131–140 of 199 posts
This company is the best kind of self-indulgent. The product looks incredible and probably will be a joy to use. It's neat to see hardware that's not commoditized.
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This is Emperor's New Clothes level silliness. "But it's art" - Yeah, well, lots of overpriced art is ugly and stupid; serving only the noble purpose of separating wealthy fools from money. If people want to pay €1500 to show me they're a complete rube, they can go right ahead. I'll be here judging them, briefly and against my better judgment, before moving on to actually enjoyable and productive pastimes.
I'm pretty sure the Juicero was a deadpan form of performance art, like Piero Manzoni's, ahem, crappy work.
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What have they designed besides the Playdate?
The Ikea Frekvens line: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/newsroom/range-news/get-the-party...
Serious question, if you inherited tens of millions of dollars and wanted to spend it on premium things, where can you buy insanly luxurious every day items? Like: An apple corer? A Yeti (like) cup? A mobile phone? Kids toys? I've always wondered this. I live in a world of throw away quality every day items. Do the ultra wealthy have luxury options for these things?
I don't think there are many truly luxurious options in the category of everyday items. The ultra wealthy have the same options as the middle class in terms of apple corer, mobile phones, tablets, toilets, or streaming services. Luxuries would be things like hiring personal assistants, hand-made/customized items, art collections, etc. An emperor wouldn't have a golden hoe, because he doesn't farm.
$1,500? For a field recorder? That's not a crazy number for a digital synthesizer. It's eye-watering for a pocket-sized mixer. For a microphone though? This is madness. You carry a cell phone with you every day - if you need more, you buy a Zoom handheld for maybe ~$150. There's no shortage of pissing-and-moaning about Teenage Engineering hardware, but goddamn . They are really betting on people not wanting to open t…
I don't think they're betting on anything. They know they make somethings that no one else in the world does. Are there designer microphones like this made by other companies anywhere else in the world? No. They have no real competitors despite making technologies you can easily purchase elsewhere.
You have apparently missed out on over 100 years of designer microphones built by companies exactly like this. The design of their mic is an apparent homage to old Neumann and Rode designs. Besides them, AKG, Beyerdynamics, Oktava, Electro Voice, Behringer, Buchla and dozens of smaller design shops have been doing this for decades. It's like claiming that "nobody else was making colorful hipster synths" before the OP-1 came out.
It's beautiful and sparks joy. But a Zoom F3 is a strictly superior device in all dimensions and costs $350. This recorder doesn't even support microSD cards or replaceable batteries. It's fundamentally unserious.
After reading that I expected it to cost like $700 but it costs fucking $1500 TE have perfected milking hipsters to perfection
Is the target audience for teenage engineering products people that like extremely sleekly designed products that also have nice features; or do people in their industry hold them as highly regarded products that have unique features and perform well beyond their sleek design? I'm asking without judgement and out of ignorance of the field of audio engineering. I absolutely believe that there is a market for sleekly d…
I don't personally understand why you would use their hardware for anything considering each of their devices have industry leading competitors that people like more. I think you have to just want to buy their hardware. They're lifestyle devices.
With that being said, just about everything else, you're right.
I know everyone's going to complain about the price (which is ridiculous), but I think Teenage Engineering is the last company around that has that sleek Apple aesthetic and extremely premium feel. I get giddy every time I see them on the HN front page. They've been around for a while, so I assume there's a decent professional audiophile community that is supporting them. I hope they continue doing well!
Strong disagree. I bought an OP-1 and it felt like a cheap plastic toy. It's a cool UX concept and I'm glad they exist, but I wasn't impressed. Give me a (relatively) cheap Yamaha or Roland or Nord keyboard any day of the week (and if you want ultra-portability, then put an app on an iPad).
What now?
I am sort of curious about their manufacturing. Say you wanted to create some really mundane object, like an anodized aluminum fidget spinner, with nice cut parts such as Apple's or teenage engineering's hardware? I suppose you'd use an aluminum 6061 block cut with a CNC machine and anodize the finish. OK. Well, doing CNC parts at volume is quite expensive. I can see teenage engineer's expenses here from that alone.…
It's beautiful and sparks joy. But a Zoom F3 is a strictly superior device in all dimensions and costs $350. This recorder doesn't even support microSD cards or replaceable batteries. It's fundamentally unserious.