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

microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike (), is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and public ...

headphone 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 ...

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...

accessories and

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...

headsets for personal,

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...

and business applications. The company's head office is located in Wedemark, near Hanover, and the company is represented in more than 50 countries worldwide. The German company was founded in 1945 by Fritz Sennheiser and it is still an independent family business. Since 2013, Daniel Sennheiser and Andreas Sennheiser have been co-CEOs. They are the third generation of the Sennheiser family to lead the company. According to its own figures, the Sennheiser Group has around 2,801 employees worldwide. In 2019, the total turnover amounted to €756.7 million.

History

The company was founded in 1945, just a few weeks after the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Fritz Sennheiser Fritz Sennheiser (9 May 1912 – 17 May 2010) was a German inventor and entrepreneur who founded and served as chairman of Sennheiser Electronic, a manufacturer of audio equipment. Biography Early life and education Born in Berlin on 9 ...

(1912–2010) and seven fellow engineers of the

University of Hannover Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover (german: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität), also known as the University of Hannover, is a public research university located in Hanover, Germany. Founded on 2 May 1831 as Higher Vocational Sc ...

in a laboratory called Laboratorium Wennebostel (shortened, "Labor W"). The laboratory was named after the village of Wennebostel in the municipality of

Wedemark Wedemark ( Eastphalian: ''Wiemark'') is a municipality in the district of Hanover, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Wedemark is a historical landscape description for the area and is situated approximately 20 km north of Hanover. It ranks third on a ...

to where it had been moved due to the war. Its first product was a

voltmeter A voltmeter is an instrument used for measuring electric potential difference between two points in an electric circuit. It is connected in parallel. It usually has a high resistance so that it takes negligible current from the circuit. Ana ...

. Lab W began building microphones in 1946 with the DM1, and began developing them in 1947 with the DM2. By 1955, the company had 250 employees, and had begun production of many products including geophysical equipment, the Noise-Compensated microphone (DM4), microphone transformers, mixers, and miniature magnetic headphones. Labor W was renamed 'Sennheiser electronic' in 1958. In the late 1950s/early 1960s, Sennheiser met Thomas Schillinger. Schillinger was tasked with starting Sennheiser's presence in the United States. Sennheiser was transformed into a limited partnership ( KG) in 1973. In 1980, the company entered the aviation market, supplying

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding m ...

with headsets. The company began producing modern

wireless microphones A wireless microphone, or cordless microphone, is a microphone without a physical cable connecting it directly to the sound recording or amplifying equipment with which it is associated. Also known as a radio microphone, it has a small, battery- ...

in 1982, the same year when founder Fritz Sennheiser handed the management of the company over to his son, Jörg Sennheiser. In 1987, Sennheiser was awarded at the 59th Academy Awards for its MKH 816 shotgun microphone. Also in 1991, Georg Neumann GmbH, Berlin, which builds studio microphones, became a part of Sennheiser. In 2003 Sennheiser entered into a joint venture with the Danish company, William-Demant-Holding, a specialist in hearing aids, diagnostic technology and personal communication. Sennheiser Communications A/S was founded. 2005: Sennheiser acquired the speaker manufacturer Klein + Hummel. Daniel Sennheiser, grandson of the founder, joined the company in 2008. In 2010 his brother Andreas Sennheiser also did so. Both are shareholders of the company. On July 1, 2013, Daniel Sennheiser and Andreas Sennheiser were promoted to the position of CEO responsible for Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG. In 2014 Sennheiser founded the new subsidiary "Sennheiser Streaming Technology GmbH (SST)", which develops streaming solutions for software and hardware. In 2019 Sennheiser acquired a majority stake in Dear Reality, a company that specializes in spatial audio algorithms and VR/AR audio software. In 2021, Sennheiser sold its consumer audio division to the Swiss based hearing aid manufacturer

Sonova Sonova Holding AG (Phonak Holding AG before 1 August 2007) is an internationally active Swiss group of companies headquartered in Stäfa that specializes in hearing care (hearing instruments, cochlear implants, wireless communication). The Sonov ...

Group.

Locations

Sennheiser is headquartered in the municipality of

, Germany (near

Hannover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German States of Germany, state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germa ...

