elevate your digital tunes with this vinyl-inspired 'retro player'

‘Re: RETRO Player’ pairs bluetooth tech with vintage aesthetics

Designers Ha Lim Kim, Park JooHyung, Ryukyung Lee, and YoonJeong Lee take us down memory lane with their ‘Re: Retro Player’ concept. Sporting a boxy design and circular plates, the music device recalls the shape of vinyl LP players without incorporating their old-school mechanism. Instead, the vintage-inspired design is powered by new technologies to accommodate modern-day user experience.

The quadro effectively eliminated the supposed ‘inconvenience’ of having to constantly change vinyl records and re-adjust the needle onto the spinning disc, resulting in the crackly yet nostalgic sound effects. These features are replaced with bluetooth pairing, allowing users to sync their phones to the device and play high-definition music.

all images courtesy of Ha Lim Kim, Park JooHyung, Ryukyung Lee, and YoonJeong Lee

an experience that is ‘familiar but different’

Diving into the specifics, the ‘Re: Retro Player’ holds a main digital display resembling the vintage CD plates and needle. Once a device is paired with the music box, the CD-shaped display can project the cover image of an album or a song being played, nodding to the old vinyl record aesthetic. The designers used electronic ink to activate those visualizations, adding an augmented reality-inspired layer to the overall experience.

Moreover, if the paired device is out of reach, users can operate and control the gadget using a small-sized display fitted at one side of the CD plate. Finally, both a regulator and green button are set up at the front of the ‘Re: Retro Player’ to adjust the volume and turn on bluetooth pairing. As the quadro writes, this project celebrates what is ‘familiar but different.’