Hasta La Ideas

It was only a few years ago that James Dyson and his crack team of engineers (all of whom we like to imagine wearing jaunty striped shirts as they labor to achieve incremental yet significant improvements upon previously undesirable household appliances) debuted the Air Multiplier, a bladeless wonder that did for blowing what Dyson’s streamlined vaccuums did for sucking. A new range of the distinctive shaped fans is here, and it’s even cooler—literally.

Dubbed “Dyson Cool,” the new fans are up to 75% quieter than their predecessors, a fact that has not escaped the watchful ears of those at the delightfully named Noise Abatement Society, which has—with no bells and whistles—awarded its Quiet Mark to the new Air Multiplier technology. Dyson engineers managed to hush the fan by reducing the turbulence of high-velocity air, cancelling out specific tones: notably those buzzy ones at 1,000Hz, which are similar to the frequency of the noise produced by the incessant wing beat of mosquitoes. This feat was achieved in part by the addition of something called a “Helmholtz cavity,” which we like to imagine was also the name of a young Dyson’s garage band. The price for all of this innovation? Dyson estimates the R&D costs at $65 million. The desktop AM06 model will set you back $299.99, but you’ll be all the cooler for it.

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