New Alpine headphones not available to Utah dealers

In this image released by Alpine Electronics,
it shows the headphones' 40 mm drivers that can be
controlled from the Level Play iPhone app. (Alpine Electronics)

By Devin Brown

Alpine Electronics’ new over-the-ear headphones, released on Oct. 17, are exclusively available at Apple Stores. No one else will be allowed to sell the new headphones.

Named the “Alpine Headphones” these are the first pair of home headphones that Alpine has released. They include two digital amplifiers with 10 hours of battery life. The headphones have received moderate reviews.

Caleb Denison, an AV editor for Digitaltrends.com, said the headphones were “bass heavy” because of the embedded bass transducer in the headband.

“We didn’t know they were being released until the press conference,” said Eric Baltzer, an Alpine sales rep for Utah, Idaho and Montana. “We have very little information on the deal with Apple; I haven’t even heard them yet.”

Baltzer said he’s had several 12-volt dealers — an industry term used for car audio companies — from Utah already calling him trying to buy the new headphones.

“We’re not sure yet if middle management will let our 12-volt dealers sell them,” Baltzer said. “I can see very few dealers in Utah qualifying to sell them.”

In these images released by Alpine Electronics,
shows a diagram of the bass module that sits
in the headband. (Alpine Electronics)

Scott Doran, a manager at Car Concepts, an Alpine flagship dealer for Utah, said he hasn’t had any customers looking to buy the headphones. He believes it won’t affect his company's business.

“From a car audio standpoint it’s still just a headphone,” Doran said. “I believe that you can get a lot better sound from a good car system.”

Doran said the $299.99 headphones don’t compare how much Car Concepts could make from an Alpine car audio sale. He said carrying the headphone line would take up valuable floor space.

“Retail is a double-edge sword,” Doran said. “We tried home audio for a while but we decided that car audio was where we excelled the most. I would be afraid that we wouldn’t have very much interest from them.”

With 20 years in the AV industry, Baltzer said he has seen many different audio companies try to sell headphones. He said Alpine would match the same build quality as their car audio products. He felt confident Alpine needs good product marketing to be a “player” in the $2.3 billion headphone market.

“Marketing is huge,” Baltzer said. “My assumption is that this move forward isn’t cheap.”