Sennheiser’s headphone business has been bought by hearing aid manufacturer Sonova

Discussion in 'Headphones' started by Retskrad, May 7, 2021.

  1. Retskrad

    Retskrad New

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  2. Benny-x

    Benny-x New

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    I'm happy someone already made the thread.

    What do we all think of this?

    Across all the headphones and tastes and so on across the years, Sennheiser has always been there with a headphone that mattered. Maybe not anymore? I forget the name of their rockstar engineer who left 1-2 years ago.
     
  3. Retskrad

    Retskrad New

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    -
     
    Last edited: May 7, 2021
  4. Jay

    Jay Facebook Friend

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    I predict the product being teased is an HD 820S.
     
  5. supertransformingdhruv

    supertransformingdhruv Almost "Made"

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    Axel Grell? I think I read something on reddit about him doing true wireless & noise cancelling headphones with a fashion brand earlier this year.
     
  6. Pancakes

    Pancakes Friend

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    At the very least, the unit has been taken over by someone specializing in audio reproduction. Could have been a much worse beginning. There may be cool stuff in the future.

    Can you imagine if IKEA for example had taken over?
     
  7. Jay

    Jay Facebook Friend

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    I for one look forward to a dresser with a frequency response of 10-35,000 hz with an impedance of 300 ohms.
     
  8. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    Maybe not an exact match for those specs, but here's the JBL Paragon...
    [​IMG]
     
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  9. netforce

    netforce MOT: Headphones.com

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    Yeah he was working with Urbanista:
    https://techbuzzireland.com/2020/05...less-with-anc-truewireless-anc-urbanistalife/

    And now he has his own Grell Audio:
    https://www.grellaudio.com/

    It used to be a little more fleshed out of a site with a TWS on it. So the TWS might be his new passion!

    ----------
    For Sonova, it could be interesting to see what happens with the acquisition. My main question are what are they going to do with the Sennheiser consumer section.

    Sennheiser by their own annual report:
    https://en-de.sennheiser.com/annual-report

    They had 756.7m for revenue in 2019. And then a breakdown of the consumer division Sonova acquired:
    [​IMG]

    The premium headphones by far the part of Sennheiser Consumer Division that Sonova wanted. You get access to Sennheiser's massive distribution chain globally, from the big box stores like the Best Buys to the ever valuable airport stores. The acquisition won't be complete until later this year anyway but interesting what Sonova will do with the brand.

    I can see a few things happening, Sonova uses Sennheiser to help expand their own brand or use Sennheiser resources and integrate it with their current business.

    Sonova could own Sennheiser Consumer and just be very hands off and let the team at Sennheiser be more or less autonomous and work on their own projects.

    They could be like the hedge fund that bought Westone and installed an awful board of directors that ultimately ran the company into the ground before being sold off once again years later.

    Its pretty interesting to see and time will tell what direction Sonova will take Sennheiser. The hearing aid world is a bit foreign to me but it looks like 6 brands control 98% of the market with Sonova being the biggest just slightly edging out rival barely:
    https://hearinghealthmatters.org/he...stores-prospects-of-major-hearing-aid-makers/

    And their financials they as well posted for last year:
    https://relaunch.sonova.com/cdn/ff/.../2020-11/Sonova_Halbjahresbericht_2020_en.pdf
     
  10. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    I was kinda hoping that Sennheiser would pair up with the other German giants AKG and Beyerdynamic since they all have one foot in pro and one foot in consumer. A consolidation of their consumer efforts would have been really interesting.
     
    Last edited: May 7, 2021
  11. Hrodulf

    Hrodulf Prohibited from acting as an MOT until year 2050

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    AKG is owned by Harman and Beyer are still diffuse field tuning fans. I think Sonova is a good scenario.
     
  12. CEE TEE

    CEE TEE MOT: NITSCH

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    Audiophile = wired? I have a particular hope. :cool:
     
  13. Riotvan

    Riotvan Snoofer in the Woofer

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    Read a post by a Dutch guy who works for Sennheiser, he was very happy with the aquisition. Mentioned that the RnD budget will see a big boost and that there are several products which never got out of development might see a release.
     
  14. bixby

    bixby Friend

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    I see one of their hearing aid brands is Phonak. Wondering if the old Phonak Audeo IEMs came from Sonovo. I owned and liked them for a while on my IEM journey.

    The Phonak Audeo hearing aids are pricey, well into triple digits per ear, eek!
     
  15. Pancakes

    Pancakes Friend

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    I think it's the same company they just changed names from Phonak to Sonovo at some point in the 2000s.
     
  16. Shoop_Ah

    Shoop_Ah New

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    Finally some good news. Can't wait to see what Sennheiser can do. I love the fancy designs of many other brands, but ultimately the sennheiser reliability keeps people coming back. Considering how the hd800 is quite old, I think they can make an incredible flagship or a 650 with wider soundstage
     
  17. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Too many employees for the revenue, too many of them still work in Germany where cost of labor is high. After years of slowly outsourcing outside of Germany to Ireland or Romania, I figured owners said f**k it. It's hard to do mass layoffs in Germany like in the good ol' USA. Sell it, take the money, and let someone else deal with it.

    Sonova CEO is probably a man who lives in a high castle in Switzerland. Harder for laid-off workers to reach and keel him. Curious acquisition for Sonova.
     
  18. kman1211

    kman1211 New

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    AKG and Harman is owned by Samsung now. Considering Beyer went with a completely new tuning on their new flagships not sure if they’re are still quite diffuse field tuning fans anymore.
     
  19. Jay

    Jay Facebook Friend

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