Anecdotes from the Founder part 4

How wonderful it is to receive positive feedback from customers. I am glad that with ULTRASONE we have never built consumer headphones. Consuming goods is something I oppose, both for ethical and environmental reasons.

It may sometimes be challenging, but we are always proud and happy when a customer contacts us after many years and writes that they still love their old ULTRASONE and want to preserve it, or perhaps something has broken.

Very cautiously, the question then arises whether we would also repair a device that is 15, 20, or even 25 years old. They would even be willing to spend a significant portion of the original price for it. To their surprise, our answer is usually “YES”. If we still have the spare parts available – and we have quite a few – we repair even the oldest devices and bring them back to like-new condition.

So far, we have only had to decline one repair; all the others we were able to make functional again or refurbish.

Some cases were particularly special:

Once, while delivering new devices to a famous recording studio in Tutzing, we were given back a 17-year-old PROline 550 with the comment, “we don’t need this anymore.” It already looked somewhat worn, but after careful inspection and a few cosmetic measures, it became a headphone for our museum. Fully functional without defects after 17 years of studio use. You rarely hold something like that in your hands.

Or Keith Harris, who wanted his Signature DJ renewed because after many years of use it had become unsightly. We told him to please sign it for our museum and send it to us, and he would receive a fresh one.

Or Shakira, who during the isolation period of the pandemic posted a video of herself playing drums while wearing an ULTRASONE PRO 750. We have not yet had that one in for repair.

Or Eminem, who in his profile in Rolling Stone Magazine answered the question about headphones with ULTRASONE HFI-450. We asked for a photo, and it actually arrived and now decorates our gallery at Raucherberg alongside other outstanding musicians such as Stefan Dettl, Moses Pelham, Axl Rose, Stevie Wonder, and many more.

Or Richie Hawtin, who used to destroy a competitor’s headphones at almost every DJ performance and then tried one of our DJ1 models. When we did not receive a repair request for over a year, I asked whether he was still using it. The answer was short and simple: “Sure. Almost every day. Still works great!”

Or the Edition 10 of a young American who must have used it very intensively. His mother contacted us and asked about a repair for the noble device. We agreed and received a completely neglected wreck of what had once been an elegant pair of headphones. But we had promised, so it was time to repair. Thorough cleaning, a new headband, new ear pads, a new cable – even the emblem on the cable had been missing. After that came assembly, listening tests, and frequency measurement, and the result was an Edition 10 almost in like-new condition. We wish the young man many more joyful hours with the device from 2010.

This list could go on indefinitely and includes many happy customers who may not have bought new ones, but who can still enjoy their sometimes very old ULTRASONE headphones for many more years.

This is how we understand quality and sustainability. That is what the ULTRASONE brand stands for.