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The OB-4 Magic Radio from Teenage Engineering is essentially a powerful Bluetooth speaker with several bonus features.
It can be used via Bluetooth or line-in, can receive radio stations, and can also be switched to a "disk" mode with three "channels:"
"Ambient" creates a soundscape plucked from the air by digitally mixing incoming broadcast frequencies.
"Metronome" plays just what you think, and you can set it from 1 beat per minute to, well, 800.
"Karma" is a series of 30 channels that each play a repetitive chanting noise.
The handle can be flipped forward to serve as a stand.
There's also an unusual feature whereby you can remix live music by manipulating the knobs. By the written description on the website I could not understand what they meant, and only grasped it (and the "disk" mode) by watching the demonstration below:
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The additional antenna is pretty clever, no?
The matte black OB-4 retails for $599, while the gloss red model goes for $649.
I’m a lapsed industrial designer. I was born in NYC and figured I’d die there, but a few years ago I abandoned New York to live on a farm in the countryside with my wife. We have six dogs.
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Teenage Engineering's Minimalist OB-4 Magic Radio Features Some Nifty Tricks
different scale but remember those TDK boomboxes that Ziba did 10-15 years ago? https://www.ziba.com/work/tdk-life-on-record
Can I plug a vintage OP1 into it and blast my trustafarian trap beats until somebody at Starbucks notices how creative I am?
:-) The "OB–4 premium leather bag and strap for OB–4" for € 400 says it al for me :-)
Looks cool if you take a glance, but don't look to long.
Mid-Speakers pointing to 'the ground' using the handle stand is ... well useless.
Why is one knob sticking out so much. It'll break within a weak.
How delicate must you be to operate the 'tape' knob? ... that doesn't operate a tape?!?!
Well maybe I'm just frustrated I can't spent $695 for a red one and put it in a $400 bag ;-)