Sennheiser is open to selling their consumer audio busines

[spartaman64]

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Sennheiser announced on Tuesday it’s looking for a new partner to buy its consumer audio business, which consists of headphones and soundbars. It’s going to shift its focus entirely to professional audio, including its Neumann microphone division and what Sennheiser calls business communications.

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“To be best able to exploit the potential in each of these markets, we are concentrating our own resources on the three business areas in the Professional division and are looking for a strong partner to invest in our Consumer business,” Daniel Sennheiser, co-CEO of Sennheiser, says in the press release.

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More recently, headphone sales haven’t been as good as expected. Daniel Sennheiser said during the summer that “competitive pressure has increased significantly,” and its profit margins at the time were “under pressure.” It also cut 650 jobs worldwide, leaving the company with around 2,800 employees currently.

Sennheiser’s press release makes it seem like the company is interested in partners to fund its consumer audio business, but it isn’t opposed to selling it off completely. The Sennheiser brothers told Handelsblatt that “all options are open,” and that “it is important to us that all business areas emerge stronger from the realignment.”

source: https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/16/22285497/sennheiser-investors-selling-consumer-headphones-soundbars-business

 

It would suck if Sennheiser has to sell off their consumer business since they make some nice products and I'm not sure if we can be confident that whoever they sell to will maintain that standard. I'm not sure why they are in financial trouble since they seem to be one of the most successful headphone makers but hopefully they can get an investor to help fund their business instead. 

[TVwazhere]

3 minutes ago, spartaman64 said:

Daniel Sennheiser said during the summer that “competitive pressure has increased significantly,”

I have to wonder if this is referring to the audiophile market (beyerdymanic, AKG, etc) or the gaming headset market (Hyperx, Logitech) or possibly both. 

 

Currently I own 4 (5?) Sennheiser headsets, primarily because I love their comfort, sound, and especially mic quality (compared to most headsets) and having the consumer portion either partially or wholly owned by a new entity would make me reconsider my position as a consumer.

[gal-m]

No likey

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but also unsure as to what kind of effect this would have..

[gal-m]

4 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

I have to wonder if this is referring to the audiophile market (beyerdymanic, AKG, etc) or the gaming headset market (Hyperx, Logitech) or possibly both.

IF it's referring to the audiophile market then f*ck trying to get an RTX 3000 series GPU.

 

I'm going to need to stock up on some Sennheiser headphones  @TVwazhere

[Middcore]

3 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

I have to wonder if this is referring to the audiophile market (beyerdymanic, AKG, etc) or the gaming headset market (Hyperx, Logitech) or possibly both. 

 

Currently I own 4 (5?) Sennheiser headsets, primarily because I love their comfort, sound, and especially mic quality (compared to most headsets) and having the consumer portion either partially or wholly owned by a new entity would make me reconsider my position as a consumer.

Your avatar works so well for this post. 

[porina]

This I find interesting since in my previous job, Sennheiser business products were in direct competition, so I had the opportunity to compare them. In that context, I'd consider their headphone business to be consumer. As expensive as they may seem, it isn't exactly high volume and probably not driving high profits, which is easier in the business world. Especially in the "work from home" world we have moved towards for many office workers. That's not to say consumer isn't profitable, just that it may not provide the profit levels they expect and it is a business choice to move away from that.

 

On the flip side, the business market has a lot of people going for a slice of the action, so it will take focus to deliver the right products at the right time to get that profit. Consumer would distract from that.

[sub68]

*sad noises

15 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

 

Currently I own 4 (5?) Sennheiser headsets, primarily because I love their comfort, sound, and especially mic quality (compared to most headsets) and having the consumer portion either partially or wholly owned by a new entity would make me reconsider my position as a consumer.

me too

Thats the same when akg was acquired by samsung

[RejZoR]

I was buying wired earphones from Sennheiser and AKG almost religiously. When they all switched exclusively to shitty silicone ear tip in-ears I stopped bothering. In fact entire industry shifted to this silicone tip garbage. So I ended up buying AirPods 2 which were among rare few that even had buds that fit inside outer ear part and not inside god damn ear canal. So there, now I'm an AirPods user. And not by choice. Turns out they are actually really good and sound better than all Sennheiser and AKG ones I had before. All those were basically useless for games because they just couldn't handle any kind of bass. At all. AirPods 2, easily and they actually make quite nice deep bass.

