When you hear Sennheiser, you probably think of headphones first. The German manufacturer has a lot more to offer – and an interesting story to tell.
Sennheiser is a manufacturer of professional audio and conference technology. The family business also achieved great fame with headphones for end users. At the beginning of 2022, however, the consumer electronics division was sold to the Swiss hearing aid manufacturer Sonova, which is still allowed to use the Sennheiser brand name for headphones and in-ear headphones and soundbars. But what is the actual story behind Sennheiser?
Everything starts with a move
The electronics engineer Fritz Sennheiser worked at the Institute for High Frequency Technology and Electroacoustics at the Technical University in Hanover during World War II. Because the severe damage caused by the war soon made regular operation impossible, the institute was temporarily relocated to Wennebostel. Although most employees left the small town near Hanover after the end of the war, Fritz Sennheiser nevertheless decided to stay in Wennebostel. And just a few weeks later, in June 1945, he founded his first company, Labor W (W stands for Wennebostel), which initially produced measuring devices for Siemens.
As early as 1946, however, Labor W launched the MD1 microphone, the first milestone from what later became Sennheiser, which was followed a year later by the MD2. In 1956, Sennheiser presented its first shotgun microphone. The shotgun or interference microphone, in which the microphone body is a conceptual part of the design due to a built-in interference tube, is particularly suitable for situations in which miking at close range (usually for optical reasons) is not an option. Shotgun microphones are used, for example, as invisible microphones in cinema, film and television recordings. They can also be used as a plug-on directional microphone on video and film cameras or for telemetry measurements on fast-flying objects.
Together with the Norddeutscher Rundfunk, NDR, Sennheiser also developed a wireless microphone system for professional use in TV broadcasts, which was presented to the public in 1957. In 1958 the company was renamed Sennheiser Electronic.
Also read: What you should know about the manufacturer Sonos
Sennheiser – the gold standard for the TV and radio industry
In the years to come, Sennheiser professional microphones earned a reputation as the gold standard for radio and television. Hardly anything has changed to this day. And the name Sennheiser also became a quality concept for the end consumer. At the end of the 1960s, the Germans were swept up in hi-fi euphoria, and anyone who wanted to enjoy “their” music untroubled by any background noise could use Sennheiser headphones.
In 1982, the son of the company founder, Jörg Sennheiser, took over the management. The two grandsons, Daniel and Andreas Sennheiser, have been running the company since 2013. Since then, some major structural changes have been made. In 2017 and again in 2020, there was a need to cut jobs. The corona pandemic had almost brought the events industry to a standstill. As a result, the otherwise so coveted audio technology was no longer in demand within the usual range.
However, Sennheiser announced what is probably the most significant change in the company’s history in , which came into effect on March 1, 2022. Sennheiser has sold its consumer electronics division, which mainly includes headphones and in-ear headphones as well as soundbars for TV and hi-fi devices, to the Swiss hearing aid manufacturer Sonova for EUR 200 million. After almost 80 years, this means that Sennheiser has probably finally withdrawn from the business with end consumers. In the future, the people from Lower Saxony want to concentrate on professional studio and DJ headphones, professional microphones and digital conference systems.
Also Read: Best Over-Ear Noise Canceling Headphones
The brand name remains with the headphones
Even if this decision was a surprise even for many economic experts, one should have known almost twenty years ago that this division is not a sacred cow for Sennheiser. The company boss at the time, Jörg Sennheiser, already had this in an interview in 2005 manager magazine explains that the company “must be able to survive without the headphone segment.” The business magazine described this statement as “a bang” and “as if Metro were giving up its cash-and-carry markets”. After all, the consumer division accounted for 20 percent of sales at the time.
Last but not least, globalization and Corona have meant that Sennheiser now, around 17 years later, felt compelled to act. For end customers, however, hardly anything will change. The consumer products will probably continue to be manufactured in Wennebostel, albeit under the management of Sonova. And the name for the high-quality headphones and soundbars remains the same. Sennheiser has granted Sonova a perpetual license to use the brand name.