Blog #222 – A Special Number and an Easter Gift
I have always been a fan of so-called “schnapszahlen”—numbers made of repeating digits. So the 222nd blog post feels like a particularly special milestone.
To celebrate it, we’re offering a small Easter gift.
For the next 222 hours, you can get the ULTRASONE Signature MASTER MkII with a €222 discount.
How it works
The offer is valid for 222 hours only
Enter the coupon code BLOG222 before completing your purchase
The promotion is limited
A nice number deserves a nice offer.
The Day I Met Florian König
I first met Florian M. König in November 1985.
Like me, he was a student at the Technical University of Munich, and we both spent a lot of time at the university’s central sports facility, the Zentrale Hochschulsportanlage Munich (ZHS).
Back then, the triple sports hall was often our destination whenever volleyball games were taking place. Naturally, it didn’t take long before we ended up playing on the same team.
The Most Colorful Player in the Hall
Florian stood out immediately—not only because of his personality.
His sports clothing was bright and colorful, often in bold orange and yellow tones that made him impossible to overlook on the court.
But even more noticeable was his playing style.
With the ball, he was almost a virtuoso, performing what felt like small pieces of magic. The trajectories of his shots were so unusual that only now—40 years later—do we occasionally see similar techniques appearing in professional volleyball.
Passion, Temperament, and Fairness
Florian was also a passionate and sometimes impulsive player.
For more sensitive teammates, playing with—or against—him could occasionally be challenging. His strong sense of fairness and correctness meant he could become quite frustrated when he believed something on the court was not right.
When that happened, his game often became even more creative.
The ball—light as leather—would suddenly curve, spin, and change direction right in front of the opponent, leaving teammates and competitors equally surprised.
I was one of the people who loved watching that happen, so I certainly didn’t avoid playing with him.
As a result, we ended up playing five times a week, later even in league teams, and continued playing volleyball together for more than ten years.
Conversations Beyond the Court
After the games, we would often sit together in the tea lounge or beer lounge, talking about many things beyond sports.
That’s when I also discovered Florian’s two great passions:
Music
Italy
Florian and his brother had what was probably the largest collection of Italian music in Bavaria at the time. Their archive was so extensive that even **Bayerischer Rundfunk once asked to borrow records and CDs from them—simply because the broadcaster did not have certain titles themselves.
The Beginning of a Headphone Vision
I was also there when Florian began experimenting with improving sound reproduction through headphones and loudspeakers.
A comparison test between the then-flagship **Sony headphones and two other models convinced him that things could be done better.
And anyone who knows Florian knows one thing:
He does not give up until the result is right.
That determination eventually became the foundation of the ideas that later shaped ULTRASONE.
My Personal Perspective
Florian and I are very different personalities.
Turning that difference into a successful partnership required a great deal of respect, trust, and mutual appreciation.
But it worked.
This year marks 40 years since we first met.
What an incredible journey it has been. 🎧
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