You’ve probably heard of Teenage Engineering before. If it isn’t selling music tech, then it’s selling PC cases that charge you more for the privilege of building it yourself. This time it’s sticking to music with the release of the PO-80 Record Factory which, as the name suggests, lets you cut and play your own vinyl jams. As long as the “jams” you’re creating sound nothing like this, we’re all good.
We have a vinyl cutter at home:
As is common with Teenage Engineering, the Record Factory is designed to be built at home. Once it’s assembled, you’ll be engraving your own audio on 5in discs to get that “ultra-analogue lo-fi sound.” The company collaborated with Yuri Suzuki to design the player, who gave it its simplistic orange and white design.
In the box you’ll find;
- PO-80 assembly kit
- 6 black 5in blank records
- USB power cable
- 3.5mm audio plug
- Adaptor for 7in records
- Spare cutting needle
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The six-blank dual-sided records that come in the box yield four minutes of audio (on each side) while recording at 33rpm. If you’re looking for a 45rpm recording then you’ll be limited to only three minutes. All it takes to record your own lo-fi beats is to plug your own recorder into the 3.5mm input jack. Listening is even easier, as the Record Factory has its own built-in speakers. If that’s not enough for you, there’s a separate 3.5mm output jack to connect your speakers to.
This little machine will only set you back R2,700 ($150). Well, it would if Teenage Engineering hadn’t already sold out. If you’re desperate to get one of these, there is an option to have Teenage Engineering notify you once they’re back in stock.
