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OB–4 – Portable high fidelity loudspeaker

teenage.engineering

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Re: OB–4 – Portable high fidelity loudspeaker

#111

Post by acomjean »

kemonocode wrote: post #100

Teenage Engineering makes cute, fun things, but more often than not they feel like they're very overpriced cute fun things for their functionality, and this is honestly no exception. In a sense they're like the Apple of nerdy products. Their Pocket Operators are the closest thing to a "cheap" product they have and even then, last time I checked, they don't even come with a protective case, which I personally find pre…

I have a couple pocket operators from about 6 years ago. You are right, they're just a circuit board with surface mounted buttons. But after years of use including letting me nieces play with them, they still work and are pretty well made (And about $40.. now actually 50-90). For me they're a good learning tool, (PO-12 rhythm being one of the cheapest hardware drum machines.) though functionality is eclipsed by the smartphone in many cases..

I will grant you the optional case was so pricy it wasn't an option I would consider (I think it was like $30).

https://teenage.engineering/products/po

pricing https://www.guitarcenter.com/Teenage-Engineering-Pocket-Oper...

Re: OB–4 – Portable high fidelity loudspeaker

#112

Post by munificent »

uoaei wrote: post #66
crumbshot wrote: post #62

Is HN being subjected to some astroturf marketing techniques here? Seems rather suspicious to see so many commenters enthusiastically salivating over an advert for a very expensive radio. And also for said advert to hit the #1 spot on this site, despite not fitting into the usual categories for a compelling post.

It's ok that you are not privy to the hype around Teenage Engineering in general. Musicians like their devices because the UX design is interesting and relatively smooth, and the devices have a lot of flexibility for making interesting music.

The musician love for TE is on the wane as the company pivots from doing innovative industrial design for creative people to becoming another pointless luxury brand. They sell a $170 blank sweatshirt now.

Re: OB–4 – Portable high fidelity loudspeaker

#113

Post by sanitycheck »

amagumori wrote: post #64
codetrotter wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The OP-1 is kind of a weird thing. I remember a few years ago I was almost convinced that I should have one, except for the price tag which was way over my league. And back then it was still being sold for about $900 in stores I think and now it’s like $1500. On the bright side though I picked up a decent Korg Triton Le 88 waveform keyboard with weighted hammer action keys a couple of years ago second hand, and for t…

Yeah it’s a weird situation where I feel like a lot of the people who the OP-1 is aimed at either can’t afford it, period or aren’t going to pay $1300 on a “toy”. Because of its market positioning it ends up being this unattainable luxury item that only professional/ established musicians use, instead of a MPC-esque everyman’s tool. The “toy” design positioning and huge price tag work in tandem to keep it unattainabl…

I'm not going to try to defend this expensive radio thing, but regarding the OP-1 I don't think $1300 is an "unattainable luxury item", I'd reserve that label for something like a proper Leica camera.

There are plenty of ways to spend a lot more on a musical instrument - buy a decent saxophone, or a Moog One! I just found a ukulele online for $1500. The OP-1 seems overpriced because it's very small, but that's also the whole point of it.

Re: OB–4 – Portable high fidelity loudspeaker

#114

Post by jhvkjhk »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #95
jhvkjhk wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your words remind me Apple.

Well gee. Jony Ive is openly inspired by Dieter Rams, the designer behind many of Braun's products. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/8555503/Dieter-...

Wow, thank you.

Re: OB–4 – Portable high fidelity loudspeaker

#116

Post by slfnflctd »

codetrotter wrote: post #35
tacticaldev wrote: post #8

their stuff is awesome, but so expensive! I've wanted an OP-1 for a long time, just can't fork out that kind of cash for a "toy"

The OP-1 is kind of a weird thing. I remember a few years ago I was almost convinced that I should have one, except for the price tag which was way over my league. And back then it was still being sold for about $900 in stores I think and now it’s like $1500. On the bright side though I picked up a decent Korg Triton Le 88 waveform keyboard with weighted hammer action keys a couple of years ago second hand, and for t…

I think it boils down to whether your primary orientation is live/jam or home-studio/finished-songwriting.

Teenage Engineering's stuff makes me imagine visceral live shows with lots of space for free form, improvised content-- up to & including a whole new growing subculture of kids being able to instantly make piping fresh, context appropriate art anywhere from the living room to the campfire.

Tweaking instruments and song parts iteratively over days & weeks to get an ideal finished product is really a whole different thing. The more big gear you can bring to that effort the better. I also second your advice on second-hand music equipment, most of my stuff over the years was acquired that way and it definitely gave me more opportunities than problems.

Re: OB–4 – Portable high fidelity loudspeaker

#117

Post by dang »

riffic wrote: post #106
inquirerofsorts wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reads like an ad, as do many of the replies. Please read the site guidelines my friends. > Please don't use uppercase for emphasis. If you want to emphasize a word or phrase, put asterisks around it and it will get italicized. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

You created an account twelve minutes ago to nag people on minor site rules? Let the moderators do their job.

It's great when users point out the site guidelines to each other.

The one thing I'd add (hot tip from bitter experience) is that it's best when not combined with swipes like "This reads like an ad".

Re: OB–4 – Portable high fidelity loudspeaker

#118

Post by gertrunde »

filleokus wrote: post #30
pjc50 wrote: post #2

Their line of synths is great, but a radio which doesn't support DAB? How am I going to listen to 6music?

My very basic understanding is that most regular DAB (not DAB+) is inferior in audio quality compared to FM? Also, and I don't know how much it has decided their design decisions, but Teenage Engineering is Swedish based, and here DAB hasn't really become a thing. It's been, more or less, in a "trial" state since 1995, not covering the whole country and steps to upgrade to DAB+ and replacing FM canceled a few years a…

Yeah... DAB can be good, if the station chooses to transmit at a higher bit rate (which can range from 64kbit mono to 192kbit stereo at least), and signal strength is unfortunately a significant factor.

In the UK, the BBC stations tend to be pretty solid, the commercial stations can be somewhat bad, although a lot of the commercial music stations seem to have shifted to DAB+ (predominantly 40 kbit/s DAB+ Stereo HE-AAC v2 apparently - presumably to fit more stations in, ~10 on the BBC ensemble vs ~20 on the commercial "National 1" ensemble).[1]

[1 - http://www.wohnort.org/dab/uknat.html]

Re: OB–4 – Portable high fidelity loudspeaker

#120

Post by dang »

altdatathrow wrote: post #73
crumbshot wrote: post #62

Is HN being subjected to some astroturf marketing techniques here? Seems rather suspicious to see so many commenters enthusiastically salivating over an advert for a very expensive radio. And also for said advert to hit the #1 spot on this site, despite not fitting into the usual categories for a compelling post.

HN is always subject to astroturfing, it's just generally managed by YC directly. Ensuring positive opinion and adoption of their investments while keeping the competition soundly off the radar.

No, that's not the case. We do have Launch HNs for YC startups that get special treatment (one of three formal things that HN gives back to YC, the other two being job ads and displaying alumni usernames in orange). This is in the FAQ: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html. But those formal things aren't really the main value that HN has for YC. I've written about this lots of times: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so.... If you look at those explanations, you'll understand why we don't manipulate HN in the way you suggest. The good faith of the community is worth far more than anything we'd get by squeezing the lemon that way. Besides which, it would be wrong.

There are also lots of explanations about how we moderate threads involving YC or YC startups: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...

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