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TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

teenage.engineering

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Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#191

Post by repiret »

IAmPym wrote: post #159

"Why is it so expensive?" - commentary from someone who does this for a living at Sequential Small Volume - each unit is more expensive than a large volume product, you don't get price breaks on any components or tooling costs Design focused - Who is the product for? It isn't for people who want to spend 250$ on a Behringer mixer. It is for people who want something that is high quality and doesn't break. Reliable. F…

I’m part of a team that makes low volume high priced electronics. Component costs don’t contribute that much: the price difference between qty 1 and qty 1k is usually much larger than between qty 1k and anything more. The things I see contributing to the cost of low quantity hardware are:

1. The need to amortize development costs over fewer units. This is not just software and hardware engineers, but office space, lab equipment, mechanical engineering for enclosures, prototype builds, emissions and compliance testing (FCC, CE, UL, TÜV, depending device and on target market)

2. Higher manufacturing costs. Low cost overseas manufacturing has fairly high fixed costs, especially if you want to maintain high quality.

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#192

Post by blub »

IAmPym wrote: post #159

"Why is it so expensive?" - commentary from someone who does this for a living at Sequential Small Volume - each unit is more expensive than a large volume product, you don't get price breaks on any components or tooling costs Design focused - Who is the product for? It isn't for people who want to spend 250$ on a Behringer mixer. It is for people who want something that is high quality and doesn't break. Reliable. F…

I agree with you mostly about why it would be expensive, but Teenage Engineering doesn't have a reputation for building reliable devices. I own an OP-1, owned two POs and considered getting an OP-Z only to be scared away by all the reports about poor hardware quality and support.

The OP-Z plastic casing apparently bends. Sometimes it comes like that out of the factory (or more likely gets that way during storage and transport) often times it bends with use. This means that buttons will slide out of position, keys will trigger multiple times, etc.

The manufacturer doesn't have any solution to the above problem and returning it for a replacement may result in a straight case or more of the same. All signs indicate that it's a design defect, but TE haven't recognised this and they're getting punished in reviews.

The POs are flimsy, and the knobs tend to be imprecise and "jump" between values. One came with rust on a metal part because of TEs creative open packaging which exposes the devices to the surrounding environment.

The OP-1 itself seems solid as far as hardware goes so far, but it has other issues. It's noisy for one, which goes against claims of audio quality. The software's buggy and it records clicks together with the incoming audio, especially when recording external instruments. These are all well known problems. And given that the OP-1 is supposed to be a synth, or at least a groovebox, it's surprisingly hard to create good sounding patches with it.

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#193

Post by Applejinx »

an-unknown wrote: post #93
ng55QPSK wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Synths were always expensive. Polyphonic, analog Stuff was clearly in the 5-digit prices. Digitalisation brought this down to 4...5000€.

Back in the day, it somewhat made sense that polyphonic synthesizers were expensive, since the electronics itself was expensive. Today, if you have a few weekends time, you can rather easily design your own custom analog polyphonic synthesizer in e.g. Eurorack format, manufacture it for something around 30-50€ (e.g. using some Chinese PCB manufacturer + their SMT assembly service), and the resulting module will outpe…

The trouble comes when it absolutely will not, because the sound of the 'vintage digital gear' is heavily influenced by the primitive DACS and typically non-miniaturized circuitry putting out a relatively low-bit sound with some serious beef to it.

This does not apply to the Teenage Engineering… except to the extent that they've specced it out with fancy internal parts. They may well be avoiding jellybean op-amps etc. and producing unusually high quality analog stages. It IS possible to do that: I think Make Noise does it very well, and from what little I know about the Teenage Engineering thing, I wouldn't be surprised if they were performing on a very high level even though there's nothing retro about any of it.

I'd love to see someone do a seriously overkill Pi DAC/ADC hat. What you're saying is not exactly untrue… just that the people habitually saying these things are also the farthest from being able to MAKE it be as true as they think. The Teenage Engineerings of the world are more likely to be able to deliver the goods.

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#195

Post by randito »

spython wrote: post #137
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.

There was a collaboration with IKEA, where teenage engineering designed the bluetooth loudspeakers. I have the big ones (10x20cm) and they are alright for a small room or to take with you to the garden. Nice but nothing special. The tiny ones for 19€ were really something - nice design, good sound for the size and price, and really, having a rotating knob on such a small stylish thing feels just great.

IKEA Frekvens. Link: https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/23/21079667/ikea-teenage-eng...

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#196

Post by eej71 »

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.

If the people who design the atrocious touch screen interfaces inside of cars could get educated by the nice people at teenage engineering, that would be swell.

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#197

Post by [deleted] »

blub wrote: post #192
IAmPym wrote: post #159

"Why is it so expensive?" - commentary from someone who does this for a living at Sequential Small Volume - each unit is more expensive than a large volume product, you don't get price breaks on any components or tooling costs Design focused - Who is the product for? It isn't for people who want to spend 250$ on a Behringer mixer. It is for people who want something that is high quality and doesn't break. Reliable. F…

I agree with you mostly about why it would be expensive, but Teenage Engineering doesn't have a reputation for building reliable devices. I own an OP-1, owned two POs and considered getting an OP-Z only to be scared away by all the reports about poor hardware quality and support. The OP-Z plastic casing apparently bends. Sometimes it comes like that out of the factory (or more likely gets that way during storage and…

[deleted]

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#198

Post by filoleg »

colechristensen wrote: post #126
danachow wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right at the very beginning: > ultra-portable pro-mixer and audio interface. TX–6 is our ultra-portable, battery-powered mixer and multi-channel audio interface. comparable to larger units, but with even more tech packed into one sturdy little machine. I’d say that’s pretty damn clear what it is and that it’s “ultra portable.” What were you expecting them to add?

Lots of people don’t know what a mixer or audio interface is.

It is a specialized tool for a specific set of tasks. If you don't even know what this (very clearly named and commonly known in the industry/hobby) type of a tool is used for, you definitely don't have a need for it.

Your issue with it is akin to someone complaining that a promo page for a premium-tier oscillator clearly states that it is an oscillator, but doesn't explain what oscillators are and what they can be used for.

Re: TX-6 – Teenage Engineering

#199

Post by smoldesu »

Archit3ch wrote: post #177
lancesells wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Except Behringer doesn't clone Omega... yet!

checks watch

Give them... 6 months?

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