Sennheiser open to selling their consumer audio branch
Feb 16, 2021 at 2:09 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 16

XM3orZ7m2

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Link to article: Sennheiser open to selling their consumer audio branch

Long ago Tyll and many regarded Sennheiser as the most capable audio company, it's sad to see this news, especially since they sold their gaming audio department a while back too.

Sennheiser was my first headphone buy, so I've been rooting for them to make a comeback, looks bleak now though.

F
 
Feb 16, 2021 at 2:33 PM Post #2 of 16
Link to article: Sennheiser open to selling their consumer audio branch

Long ago Tyll and many regarded Sennheiser as the most capable audio company, it's sad to see this news, especially since they sold their gaming audio department a while back too.

Sennheiser was my first headphone buy, so I've been rooting for them to make a comeback, looks bleak now though.

F

Well, of course I saw your post after I posted mine. If mods want to delete mine that'd be fine. Personally, I'm pretty bummed as well. I consider their run of quality and innovation to be the most impressive of this little industry.

Do products like the orpheus get made by companies with shareholders and a board of directors?
 
Feb 16, 2021 at 3:05 PM Post #3 of 16
I hope that whoever buys them keeps the same level of research and innovation, and just general high quality. Fingers crossed. (as you can see from my profile picture, crossing my fingers may be impossible .....)
 
Feb 16, 2021 at 9:48 PM Post #5 of 16
I hope that whoever buys them keeps the same level of research and innovation, and just general high quality. Fingers crossed. (as you can see from my profile picture, crossing my fingers may be impossible .....)

I hope whoever buys them turns the company back into the level of innovation and research as 2010 Sennheiser. They had such a head start to make it big in this decade. Maybe a chifi buyer would be good in accelerating product releases and innovative for the brand, as well as lower prices.
 
Feb 19, 2021 at 2:58 PM Post #6 of 16
I am very worried about this. How can we be sure that their level of industry-leading quality-control will remain as it's always been? By 2023, will we start seeing a bunch of Sennheiser headphones with channel-imbalances, build-quality issues where the headbands crack, etc.? Will their amazingly great two year warranty coverage remain as it is, and will their customer-service stay as good? As an owner of the HD560s, should I be worried that I may have trouble getting them to honor the warranty if I need some kind of repair in a year or so?

Overall, the fact is that this decision by Sennheiser does not sit well with me; the company is so good at what they do that I don't think I can trust any company OTHER than Sennheiser themselves to oversee the production of their headphones. They're known for the best quality-control and some of the best customer-service in the entire industry, and I certainly don't want that to change. If that happens, it'll be the end of an era for headphone-audiophiles, and something that I and many others will mourn/grieve over.

And none of that is even mentioning the worst-case scenario: Depending on who they sell to, they may both discontinue a lot of their good audiophile headphones (Will the HD560s disappear as quickly as they appeared? Will we see the end of the era of the HD6__'s series headphones... I mean, who's to say that the company they sell to will want to keep selling the HD600, 650, and 660s? Etc.), and just as bad, they might start making headphones with a "mainstream consumer-oriented" slant so that they can get sales up and try to see if they can get Wal-Mart and Best Buy to carry their headphones in-person in stores rather than just online. What if they start making stuff with sound-signatures like Beats and Skullcandy (ugh), while neglecting to care about things like distortion or perfect channel-balance anymore, in an attempt for mass-appeal and high sales? What if they stop researching and making new open-back models? What if they stop caring about detail-resolution? Etc. There is a quite non-zero chance that one, some, or all of those things could result as an outcome of this scenario. And I think we can all agree that such a thing would be tragic.
 
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Feb 19, 2021 at 5:31 PM Post #7 of 16
It is definitely the end of an era. The article mentions that they were late to the game to wireless headphones but they were pretty early, they just didn't keep up with innovation from other companies. It's also pretty jarring that their best selling models are those that have been engineered more than a decade ago. Has 10+ years of experience not taught them anything? Where is the next-gen successor to the 600 series? It seems like the executives have milked their innovation from 10+ years ago dry and are now planning to exit now that ignoring innovation has put them into a hole on the current market.

Over the years it seems like Sennheiser has turned from a engineering-first company to a sales-first company, and ultimate consequence is that the brand name will be the last thing the executives will be able to sell.
 
Feb 19, 2021 at 5:54 PM Post #8 of 16
It is definitely the end of an era. The article mentions that they were late to the game to wireless headphones but they were pretty early, they just didn't keep up with innovation from other companies. It's also pretty jarring that their best selling models are those that have been engineered more than a decade ago. Has 10+ years of experience not taught them anything? Where is the next-gen successor to the 600 series? It seems like the executives have milked their innovation from 10+ years ago dry and are now planning to exit now that ignoring innovation has put them into a hole on the current market.

