Not wanting to start a fight here…
but couldn’t they have reconfigured it without raising the price? As it will still make them more than enough money when they sell it again.
Longtime OP1 owner here, bought and sold several units already and always ended up getting one because of its unique combination of features, design and portability.
It has never been an affordable product but over the years more people were able to get their hands on a unit ( used or new ) because of its long lifecycle and kinda steady price ( inflation adjustments included ). This was the strength of the OP - that it survived in an everchanging gadget race of electronic music devices for 8 years and established a cult following because it DID NOT change - including second hand prices.
This is now at stake: TE is doing a stupid price gamble - for whatever reasons - and might kill the whole spirit of this machine. They are excluding more potential users and even disgust the existing ones by this a**hole move. I doubt that even with a plausible explanation by TE why the price went up by 40% it won’t have a lasting impact on their reputation and on the future of this company.
1 Like
HMmmm - not many people sticking up for TE here.
I’m wondering if they are struggling to suvive or move forward.
OP-1 was genius and made them seam so , but yes - afew sketchy moves recently.
My guess is that TE spends a LOT on the manufacturing, and their OH&P for the device was nowhere near as high as people think. So they were netting enough from that profit to pay salaries, mfg costs and marketing costs.
Leaves little room for error. Once the mfg snafu w/ the screen happened, they probably found themselves in a tight spot.
If my OP-1 died tomorrow, there’s no piece of equipment in my collection (besides my MPC) that I wouldn’t hock to help finance a replacement OP-1.
Anyone that says it was overpriced @ $900 never really used one competently. Of this, I’m certain.
8 Likes
Can’t say anything for sure, just heard various people saying TE couldn’t get the old OP-1 screen anymore, and at least in other hardware projects I’ve seen that has led to it getting discontinued if the company that makes it is small-ish. Each component can affect a chain reaction of other components/manufacturing processes/software updates and that usually adds up to a major cost. Also the price of each component and manufacturing cost can increase for each unit because something that was easy before is now harder, or they couldn’t negotiate the same price for the new screens, etc. But all of this is just my guess–no interest in starting a fight either! 
5 Likes
I think it’s a joke,it can’t be real !
they are growing with other projects, the Synth culture has been a starting point for them but they‘re supporting it with a sideproject attitude…imagine the IKEA line of speakers and lights dropping this June. huge worldwide sellout
2 Likes
Here’s their reason
i take it that even at the higher price the OP1 is still non-functioning straight of the box and shuts down randomly or whenever the right-hand side of the unit is touched.
i have 20-year-old samplers and 30 year-old synths that still work perfectly. not a single problem or issue after all the these years. but TE can’t even make a unit that works when brand new.
I guess Sonic State has reached out to TE and I waiting on a reply to why there was such a high increase in the price. I wonder what they are going to say about it.
2 Likes
When did you buy it? Was it new or used?
OP1 bought new, Tokyo June 2017. why do you ask?
Because that’s what warranty is for…
Regardless of the reason for the price change. The whole “no one should pay…” thing lacks a heap of class and was quite unnecessary when it was going to followed up like this.
The price they’ve been referring to was over $8000.
Yes but it’s not like all OP-1s were going for that price. There’s lots of stupid prices for things on eBay that people put up to see what happens. To base an email campaign around not paying over the odds and then hike the price up seems crass.
They made sure the second hand market prices have gone up now that must be certain!
Hey, if they have to raise prices then that’s fair enough I just think it’s a strange approach.
Maybe someone has already mentioned the link with the OP-Z. It seems the screen is the issue for new OP-1 production and I’ve come across that in other equipment. Screen broken, replacement no longer being produced so product becomes useless. Personally I’ve never seen the lack of screen on the OP-Z as being a problem but there’s another in the plus column for avoiding it when they were designing it.
2 Likes
tha’ts actually easy to fix. remove the plastic on the bottom of the case. there is a cable that connects the board with the power switch and audio jacks that can come loose. Reseat the cable and you are good to go!
1 Like
using a multimeter, the problem seemed to be with faulty soldering on the on/off switch to the PCB. i whipped out my soldering iron and some (lead-based) solder and fixed it. but damn, soldering such small components is a little tricky. but
the EU banned lead solder a few years back. good for health, but not so good for making robust circuits.
it looks like the space for the connector board might be too tight and is putting pressure on the contacts of the on/off switch and is forcing the solder joints to fail.
1 Like