What's Up With Sennheiser? I Asked The Sennheisers.

[LaughMoreDaily]

From an oeconomic point of view, you simply can't compete with the chinese, I guess.

I've seen maybe five people wear Chinese company earphones in my area of Canada. Everyone is wearing Apple...

 

[tradyblix]

The HD800 will always remain a benchmark. It still has the best soundstage.

But yeah. This is sad but perhaps not unexpected, I'd wondered why there was no true HD900 released to complete with Meze, Abyss, Focal, Audeze and the rest. It's something you would have expected to have been in R&D for 7 or 8 years by now but they didn't want to and now we know why.

 

[Mediahound]

Of interest, in 2016 Sennheiser filed a patent for some new type of planar magnetic headphone drivers: https://patents.google.com/patent/DE102016108598A1/en

Sounds like that project may have never got off the ground, or is on hold unless they can find a new financial partner.

 

[leeperry]

Will existing products such as the HD800S, HD660, HD820 and others will continue being manufactured or are they being wound down.

They so much bumped their head really hard on the 820 pricing, I've listened to it extensively and it's nowhere near worth the asking price lol. I guess FOCAL prices let them dream on

 

[lambdastorm]

If i recall right, alex left sennheiser to form his own OEM/ODM company? I remember sennheiser wanting to work with his company, which means alex still plays a role in sennheiser's audiophile segment.

 

[darkarn]

I think the pro division is for business (non-audio) businesses. For instance they have an amazing conference room audio solution that they tailor to the client.

Thanks, I thought the pro division is for pro audio too aside from corporate communication devices

I think most of what “pro” refers to here may be their business geared products. Maybe microphones and audio intended for conferences, calls, presenting. If you check their pro product page, it features mics, headphones we never talk about in our community, and wireless systems for presenting.

Thanks, indeed I saw most Sennhieser shops here making these more prominent now rather than headphones/IEMs unless it is an audiophile shop

not really as they are more expensive than most studios are willing to pay for something that is seen as basically a disposable. Most studios I have had the privilege of being in have used models costing <$100 as they have to replace them fairly frequently. Also most studio models are closed back. I've seen AKG 551, Sony 7506, Beyer 770, ATH-M40, Shure 440s. The Senn I have seen are things like the 280 and 25.

I'm hopeful that Jude's conversation with Sennheiser is genuinely the path that will be followed, but only a fool would come out and say we intend to close it down and sell the division to the highest bidder as that would create a fire drill at Sennheiser and tank their market for existing products as I know I wouldn't be in the market for a $1500 headphone where the warranty was called into question immediately. Time will tell.

Thanks, quite surprising to hear that headphones are disposable gear for studios; I thought they would be better taken care of

No, not really. All of the studios I've visited are using high end monitors as their reference point. Headphones are primarily used for tracking and occasional monitoring use where I see an abundance of BeyerDynamic phones, mostly DT770s and 880s, plus a few Sennheiser HD25's - these phones tend to survive musicians tantrums hence their popularity in studios.

Yeah some studios do have the likes of the HD600/650/800 plus FOTM headphones kicking around, but they're really for checking mixes to see if they translate on HiFi headphones - Remember that the vast majority of the public listen on the things that came with their smartphones so that's the priority when mixing and mastering for most popular music.

Ah thanks, I didn't know much about studio headphones actually; thought that the HD600/650 would be more heavily used due to their unbeaten tonal accuracy. Helps to explain why my beyerdynamic headphones can hold up for at least 7 years now too

As an aside, has anyone here received an email from Sennheiser about being a part of their new Sennheiser Explorer program? I am from Singapore, which is one of the countries selected for it (I saw the US and Canada being part of this too?) and joined it.

They are showing some questionnaires about headphone usage etc and even gave me some test videos that appear to be advertisements and asked what I thought about them.

Something tells me that this may be related to these changes to the consumer section for Sennheiser...

 

[iDesign]

If i recall right, alex left sennheiser to form his own OEM/ODM company? I remember sennheiser wanting to work with his company, which means alex still plays a role in sennheiser's audiophile segment.

He is a consultant through Grell Audio and recently completed several projects for Urbanista.

 

[jbarrentine]

This is why there have been years of unfathomable rumors of discontinuing the hd600/650, etc. Regardless of all the corporate babble I'm still in the camp thinking the audiophile shop is closing down unless some magical investor who likes to lose money shows up and rescues it. Maybe Elon Musk will come out of the closet as a Sennbro and give them a billion dollars, but I really doubt it.

