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LOVE is a Yves Béhar Designed Smartphone Turntable

01.30.17 | By
LOVE is a Yves Béhar Designed Smartphone Turntable

The Yves Béhar designed LOVE smartphone turntable is something old, new again, a portable audio device designed to bridge the strong resurgence of vinyl with app-operated accessibility, all the while promising “the intimacy of vinyl with modern-day convenience”.

The sleek device resembles an elongated mouse, handsomely decked out in a combination of glossy black with a copper base detailing; this one-piece device operates as a large rotating tone arm that sits atop records of any size placed onto its base, reading the grooves like a traditional turntable stylus, scanning the record to ascertain song information and the number of tracks. Output is handled all without any integrated speaker in sight. Instead, LOVE connects to a smartphone or tablet app using Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, where users are offered output, playback controls options, and album art. There’s also the weird yet cool option to pick a track for playback by pressing down gently onto the LOVE itself: want to listen to track 2, press twice, skip over to the 5th song on side A, press down five times.

LOVE is powered by lithium battery and recharged via USB cable; different record size playback is chosen with a switch on the bottom of the player, alongside wi-fi and Bluetooth connectivity.

Portable turntables in a similar vein have long been around before the LOVE, including our favorite collectible, the 1983 Sony Portable Linear Tracking Turntable. And even though the LOVE is quite unusual, it still has a long way to go when compared to the turntable oddities of yesteryear.

Those interested in getting some LOVE into their life should keep eyes on the product’s Early Launch Notification happening this week. The LOVE turntable will be available for $299 for the first 500 backers, including a “Free for Life” LOVE app account with unlimited access to a wide range of premium features.

Gregory Han is a Senior Editor at Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.