Phonak once made a dive into consumer audio, with the Audeo PFE around 2012. Judging from their portfolio now, it didn't last, although the quality was superb. Maybe having a known „brand“ helps with this endeavor…
Too much marketing involved in this business. And then too much competition from China? Not sure whether the masses are aware of the good but cheap China items. BLON BL-03 , how can you compete with that?
I think that it has more to do with Samsung who intended to cross-polinate their medical and consumer audio products. So, Apple might be the cause but one step removed.
You might be on to something there. Small sample here but most of my colleagues over the years had sennheiser headphones of some sort. Occasionally they’d step out to another brand and come back again. I’ve still got some HD25’s knocking around that I don’t use as well.
I imagine a company like Sonova has good access to excellent sound quality research. Perhaps a good place in this thread I can ask, if anyone has a recommendation for very high quality Bluetooth earbuds to connect with a MacBook and Android?
Not as convenient for sure, but for me a Fiio BTR5 + any good wired in-ear monitor (KZ make excellent ones for cheap) sounds better than any bluetooth-only earbuds.
Which is funny because they are (comparatively) peanuts in price.
Good connectivity, they aren't lying about the 15hr battery life (after two years still over 12hrs), charge quickly, USB-C - big buttons so can be operated easily (useful to me because I connect to my android for GPS under a crash helmet on my bike for voice navigation), loud enough, SBC/AAC support and the lanyard is comfortable and makes it hard to lose the buds.
One of those rare products that just does exactly what you'd expect and is so reliable simple it disappears into the background.
I've been using these but the plastic part keeps popping off and now I'm out of spares! I now have to buy new ones for what are otherwise perfectly good headphones.
Wonder if this goes the AKG way now. Samsung basically bought them out and just use their stickers on their own much inferior audio products. Most of the original AKG engineers are at Austrian Audio now.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 17.1 ms ] threadHowever we all use AirPods now.
Also sennheiser earphones were all trash.
Which is funny because they are (comparatively) peanuts in price.
Good connectivity, they aren't lying about the 15hr battery life (after two years still over 12hrs), charge quickly, USB-C - big buttons so can be operated easily (useful to me because I connect to my android for GPS under a crash helmet on my bike for voice navigation), loud enough, SBC/AAC support and the lanyard is comfortable and makes it hard to lose the buds.
One of those rare products that just does exactly what you'd expect and is so reliable simple it disappears into the background.