there would be no jokes here if TE had never made music gear, but because they once made some things that are compelling/desire/impactful to the music gear world, they now have the bear the ridicule from anything they do that doesnt align with how the normal music gear industry operates (unusual products, silly prices, questionable marketing etc things that tbh many companies outside of music gear also practice)
Poor TE. all because they made the op-1.
I lolād out loud when I saw what this was and what it cost, but the idea of a speaker/music player that can automatically āambientifyā whatever you are playing through it is pretty cool. But not Ā£600 cool. Some people probably pay Ā£600 for overpriced speakers anyway thoughā¦
If theyāre companies trying to make money by selling products, itās quite literally about what āweā (in the broad sense) want - otherwise they donāt sell products.
Art is, Iād argue, a different thing. People should be encouraged to produce what they want, and people can like it or leave it.
And either, way I dislike any sense of entitlement about this stuff - nobody owes me, the consumer, anything (unless Iāve bought a product, and should expect it to be well made, well supported etc), especially when itās things that are essentially toys. (FWIW, I donāt see that sense of entitlement in this thread).
But we could equally say that a company or an artist isnāt entitled to any one reaction from the public/consumer - if someone wants to do their own thing, great! But theyāre not owed anything from the greater public, and if they want praise, well theyāre going to have to make something people like.
(As a slight aside, itās worth noting that āhate speechā has a specific use in the English language - itās usually reserved for things like racist or other bigoted speech, and speech that might be an incitement to violence, and is often a crime https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech . People here might be being āhatersā, but the criticism here is very far from āhate speechā, and itās worth being aware of and maintaining this distinction.)
I guess TE is aiming for the filthy rich crowd now, people that can afford and justify 800ā¬ balenciaga sneakers and 400ā¬ gucci shirts, not so much synthheads that are always broke because they blow their money on modulars 
In fact, thinking a bit more about the precise instant when my love for TE faded away, I think itās when I first saw this:
Got mine 470ā¬ used 6 years ago. At that time, it was selling 600ā¬ new iirc.
Seeing that price more than doubled, I felt like TE wanted to be the new Apple, like Jesper Kouthoofd believes they were kind of a new Jobs.
Really hated this, it felt pretentious, even arrogant as you said @darenager.
The POs series felt like a move in the right direction, though. Music for the masses and all. I so wished the OP-Z was the box that would gather all the ideas and sounds of the POs and moreā¦
Itās funny how TE brought people into their company with cheap products (pocket operators) and now, during a global pandemic and economy crisis , they try to sell their Ā« designer Ā» products to them. The only designer thing in those new products (ob-4, clothing line) is the price tag.
I just feel so happy and blessed I donāt own any TE stuff anymore. So happy and blessed that Elektron released the Model:Cycles for under 4000:- Swedish kronor. So happy and blessed I was led in the right direction.
Fun thing is the OP-1 is now back at ~1200ā¬ at places like Thomann. My (uneducated) guess would be that they kind of overstretched their margins with the price hike and had to back paddle because it was just too much for most people and they didnt move a lot of units anymore. After all to me it looks like they were bullshitting about the new screen being the reason for the higher price. That money was probably used for new office Lambos 
But enough of my hatespeech 
so its safe to say te is the supreme clothing company of music gear?
Another thing that I find shocking is the fact that there is no audio demo of how the thing actually sounds 
There are audio examples on their webpage
Yeah, thereās 3 almost useless examples of the āmagicā towards the bottom of this page:
Is this what yaāll are on about re lambos?
Thatās bad faith. They could have been rented and they are obviously there to serve as inspiration.
Thanks guys
I have seen those,
Audio of the experimental gimmicks, except for the drone thing which sounds interesting
I mean of the main features:
-2 hour loop
-Rewind
-Timestretch
-Remix
Thanks
Parking vintage sportscars in an office sounds like an idea that those coked up stock brokers from āWolf of Wallstreetā would come up with it. Itās so absurd that itās almost comedic
They definitely owned at least one, because it was offered for sale some years back.
I donāt care if they own them or not though, but it is quite funny to see things like the Marxist stuff juxtaposed with it. Seems inconsistent to say the least.
I actually had even a more surreal experience, donāt know if it happened to anyone else.
When I checked on my phone the website, the promo video was in Japanese with English subtitles, I thought it was more of the terrible marketing campaign, When i got home cheched on desktop the video again and it was in English, so at least that was not intended
Fair enough.
Wtf TE?
Sad thing is that products like this are used by fetishists or rich kids as some sort of statement of superiority or elitism.
Oh this is absolutely 100% Teenage Engineering.