Teenage Engineering’s New $1,599 Field Desk

Teenage Engineering – makers of high-end synths like the OP-1 Field & the budget Pocket Operator series – has introduced the Field Desk, “the official workspace of teenage engineering.”

The Field Desk is a minimal desk, but it’s also designed to be part of a modular work environment.

They say:

“field desk is made from only what’s needed and nothing it doesn’t. all rails and clamps are produced by scandinavian
manufacturer Hydro, using their engineering grade, 75% recycled aluminum.

the desktop is crafted from double-sided formica birch plywood, so if the surface appears worn over time, it can be turned over for a fresh look. lightweight and modular, field desk arrives flat-packed to build in place, simple to assemble and disassemble.”

The Field Desk can be combined with accessories, like a custom storage tray and tape holder (available soon), or you can latch on your own creations using m5 screws.

The Field Rail System

The Field Desk is the first release in an integrated range of components called Field Rail System.

It’s an open-ended system of interconnecting aluminum rails that enable the creation of customizable modular furniture and accessories.

This system allows Teenage Engineering to offer custom-engineered interior solutions for professional workspaces.

Pricing and Availability

The Field Desk is available now for $1599.

151 thoughts on “Teenage Engineering’s New $1,599 Field Desk”

    1. I feel like teenage engineering is the apple of music, their products and design are awesome but sometimes the prices are plain outrageous

      1. Admin: Personal attack deleted.

        Keep comments on topic and constructive.

        Pro tip: It’s OK to say a comment is stupid, because you’re attacking a thing: the comment. It’s not OK to call somebody stupid – that’s a personal attack and will get your comment deleted.

  5. So the world go crazy … 1600 $ for a piece of MDF and some aluminium sticks … The question now is , this have MPE and polyphonic after touch , right ?

    1. This is hilarious! A perfect trolling from the world’s largest troll factory. I can’t wait to see the influencers try to sell me one.

  14. this is disgusting I’ve held off saying before but this is a joke I’ve done some research and you could put that aluminium frame together for about £120 and you could pick up some vintage formica off Facebook market place for about £50 if you want new you could probably get it for about £100 but if you want some beautiful wood then you could probably get something really nice for £600 and this is not even mentioning all the beautiful real deal mid century stuff you can find out there second hand for a fraction of the price they are taking the p*%s

      1. I agree- but this is just a cheap looking ‘self assembly’ table, the sort of thing you have in the garage. I am happy to pay for cool, quirky, boutique, premium…this is just a piss take.

      2. Show me where the design I’d be paying for is here, though. Sure it’s a design company, but then they should be designing things I wouldn’t have thought of. This looks like something a high schooler cobbled together

      3. So show me the design. ‘We worked for hours and hours and we came up with some dodge shelving metal and recycled MDF’

      4. TE is not a “design” company. They are a “lifestyle product” company, focusing on the niche market of music maker/lover/enthusiast. Seriously… brag about the marketing all day… that’s clearly working. But it’s a weaksauce argument to brag about the “design” clout of a common shit table you can get at countless stores for a tiny fraction, or most of the other goofy shit they are marketing at luxury prices.

        The real achievement of TE is that they have fooled so many people into thinking they are a design company. Just like Apple fooled you into thinking they were a computer company instead of a lifestyle product company. And Google fooled you into thinking they are a tech company instead of an add agency. And Lululemon fooled you into thinking they make athletic clothing, instead of being an “athleasure lifestyle company”. Starting to see a pattern here? It’s a known thing. Cook up something cheap as hell to make, price it so high that most people would never buy it, and then market the shit out of it without ever dropping the price. It plays on human psychology. I swear to whatever you hold sacred that if I marketed a white plastic bag with a giant “B” on the side for $100 each, a significant amount of people would preach up and down about how goddam brilliant I was and how that plastic bag was THE BEST damn plastic bag in the world, and how everyone else was a fool for not seeing that. You only need a few to pay that price. In fact, the “design” of the business counts on not everyone having one. That’s why the price is high. Otherwise you would see it’s just a plastic bag and the ruse would fall through. But if only a few people have my amazing plastic bag… then holy shit everyone else NEEEEEEEEEDS one, and needs it right now!

