> Hopefully it doesn't end up in private equity hell

By this time next year we'd be seeing some Chinese owned company producing "Sennheiser HD9000000000+ Pro" headphones that are leftover Shrek themed earbuds that smoke when you turn the volume up too high.

I think that's unfair - if HiFiMAN, Moondrop, or even KZ bought up the Sennheiser assets there would be very little difference. (HiFiMAN had QC concerns 7-8 years back but as far as I've heard they have been much better over the last 5 years.

Fair point. I have a set of HiFiMAN cans that I adore.