Sound engineers are put on their ears – Newspaper Kommersant No. 147 (7348) of 08/15/2022

Electronics suppliers reported that due to the refusal of a number of manufacturers of premium headphones (Sennheiser, Marshall, Sony) to supply their products to Russia, Russian retailers had a stock of such equipment until about the end of the quarter. Representatives of the largest marketplaces assure that they have enough goods thanks to parallel imports. But products imported under this scheme often turn out to be counterfeit, experts warn.

Electronics distributors told Kommersant that supplies of premium-segment on-ear headphones from Sennheiser, Marshall, Sony and a number of other companies stopped after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine.

According to the head of the “Accessories” direction in diHouse (part of the Lanit group of companies) Olga Polonovskaya, retailers have enough stocks of such headphones for about one quarter. “We regularly receive requests from customers to supply headphones from JBL, Sony, etc. With new shipments of the problem, the shelves are gradually emptying,” she says. JBL, Bose, Harman Kardon closed Russian representative offices, other vendors did not make statements, but now they do not ship goods, among them Marshall, Sennheiser, Samsung, Sony, they say in Marvel Distribution.

“Kommersant” could not find premium-segment headphones for sale on the websites of the largest retailers. So, on the Citylink website, the only headphones that cost more than 10 thousand rubles are the Sennheiser HD 300 PRO (17.99 thousand rubles), they remained in stock only in one store. On the M.Video website, one store has Beats Solo Pro (19.9 thousand rubles), and Eldorado has several models from Sony.

The networks did not comment on the topic of supply interruptions. The representative of “Citylink” said only that sales of headphones in the second half of the year in pieces remain at the same period last year. The representative of M.Video-Eldorado noted that JBL, Sony, Marshall, Philips, Sennheiser, Hoco are still among the popular manufacturers among on-ear headphones.

Chinese brands, such as Edifier, are already trying to fill the niche of Sennheiser, Marshall, Tatyana Skokova, director of distribution of the Merlion’s Wide Distribution Division, notes. However, there may be problems with the replacement of professional equipment. Audio equipment from brands such as Yamaha, Sennheiser, Shure is used both for home studios and for stadium concerts, “their equipment appears in nine out of ten projects in this area,” says Dmitry Myzin, head of the DJStore wholesale department. He adds that all these brands are included in almost every government contract, so the departure of these companies from the market alarmed not only official distributors, but also, for example, sound engineers of concert venues in the regions.

Russian marketplaces do not expect a shortage of equipment, relying on parallel imports. “Deliveries of headphones and other audio equipment from international brands continue. Not only do we not expect their shortage, but we also plan to expand the representation of this segment through cooperation with official distributors for parallel imports, ”says a Wildberries representative. According to an Ozon spokesperson, JBL, Sony and Sennheiser are the leaders on their platform, and unit sales of all full-size headphones in June-July more than doubled year-on-year.

However, products supplied under the parallel import scheme may not always meet the requirements of professional use, experts say. Maxim Tsibulevsky, Senior Manager of the Personal Audio group at Marvel Distribution, emphasizes that instead of original brands, Russians are buying up copies of well-known vendors, and with the spread of parallel imports, the situation with fake products of premium audio brands will worsen.

Timofey Kornev