The market is full of people who wear beats and cheap crap and it's "good enough" for them because they don't (and won't) know better. There's probably no upside here and it's just a matter of time.

 

[Unseen Aura]

The pertinent question is "why?" Why can't S innovate like virtually all Chinese manufacturers?

It's their company, it's about what's best for them, just like any of us would do what's best for us. No matter how many audiophiles have tried to shove their perspectives and opinions on me, I have not listened once. Reckon I'd be happy if I did? No chance, they were already pissing me off with their attitude and warnings of how I'll regret wasting 3 grand without ever trying a million other headphones out there first.

Other option is make your own (company/headphones/etc) if you're not happy with what others have to offer. That's what Antonio Meze did, nothing on the market was what he wanted and naturally they wouldn't make what they didn't want to, so he did what's best for him. And made his own. Most folks aren't willing to take that route, they want what they want handed to them all made and ready.

 

[Joey B.]

I don't see why they would cancel the audiophile line. Even if the scale is small, Sennheiser does not exactly bring out new models at a rapid pace. I can better understand the problem in the mass consumer market. The HD 6xx series uses a basic chassis design dating back to the 90s. Combined with the increased scale of Drop, surely there is a good profit to be had there.

 

[jbarrentine]

I don't see why they would cancel the audiophile line. Even if the scale is small, Sennheiser does not exactly bring out new models at a rapid pace. I can better understand the problem in the mass consumer market. The HD 6xx series uses a basic chassis design dating back to the 90s. Combined with the increased scale of Drop, surely there is a good profit to be had there.

Apparently sales are not justifying expenditures. It's pretty obvious they're in the red in this particular aspect of business or they wouldn't be taking these steps. We don't have access to their books, but they fired what, 20-25% of the company and closed their entire retail presence....those are not signs of profit.

 

[Mediahound]

I don't see why they would cancel the audiophile line. Even if the scale is small, Sennheiser does not exactly bring out new models at a rapid pace. I can better understand the problem in the mass consumer market. The HD 6xx series uses a basic chassis design dating back to the 90s. Combined with the increased scale of Drop, surely there is a good profit to be had there.

Sales are likely trailing off for the existing models which are frankly becoming long in the tooth. And R&D for new models is EXPENSIVE.

 

[Slaphead]

Ah thanks, I didn't know much about studio headphones actually; thought that the HD600/650 would be more heavily used due to their unbeaten tonal accuracy. Helps to explain why my beyerdynamic headphones can hold up for at least 7 years now too

Therein lies the rub. What you, as a listener, would consider to be unbeaten tonal accuracy is definitely not what a professional audio engineer would consider to be tonally accurate.

The HD600/650 sound really good, from a listener's perspective, but from a production perspective they're a no go - the 650 is way too coloured to give a realistic impression of what a mix will sound like on other equipment. The 600 is better in that respect, but if I had to mix with headphones I'd go with the DT800 or one of the AKG K/Q 70X models. Old school headphone models for sure, but they are for the most part tonally flat. Even though the 650, which is also of the same vintage, provides subjectively a better listening experience, objectively it's not suited to audio work as a result of being too coloured in it's presentation.

 

[iDesign]

Therein lies the rub. What you, as a listener, would consider to be unbeaten tonal accuracy is definitely not what a professional audio engineer would consider to be tonally accurate.

The HD600/650 sound really good, from a listener's perspective, but from a production perspective they're a no go - the 650 is way too coloured to give a realistic impression of what a mix will sound like on other equipment. The 600 is better in that respect, but if I had to mix with headphones I'd go with the DT800 or one of the AKG K/Q 70X models. Old school headphone models for sure, but they are for the most part tonally flat. Even though the 650, which is also of the same vintage, provides subjectively a better listening experience, objectively it's not suited to audio work as a result of being too coloured in it's presentation.

Far from reality. The HD580/HD600/HD650 have been dominant in recording studios since their release and are still used by engineers like Stephan Flock, Mandy Parnell, and countless others. It is among the most highly regarded series of headphones ever designed and it’s status in studios is no doubt legendary.

 

[Jones Bob]

I wonder if Sennheiser will still be selling service parts. From what I can gather, a major component that gives the HD650/6XX it’s unique sonic signature is the ear pads. They compress/wear over time. Hate to see the OEM replacements dry up.