RHA Audio
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Origin North Ltd., formerly RHA Technologies Ltd., is a British independently owned audio company specialising in the design and production of in-ear
headphones Headphones are a pair of small loudspeaker drivers worn on or around the head over a user's ears. They are electroacoustic transducers, which convert an electrical signal to a corresponding sound. Headphones let a single user listen to an au ...
.


History

Origin North Ltd. (formerly RHA Technologies Ltd.) is an independent audio company based in
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
. The company was founded in 2011 by Thomas Heath and Andrew Reid. RHA being an acronym for Reid and Heath Acoustics. Before 2011 Reid and Heath operated another audio company called Audio Chi which was liquidated and they went on to start RHA (Reid and Heath Acoustics). In 2016, designer and co-founder Thomas Heath left the company to found Scottish watchmaker anOrdain. The company was listed on the
Sunday Times Fast Track 100 The Sunday Times Fast Track 100 was an annual league table published in association with ''The Sunday Times'' newspaper in the UK. It ranks Britain's 100 private companies with the fastest-growing sales over the last three years. It is published ...
which ranks the UK's fastest-growing privately held companies by sales growth (% per annum) over the past three years and for the 2017/18 season the company became a sponsor for the
Glasgow Warriors Glasgow Warriors are a professional rugby union side from Scotland. The team plays in the United Rugby Championship league and in the European Professional Club Rugby tournaments. In the 2014–15 season they won the Pro12 title and became t ...
professional
Rugby Union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...
team. In 2017, co-founder Andrew Reid won the EY 2017 Disruptor Entrepreneur Award for Scotland. Despite the company's relatively new presence in the market, it has become known as one of a small group of specialised British audio manufacturers producing high-quality audio products, by 2015 was sold in 40 countries globally and recently has become one of the key players in the global earbud market, alongside rivals such as
Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
,
Sennheiser Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG (, ) is a German privately held audio company specializing in the design and production of a wide range of high fidelity products, including microphones, headphones, telephone accessories and aviation headse ...
and
Bose Bose may refer to: * Bose (crater), a lunar crater * ''Bose'' (film), a 2004 Indian Tamil film starring Srikanth and Sneha * Bose (surname), a surname (and list of people with the name) * Bose, Italy, a ''frazioni'' in Magnano, Province of Biella ...
. In 2016, RHA launched their first portable DAC headphone amp, with their first wireless headphones, the MA650 and MA750, hitting the market the following year in 2017. By 2018, the company became the world's first to release in-ear planar magnetic headphones when they launched the product at the annual
IFA IFA or Ifa may refer to: Organisations Economics * Independent financial adviser, a type of financial services professional in the UK * Index Fund Advisors * Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, representing actuaries in the UK * Institute of Ac ...
show. In 2019, the company became the first in Scotland to qualify for a public funding initiative, using the funds to invest in further research & development of its products and in hiring new product designers and software engineers. 2019 was also the year that RHA launched their Wireless Flight Adapter, enabling
bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...
connectivity when using airline
In-flight entertainment In-flight entertainment (IFE) refers to the entertainment available to aircraft passengers during a flight. In 1936, the airship ''LZ 129 Hindenburg, Hindenburg'' offered passengers a piano, lounge, dining room, smoking room, and bar during the ...
systems. In 2021, RHA changed its name to Origin North Ltd and closed its Social Media accounts, and was then acquired by
Sonos SONOS, short for "silicon–oxide–nitride–oxide–silicon", more precisely, " polycrystalline silicon"—"silicon dioxide"—"silicon nitride"—"silicon dioxide"—"silicon", is a cross sectional structure of MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconduc ...
. The website in the old company name remains live.


Awards and recognition

RHA has won industry awards for their products. In 2015, the RHA T10i earbuds won a
Red Dot The Red Dot Design Award is a German international design prize awarded by Red Dot GmbH & Co. KG. There are prize categories for product design, brands and communication design, and design concept. Since 1955, designers and producers can apply ...
award for product design, furthermore in 2019 their CL2 Planar wireless earbuds won a Red Dot award for its 'striking design' and 'technical equipment'. At the CES show in 2017, the CL1 Ceramic in-ear headphone was named as a Best of Innovation Honouree. Furthermore, there have also been awards for RHA Audio's products at the Digit Zero1 Awards; in 2017 the MA750 wireless headphones won the wireless category award and in 2019 the CL2 Planar won the award for best performing wireless IEM headphone.


Products

Wireless * TrueConnect Wireless earbuds with Bluetooth 5. * MA650 Wireless earphones with flexible neckband (discontinued) * MA750 Wireless high fidelity earphones with HiFi aptX streaming (discontinued) * T20 Wireless high fidelity earphones with DualCoil Technology (discontinued) Wired * MA390 Universal earphones (discontinued) * MA650i earphones for Apple devices (discontinued) * MA750 high fidelity earphones (discontinued) * MA750i high fidelity earphones for Apple devices (discontinued) * T20 high fidelity earphones with DualCoil Technology (discontinued) * T20i high fidelity earphones with DualCoil Technology for Apple devices (discontinued) Adaptors * Wireless Flight Adapter Amplifiers * Dacamp L1 (discontinued)


References

{{Reflist British companies established in 2008