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.
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.
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?<p>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 designed products that also happen to function well; but I don't know if audio engineers (and other people this targets) also believe that teenage engineer products are worth the price beyond that.
I used to love TE stuff, but with their latest products it’s no longer good design, it’s just plain parody. Even ignoring the price, which is always a part of the design, the controls are impractical (I would even say borderline comic) and just beg to get misused or broken. After which what, you throw the whole thing away?<p>Indeed “there are thoughts, ideas and fragments that - for the sake of humanity - we need to record and be able to return to as a reference”, but as a journalist I would sure as hell not use this device to record them, going instead for my trusty iPhone Voice Memos app backed up by an old-school $50 voice recorder running on AAA batteries.<p>It’s a bit sad, because I would love to indulge on seriously designed high-end recorder. But that’s not what this is.
I know everyone's going to complain about the price (which <i>is</i> 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.<p>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!
If there was ever a product page that needed a video...<p>Spinny jog wheel thingy is lovely. And apparently it moves while you're recording? If you put your thumb on it to slow it down does it pitch the audio up on playback?<p>It's not how I'd spent $1,500 but I'm glad it exists. Irritates the same itch that makes me want to buy an old Nagra SN. (Which is also not how I'm gonna spend multiple thousands either, but I get it.)
I don't see a way to add a windscreen? A $50 field recorder with a $10 wind screen will probably sound better in the field than this. This looks like it's main intended to be used for transcription indoors. I also can't find any details on headroom. Will this clip when recording a concert, or a jam session, or recording a car engine revving?
If Wes Anderson were an Engineer I think he'd make stuff like this. Take a look at their new microphone as well <a href="https://teenage.engineering/products/cm-15" rel="nofollow">https://teenage.engineering/products/cm-15</a>
$1,500? For a field recorder?<p>That's not a <i>crazy</i> number for a digital synthesizer. It's eye-watering for a pocket-sized mixer. For a <i>microphone</i> 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.<p>There's no shortage of pissing-and-moaning about Teenage Engineering hardware, but <i>goddamn</i>. They are really betting on people not wanting to open the Voice Recordings app on their smartphone with this one.
For the price you can buy state of the art mic and field recorder. For audio-to-text, simply use Microsoft office.<p>But you can buy this if you’re rich and don’t know where to burn your cash.
The greatest offense is creating a product so refined in its exterior craft that offers a feature set barely competitive with the most entry level ZOOM.
I'll stick with my iPhone + TX-6 for multitrack recording. The TX-6 has definitely been worth the $1500.<p>re: size: It's fine for me, I adjusted quickly to the knobs. They can be turned without fully gripping your fingers around their sides. The size is a feature to me as I have a fully battery powered portable setup that sizes down enough that I can easily carry the parts on my person without a bag.
End of the day TE products are closer to toys than they are tools. I mean that in a positive way in the sense the people who buy them get excited about them and using them makes them happy but you have to build your workflow around them.<p>Although their "Field" range is starting to feel overpriced by their standards, Kinda think if the mixer was around $500, the recorder around $600 and the Microphone around $350 the range would be a lot more compelling, like line the pricing up so buying all 3 is closer to the price of the OP-1 Field not double the price of the OP-1 Field.<p>I'm sure they'll sell enough, just think aiming for that pricing would have made buying the whole set a no brainer for the TE fans.
I love physical buttons. My keyboard has the exact right keyswitches for how I type. On the other end of the spectrum is my car's absolutely cursed touchscreen and capacitive buttons.<p>The TP-7's buttons look really great, until you get to the part about the motorized wheel. That thing is going to jam with lint or sand or beard hair and that's the end. Or something is going to accidentally touch it and you'll miss a key moment of an interview.<p>I wonder what the battery life would be without that thing.
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?<p>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.<p>But... is that all there is to it?
The rocker and the wheel both look like they would break under even moderate real-world use. And I get that not everyone is technical enough to do this but whisper.cpp gave basically everyone good-enough auto transcription, so that horse has kinda left the barn. Despite that, I <i>hate</i> how much I still want this.
How does the TP-7 compare to Zooms, the biggest competitor in this space?<p><a href="https://zoomcorp.com/en/us/" rel="nofollow">https://zoomcorp.com/en/us/</a>
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?<p>Like:
An apple corer?
A Yeti (like) cup?
A mobile phone?
Kids toys?<p>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?
Every time I look at this company's products, I realize how useless they are. And that's before considering their absurd prices.<p>The big selling point for this thing is supposed to be its ready accessibility and "high quality" audio, but it can't record high quality as it stands. About its gimpy built-in mic they say "OR USE THE INTERNAL MIC IN A PINCH."<p>Or you can buy the Zoom F3, which costs $350, is small enough to strap to your wrist, and records in float. Then you can buy a good mic (or two) and still come out way ahead of the asinine product featured here.
This is so neat and the design looks so thoughtful. But USD$1500 is just… pornographic. I immediately wanted one and steeled myself for what I thought was going to be $300-400. I LoL’ed when I saw the real price.<p>Might as well charge $15000
Are they going to make more than 7 of these?<p>Usually they only manufacture 7 examples of what they sell.<p>Five to give to YouTube review channels and two to actually sell.<p>When those two sell out they wait 29 months and then make two more.<p>Or so it seems.