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The most surprising thing about this is how low the price is for a teenage engineering product. I don't know anything about LP manufacturing but 150 for an LP r

The most surprising thing about this is how low the price is for a teenage engineering product. I don't know anything about LP manufacturing but 150 for an LP reader / writer seems pretty cool.

tibbon 4y ago
I can never get a handle on their pricing. Its all either absurdly low (how do they make pocket operators so cheap?!?!?), or absurdly high (why is OP-1 so absurdly high?!). But at this price, hitting buy asap. It will be a neat effect for use in my studio.
- wahnfrieden 4y ago
  this pricing is still quite high, it’s just a lower priced category. it’s priced at twice the japanese market version.
  - sli 4y ago
    Closer to 3x, if we're not including stuff like shipping. The Japanese version is $55, TE's is $150.
- cole-k 4y ago
  Are the pocket operators really that cheap for the functionality they provide? I was always of the opinion that Teenage Engineering was ridiculously overpriced, but so much of what they make is so cool that it makes me want to buy anyway. I'm not creative/musical/rich enough to justify buying an OP-1. If I ever was, though...
  - Marazan 4y ago
    The pocket operators are great value, the PO-20 is one of the best all-in-one groove boxes around and the price makes it a total bargin. However, the cases are pure ripoff territory. I wonder if there are 3rd party ones available.
    - cammikebrown 4y ago
      $29 for a case is a very standard price for phones, and the PO cases have more functionality.
  - sdenton4 4y ago
    The pocket operators are, on the whole, amazing. Rhythm, Tonic, and Arcade are my faves. The pack a shocking amount of flexibility into a tiny package, and really aren't overpriced at all.
  - xani_ 4y ago
    > I'm not creative/musical/rich enough to justify buying an OP-1. If I ever was, though... Digitone/Digitakt/Syntakt are much better at high but still lower than OP-1 price while still being very playable On the entirely other side, Korg Volcas are pretty cheap and fun little devices, few other companies also make similarly priced and sized ones. And lastly, cheap midi keyboard and just software synths are cheapest option, if less "touchable". OP-1 niche is basically people wanting to be limited on purpose and/or just having something super-portable to jam on Dirtywave M8 is also kinda in similar space of "small & portable" but it's based off the old school trackers so super-powerful. But again, pretty pricy, and tracker workflow.
    - cammikebrown 4y ago
      I think the Korg Minilogue xd is the best synth for the price. I also have several pocket operators, an Elektron Model:Samples (eh), and I’m borrowing my friend’s Volca Modular (which is pretty sweet).
      - xani_ 4y ago
        If you need/want something all in one with keyboard yeah that's a decent choice. Throw some drums (I got TR-6S) and it's all you need really. They also have wavestate and opsix in similar price range. Funnily enough those two are powered by raspberry Pi CM Microfreak is kinda cool and almost half the price of that but it's keyboard is both advantage and disadvantage. Yamaha's reface series is also kinda interesting. I wish some company would just release a midi keyboard with some knobs, buttons and screens and rpi socket, I feel like a lot of cool stuff could happen if all of the effort was focused on one hardware platform. There are a bunch of "a rpi doing music things" out there but mostly incompatible with eachother...
- xani_ 4y ago
  The custom LCD is ~1$ in bulk, PCB maybe $1-2, Microswitches can be had for like $1-2 usd per 100, probably another $2 in bits and bobs (passives, battery holder). CPU is just a cortex M3 IIRC, probably some ADC/DAC, so maybe $5-7 for the "brain" of the thing ? Then shipping, handling, rest of manufacturing (arguably very simple, no case, just board with components). So there is probably still a healthy margin left, not anywhere near "absurdly low", just at that price the volume helps a lot. > (why is OP-1 so absurdly high?!). Coz they know people will buy it. They hold that price used too.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago
    Don't forget that they need to make enough profit to recover their engineering NRE costs. At low volumes that can force pretty high prices.
donio 4y ago
It's 3x the price of the Japanese original that was linked in another thread. https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/NEOBK-2453544 https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/NEOBK-2453544
LegitShady 4y ago
As someone else has already reported, this is just a TE rebrand of an existing product with a 3x price increase for what I'd call the TE tax. This doesn't make hifi audio. It is surprising in the sense that I'm surprised TE didn't charge more but not in the sense that it should charge more.
benj111 4y ago
The read/write thing got me on the train of thought of DVD-RW. It uses 5 in discs so an LPRW would fit in a standard bay. If it records at 33 and plays at 78 it's even a LPRW X 2.23! I wonder how much data you could store...
- mmastrac 4y ago
  Based on cassette data rates using audio encoding, and a total hand-wavey ballpark of ~10kB/min using modern encoding techniques, I'd totally guesstimate about 100kB of data on there.
  - benj111 4y ago
    Well that's more than enough for anyone!
    - SoftTalker 4y ago
      My old TI-99/4a stored 90kb on a 5" floppy disk.
dn3500 4y ago
It's not an LP recorder, the disks are only five inch.