[Derkoli]

Oh fucking hell.

[n0stalghia]

5 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

I have to wonder if this is referring to the audiophile market (beyerdymanic, AKG, etc) or the gaming headset market (Hyperx, Logitech) or possibly both. 

Scratch AKG off that list; they got sold to Samsung and their quality is not up there anymore. 

[bcredeur97]

To be fair, the average joe isn't looking for sennheiser products. 

They established themselves as more of a professional/pro-sumer solution. It was only recently they came out with lower tier products that appeal to the masses. 

Does this mean they'll get rid of the ye olde HD lineup with all their nicer headphones? 

Also recently got to experience some wireless stage-type mics from them. They are were 4 figures but god they were nice. the receivers even had oled screens lol

[it_dont_work]

7 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

I have to wonder if this is referring to the audiophile market (beyerdymanic, AKG, etc) or the gaming headset market (Hyperx, Logitech) or possibly both. 

Possibly, that market segment has never been a large part of their profit and is much more cluttered than it used to be with brands. 

 

They are on the other hand still a main staple and industry standard in the pro audio and production industry, and before I left audio and film production in the early 2000's made up the vast majority of equipment being used especially in theatre. 

[The Torrent]

gj i just got my hd800s already then

[poochyena]

I never really saw them as a consumer focused business to begin with. Quickly looking on amazon, most of their headphones are $200+ with the cheapest being $100, so I don't think this would really be a major change? Compared to, say, Sony that makes everything from $10 headphones to $300+.

 

[bcredeur97]

7 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

I have to wonder if this is referring to the audiophile market (beyerdymanic, AKG, etc) or the gaming headset market (Hyperx, Logitech) or possibly both. 

 

Currently I own 4 (5?) Sennheiser headsets, primarily because I love their comfort, sound, and especially mic quality (compared to most headsets) and having the consumer portion either partially or wholly owned by a new entity would make me reconsider my position as a consumer.

The quality and longevity is great too (at least it has been for me)

I've had my PC350's since I was 14 years old. I'm 23 now. I've had to change the earpads a couple times but they still work great. Lol

[Fasterthannothing]

Not surprising at all if you are into the Audio space you know by now the high end Chinese headphones (called ChiFi) are killing big name brands. They are making better sounding, better quality (I know better quality from china crazy right) and much cheaper Audio products. I would bet they sell to Drop since they do all collaborations with them.

[Zodiark1593]

I definitely really like the Sennheiser Momentum On-Ears That I have (bought six or seven years ago?!). While I use my Airpod Pros most often when actually being active, the Momentums have a home at my bedside as they’re far more comfortable, and are less finicky.
 

I have to swab my ears with isopropyl (where the earbud seals)  to clear up the oils to keep my AirPods in. Otherwise, they’ll inevitably break seal and fall out within a minute, which is a shame, because they work and fit fantastic when my ears are entirely dry.
 

Earbuds in general really don’t work well with my ears, which sucks as they’re the only thing I can get away with at work. So religious (and possibly not great for the ears) cleaning it is. 

[Spindel]

Meeeh, all Sennheiser ear/head phones I've tried have waaaaaaay to much bass. So I really don't care. 

 

But this news made me realize how much I miss Pioneers head/ear phones (there are still Pioneer branded head phones, but it is not the same as it was before Pioneer sold off that part, now it's only Pioneer in name).

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

To be fair... most Sennheiser products in the lower price range are absolute garbage...terrible build quality and noisy cables. AKG hasn't really been the same since Samsung took over them. K 240s for instance are fantastic. The Galaxy Buds and the headphones bundled with Galaxy phones branded AKG sound alright... but the noisy ass cable just ruins it. I have a pair and they're pretty much the reason why I went Bluetooth.