The PO-80, a playful vinyl player and recorder
(Picture: Teenage Engineering)Why settle for merely playing vinyls to your pals when you can literally create them instead? This cute record deck from Swedish audio firm Teenage Engineering and Japanese designer Yuri Suzuki enables vinyl lovers to concoct their own lo-fi recordings for some late-night fun.
The PO-80 Record Factory has a cutting arm that promises to etch your tunes onto five-inch vinyl discs, ready for instant replay. It’ll capture any audio source fed into its 3.5mm socket, so break out those karaoke mics or pocket synth to capture the moment for posterity.
This compact, build-it-yourself, orange and white player might look like a toy, but it certainly isn’t playing around when it comes to features. It has a built-in speaker and audio output, too.
Teenage Engineering, which is known for its range of Pocket Operator micro-synths, has even created an online mastering tool to help tweak the sound of your custom 5in cuts. Make no mistake, though, this is a lo-fi gizmo, designed for laughs rather than serious audiophilia.
The PO-80 Record Factory can capture three minutes of music at 45RPM on each disc, or four minutes of lower-quality audio at 33RPM. It comes with playing arms for these five-inch discs and also more conventional seven-inch vinyls. You also get six blank records, with extras working out at a £20 a pop for a 10-pack.
The design is eerily similar to the EZ Record Maker by Suzuki and Japanese toy maker Gakken, which came out in 2020. This was only ever available in Japan so you can, in theory, avoid substantial import fees by nabbing the PO-80 Record Factory. That’s if you can actually find one. The deck is currently sold out albeit you can sign up to be notified when it’s in stock.
