#81

The main thing I LIKE about the OB-4 is it’s mandate to make loud noise in public. I’ve observed that there is a western culture trope, that public noise signifies a lower culture. That is a deeply incorrect western belief. I’ve seen this in collision in the library type environments I work in. Not all cultures accept that noise is taboo.

I don’t like loud noise, I’m a sensitive person. But I cannot deny the revolutionary aspect of making noise and taking space. That’s why they lynched Radio Raheem right?

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So in one respect fuck luxury goods, and 600 dollar wifi stereos. But don’t throw public amplification, worker noise, joyous noise, emancipatory noise under the bus with that.

19 Likes
#82

I was baffled by this at first. I would guess it’s because white noise has a more or less constant amplitude, whereas music is much more dynamic, so music will drive the amplifier at high levels for less time, using less power.

#83

so Harsh Noise Wall would only be about 4 hours… that’s shorter than some HNW albums :smiley:

1 Like
#84

Selling a radio in the UK that’s not even digital?
¯_(ツ)_/¯

4 Likes
#85

I for one am more than happy to throw all of that under the bus! And maybe a train too for good measure!

I really like the sentiment of your post and it ticks all the right boxes of what we should be thinking, but is anybody seriously able to tell me that their encounters with public amplification have anything to do with worker noise, joyous noise, or emancipatory noise? It might be to do with where I live but all of my experiences with what we are calling public amplification have never called to mind those lofty descriptions! I am primarily thinking of my many experiences doing daily commutes on trains and having people blast out music when you can bet that everyone else would much prefer silence. I also had a recent experience of going for a walk in a small park in my area to find that a public spirited fellow had decided to bring along a huge P.A. speaker and bless the entire park with a selection of his favourite musical hits at full volume. The speaker was distorting nicely under the strain but it didn’t matter because he was bringing everyone in the park together through music…except that it wasn’t doing that, people started to scatter and leave.

13 Likes
#86

That sounds like an edifying experience

1 Like
#87

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12 Likes
#88

Gonna have to buy a PSU for this one http://www.jliat.com/n1tb/

#89

Possibly worth pointing out (not that anyone was suggesting this), but I tend to doubt the person purchasing the 600-1k radio is the vanguard of the revolution :smile:

5 Likes
#90

We’re clearly not the target market… I’m not entirely sure who is, to be honest. If they’re selling these in decent amounts they’re clearly canny business folks indeed. FM radio in 2020? Who knew.

1 Like
#91

While i"m not in the market but do think it’s interesting that it has the capability of hosting its own synth engines, future MIDI support, more bluetooth connectivity etc etc - but in terms of power I see a lot of people comparing it to the FREKVENS but it seems like it has far more power.

FREKVENS: 1 x 8W / 1 x 24W Mono
OB-4: 2 x 38W Ultra High Efficiency Class D Amplifier in a Stereo 2 + 2 configuration

And the 72 hours on battery power seems … impressive? Just in terms of apples to apples, what other bluetooth speakers on the market have these kinds of specs? I’ve been trying to poke around and I’m coming up empty.

Also curious to see someone mess with the looping. Jamming through the speaker and having it all in a 2 hour buffer is interesting, especially if you could somehow dump that buffer to disk. I’m all about no wires - I would love love love to have something like this with my Norns + Grid and everything’s on battery power, start looping something and if it has the capability to play or overdub on top of the looping, that has some interesting potential. Hung up on the price of course. But whatever.

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3 Likes
#92

The 72 hours appears to be for FM radio at “normal volume” only, specs say bluetooth at “high volume” is 8 hours.

#93

Ah ha! Didn’t catch that bit, thanks for the clarification!

#94

Bear in mind their initial claims for the OP-Z were that it could be used continually for four cross-Atlantic flights…

1 Like
#95

Ha! That made me laugh, I always love a good Onion “article”…

#96

I will just wait till Behringer clones this… :clown_face:

17 Likes
#97

I’d love to see TE’s finances…they’re passing some sort of cost back to the buyers…what is it? Staff? Tax? Research? I doubt it’s materials or construction given the cost difference between this and the IKEA produced stuff.

When the IKEA x TE thread kicked off, I’d characterize the sentiment as “we like the idea, but IKEA is ruining the planet with their cheap junk.” This thread is “we like the idea, but the price turns this into a 1%'er deal.”

Is the cost really about 1%? Or is this what it costs to build a sustainable company that produces interesting stuff without “flooding the world with cheap junk?”

Depending on the sound quality and such I could see it being the “PA system for the OP line”…and you can record your super awesome OP jams! Live! But I guess you can’t export the recordings? And who knows what the sound quality is like…anywho…I’m not going to own one of these this decade. But I bet I’ll buy one when I see it at some highly curated antique store in 2051.

3 Likes
#98

I know it just came out but any reviews or whatever on the actual sound?

I see both sides of the coin here. I have to admit I am enjoying this thread very much

#99

«To date, the company has made nine different models of the same basic design, and it has sold more than 350,000 of them worldwide, making the Pocket Operator one of the most popular synthesizers in history.»

8 Likes
#100

The things that set this apart from other Bluetooth speakers are of such niche appeal that I doubt it would sell large numbers priced similarly to something like the Frekvens speakers. If you aren’t going to be selling in large volume, you sell at high price and market towards people that buy at high prices.

1 Like