Teenage Engineering reluctantly adds Bluetooth audio to OD-11 speaker
For years, Teenage Engineering has chosen not to allow its users to stream music via Bluetooth to its flagship OD-11 speakers. And that’s despite it actually having a Bluetooth radio inside. The Swedish engineers have finally, reluctantly, given in and users can simply download a software update for their speaker to enable it.
Weirdly, the OD-11 has supported Bluetooth 4.0 since its initial launch back in 2013 — it just wouldn’t allow you to play your music that way. Instead, it was meant solely to connect to Teenage Engineering’s ortho remote — a wireless volume knob that has a couple of basic control buttons on it.
Turning on Bluetooth won’t stop the OD-11 from being every bit the audio stand out that it always has been. The company has just finally buckled to user demands and has unlocked a feature that could have been available since day one. However, it alerted users of the feature by sending out an email of a sad engineer and warned that Bluetooth makes the speaker sound “a little less perfect.” But for $999, it’s the least it could do.
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