Ikea Made a Record Player With a Little Help From Swedish House Mafia

pcmag.com:

Ikea is set to enter the music business with the launch of a record player, desk to place it on, and an armchair to sit in while enjoying your favorite vinyl records.

The furniture maker collaborated(Opens in a new window) with house music group Swedish House Mafia to design a new collection called OBEGRÄNSAD(Opens in a new window), which is the Swedish word for "unlimited." Ikea says the idea behind OBEGRÄNSAD is to target consumers with "a limited budget but unlimited creativity."

The record player is the work of Ikea product design engineer Carmen Stoicescu and designer Friso Wiersma. You may be surprised to hear this isn't the first record player Ikea has sold, but the last one appeared back in 1973. For this new player, Wiersma explained(Opens in a new window), "we wanted the record player to be a very physical manifestation of music."

The end result is based around a circle and a square combined to give the player a "chunkiness" while remaining simple. The final design uses a replaceable cartridge and needle from a "well-known brand" and a construction that absorbs vibrations so as not to impact the sound. It's also meant to be affordable, but Ikea hasn't divulged the price yet.

The OBEGRÄNSAD desk includes two speaker stands and a pull-out shelf below the desktop, while the OBEGRÄNSAD armchair includes adjustable straps for "finetuning the comfort level." Ikea designed the two together so that sitting in the armchair places the speakers on the desk at ear level.

All three OBEGRÄNSAD products are expected to launch in September, and will no doubt be advertised alongside Ikea's existing range of audio-friendly products including the Vappeby speaker lantern, Eneby Bluetooth speaker, and Symfonisk range of speakers.