REVIEWS NEWS SPEAKERS HEADPHONES HI-FI TV SMARTPHONES GADGETS HOME THEATRE PHOTO COMPUTERS SMART HOME
Nyhed

Cut your own vinyl records

If you want that unique analogue vinyl sound, Teenage Engineering has a turntable for you. And it's cheap!

forfatter
Published 2022-10-07 - 12:00 pm

There’s something magical about vinyl records. The tactile pleasure of holding the record in your hand and the warm, analogue sound.

But why settle for buying vinyl records – which are bloody expensive, by the way – when you can make your own at home on your kitchen table?

Sweden’s Teenage Engineering has a particular flair for quirky and hip inventions. They’ve recreated Stig Carlsson’s classic OD-11 speaker, made a portable radio you can remix on. And they’ve collaborated with IKEA to create the Frekvens hackable speaker.

This time, the teenage engineers have joined forces with Japanese Yuri Suzuki, who has created a home-use record cutting machine called the PO-80 record factory. And to make it extra quirky, you have to assemble it yourself. Which should be easy, and not require the use of tools.

Once the machine is assembled, you simply plug in an analog signal source, place one of the included cuttable vinyl records on the turntable, lower the cutting needle, and go. That’s how simple it is, according to Teenage Engineering.

A record cutting machine for €150? You can buy it from Teenage Engineering. (Photo: Teenage Enginering)

Once the record is finished, it can be played back on the PO-80 using the more regular tone arm and pickup. There’s a built-in speaker and analogue 3.5mm minijack output. Whether the records can also be played on a conventional turntable, we can’t ascertain from the website. But we guess you can. And that for the sake of the pickup, you’d probably better not.

Like everything else from Teenage Engineering, the PO-80 record factory is made with a glint in the eye and a style-savvy sense of the quirkily hip. The sound is true lo-fi, but definitely recognisable. And the price is just EUR 150. Which is just a twentieth of the only other home use record cutting machine that we know of, the Phonocut.

Five blank vinyl records are included, and extra records cost EUR 20 for five pieces. Extra cutting heads can be purchased for EUR 15.

The machine has previously been sold in a version, made by the Japanese toy manufacturer Gakken.

Comments

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Spotify's Hi-Fi plan is still alive

"Yes, it will come," claims one of Spotify's bosses.

Turntable at the top of its game

Reloop's flagship turntable deserves a place in the hearts of all vinyl enthusiasts who value sound quality above everything else.

On the verge of high end

The Yamaha receiver does everything, looks like a million and sounds phenomenal.

The best of both worlds

CD streamers are the perfect way to combine your CD collection with streaming.

The reference!

Auralic's new Altair G1.1 wins a narrow victory because it combines outstanding sound quality with an excellent DAC and good ease of use.

Still in the top league

The minimalist Naim ND5 XS 2 is the oldest of the music streamers, but it doesn't sound like it.

Follow LB Tech Reviews