TX-6 – Teenage Engineering • Hacker News Board

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#111

Post by CameronNemo » Thu, Apr 21, 2022, 5:10 PM UTC

duped wrote: post #63

What bothers me is that I would absolutely buy this if it was bigger and had 1/4" balanced or stereo TRRS inputs, I actually have a variety of input sources in my home office that gets dual use for work, gaming, and music. But to use this I would need to go XLR to 3.5mm (and no phantom power?) for my voice and amp mics, main out to a Y split 1/4 TRS for speakers, and 1/4" to 3.5mm for a synth. So my desk would be lit…

Does it even have mic preamps? I would be surprised if you could plug a mic directly into this without a cloud lifter or something.

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#112

Post by Animats » Thu, Apr 21, 2022, 5:12 PM UTC

It's an elegant little box. Some of those pictures seem to be renders, though. It doesn't really have motorized sliders.

Apple used to have a "no cables in ads" thing.[1] TE is copying that. In use, this box has a lot of cables going in, so it will look like a mess. So they never show it in use.

[1] https://www.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/chicnot...

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#113

Post by unwind » Thu, Apr 21, 2022, 5:13 PM UTC

tpmx wrote: post #7

Can anyone identify the manufacturer of the beautiful knurled knobs? I only know about Kilo International in Orem, Utah ( http://www.kilointernational.com/ ) in this space. They don't look like any of their standard parts.

They state that they have "custom encoders", and in such marketing text that might well mean custom encoder knobs.

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#114

Post by tinco » Thu, Apr 21, 2022, 5:13 PM UTC

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #16

tinco wrote: post #5

I wonder why it's so expensive, I know it should be higher than regular consumers expect because it's a low volume high quality product, but so is the OP-1 and that seems to have a lot more manufacturing overhead. Wouldn't this product just contain a small signal processing FPGA, a bunch of ADC's and a couple DAC's? It's small but I think those should fit fine in that enclosure with a thick PCB. Anyone know if there'…

>I wonder why it's so expensive [...] Wouldn't this product just contain a small signal processing FPGA, a bunch of ADC's and a couple DAC's? If tech products should cost the sum of their parts then an iPhone 14 Pro and an RTX 3090 should cost about $300. After all, they're just a PCB with some components on them. You're ignoring the enormous R&D costs (engineering salaries, hardware prototyping, sales, marketing, su…

I'm not ignoring anything, I'm explicitly not comparing it to consumer hardware in the first line of my comment.

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#115

Post by lancesells » Thu, Apr 21, 2022, 5:13 PM UTC

smoldesu wrote: post #103

Hoo boy, Teenage Engineering is starting to get on my nerves. This is a neat piece of kit, but the specs on it pretty much relegate it to the "toy" category of their lineup. You're telling me people are going to use this 48kHz dongle as a portable DAC? You probably have a better output on your laptop. Pretty absurd. This thing is pretty much a physical iPhone app... that costs more than an iPhone. What really pisses…

Try to think of it in the same context as a watch. There are price ranges from $10 to probably $1M+. They all have a function of tell you the time. Price is a silly thing to be upset about it unless you truly needed it to live (which no one does).

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#116

Post by kennywinker » Thu, Apr 21, 2022, 5:14 PM UTC

aidenn0 wrote: post #84

azornathogron wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3 channels for the price of 6 is still a terrible deal.

It's Teenage Engineering, so more like the price of 8 or 12. Also, no balanced inputs.

Balanced inputs are useful for cancelling noise in long cable runs. There are no long cable runs if your target audience is people making aesthetic 60s instagram videos of their “synth jam in nature” with $2000 of gear in shot and $2000 more to film it.

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#117

Post by karmakaze » Thu, Apr 21, 2022, 5:14 PM UTC

alias_neo wrote: post #23

I absolutely love their design language. I'll never have a need to own any of their products but I wish I could buy the gadgets I do need/want with this kind of design/style.

Reminds me of the time I swapped out the main headlight of my Volvo 850. It required no tools, merely pulling on some large sprung wires with convenient finger rings. It had a very Lego friendliness to the whole process. Lego of course is Danish, Volvo (at the time) and TE being Swedish.

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#118

Post by whywhywhywhy » Thu, Apr 21, 2022, 5:17 PM UTC

nimbius wrote: post #68

my biggest axe to grind with this company is the outrageous pricetag for everything they sell. With $100 bags, $700 mini boom boxes, and $15 patches You may as well call it Affluent Engineering.

This might sound weird but I think the audience they're targeting the high price is part of the enjoyment. There is a weight, status and a value to an expensive item.

I work in hardware so understand the costs involved but I also think the high price is beneficial to them from a brand perspective. Brand-wise the amount of buzz they generate from relatively niche products is impressive.

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#119

Post by squarefoot » Thu, Apr 21, 2022, 5:17 PM UTC

seshu_ wrote: post #108

Oh, I just heard of this company and thought to myself that why are music instruments so expensive, but after reading the comments I have realised it's the Apple of it's kind.

Spot on. Their target is rich people who like sleek "different" design and are willing to pay a big premium for that.

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#120

Post by vvvzxd » Thu, Apr 21, 2022, 5:18 PM UTC

can someone explain to me why their gear is so expensive? i have a lot of synths and have been collecting them for a long time, and I have no idea why the OP1 should cost 1000 dollars. it really just seems like a toy, do professionals actually use them?