Status Symbols: Teenage Engineering OP-1

Status Symbols are devices that transcend their specs and features, and become something beautiful and luxurious in their own right. They're things that live on after the megapixel and megahertz wars move past them, beacons of timeless design and innovation.

With retro-futurism at a peak, the OP-1 represents the platonic ideal of the movement. The synthesizer mixes the form factor of a Casio VL-Tone, 80s vector graphics for a UI, and an expansive set of modern tone- and beat-creation utilities that blend digital power and analog concepts. For instance, recording takes place on a digital representation of a four track tape recorder, but you can vary speed and even record backwards, just like in olden days, and match the tape speed to your sequencer clock, just like in the here and now. It's a beautiful mashup.

Price: $849