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Comment by dvt | Hacker News Reader

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!

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More like Braun and japanese industrial design than Apple (which apple is heavily inspired by)

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).

12 year old product. we're talking about recent ones. field improved casing quality

The refreshed OP-1 Field isn't that old. I tried it and thought it was a lot of fun, but still too expensive for me for what it does.

i own both the original op-1 and the field.

i find them both underwhelming personally

I was also disappointed with my OP-1. After receiving a unit that had a broken OLED display, I received a replacement whose rotary encoder knobs were visibly askew. When I reached out about it, TE told me that it was "normal". I would expect tighter QA control on a product that is $1000+, but since it is made offshore in China, I guess they can only do so much?

https://i.imgur.com/7KrxVZr.jpg

Apple products are also made in China. You get as much quality as you pay for, which may come in the form of having your own employee in the factory.

> cheap Nord keyboard

What now?

Yes, the inconsistent feel between their supposedly "avionics grade" rotary encoders was piss-poor on my unit. I can't imagine what planes they've flown with that level of poor QC on the encoders.

You might dig these folks https://electronicmaterialsoffice.com/

There is nothing audiophile about it. It's mostly hipster musicians or people having spare cash and wanting expensive toy. Which is fine.

I mean, look at the newest Sony phone:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/05/sonys-1400-xperia-1-...

What about it?

Ultra sleek design.

Looks like my iPhone and every other phone since the iPhone was released - am I missing something? The minimalist slab with a screen isn’t exactly unique any more?

except it has a zoom lens.

also, being able to use the phone as a screen via cable vs latency ridden wireless connection as a video screen is interesting

That’s not part of the design, that’s part of its capabilities.

It doesn't look like anything to me. (westwood reference, but also it does not look like anything to me)

That little microphone hole at the bottom is not lined up with the other items nor is is evenly spaced out like on the iPhones. Its bugging me.

Maybe it works better that way. Apple's been known to put form over function.

For the price you pay? Hell no. They better make it look good and work well.

It doesn’t seem ridiculous if you’re a professional whose life revolves around voice recording. Seems like prosumer quality pricing.

If I saw a professional walking around with this thing, I'd avoid them like the plague. It screams "I care more about looking cool than making quality recordings" to me.

Prosumer pricing for these features would be €450-500 max. €1500 for €150 of audio quality is just smh.

Not really fair assesment. At pro level that price really doesnt matter. Saying that its bad because it looks is stupid. What matters is if its reliable and functions well. If it does it might just mean that the premium materials make it last longer.

Pro level mics have a lot to say about their audio quality: Why it's good, why it's innovative, etc.

This TP-7 doesn't. Not at all. Their marketing is heavily based on how cool it looks, with very little if any stuff like audio samples, frequency response, etc.

In other words, their marketing materials say "it's good, because it looks good"...

Teenage Engineering make shiny expensive toys, and market an 'experience'. Which is fine, if that's what you're after. But if you're after quality recording, get something twice as good and ten times cheaper.

I know pro musicians who love their stuff. TX-6 is great little mixer for both recording and performance. OP-1 despite the hate is portable focused audio lab that is perfect for creating little music ideas. Sure you can get something from Electron for less money but is it as portable or quirky to bring out new ideas? For some it's really important and so are the aesthetics.

I think there are qualities that are important in creative process that you overlook. The mood, your environment, quality of your tools even how "cool" they look is not something secondary.

Actually most good musicians i know care more about the feel of a tool (touch, how it clicks, how heavy it is) than they care about frequency response. They might even like things that sound in certain way and not always "correct".

For some usecases this doesn't matter sure - like if you are some reporter - get Zoom or Sound Devices. But there are people liking and buying these and they are not just posers.

I dunno. I think that the Sound Devices MixPre-3 II is around $900, so things like this TE model seem kind of over priced even compared to professional tools that do more.

I have no problem with folks who want to pay whatever for whatever- I play pedal steel and own a modular synth, which are two of the dumbest, difficult, and expensive ways to create small variations in current.

But even professional level tools are less expensive than TE equipment.

In the cinema and pro production world, Sound Devices reign supreme.

Right, and I got a Sony PCM-D100 right before they were discontinued for half of what this costs.

If you're a professional you're going to be using a professional tool, not an overpriced shiny looking toy.

In this case almost every person I know who's doing field recordings is using a zoom Hx series or something similar.

If you are actual professional, TP-7 is just a toy

Not even XLR/mini-XLR for pro mics near instantly disqualifies it for most pro uses and lack of SD card is just plain silly. The app showing you transcribed text after does look neat tho

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