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Teenage Engineering's Minimalist OB-4 Magic Radio Features Some Nifty Tricks

By Rain Noe - July 29, 2021

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.

Comments

Michael DiTullo

a year ago

Z

1Z

different scale but remember those TDK boomboxes that Ziba did 10-15 years ago? https://www.ziba.com/work/tdk-life-on-record

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- Michael DiTullo
  
  Michael DiTullo
  
  a year ago
  
  Z
  
  Z
  
  this was one of them
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Nathan D.

a year ago

Z

Z

Can I plug a vintage OP1 into it and blast my trustafarian trap beats until somebody at Starbucks notices how creative I am?

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E. Agle

a year ago

Z

Z

:-) 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 ;-)

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Rain Noe

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.