). Its United States headquarters is located in

Old Lyme Old Lyme is a coastal town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The main street of the town, Lyme Street, is a historic district with several homes once owned by sea captains. Lyme Academy of Fine Arts is located in Old Lyme and ther ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. The company has factories in Wennebostel (Wedemark, near Hannover); Tullamore, Ireland (since 1990);

Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

(since 2000) and in

Brașov Brașov (, , ; german: Kronstadt; hu, Brassó; la, Corona; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Kruhnen'') is a city in Transylvania, Romania and the administrative centre of Brașov County. According to the latest Romanian census (2011), Brașov has a popu ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

(since 2019). Some consumer products are made in China. Sennheiser's R&D facilities are located in Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Singapore, and

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. Sennheiser has a total of 21 sales subsidiaries and trading partners and is active in more than 50 countries. The company opened its first Sennheiser store in 2016 to make products accessible to customers. Sennheiser now has a total of seven stores in Berlin, San Francisco, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Mexico City and Sydney and at its headquarters in Wedemark. In 2016 there was a temporary store in New York.

Products

Sennheiser developed the directional microphone model MD 421 in 1960; this microphone was quickly adopted for professional

broadcasting Broadcasting is the distribution (business), distribution of sound, audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio ...

applications, for music recording studios and for live concert performances. The MD 421 is an industry standard; more than 500,000 units have been produced. Sennheiser was mainly known for its consumer headphones and professional headphones and microphones, such as the MKH 416 short shotgun, which came to be the Hollywood standard

shotgun microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike (), is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and public ...

; and the 816, similar in design with longer reach. It also makes the Orpheus headphone set; wireless microphones; aviation, multimedia and gaming headsets; micro-Hifi systems; conferencing systems; speakers; and amplifiers. Sennheiser consisted of two independent business units: its consumer division and the professional audio division. The consumer division produced a range of headphones and home entertainment speakers. While the professional audio division produces products for live music, DJing, theater, studio, broadcast, film and video as well as 3D audio and AR/VR/XR. It also includes solutions for business communication like presentations, conferences, meetings, visitor guidance, hearing support and the education sector.

CEOs

Andreas Sennheiser is a German business executive, known for serving as chief executive officer of Sennheiser.Why Sennheiser Electronic is bringing production home from China
IndiaTimes He took over as CEO along with his brother Daniel Sennheiser on July 1, 2013. Andreas was born in 1974 in Zurich, and earned a doctorate in Supply Chain Management from the

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology The Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology are two institutes of higher education in Switzerland (part of the ETH Domain): * Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland *Swiss people ...

in Zurich in 2004. Sennheiser Electronic was founded by his grandfather, Fritz Sennheiser, and he joined the family business with his brother Daniel. In 2013, both Daniel and Andreas were promoted to the position of CEO. Andreas focused on gaming handsets and affordable wireless headphones including Sennheiser PC350. Along with his brother Daniel, they entered the music business in 2014.

Research and development

Overview

Sennheiser has a total of four research and development sites in Germany, Switzerland, the US and Singapore. In addition, the Innovation Campus in Wennebostel opened in 2015 with 7,000 square meters of space. The company invested a total of 60.5 million euros in research and development in 2018.

AMBEO 3D Audio

The AMBEO technology program is supposed to cover immersive audio products and activities from recording through processing and mixing to playback. According to the company, the technology is applicable in areas such as realistic live concert broadcasts, sports broadcasting, 3D recordings, exhibition installations, VR/AR/XR applications and 3D audio for the home. Sennheiser has been recording 9.1 music since 2010 and has developed an upmix algorithm that generates 9.1 music from conventional stereo recordings. The AMBEO Music Blueprints provide information about the recording, mixing and playback of live music in 3D audio. The first AMBEO product to be introduced in 2016 was the AMBEO VR Mic for professional VR/AR/XR sound recording. Sennheiser created the first augmented audio listening accessory for

Magic Leap Magic Leap, Inc. is an American technology company that released a head-mounted virtual retinal display, called ''Magic Leap One'', which superimposes 3D computer-generated imagery over real world objects, by "projecting a digital light field i ...

’s AR/VR goggles, the AMBEO AR One.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Audio equipment manufacturers of Germany Headphones manufacturers Microphone manufacturers Electronics companies established in 1945 German brands Companies based in Lower Saxony 1945 establishments in Germany Hanover Region