        Welcome to the last 50 years of capitalism. Sorry to be the wakeup call.

        1. nice try, seems you don’t know nothing like the rest of us but you willing to go far with your negetive correlations to keep your mind at ease.

        2. The Apple analogy doesn’t work. While it’s true Apple works hand to brand itself as a way of life, the fact is that today their computers are the best in the market in pretty much every single dimension. Nobody else is even competitive.

          Where I work we’ve learned this the hard way.

          The same cannot be said of TE’s table.

  17. finally somebody addresses the need for a high quality stylish “noise table”. why put your expensive gear on a crappy rickety $2 plastic porch table provided by the promoters. for bikes we say pay 10% of the price of the bike for the lock. we should have the same rule for synths.

  19. A new nadir for the hipster clowns.
    I’m amazed they are still financially solvent after their recent dismal output.
    But then there are always some people stupid rich & vain enough to
    bankroll their shenanigans. (Trying not to look at my clutch
    of dusty Pocket Operators as I write or think of dear Hainbach playing with
    those away in a manger dolls).

  20. Is it strong enough to stand on?
    And how much did they pay Cooke-Key Associates and Ed Lee to rip off TD’s Stratosphear album cover?

  21. I’m out on TE. The design isn’t that appealing and now they are taking themselves to seriously. I love their synths but this shit is inexcusable. Time to support a different cool synth company, like 1010music.

  27. Why are people offended by this? If you don’t like it, move on, If you think it’s too expensive, than it’s probably not for you… If you love it buy it..

    2. usually usa people (i don’t want to say american because it’s mainly us culture) who watched too many morning shows about how to be a “good buyer”

      1. I dont care what it costs, im simply not interested.
        its a random design product that has nothing to do with music at all.
        its a freaking design table that is so weakly constructed that you can’t even sit on it.

        1. i only know it so funny to see you pissed of on a table, a musical product, a modular music product, can’t wait to see what other musical product they will add to this line 🙂

  33. With the OP1 they slowly probed you.
    With the OP1 Field they stuck the tip in.
    With this, they’re just ramming the whole shaft in just to see how much they can hurt you.

  36. I actually thought this was a joke when they first posted it in Instagram. I left a comment, something like “This looks like it would have trouble holding up a Volca,” and they BLOCKED ME. I just thought that was petty and funny.

    I don’t want to stir the pot too much, but it looks like much of the exorbitant cost goes to marketing, which explains their rabid fanbase of middle-aged white men playing poor artist dress up with devices that cost as much as “higher end” Elektron boxes, which actually sound great on a serious system and leave headroom for the rest of the mix with way more functionality.

    I bet these will sell out, but that doesn’t mean it is a fair price or a superior product. TE is just a design company that is really bad at competition but really good at marketing and social media–after all, everyone in the comments seems to love them!

  40. What nobody seems to get is this kind of stuff is made for that small sliver of the obscenely rich who are slowly and steadily crushing the common folk. They don’t care how much anything costs because they have more money than some countries. Meanwhile the minimum wage in the US has been $7.25 an hour for years while the cost of food and housing has reached exorbitant levels. Those tables will sell. Just like those obscenely large yachts and houses do.

    1. Right idea but you’re doing the math wrong. The way you get to the point where you can buy a yacht or nice house is by not buying stupid shit like this overly expensive table.

      1. No, the people that you are discussing didn’t get their money from pinching pennies. That won’t get you yacht money in 4 generations of miserly behavior.

        That said, it’s amusing that anyone is bothered by a table. Don’t buy it. Problem solved.

    2. The obscenely rich spend north of 20k on their desks by Walter Knoll or Paul Henningsen. This is just a remix of the ordinary Eiermann E2 desk with some mounting points. It’s not cheap, but well within the price range that companies with a need for a particular aesthetic are willing and used to pay. If you run a small agency or firm, you likely want to avoid welcoming clients at an IKEA desk. Nobody needs this at home to play video games or synths on. As far as the US minimum wage goes, it is a shame. But a small Swedish design company has nothing to do with it.