Over the years it seems like Sennheiser has turned from a engineering-first company to a sales-first company, and ultimate consequence is that the brand name will be the last thing the executives will be able to sell.

Actually there's some good news here guys! It turns out that the articles from places like Verge are using the term "sell" to over-exaggerate the situation as a clickbaitey way to get more hits on their articles; I dunno why I thought sensationaliist online journalism could be trusted, lol.

Here is the actual OFFICIAL STATEMENT from Sennheiser: Sennheiser's Actual Statement on Their Plans Rather than Some Sensationalist Clickbait Article from Verge

Sennheiser is NOT looking to SELL their Consumer Audio division to an entirely different company. They are looking for a PARTNER/INVESTOR. I learned this from DM-ing one of their sponsors on here who I regularly talk to, and he provided me with that link and this info. It turns out, this is probably a GOOD thing. Sennheiser is looking for an investment-partner for PRECISELY the reasons you are referring to: They want additional funds so they can do a huge amount of research to revamp their consumer audio department and start coming out with some great new stuff! As it turns out, this business decision right here could be precisely what LEADS to the next-gen successor to the 600 series that you've expressed hope we will see! This could be what leads to upgraded versions of the 600, 650, and 660s that have much better sub-bass extension and an actual soundstage, as well as a new 800 that has all the 800's great qualities but without its terrible treble-spike!

Sennheiser has already shown interest in researching and developing such upgrades very recently (as of the last six months or so) by coming out with the HD560s; sure, it has the plastic build of other HD500's series headphones, and it doesn't have AS much detail-resolution as the HD600's series (although its detail is amazing for a $200 headphone). But it has a VERY neutral tuning (other than a slight treble-spike, but it's not nearly as bad as Beyer, AKG, or Grado treble) unlike any of the other HD500's series, and MUCH better bass-extension and soundstage than the HD600's series. And the HD560s has in fact been selling VERY well, so well in fact that it keeps going out of stock on Amazon, from Best Buy, from BH Photo and Video, and even from Sennheiser's own online store!

It looks like Sennheiser is looking to continue to do the kind of R&D that led to the release of the HD560s, but that to do so on a much bigger scale, they need an investment-partner. They aren't outright selling their consumer audio division: This isn't like AKG being outright bought by Samsung, but rather it's Sennheiser looking for a partnership.
 
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Feb 19, 2021 at 6:51 PM Post #9 of 16
If the previous world leaders needs help, that's still a bad sign imo. I think they are looking for a partner like how they did with their gaming products: Sennheiser contributes the brand name and not much else.
 
May 7, 2021 at 8:36 AM Post #10 of 16
May 8, 2021 at 7:21 AM Post #13 of 16
Sad day. Was just talking to my bro how nice it is that sennheiser exists and almost every normal person can buy them selves quality bice sounding headphones for relatively good prices and never look back.
And today this happens, so long Sennheiser( you made some of all time best headphones in the late 80's anyway).
To quote Freddie Mercury : Another one bites the dust...
 
May 8, 2021 at 7:51 AM Post #14 of 16
Sonova is the same company that bought Phonak, which had their PFE-series IEMs about a decade ago and have not released anything since then, so that is not a good sign...
Actually that's not correct. Phonak and Sonova are the same company - Phonak is the name of the company before 2007, Sonova is the name of the company after 2007 (*where Phonak remains as a brand name but not as company name). In fact, Sonova buying Sennheiser headphones business means technically the company is back into the headphones business since it closed down the Phonak IEM division.
 
May 8, 2021 at 8:05 AM Post #15 of 16
Actually that's not correct. Phonak and Sonova are the same company - Phonak is the name of the company before 2007, Sonova is the name of the company after 2007 (*where Phonak remains as a brand name but not as company name). In fact, Sonova buying Sennheiser headphones business means technically the company is back into the headphones business since it closed down the Phonak IEM division.

Assuming Sonova is going to try to make up for loss profits from their Phonak purchase with Sennheiser products does not make it fact. If anything, I spoke to a Sennheiser consumer representative during CanJam@RMAF in 2014 and they said at that time that their bread-and-butter is open-back headphones, so making a new closed back (my criticism of the HD250 being discontinued in 2007) would take too much costs and resources from the company. Well, the eventually created the HD820, which brought them to the point of selling. Sonova has not proven itself to be engaged in consumer audio then, so I am not going to assume that they are willing to be engaged in consumer audio with the purchase of Sennheiser audio. Subsidiaries of companies does not make them oranges to apples because the company owns those subsidiaries, making those companies the determining subjects of those subsidiaries.
 

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