SENNHEISER TULLAMORE FACTORY TOUR: HOW THE WORLD'S BEST HEADPHONES ARE MADE IN IRELAND

It’s a relatively common practice for brands to have separate facilities for parts manufacturing and product assembly, whether it’s for cost or other reasons.

- CHERYL TAN

Even then, we were a little confused when we were invited by Sennheiser to visit Tullamore, Ireland. As it turns out, even though Sennheiser’s headquarters are still in the town in which the company was formed (Wedemark near Hanover, to be exact), much of the company’s main manufacturing and assembling activities actually take place in its factory in Tullamore, Ireland. Why Tullamore? And what exactly gets made there? Join us as we find out.

Automation And Technology Is Amazing

Located about a 90-minute drive outside of Dublin, the Tullamore factory is where the brand’s audiophile products are manufactured and assembled. We started with a tour of the factory’s automated manufacturing line, hosted by Sennheiser’s Tullamore Plant Manager Pat Fulton, who has been working there for over 30 years. There are multiple drivers that Sennheiser produces here for its range of headphones, and while some can be done fully by hand like the 56mm driver in the flagship HD 800S and HD 820 headphones, there are also some that are either fully automated or use a blend of automation and manual assembly.

Different materials and foils are used in the transducer manufacturing process, with some foils for diaphragms being just mere microns thick – far thinner than a strand of hair. This gives you an idea of just how delicate the process is.

The foils are heat-stamped into different shapes on machines before being combined with magnetic coils and the like as the diaphragm travels down the automated manufacturing line.