Sennheiser

Company history

The company was founded in 1945, just a few weeks after the end of World War II, by Fritz Sennheiser (1912–2010) and seven fellow engineers of the University of Hannover in a laboratory called Laboratorium Wennebostel (shortened, "Lab W"). The laboratory was named after the village of Wennebostel in the municipality of Wedemark to where it had been moved due to the war. Its first product was a voltmeter. 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 but not limited to: geophysical equipment, the Noise-Compensated microphone (DM4), microphone transformers, mixers, and miniature magnetic headphones. Labor W was renamed 'Sennheiser electronic' in 1958.

In 1968, Sennheiser released the world's first open headphones. The introduction of open headphones affected the headphone market as they were able to produce a more natural sound that many users preferred.

Sennheiser was transformed into a limited partnership (KG) in 1973. In 1980, the company entered the aviation market, supplying Lufthansa with headsets.

The company began producing modern wireless microphones 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 1996, Sennheiser received an Emmy Award for its advancements in RF wireless technology. Also in 1996, Sennheiser became a private limited company (GmbH and Co. KG). Since then, Sennheiser has maintained its tradition of high quality audio technology, and still maintains those high standards today. Professor Dr. Fritz Sennheiser died in 2010.

On July 1, 2013, Daniel Sennheiser and Andreas Sennheiser were promoted to the position of CEO responsible for Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG.

In October 2013, Sennheiser received the prestigious Philo T. Farnsworth Award at the 65th Primetime Emmy®Engineering Awards in Hollywood. In May 2014, Sennheiser founded a new competence center for innovative streaming solutions, Sennheiser Streaming Technology GmbH (SST).

Locations

Sennheiser is headquartered in the municipality of Wedemark, Germany (near Hannover). Its United States headquarters is located in Old Lyme, Connecticut. The company has factories in Wennebostel (Wedemark, near Hanover); Tullamore, Ireland (since 1990); and Albuquerque, New Mexico (since 2000). Sennheiser's R&D facilities are located in Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Singapore and San Francisco, California.

Products

Sennheiser is mainly known for its consumer headphones and professional microphones, such as the MKH 416 short shotgun, which came to be the Hollywood standard shotgun microphone; and the 816, similar in design with longer reach. It also makes the US$55,000 Orpheus headphone set; wireless microphones; aviation, multimedia and gaming headsets; micro-Hifi systems; conferencing systems; speakers; and amplifiers.

Sennheiser has collaborated with fashion brands, including with German bag brand Freitag as well as Dior Homme.