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword is pretty easy. 5-Across, «one for whom every day is Boxing Day,» stumped me because I really wanted the answer to have something to do with cats. (Spoiler: It did not.) Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get at those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Network satirized on «30 Rock,» for short
Answer: NBC

4A clue: Sport played on horseback
Answer: POLO

5A clue: One for whom every day is Boxing Day?
Answer: MOVED

6A clue: Like correct letters in Wordle
Answer: GREEN

7A clue: Blend together
Answer: MELD

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: «Invisible Man» or «Little Women»
Answer: NOVEL

2D clue: Run in the wash
Answer: BLEED

3D clue: What bourbon whiskey is primarily made from
Answer: CORN

4D clue: Tiny hole in the skin
Answer: PORE

5D clue: Longtime movie studio acquired by Amazon in 2022
Answer: MGM

How to play more Mini Crosswords

The New York Times Games section offers a large number of online games, but only some of them are free for all to play. You can play the current day’s Mini Crossword for free, but you’ll need a subscription to the Times Games section to play older puzzles from the archives.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for May 19, #238

Hints and answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 238, for May 19.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Connections: Sports Edition might be tough today if, like me, you don’t know what «loge» means. Read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Brag.

Green group hint: Where’s my seat?

Blue group hint: City that never sleeps.

Purple group hint: Opposite of go.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Boast

Green group: Stadium seating sections

Blue group: New York Knicks

Purple group: ____ stop

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is boast. The four answers are crow, gloat, grandstand and showboat.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is stadium seating sections. The four answers are bleacher, loge, suites and upper deck.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is New York Knicks. The four answers are Bridges, Hart, McBride and Towns.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ stop. The four answers are back, jump, pit and short.

Technologies

Blade Runner: 18-Rotor «Volocopter» Moving from Concept to Prototype

It may look "nutty" and like a "blender," but the designers say the craft could challenge helicopters

Inventor and physicist Thomas Senkel created an Internet sensation with the October 2011 video of his maiden—and only—test flight of a spidery proof-of-concept 16-rotor helicopter dubbed Multicopter 1. Now the maker of the experimental personal aviation craft, the European start-up e-volo, is back with a revised «volocopter» design that adds two more rotors, a serial hybrid drive and long-term plans for going to 100 percent battery power.

The new design calls for 1.8-meter, 0.5-kilogram carbon-fiber blades, each paired with a motor. They are arrayed around a hub in two concentric circles over a boxy one- or two-person cockpit.

After awarding the volocopter concept a Lindbergh Prize for Innovation in April, Yolanka Wulff, executive director of The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation, admitted the idea of the multi-blade chopper at first seems «nutty.» Looking beyond the novel appearance, however, she says, e-volo’s concept excels in safety, energy efficiency and simplicity, which were the bases of the prize.

All three attributes arrive thanks largely to evolo’s removal of classic helicopter elements. First, the energy-robbing high-mass main rotor, transmission, tail boom and tail rotor are gone. The enormous blades over a normal chopper’s cabin create lift, but their mass creates a high degree of stress and wear on the craft. And the small tail rotor, perched vertically out on a boom behind the cabin, keeps the helicopter’s body from spinning in the opposite direction as the main blades, but it also eats up about 30 percent of a helicopter’s power.

The volocopter’s multiple rotor blades individually would not create the torque that a single large rotor produces, and they offer redundancy for safety. Hypothetically, the volocopter could fly with a few as 12 functioning rotors, as long as those rotors were not all clustered together on one side, says Senkel, the aircraft’s co-inventor and e-volo’s lead construction engineer.

Without the iconic two-prop configuration, the craft would be lighter, making it more fuel efficient and reducing the physical complexity of delivering power to the top and rear blades from a single engine. Nor would the volocopter need an energy-hungry transmission. In fact, «there will be no mechanical connection between the gas engine and the blades,» Senkel says. That means fewer points of energy loss and more redundancy for safety.

E-volo’s design eliminates the dependence on a single source of power to the blades. As a serial-hybrid vehicle, the volocopter would have a gas-fueled engine, in this case an engine capable of generating 50- to 75 kilowatts, typical of ultralight aircraft. Rather than mechanically drive the rotors, the engine would generate power for electric motors as well as charge onboard lithium batteries. Should it fail, the batteries are expected to provide enough backup power so the craft could make a controlled landing.

Whereas helicopters navigate by changing the pitch of the main and tail rotor blades, the volocopter’s maneuverability will depend on changing the speed of individual rotors. Although more complex, it is more precise in principle to control a craft using three to six redundant microcontrollers (in case one or more fails) interpreting instructions from a pilot using a game console–like joystick—instead of rudder pedals, a control stick and a throttle.

Wulff’s first impression about the volocopter’s design is not uncommon. E-volo’s computer-animated promotional videos of a gleaming white, carbon-fiber and fiberglass craft beneath a thatch of blades recall the many-winged would-be flying machines of the late 19th century. This point is not lost on Senkel.

«I understand these skeptical opinions,» he says. «The design concept looks like a blender. But we really are making a safe flying machine.»

That would be progress in itself. Multicopter 1 looked like something from an especially iffy episode of MacGyver, complete with landing gear that involved a silver yoga ball. Senkel rode seated amid all those rotors powered only by lithium batteries. Multicopter 1 generated an average of 20 kilowatts for hovering and was aloft for just a few minutes.

There’s a reason why the experimental craft flew briefly and only once.Senkel describes that first craft as «glued and screwed together.» Seated on the same platform as the spinning blades, he says, «I was aware of the fact that I will be dead, maybe. Besides, we showed that the concept works. What do we win if we fly it twice?» he asks rhetorically.

Other than putting the pilot safely below the blades, the revised volocopter design would operate largely the same as the initial prototype. The design calls for three to six redundant accelerometers and gyroscopes to measure the volocopter’s position and orientation, creating a feedback loop that gives the craft stability and makes it easier to fly, Senkel says.

The volocopter’s revised prototype under construction could debut as soon as next spring. The first production models, available in perhaps three years, are expected to fly for at least an hour at speeds exceeding 100 kilometers per hour and a minimum altitude of about 2,000 meters, still far shy of standard helicopter’s normal operating altitude of about 3,000 meters. «This could change our lives, but I don’t expect anything like that for 10 years,» Senkel adds.

Given that most of the technology needed to build the volocopter is already available, «this idea is fairly easy to realize,» says Carl Kühn, managing director of e-volo partner Smoto GmbH, a company that integrates electric drive systems and related components.

Like Senkel, Kühn has modest short-term expectations despite his repeated emphasis on the standard nature of the technology involved. «I guess that e-volo will have [a prototype] aircraft in three years that can do the job—that it will lift one or two persons from one point to another,» he says.

The biggest immediate limitations appear to be regulatory. For instance, European aviation regulators consider any electrical system greater than 60 volts to be high voltage and regulate such systems more aggressively, Kühn says. As a result, the volocopter will operate below that threshold. The craft will also need to weigh no more than 450 kilograms to remain in the ultralight category, which is likewise subject to fewer government aviation regulations, according to Senkel.

The Lindbergh Foundation’s Wulff says the organization’s judges felt e-volo had «a greater than 50 percent chance of succeeding, or they wouldn’t have given them the innovation award.» Asked if she would line up to fly one someday, she says, «I sure would. It looks very compelling to me.»