  41. It seriously looks like a leaked April 1st joke.
    If people find it appealing, or useful, and not too pricey for them, I don’t judge. But still.

    Or: people at T.E. just challenged themselves to try and go further to see how far their fan base would go?

  42. Wow, everyone’s so harsh, as if it’s just a piece of plywood. Totally overlooking the fact that you also get an Erector™ set.

  44. you gotta be kidding me… I am assuming this is NOT an early April Fools joke(?)that looks like something you would get at ikea for $20. AND it wears out easily so you flip it over?! What happens when that side wears out, too? This is the worst company. And their customers/fanboys are suckers.

  46. I thought for sure this must be 1600 Krona which is about $160, but I actually followed the link to their website. It really is $1600. Pretty expensive holder for my TE Choir and TE case of beer.

  49. They have no clue on a new worthwhile synth / audio product. In last years they’ve just been able to reissue an old product doubling the price. It is clearly a marketing strategy to make the press to talk about them to stay relevant for a while

  51. Ikea for the posh ‘design’ that really doesn’t have anything to do with synths or music technology. TE knows how to catch the attention and the world is clearly biting.

    Still, you don’t see Yamaha motorcycles on Synthtopia either, so I don’t get why this table – which outside of the current context would not have been recognisable as having anything to do with music (unlike e.g. a studio desk) – should get any attention here

  52. If this is indeed to be the first of a series of modular products, then the upcoming products might bring more value to this.

    If it’s really, really strong and durable, but lightweight and collapsible, then it may be attractive for high-end touring rigs.

  54. LOL. Well, 99% of Synthopia posters showing how they really don’t get how capitalism works. If you own anything but the cheapest synth, pedal, etc. you are a hypocrite.

    1. indeed. the cross members look like the weak link here. they keep the rest of it from folding up – if they get they get a little bent the ruggedness starts to fail. the rest of the aluminium members have U-channel reinforcements. should have used them for every piece.

    2. I don’t think deferring to “Well, that’s capitalism” clarifies anything, and is generally what the rich use to justify their uninspired commodification and exploitation of the culture the working class creates to avoid talking about the ethics of capitalism while exploiting tools like fake reviews, influencers, and meticulously pruned social media pages. I don’t expect the fanboys to talk about it at their next single-origin cafe OP-1 meetup, but saying that a company whose past three products were a 40% more expensive re-run, a clone of a cheap children’s toy, and a very weird wooden choir is out of touch and uninspired is certainly within the realm of a site that covers music tech, not to mention the cornerstone of fair market capitalism.

      1. I was being a little facetious here. It is arguably stupid to be upset about this table when it’s likely that most of the people on this site have bought equipment that they don’t need and could replace with a much cheaper option. Like a poster above said, with TE you are paying for the design and their aesthetic philosophy. If you don’t like it or can’t afford it then don’t buy it. Someone will and does because they are still in business.

        Most of the people who follow this site likely have equipment which they don’t need and could be replaced by something way cheaper that sounds pretty much the same. They don’t do this because they have bought into the mindset that they need the next new thing to finally get that great song started or finished.

        The anger about this table is not about the table itself. It’s about desire and about not being able to fulfil it. Some like it but can’t afford it and others hate it because they are happy with two sawhorses and a sheet of plywood but hate the fact someone else will have it. Positions will be justified because the facade has to be maintained.

        This site is not really about music, art or creativity. It’s about believing that these objects will fill some void you have in your life. No one remembers who had the shinier hammer, only what the house looks like.

        1. Well and some of us haven’t bought a synth in years but are just here for the comment section. We haven’t heard anything outrageous from Uli in a while, so this TE nonsense will have to do.

        2. Also, I think there could be something strangely liberating and reaffirming about reading the article and the comments; to not feel any gear-lust, any lacking; to not feel the need to fill that void which requires you to purchase a “designer” brand desk, nor clones of the classics or ‘pro’ grade gadgets (nor feel any judgement towards those who do btw).
          I have been there myself, since if you allow yourself to be exposed to it, much of the self-perpetuating culture around gear is likely to make you feel you need all of this in order to be creative, or make anything decent.
          And the voice of that culture is obviously pretty strong here in the lion’s den.

