Stereophile reached Audeze's COO, Sankar Thiagasamudram, shortly after he returned home from a day that included fingerprint and DNA gathering by the Costa Mesa Police Department. Because the police spent much time in the building, an accurate assessment of loss and damage will not be possible until after this story is posted. Look for updates in the comments section.
Thiagasamudram explains that the break-in took place over a several hour period in the early morning hours. Although Audeze's headquarters are in a low-crime area, and the building is equipped with a good security system and surveillance cameras, the ski-masked and gloved thieves managed to avoid detection. Clearly professionals, they cut a hole low in Audeze's steel security door, and crawled in and around the building without raising themselves high enough to trigger motion sensors that would have set off the alarm. (Most motion detectors do not begin to operate until 2' above the floor, so as to avoid triggering by roaming pets.). The thieves also used boxes to hide their movement and avoid detection.
"We make all our headphones in Costa Mesa, and then ship them to 120 countries," Thiagasamudram told Stereophile. "We store all the raw materials here, and the thieves damaged some of them in the process of getting to the headphones. The biggest problem is for us to get back on our feet, because it will take a while to get parts before we can begin assembling them."
