By means of an oddly worded announcement, we’ve learned that Neumann is entering the studio-monitor business or, as they put it, “is now applying its electroacoustic expertise to the other end of the audio chain.” Neumann have been engaged in the design and manufacture of high-quality—mmmm… make that extraordinary-quality—condenser microphones, among other audio-processing equipment, since its founding in November 1928.

The shift to include monitors may represent a new product direction for the company. On the other hand, it may be little more than a bit of organizational shuffling by Neumann’s parent company, Sennheiser. (And by parent company, I mean the 17-year-younger company that acquired Neumann in 1992.) The question arises because the announcement states that Neumann’s studio monitor line is “based on the well-known Klein + Hummel company,” which Sennheiser acquired in 2005. What, exactly, they mean by based on remains unknown. Most of the engineers who worked for (the now former) Klein + Hummel will continue with Sennheiser, further blurring the extent to which the Neumann monitors will be Neumann monitors as distinct from Neumann branded Klein + Hummels.

Time will tell, but with Neumann’s long history of stellar microphones (including the U-47, -67, and -87; M-49; KM-83 and -84; and TLM-170 and -193, among numerous others), the branding strategy could backfire: For starters, the Neumann brand is synonymous with money-is-no-object quality. A current production TLM-170 carries a list price of $4,398.00 and a (long out-of-print) U-47 recently auctioned for over $6,000. By contrast, AKG’s top-of-the-line AKG C-414-XLII tips the scale at only slightly more than $1000. To most professional’s ears, Neumann earns the price differential every day of the week. Differentiating an audio monitor product line in similar fashion may be difficult to accomplish under any circumstances.

Further, with studio monitor companies such as Genelec, JBL, Tannoy, and Westlake already established with countless others in a crowded market, Neumann will have to kick some serious audio butt just to register as better than a disappointment relative to their own brand reputation. Klein + Hummel had yet to build a reputation as “the Neumann of monitors” so one might ask what Neumann’s strategy might be to do so.

Suspending cynicism for a moment, I’d relish the opportunity to audition a pair of Neumann monitors side-by-side with a pair of, say, similarly-configured Westlakes. That would be a listening experience to remember! Until that happens, if you get a chance to hear a pair of Neumann’s, let us know what you think of them.