          So yeah, I agree that indeed this site and 75% of what is posted and commented on here is not really about art or creativity, but identity and the need for its embellishment via products, brand & image, elitism by exclusivity and on the other had the revolt against these things, consumption ethics, etc.
          All this partly in the hope that it will invoke and messianistically harness the ephemeral spectre that is creativity by the future purchase of these goods, or by diverting ourselves altogether and perhaps evade the possible confrontation with a lack of said inspiration by talking brilliantly about related topics (like I am trying to do right now).
          And then (possibly) on the other hand there’s the hope that by engaging with this gear culture our identity will be reaffirmed by either its reflection in the mainstream or within the opposition thereof as being coherent and consolidated, which will subsequently make us feel more creatively competent and our existence less accidental.

          I mean, that’s what I guess is going on, but clearly I can’t escape any of this myself

  55. this is obviously geared to upscale cooperations, not to bedroom producers. I saw a nice quiklok studio desk for $800 usd with 2 levels a keyboard pull out and rack mount space. I think its on apt deco site. if your looking for a studio desk this may make more sense.

  60. lol at the table, but the photo is at least a kinda-neat nod to the cover of TD’s Stratosfear. Or at least that’s how I see it.

  61. They must mean $150. Seriously who’s going to be the sucker who buys one. Genuinely people will be actively questioning those who do? There are a million choices at well bellow this price point, and honestly you could have an amazing desk built bespoke for the same price or less. It’s a shameful suggestion fromTE and makes me truly question there ‘hipster’ business plan. I see through company’s like this like trying to sell people there own feet as the latest fashionable way to ‘not wear shoes’ for. $150.

  63. This company is probably a money-laundering operation. I imagine most of us are tired of joke products at high prices. Horrific company name too.

  65. The max load is 165 lbs. The $48 folding table from home depot has a max load of 200 lbs. The bracers are a great idea they stole from synth stands that have been using it since the 70’s, now if it didn’t have those m5 holes everywhere causing structural weak points they might make it up to even with the $48 table.

  68. Disappointed to see Synthtopia feeding the hype. Yes, it is from TE but there is simply no music angle to this; they’re using their existing market profile to get free advertising about their entry to a different market.

    I said some nice things about the singing wooden dolls, I wish TE success in the industrial design market, but I resent having my time wasted on nonsense like this.

  73. For that kind of money, each one should come with custom unidentifiable sticky stains and a completely different selection of unremovable stickers from college noise bands that went away in 2008.

  74. more than 100 comments of people complaining about the price of something they don’t want,
    and they say musicians today don’t have sense of humour 🙂

    1. Not all 100–seems like there are a few folks who want it but are angry everyone else thinks it’s expensive junk. Seeing as it is a company whose claim to fame is an extremely expensive groovebox with a $5 blackfin chip and “high end” display that gets lauded as one of the most innovative devices of the past decade, I think the criticism is warranted, especially when there are plenty of smaller companies doing great stuff and barely getting by. Synthtopia gave an objective and neutral take and it’s users are filling in the gaps–welcome to the internet.

  76. If this was done with high quality steal and wood then the price would still be high but actually not that ridiculous. The design however is ridiculous to say the least. What a poor mans job they did on designing this.

    Why is this company so populair? Because most of their spending goes into marketing that’s why.
    This company gets hyped by every big influencer on the internet, those same influencers hype every junk on the market and are kissed on their butt by most people posting here on Synthtopia.

    You want this company out of the picture? Unsubscribe to all those influencers today. 😉

    1. I’m waiting to see if Peter Kirn and Andrew Huang can create a value prop for this… “The aluminum is so elegant it’s like you’re touching the tears of Hephaestus. They’re basically giving it away.”

  77. Well … plywood is expensive! LOL!

    There must be at least SOME element at TE that’s having a laugh. Flat packed … Swedish … configurable…

    As people say, if you don’t like it, don’t buy it. But consider this: where will you set down your $29 field carabiner? Or your $25 field keychain. Not to mention how handy this would be for your $129 fanny pack!

