Fender Musical Instruments Corporation–known to most as the legendary guitar company “Fender”–has decided to enter the headphone world, and, to me, that’s big news in itself. What makes this story even more significant in our little part of the world is that Fender decided to get into the business of headphones by acquiring Aurisonics, the Nashville-based specialty maker of custom-fit and universal-fit in-ear monitors (IEMs) founded by Dale Lott, and known to many of our community members here.
In the recent past we’ve seen Gibson (another famous guitar brand) buy Onkyo (which bought Pioneer Home Entertainment)–and also recently bought Philips’ audio, video, multimedia, and accessories business–in huge, large-scale deals that headphones were parts of. For Fender, though, this was all about headphones, and saw them seeking out a boutique manufacturer who developed, made, and sold nothing other than headphones.
