Teenage Engineering OB-4 – a Bluetooth speaker that can rewind the radio
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You know the feeling. A great song ends on the radio, the DJ mumbles the title over the outro, and it’s gone forever. You’ll never find it again. You’ll hum it to Shazam and Shazam will laugh at you.
The Teenage Engineering OB-4 is a portable Bluetooth speaker and FM radio that constantly records what it plays, so you can rewind it. It keeps a rolling two-hour “tape” of the radio, Bluetooth or line input, and a motorized reel on top lets you spin back in time.
The Swedish company calls it the magic radio. It’s expensive, it’s odd, and I want one in my kitchen.
What is the Teenage Engineering OB-4?
Teenage Engineering is the Stockholm design studio behind the OP-1 synthesizer and the Pocket Operators. The OB-4 (“ortho book”) is its slim speaker: about 23 by 28 cm, 5.7 cm thick and 1.7 kg, with a handle that doubles as a stand and holds an extra antenna. It’s made in the Czech Republic and comes in seven colors.
Inside are two woofers and two tweeters driven by 2 x 38 W amplifiers. The maker quotes a frequency range of 52 to 25,000 Hz.
How does it work?
You pick an input with one button: Bluetooth, FM radio, the 3.5 mm line input, or “disk mode”. The volume knob and the tape reel are motorized, and you grab and spin them with your fingers.
The magic bit is that rolling two-hour recording. Rewind the radio to catch that song title, loop a section, or time-stretch it. Disk mode is where Teenage Engineering adds experimental extras through updates. Right now that’s:
- ambient: a drone made from snippets of whatever you’re listening to
- metronome: including an 808 sound with adjustable pitch
- karma: a “30 in 1 musical mantra box”
- noise: white, brown and pink noise
- loop: record loops, store them and beat-match them
The battery lasts up to 72 hours of FM radio at normal volume, or about 8 hours of Bluetooth at high volume, says the maker. The orthoplay app on iOS and Android works as a remote.
The good and the not-so-good
What I like:
- Rewinding live radio. Why doesn’t every radio do this?
- Stuff gave it four stars and called it a “little black box of weirdness” and praised the crisp, natural sound over Bluetooth.
- Stuff also found disk mode weirdly addictive. Looping and warping classical music until someone tells you to stop sounds like a good evening to me.
- It doubles as a studio speaker. Plug in a synth, a turntable or a mixer through the line input.
What could be better:
- The price. This is a splurge gift, not a stocking stuffer.
- It’s FM only, no DAB or internet radio, so the radio quality depends on your local signal (Stuff mentions this too).
- It’s not water resistant, so keep it away from the pool.
Who is the Teenage Engineering OB-4 for?
Design lovers, radio listeners and people who make music with small gear. If someone you know owns an OP-1 or a Teenage Engineering EP-1320, this speaker will make them very happy. It’s also a lovely kitchen radio for the person who has everything.
If you just want a good portable speaker for the beach, you’ll get more for less elsewhere. Something like the Bang & Olufsen Beosound Level is the other “design object that happens to play music” option.
Where can I buy the Teenage Engineering OB-4?
You can get the OB-4 on Amazon from Teenage Engineering’s brand store. The red one was about 630 bucks at the time of writing (October 2026). Other colors are listed too.
For cheaper gifts for music lovers, see our fun music gadgets. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to rewind something.