The most surprising thing about this is how low the price is for a teenage engineering product. I don't know anything about LP manufacturing but 150 for an LP reader / writer seems pretty cool.

tibbon 4y ago

I can never get a handle on their pricing. Its all either absurdly low (how do they make pocket operators so cheap?!?!?), or absurdly high (why is OP-1 so absurdly high?!). But at this price, hitting buy asap. It will be a neat effect for use in my studio.

wahnfrieden 4y ago
this pricing is still quite high, it’s just a lower priced category. it’s priced at twice the japanese market version.
- sli 4y ago
  Closer to 3x, if we're not including stuff like shipping. The Japanese version is $55, TE's is $150.
cole-k 4y ago
Are the pocket operators really that cheap for the functionality they provide? I was always of the opinion that Teenage Engineering was ridiculously overpriced, but so much of what they make is so cool that it makes me want to buy anyway. I'm not creative/musical/rich enough to justify buying an OP-1. If I ever was, though...
- Marazan 4y ago
  The pocket operators are great value, the PO-20 is one of the best all-in-one groove boxes around and the price makes it a total bargin. However, the cases are pure ripoff territory. I wonder if there are 3rd party ones available.
  - cammikebrown 4y ago
    $29 for a case is a very standard price for phones, and the PO cases have more functionality.
- sdenton4 4y ago
  The pocket operators are, on the whole, amazing. Rhythm, Tonic, and Arcade are my faves. The pack a shocking amount of flexibility into a tiny package, and really aren't overpriced at all.
- xani_ 4y ago
  > I'm not creative/musical/rich enough to justify buying an OP-1. If I ever was, though... Digitone/Digitakt/Syntakt are much better at high but still lower than OP-1 price while still being very playable On the entirely other side, Korg Volcas are pretty cheap and fun little devices, few other companies also make similarly priced and sized ones. And lastly, cheap midi keyboard and just software synths are cheapest option, if less "touchable". OP-1 niche is basically people wanting to be limited on purpose and/or just having something super-portable to jam on Dirtywave M8 is also kinda in similar space of "small & portable" but it's based off the old school trackers so super-powerful. But again, pretty pricy, and tracker workflow.
  - cammikebrown 4y ago
    I think the Korg Minilogue xd is the best synth for the price. I also have several pocket operators, an Elektron Model:Samples (eh), and I’m borrowing my friend’s Volca Modular (which is pretty sweet).
    - xani_ 4y ago
      If you need/want something all in one with keyboard yeah that's a decent choice. Throw some drums (I got TR-6S) and it's all you need really. They also have wavestate and opsix in similar price range. Funnily enough those two are powered by raspberry Pi CM Microfreak is kinda cool and almost half the price of that but it's keyboard is both advantage and disadvantage. Yamaha's reface series is also kinda interesting. I wish some company would just release a midi keyboard with some knobs, buttons and screens and rpi socket, I feel like a lot of cool stuff could happen if all of the effort was focused on one hardware platform. There are a bunch of "a rpi doing music things" out there but mostly incompatible with eachother...
xani_ 4y ago
The custom LCD is ~1$ in bulk, PCB maybe $1-2, Microswitches can be had for like $1-2 usd per 100, probably another $2 in bits and bobs (passives, battery holder). CPU is just a cortex M3 IIRC, probably some ADC/DAC, so maybe $5-7 for the "brain" of the thing ? Then shipping, handling, rest of manufacturing (arguably very simple, no case, just board with components). So there is probably still a healthy margin left, not anywhere near "absurdly low", just at that price the volume helps a lot. > (why is OP-1 so absurdly high?!). Coz they know people will buy it. They hold that price used too.
- HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago
  Don't forget that they need to make enough profit to recover their engineering NRE costs. At low volumes that can force pretty high prices.

donio 4y ago

It's 3x the price of the Japanese original that was linked in another thread. https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/NEOBK-2453544 https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/NEOBK-2453544

LegitShady 4y ago

As someone else has already reported, this is just a TE rebrand of an existing product with a 3x price increase for what I'd call the TE tax. This doesn't make hifi audio. It is surprising in the sense that I'm surprised TE didn't charge more but not in the sense that it should charge more.

benj111 4y ago

The read/write thing got me on the train of thought of DVD-RW. It uses 5 in discs so an LPRW would fit in a standard bay. If it records at 33 and plays at 78 it's even a LPRW X 2.23! I wonder how much data you could store...

mmastrac 4y ago
Based on cassette data rates using audio encoding, and a total hand-wavey ballpark of ~10kB/min using modern encoding techniques, I'd totally guesstimate about 100kB of data on there.
- benj111 4y ago
  Well that's more than enough for anyone!
  - SoftTalker 4y ago
    My old TI-99/4a stored 90kb on a 5" floppy disk.

dn3500 4y ago

It's not an LP recorder, the disks are only five inch.