Teenage Engineering lets you pick what you want to pay for an OP-1 Field | Hacker News Reader

Teenage Engineering lets you pick what you want to pay for an OP-1 Field

teenage.engineering

13 pointsslackpad24 comments

The slider starts at $1400, which is the already the retail price of this device, so I don't understand the "pay what you want" concept. They are basically asking for donations? The cult behind this company being what it is though I can definitely see people forking over thousands more and patting themselves on the back for it.

That is incorrect. The retail price of this device is 2,000$ and has been since it was released. For a while, the original op1 was sold at 1400$, but never the field. This is a 600$ discount, with a very weird thinly veiled and very stupid marketing gimmick on top, for the maybe one weirdo who thinks it’s funny to pay more than you have to.

Like the other commenter said, their retail price is $2000. In the used market, they are going for about $1400-1500 based on reverb.com stats. So at least compared to those prices, $1400 new is a decent deal. And for what it's worth, they sold out pretty quickly today (or so their online store says). Of course, $1400 is still a hefty price tag, I won't argue about that (and there's not much anything new to say about that topic, considering it's like 80% of online discourse about TE).

Spoiler: Lowest I could go is €1399, which is still three times as much as I would consider paying (especially considering I have the OG).

Without getting into the weeds, the value I see anyone getting from an OP-1 (of any generation) is still the all-in-one musical notepad angle, and I just don't see that being anywhere above the price of an iPad (which trounces the OP-1 in terms of music features if you install AUM and the Audiokit Pro synths - no DAWs involved).

But surly that isn't the point of the OP-1? Some folks really do just get pure joy from that little box, myself included. It's really only 10% about the music, it's about the experience of making the music, and TE stuff is just a really great experience (at least, to me! :)) And iPad physically FEELS like an iPad, hard, metal and glass and stuff, I feel nothing making music with it, and I like to feel stuff (touch) to make my music.

You can get a KORG portable controller (which is what I did) for €60 or so. There’s no way being touchy-feely is worth around 3 months worth of food.

it's really an awful thing to say, to be honest. Shame.

I own an original, directly purchased OP-1 (https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2021/04/17/1610) so I think I can judge the value of it quite well, thank you… even at the time I questioned my sanity and already had the KORG.

I strongly advise against using food as your meter stick.

Is the joy some people get, at least in part, derived from knowing the price? Let's try to be honest — if this thing sold for 40$, everyone would be making fun of it. You cannot afford Push or MPC, you fiddle with the kiddy synth.

The high price is one of the most important reasons for their success.

How long have you spent using their toys?

I have not even touched one, as most people without €1000 impulse purchase budget, instead having fun with Drambo and Aum on my ipad. I do, however, read what people who use OP-1 write about it or how they speak in the videos. It is a very familiar tone, the same you hear from owners of Leica, Porsche, Astell-Kern etc.

The device itself can be designed (and most likely is designed) in the most fabulous way imaginable — by pricing it this way they make conscious decision to position themselves as a lifestyle, luxury goods, just for the target audience of people who make music.

Have you seen many people telling you how happy using SunVox (5$) makes them in comparable way?

I wonder if it's...er, an autism thing? the feel of the buttons, the tension of the knobs, the plastic they selected, just how it feels literally, it really makes me inspired to play with music, something I'm bad at but get joy from. I HATE how expensive it is, I'm cheap as fuck, but I get so much joy from it that I wouldn't no have one. I've been buying their stuff since they started and I accepted the price because they're small team making physical stuff, I don't know if that is true or not.

I have noticed a lot of premium price design focused this way — instead of creating the most versatile or functional product it is meticulously designed to provide premium "feeling" and satisfaction, or to give rich sensory feedback. Large weighted knobs on expesive audio gear, the smooth hinge resistance and open/close click sound, surface texture — as you say, it does not make a difference on spec sheet, but something in the brain finds the whole experience supremely rewarding and pleasant. So of course if all of that is ignored and the argument is being made purely based on feature set, it becomes one-sided.

I just think that knowing price also plays into this psychological effect. At least, it measurably does in audiophile circle.

ipad right now is insane value. not only it has enough CPU for even serious music making, the price of software is amazing. There are some vendors that keep price parity with desktop, but most audio software is many times cheaper.

I/O story is a bit sad (one usb-c), but for most purposes it can be worked around. ipad, a few midi controllers, pair of monitors, 5€/month Logic Pro, FabFilter maybe, some intrument AUv3s — I am scared to imagine price of an equal setup, say, 15 years ago.

This is cringe and feels very much like the BrewDog of music hardware where they dress up cynical marketing tricks as some sort of statement.

They should include their breakeven price and allow people to go below that. That would be a more meaningful experiment.

As a non-musician I had defended TE in the past just because I think their shit looks really cool and fun. But this is egregious. This is marketing only a communications major could love, and even then, god damn

I'm willing to pay $50, maybe $100. This is just a bait and switch, they don't want me to buy it.

not as ballsy as the title makes you think, let me buy it for $100 and you can use "pay what you want"

Haha yes, I was going to buy it for $1 :D

Teenage Engineering has some really obnoxious marketing, but it seems to work. I mean, we're talking about then. Roland or Korg never make hacker news.

in their backend did they have to create a new product for each price point?

Nope. If I shop around I can get a Korg Nautilus for the price of the left hand of that slide.

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