[talldayo]

Selling underpowered toys at eye-popping prices has been Teenage Engineering's modus-operandi since the beginning. After the OP-1 price hike (and subsequent re-release at an even higher price), I don't think their target audience cares past this point. You either buy TE stuff for the brand recognition or you own a bunch of Behringer gear because you're poor.

[caseyy]

https://teenage.engineering/store/field-desk/

[talldayo]

I retract my previous statement. Indeed, toys are not the only expensive stuff they have for sale.

Hey look down there! The computer-1 case is on sale for $149, down from $249. How much profit you still think they're making, considering it's a DIY kit of bendable sheet metal?

[BadHumans]

150 for a mini-ITX case is very reasonable. I don't this is the own you think it is.

[hbn]

SnazzyLabs bought their case a few years ago for a hackintosh project and did not review it favorably.

They send you a bunch of flat panels of metal you have to bend into shape yourself, and are supposedly very flimsy and can be easily bent even once the whole thing is assembled. They didn't even punch out the screw holes so you have to bore your own holes and screw through them manually. The USB-C port on the front uses a 3.0 header instead of 3.1. And it can't even fit a small formfactor GPU.

https://youtu.be/WOMeETfRQkE?t=418

[MichaelMug]

I bought that case and it’s not great quality and does not look as good as the picture. Also it is flat pack so you have to bend all the pieces and the toggle switch feels terrible. So definitely overpriced for what you get.

[BadHumans]

I didn't buy the case so I can't comment on quality. Just that asking $150 for a mini-ITX case is in the ballpark for what I expect to pay. Most small-batch ITX cases are also flat pack. All the dan cases, formD T1, among others.

[caseyy]

Yes. But the assembly experience and the wobbliness of the case are worse than a $70 mini-ITX options. I think even $70 would be half brand tax. As the quality to my mind puts this case among the cheapest of the cheapest.

[fortyseven]

Maybe give it another think? This time taking thermals and air flow into consideration?

[BadHumans]

What would you like me to think about? Look at the price of mini-ITX cases. 150 is in the ballpark. I made no claims about this cases quality only that it is priced around the same price as other mini-ITX cases.

[noman-land]

While I agree this has been true of TE for most of their existence, their most recent $300 sampler bucks this trend considerably.

https://teenage.engineering/store/ep-133/

Neither that, nor this little AI cloud device are eye watering in price.

[neom]

People loooove to complain about TE pricing. OP-Z is $499, find me anything else that can sequence sound, video and DMX (on the go) like OP-Z can, there are exactly zero others. OP-1 for portable synths.... are people pulling a Deluge out on a flight? I've seen people compose a whole set with a OP-1, over 30 minutes, with nothing else... good luck doing that on a MC-101.

[talldayo]

I own a Pocket Operator, my head's not in the sand about their cheaper offerings. The Pocket Operators are cheap toys though, you cannot tell me with a straight face that it's about to prop up your next EP. It's a mass-produced calculator PCB they forgot to make a case for, and sell at insane markup.

The same goes for the KO and indeed, the OP-Z. The OP-Z doesn't even have a screen, it has no business costing $499 for being a bunch of buttons with a USB-C plug.

> find me anything else that can sequence sound, video and DMX (on the go) like OP-Z can

How about the mandatory paired device it requires to sequence everything? That iPhone/iPad is certainly capable of doing that itself, alongside multiple things the OP-Z can't. Nevermind how far you'd get with a $300 laptop and $200 DAW.

[neom]

You can't memorize how to use an OP-Z.......?? That aside, what company is making an OP-Z alternative?

What company is making pocket operator alternative? What company is making an OP-1 alternative...?

Right, that's what I thought.

On your laptop point, I'm going to be doing a show this weekend, OP-Z, OP-1, 170 and 400. I don't even know HOW I would do that without TE gear, $50k worth of Eurorack?

[talldayo]

They've existed for almost 4 decades now under a market labelled "MPCs and MIDI controllers". To name a few common alternatives, you have the Digitakt and Octatrack, a cheap TASCAM and a laptop, a 4-track cassette recorder, the Akai grooveboxes, the Electribe series, the recent Novation Circuit line... the list goes on. People have been making beats on battery-power long before the iPhone and Garageband, if that's news to anyone.

> I don't even know HOW I would do that without TE gear, $50k worth of Eurorack?

A quad-core laptop running Reason and VCV Rack would do just as well, but I won't spoil your hardware fun. Who can deny how sweet TE's analog DCO sounds?

[neom]

Right, anyway. Can you spec for spec find me alternatives for the TE gear I mentioned? Same form function, similar software, interoperable within its ecosystem. Just name the TE model and then the brand and model alternative that is basically the same, and then how they work together in terms of their sync clocks.

For example:

OP-Z, you could buy X device, it has all the same features, is about the same price, same size, battery etc.

Very curious to check out your suggestions!

[iamsaitam]

Or you buy them because they know how to design products unlike Behringer?

[vegadw]

Honestly, while I agree there's a massive price discrepancy, I don't know that I even see Behringer as the "lower end" option anymore. The lowest end is a laptop and pirated VSTs. Behringer pedals? Yeah, those are because you're poor (or just don't care, I guess?) but synths? The K2 is better built than the MS20 mini, the Wasp reissue doesn't have a good equivilent I know of, and their 303 clone isn't any better or worse than the other similarly priced 303 options - and it's easily hackable.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I still think Behringer as a company is doing bad things to the music land scape and that they've done some pretty horrendous IP theft and racist stuff, but I don't think "because you're poor" is right either.

To the point though, yeah, no, TE absolutely won't get a black eye for this: Nobody cares, and hardly anyone but tech bros even know. It's no worse than their wooden choir thing.