“Our engineers have always been given a lot of freedom. They are allowed to give free rein to their creative ideas, no matter how crazy they might seem. Often, it is these very ideas that result in the best developments and the best products. Any reservations expressed by financial managers who first of all had an eye on profit were thus reliably dispersed. After all, a company doesn’t only sell products but primarily sells ideas.”
Dr. Fritz Sennheiser (1912–2010)
Monday May 17th marked the end of an era as Fritz Sennheiser, founder of the still family-owned company that bears his name, died at the age of 98. Normally I wouldn’t write an article about an electronics pioneer—particularly not as gushy an article as this one promises to be—but Dr. Fritz belonged in a class by himself. The only word that really seems to do him justice is that old-fashioned and sometimes dreadfully abused term gentleman. Fritz Sennheiser loved landscaping and gardening, but the dire economy of 1930s Germany made following that particular bliss impossible, so he focused on another passion, which was electrical engineering. So the world lost a potentially superb landscaper, but gained an international standard-bearer for audio excellence. Fair trade.
The company that eventually became Sennheiser Electronic GmbH & Co. KG arose slowly from the rubble of occupied Germany. "Labratorium Wennebostel" started with voltmeters for Siemens but soon enough branched out into creating microphones, eventually introducing the MD 21, one of the most highly-regarded "reporter" microphones ever made (and still in the catalog after 57 years of continuous production.) From the beginning Dr. Fritz was dedicated to the well-being and security of his employees, a group which has expanded from the original 7 of "Labor W" to over 2,000 worldwide nowadays. Sennheiser’s website gives ample evidence of the company’s continued commitment to a humanistic workplace, its dedication to its employees, its environmental responsibility, and its steadfast refusal to outsource manufacturing to cheap offshore labor.
Headphones arrived on the scene in 1960 with the HD 414, and with that Sennheiser started entering the consciousness of the general public, rather than being known primarily to audio and broadcast professionals. Nowadays I would hazard a guess that most people think of Sennheiser primarily as a headphone company, although they remain top-tier in microphones.
Dr. Fritz eventually retired and in 1982 handed over the reins to his son Jörg, who continued the family tradition of quality, responsibility, humanism, and cutting-edge research. Consider that Dr. Jörg turned down a lucrative offer to design and build 200,000 specialized microphones once he discovered that the microphones were intended to trigger land mines.
Even the lowest-end Sennheiser headphones (HD 201s at $30.00 a pair, cheaper if you shop around) sport notably higher build quality and sound than other inexpensive headphones, and at the high end represented by the HD 600, HD 650, and HD 800 models, Sennheiser builds cans that, with the occasional refresh of pads and the like, may well outlive their owners. And nobody does comfort like Sennheiser.
My first contact with a Sennheiser product occured about a decade ago when I decided it was time to part company with my miserably mediocre Sony headphones. A trip to an audiophile-grade stereo store (the now defunct San Francisco Stereo on the corner of Market & Sanchez) introduced me to two top-tier contenders: the Grado RS-1 and the Sennheiser HD 600. I didn’t need all that much time alone with them to make my decision.
The Senn 600s were the ones, no doubt about it. I fell in love with that silky and wide open Sennheiser sound from the moment I started listening, while I just couldn’t warm up to the relatively bright, sizzly sound of the Grados. The Senns were also incredibly comfortable, plush and just plain fun to wear. The Grados, on the other hand, bothered me, with those stiff foam pads that press directly on your ears, rather than cupping around them. So I took home a sweet shiny new pair of Senn HD 600s that day, nestled into their beautifully-crafted storage case and sporting a no-compromises warranty that I never needed to exercise.
They have been faithful and constant companions ever since. Several years ago they began to wear out and instead of refurbishing them I decided to upgrade headphones again. Grado had just come out with the GS1000 model and I was intrigued. A trip to Harmony AudioVideo on West Portal resulted in my bringing home a pair of RS-1s, the same model I had rejected years before but now seemed much more attractive. (I found the GS1000s to be kind of boomy, by the way.)
But I never really adjusted to the Grados. I liked them better when I added a Benchmark DAC1 USB to my system, but still I missed my Senns.
Then Sennheiser introduced the new line-topping HD 800 headphones, end product of nearly a decade’s worth of development. I splurged on the 800s and that was that for the Grados. I found them a good home, for a good price, not long ago. Grado RS-1s are fine headphones, but for whatever reason I have a mild personality conflict with Grado headphones. On the other hand, I take to Sennheisers like a duck to water.
Inspired by the HD 800s, I rescued my HD 600s from the drawer in which they had been forlornly banished and treated them a full spiffing up in the form of new cables and earpads. Now they look, feel, and sound like brand-new headphones, just as beautiful and plush and richly musical as they ever were, perfect companions to the HD 800s. So I’m a two-Sennheiser family, as it were, and unlikely to stray ever again.
The 800s come in an even more impressive storage case than the 600s, a sturdy black box lined with a non-static velvet-like material. I keep the 800s in that case rather letting them just sit out freely where they could get dusty or dinged or whatnot. They aren’t just electronic gizmos; they’re meticulously-crafted products, musical instruments in their own right. They deserve to receive the care that went into their creation.
In short, they’ve got Dr. Fritz Sennheiser written all over them.