Teenage Engineering lets you pick what you want to pay for an OP-1 Field (opens in new tab)

That is incorrect. The retail price of this device is 2,000$ and has been since it was released. For a while, the original op1 was sold at 1400$, but never the field. This is a 600$ discount, with a very weird thinly veiled and very stupid marketing gimmick on top, for the maybe one weirdo who thinks it’s funny to pay more than you have to.

Like the other commenter said, their retail price is $2000. In the used market, they are going for about $1400-1500 based on reverb.com stats. So at least compared to those prices, $1400 new is a decent deal. And for what it's worth, they sold out pretty quickly today (or so their online store says). Of course, $1400 is still a hefty price tag, I won't argue about that (and there's not much anything new to say about that topic, considering it's like 80% of online discourse about TE).

ipad right now is insane value. not only it has enough CPU for even serious music making, the price of software is amazing. There are some vendors that keep price parity with desktop, but most audio software is many times cheaper.

I/O story is a bit sad (one usb-c), but for most purposes it can be worked around. ipad, a few midi controllers, pair of monitors, 5€/month Logic Pro, FabFilter maybe, some intrument AUv3s — I am scared to imagine price of an equal setup, say, 15 years ago.

But surly that isn't the point of the OP-1? Some folks really do just get pure joy from that little box, myself included. It's really only 10% about the music, it's about the experience of making the music, and TE stuff is just a really great experience (at least, to me! :)) And iPad physically FEELS like an iPad, hard, metal and glass and stuff, I feel nothing making music with it, and I like to feel stuff (touch) to make my music.

Haha yes, I was going to buy it for $1 :D