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PO-80 Record Factory

teenage.engineering

11–20 of 97 posts

Re: PO-80 Record Factory

#11

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.

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.

Re: PO-80 Record Factory

#12
post #7

This appears to be a rebranding (at nearly three times the price) of the Gakken Record Maker (which is still available online for its MSRP of ¥7,980 ($55) [1]). It even comes with a copy of the Gakken magazine! Here's a review of the Gakken record maker (which looks identical to the Teenage Engineering one) [2], the Japanese description from Gakken [3], and an English description from a reseller [4]. Gakken is a Japa…

The margins on everything Teenage Engineering sells must be insane. Thinking in particular of their "computer-1" itx case which is a handful of pieces of unbent sheet metal and commodity parts, all for a mere *$195*.

Yeah, seems like it would be rather straightforward to send a template design to an online fabrication company. CNC seems like it would be overkill but I assume they are willing to cut sheet metal.

That could be a fun assignment for a design course. Lots of technical details to consider, such as dimensions of standard components, but a lot of design freedom as well.

Re: PO-80 Record Factory

#13

This is peak of audio hipsterism! Audio quality is crap. Better to record on cassette with some boombox. Also see this DIY project - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y7osjazhLE

In the age of AI fakes and perfect high fidelity available to anybody, the “crap” noise and distortion of this kind of thing is going to become a signal of reality that will be sought after.

Re: PO-80 Record Factory

#14

This is peak of audio hipsterism! Audio quality is crap. Better to record on cassette with some boombox. Also see this DIY project - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y7osjazhLE

It is bad audio quality - but I find it potentially an interesting effect. I could see myself using it in the studio; not for final master of course, but as an effect for a section of a song or instrument. Compared to a guitar pedal, the price is right.

Re: PO-80 Record Factory

#16
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The margins on everything Teenage Engineering sells must be insane. Thinking in particular of their "computer-1" itx case which is a handful of pieces of unbent sheet metal and commodity parts, all for a mere *$195*.

Yeah, seems like it would be rather straightforward to send a template design to an online fabrication company. CNC seems like it would be overkill but I assume they are willing to cut sheet metal. That could be a fun assignment for a design course. Lots of technical details to consider, such as dimensions of standard components, but a lot of design freedom as well.

A CNC laser would be the best bet. A good one could cut this in about 5 min. Water jets and CNC plasma cutters could do it, but they would probably both have issues with that many pierces.

I agree though - $195 for this is a bit much:

https://images.prismic.io/teenageengineering/d379b4fd-3721-4...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGpKAIsUIpI

Re: PO-80 Record Factory

#17
As someone with a 7” portable turntable used for scratching (Numark PT01) this thing looks awesome for making my own scratch records. The question of course is how deep the cuts are. If they’re super shallow then that won’t be as nice, but I also won’t be as worried about wearing out a record cuz I could just cut another one.

Re: PO-80 Record Factory

#19
post #11

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.

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.

this pricing is still quite high, it’s just a lower priced category. it’s priced at twice the japanese market version.
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