Sennheiser electronics — History (Print vesion)

To demonstrate the outstanding directivity of the new MD 411 super-cardioid microphone, the MD 411 was taken into a reverberation chamber with a cardioid and an omni-directional microphone, i.e. microphones with less or no directivity, respectively. The MD 411, however, still produced an acceptable recording even under these extreme conditions.

Sennheiser develops the world’s first open headphones. With more than 10 million units sold, the HD 414 remains the bestselling headphone ever.

At the Consumer Electronics Fair in 1969, Sennheiser showed a completely new type of dummy head. Whereas early dummy head recordings (which used two microphones in a head-sized wooden ball) had always fallen short of expectations, dummy head Oskar had been shaped so naturally that — when listening to a recording via headphones — it became possible not only to distinguish between left and right but also between sounds coming from the front and the back, from above or below.

Sennheiser introduces its MKE range of prepolarized condenser microphones.

Sennheiser is transformed into a limited partnership (KG).

For amateurs who were unable to afford a dummy head costing several thousands of marks, Sennheiser launched the MKE 2002 in 1974. This lightweight ‘stethoset’ microphone was worn on the user’s head for making stereo recordings using the dummy head principle.

Sennheiser uses infrared technology for sound transmission.