To listen to music on what is being billed as the most expensive headphone in the world is indeed an unforgettable experience.
Priced at Rs 45 lakh, Sennheiser HE1 was introduced by German audio specialist company Sennheiser in the Indian market sometime back. The company, which is doing multi-city road shows to promote the headphones, claims to have received inquiries about the product, but is yet to find its first buyer in India. Sennheiser has already conducted shows in Delhi and Mumbai and is trying its luck in Bengaluru as well.
The company is confident of finding its first buyer in India soon. Globally, it has had been successful in selling a few units. Interestingly, a family in China purchased three such headphones.
The product is manufactured and shipped from Germany based on the demand of the customers. Currently, the company has the capacity to manufacture one such unit a day from its base in Wedemark in Germany.
“The Sennheiser HE1 is an electrostatic headphone system that has a unique amplifier concept. It also has around 6,000 carefully selected parts. It took more than ten years to develop this headphone. It has a cable that ensures that there is no signal loss, and has ingredients such as gold, silver, platinum and carrara marble as they aid in disseminating a perfect sound. We are confident that we will soon get buyers for the same in India.” said Kapil Gulati, director, Sennheiser India, told THE WEEK.
Gulati added that when they started in India around 12 years back, the headphone market was very small and now it is showing healthy traction and currently the market is worth around Rs 1,500 crore with an annual 30-35 growth per cent. “We are seeing a sharp traction in the wireless headphone segment, and with a steady increase in the video streaming on smart phones, this market will further grow. Now, with 4G coming and 5G in the pipeline, demand for headphones will further increase in India. Our headphones are also used widely in the music industry in India. Currently, we have a team of around 78 people in India with three offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru which also have experience zones.” said Gulati.
The Germany headquartered Sennheiser is a family owned firm that was founded in 1945. It emerged as a major manufacturer of headphones, microphones and wireless transmission systems and has 2,750 employees around the world. The company has its own production facilities in Germany, Ireland and the US and is active in more than 50 countries. Since 2013, Sennheiser has been managed by Daniel Sennheiser and Andreas Sennheiser, the third generation of the family to run the company. In 2015, the Sennheiser group had sales totaling €682 million.