teenage engineering’s EP–35 Is a Guitar Amp, Karaoke Rig and Camp Light With Room for Your Drink

Two units pair over Auracast for true stereo, and a built-in audio interface records every input on its own channel.

Summary

teenage engineering’s EP–35 is a battery-powered speaker and amp with line, microphone and guitar inputs plus Bluetooth and USB audio

Eight guitar fx and eight mic fx run from dedicated dials, ranging from surf-rock twang to a vocal effect called “frog”

A storage compartment hides the gain controls, a camp light with a disco mode and enough space for cables, accessories or a drink

teenage engineering’s EP–35 is a multi-input speaker and amplifier built to handle a microphone, a guitar, a line-level device, Bluetooth and USB audio all at once. It works as a standalone portable speaker or as a central hub for a full setup, with built-in fx, a hidden storage compartment and the ability to link several units together wirelessly.

Every input sits on the top of the unit, each tuned for a different kind of source. A 3.5mm stereo line input feeds straight to the speaker with no processing, which suits other EP series devices, while an XLR microphone input offers up to 54 dB of analog gain and switchable 48V phantom power for condenser mics. The 6.35mm guitar input takes guitars and basses, and a hi mode drops its gain by 6 dB to accommodate active pickups or a pedal chain. Wireless playback runs over Bluetooth 5.3 with LE Audio support.

The fx section splits into two banks of eight, each with its own selector and amount dial. Guitar players get clean, twang, blues, od, indie, env, ag and b, covering everything from surf-style tremolo and overdrive to an auto wah and a thickened bass tone. Vocalists can cycle through clean, radio, pop, rock, bass synth, robo choir, frog and megaphone, with the amount dial layering in combinations of reverb, delay, phaser and flanger depending on the setting.

Sound comes from a mono 1+1 configuration pairing a 4-inch woofer with a 1-inch tweeter, pushing 35 watts of output with a frequency response of 50 Hz to 20 kHz and a maximum SPL of 94 dB at one meter. A tone knob tilts the EQ toward bass and treble in one direction or boosts the mids in the other. The 20.1Wh lithium-ion battery charges in about two hours via a 45W USB-PD port and delivers around 12 hours of playback at a volume setting of five, and the housing is splash resistant against sweat and accidental spills.

Lifting the lid on the storage compartment reveals the gain knobs, the phantom power and hi mode switches, a mute button and the camp light. “It also has a storage compartment for holding cables, accessories, or beer,” teenage engineering notes in the EP–35’s user guide. The camp light can stay on, stay off or switch on automatically when the compartment opens, it pulses to incoming audio in disco mode and shows remaining battery life when the speaker is tilted back.

The EP–35 earns its hub status through its connectivity. Plugged into a computer, it registers as an audio interface that sends a stereo mixdown alongside separate stereo channels for the guitar, microphone and line inputs, ready for multitrack recording in a DAW. A dedicated ep-plug port acts as a USB audio host for devices such as the K.O. II and K.O.–SIDEKICK, and it also accepts accessories like the amptenna radio and a USB drive that plays loops on repeat. A K.O. dock kit physically mounts EP series gear to the speaker, and simple MIDI control lets an external controller adjust the level of each input.

Scaling up is just as straightforward. Broadcast mode uses Auracast to group multiple EP–35 units as a single Bluetooth device, and tilting a speaker left or right before powering on assigns it to that stereo channel, so two units become a proper stereo pair while every input on each stays live. A line output also allows one EP–35 to be daisy-chained into another or monitored through headphones with the speaker muted.

Check out the EP-35 on the official website.