  78. At this point TE are simply scandinavian trolls…Even Apple wouln’t dare to sell a 20 euros minimalist recicled desk for that amount of money.

  79. It’s a joke. It looks like absolute crap. It looks like a cheap and tacky fold up table that buckles under any real weight. Teenage engineering seem to have lost the plot.

  80. Expensive, but not overly so compared to some similar professional tables meant to be used in research-labs, high end musicstudios,IT-studios and by architects and designers etc. For those usergroups the price is not the issue but how it will work fit and look in use..Its modular flexibility can also be a major selling point.

  81. (sarcasm) Not just this desk but ALL THESE “STUDIO DESKS” look great with a bunch of synth hardware sitting on them and NO WIRES ANYWHERE. It’s amazing how these desks can make all your equipment work with no wires. How do these desks do this? It’s like magic. (/sarcasm)

  82. TE are the Apple of the music world. I would say style over substance, but aesthetically the table looks crap and certainly not worth the asking price. It looks like something you’d buy in IKEA for £20. TE, it’s time for you to enter the real world.

  83. The scam of the century making useless products that the brain dead buy up in droves just like apple and other it’s the emperor new clothes of the tech industry

    1. If you’re trying to diss TE by comparing them to Apple, it just makes you sound clueless and like you’re stuck back in the Mac vs PC wars of the 90s. .

      First off, Apple leads the industry in performance/price in just about every category they compete in. They don’t sell cheap stuff, but their devices work well, offer great performance for the price and are at the top of the industry for user satisfaction.

      This is different than overpriced ‘vanity’ luxury brands, like the clothing companies that put their logo on the butt of your kid’s pants.

      Second, comparing every nicely designed object to Apple just suggests that you don’t know any other companies that excel in modern design. In the world of furniture, it’s brands like Herman Miller, Design With Reach, Ligne Roset, Cassina & Knoll.

    2. they don’t promise something they don’t deliver, whoever buy it will get what you see in the picture for this price, no matter if it’s stupid or smart, so it may be something that hard for you (and many others) to accept but it’s not a scam.
      don’t blame others you are challenged by their actions.

      1. time for a full disclosure gadii? why you’r fighting with unlimited energy in every TE thread?

        the price for this product is ridiculous like most TE products.
        the emperors new clothes nothing more. stuff is never better then something a quarter of the price. often less.

        1. i’m not fighting, i explained to Joseph way its not considered a scam.

          i am amused you are still challenged by te so much, more than 4 months since you accused me for the same thing and i already explaind to you i don’t even like them….

          so it’s been 4 months since we last talked, and i can see you didn’t used the name teknoid here since the 19th of november, not a single reply for two months just to make this one?
          what other names you using? maybe it’s time for a full disclosure “teknoid”?

          1. teknoid only, since early 90s the-gas-station times the same alias..

            i am not challenged i did not care to say anything about those silly puppets . but i see you swording every slightly critical sound so your turning things around again.

            …ah yes your ‘explaining’… of-course i remember that one,
            and all the other elements of the toxic gadi post(s) present again…
            keep battling those silly low-end critical consumers like an Uli- algorithm on a steroid rush!

            champ

            i should enlighten you about ‘apple computer the best buy’ ???

            ps i don’t think half or a quartair of the price of this product is ‘cheap’ .

            moving on should not even have posted here byee have fun

            1. i reply (to others) about the actual subject of the post, than you came along and blame me for hidden motives, and now you using colorful language to described my treats and call me toxic?
              right 🙂

    3. Lol. Yeah you should stick to the cheap stuff as if that’s always a win. Apple is expensive and they do sell junk from time to time. But mostly it hold its value longer than any other brand selling the same type products and the products last longer with a much higher satisfaction rate. Eg: My previous MBP was 2500,- and worked fine for about 10 years. Sold it for 350,- within minutes and bought a new one for 1800,- that will hopefully last me another 10 years. Please come enlighten us where I can get that with any other brand.

  84. It’s funny how the length of the comment section is inversely proportional to the importance of the article subject. This is my new lemma.

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