If you asked supporters of Teenage Engineering’s musical toys and instruments what the company’s next development would be, they possibly assumed it would be a new Pocket Operator, an additional speaker, or possibly an update to the OP-Z. In reality, it is the company’s first system that wholeheartedly embraces analog audio: a moveable history cutter.
Analog audio formats when imagined to be extinct are making the most of a stunning renaissance. Cassette tapes are finding their way again into outlets and vinyl documents are the moment all over again a booming business enterprise, in spite of the actuality that most of us have a device in our pockets with entry to literally millions of songs. Does analog audio sound greater than digital? That may perhaps be a debate that is in no way fixed, but information do have a distinct audio that lots of want around the exacting perfection of a electronic file, and now Teenage Engineering wants anyone to be ready to make their own.
Followers of vinyl information and turntables could possibly uncover the new PO-80 acquainted. It’s a collaboration in between Teenage Engineering, designer Yuri Suzuki, and the Japanese instructional toy maker, Gakken—although those people past two have labored with each other just before. A few a long time ago, Gakken and Suzuki produced the EZ File Maker, which we protected again when it debuted in 2020, and while we have not long gone fingers on with the new PO-80 nevertheless, dependent on photos alone, it seems to be just about equivalent to the EZ File Maker, apart from some colour updates and snazzy History Manufacturing facility branding.
Which is not necessarily a negative issue, due to the fact getting your fingers on the EZ File Maker outdoors of Japan wasn’t effortless until you had been ready to abdomen some significant import service fees. The PO-80 features both of those a tonearm that can play again five-inch or 7-inch (with an adapter) vinyl documents as nicely as a reducing arm with a replaceable stylus that can engrave a few minutes of glorious monophonic seem (at 45RPM) or 4 minutes of reduce high quality audio (at 33RPM) onto a five-inch vinyl disc.
For $149, the USB-powered PO-80 contains a designed-in speaker, an added chopping stylus, 6 blank 5-inch vinyl documents, and a 3.5-millimeter audio plug for connecting an audio source like a Pocket Operator synth. Teenage Engineering also sells a bunch of equipment including a $59 carrying case, substitution stylii for $15 every, and a 10-pack of blank records for $20.
For individuals hoping for “the optimum seem top quality for your recordings,” Teenage Engineering has also established an on-line mastering resource that “applies the ideal equalizer curve to your new music and makes it less complicated to realize excellent lo-fi sound high-quality on your customized 5″ cuts.” Really do not count on miracles or a seem that compares to the pre-recorded vinyl documents you can purchase at a retail outlet, but when you’re dropping $2 on a few-minutes of analog audio, you might as very well do just about anything you can to make it glow.