Though the Syne NP-19 is in its beautiful baby beta phase at the time of pre-order, we need to finalize the hardware and software to make it the beautiful experience you deserve. Our target is to start shipping in the second half of 2024. We are also chronic over-sharers and will keep you (some may say “too”) up to date.

I think magic exists, but let’s get back to the product.

When you get the product, you’ll be able to download our lil companion app on your phone that sets up the NP-19. There, you’ll sign in to your music streaming service (DSP) very securely using their own link built with a fancy authorization/authentication framework. This will give your NP-19 (not us! We do not store any vulnerable or sensitive data from your DSP in our databases!) the ability to ask your streaming provider “hey, what are they listening to right now?”. Your DSP then responds with the album artwork image and metadata that you see on the screen. And all of this just happens. Over Wifi. Pretty quickly.

YOU don’t have to worry about any of that mess. This is about as set-and-forget as it gets. Kick back and watch your music be lovingly reunited with its artwork.

Yeah. DSP is easier to type than “music streaming service.” It stands for “Digital Service Provider” and is sorta industry slang. For instance, if you use Spotify to play music, Spotify is your DSP. Now you’re basically an industry insider.

Honestly, you won’t really need to. BUT, for the boring little details like DSP setup, WiFi connection, brightness, screensaver settings, and other lil things, you can use the Syne companion app, which allows you control the settings and features of the device from your mobile device.

It sure doesn’t. At Syne, we pride ourselves on developing high quality products that either deliver value not found elsewhere, or that are truly competitive in the space. Yes, we could glue cheap bluetooth speakers to the back, but we won’t. If we ever get into the speaker game, it will be because we’ve done the proper acoustics research and extensive testing with experts to ensure we’re delivering the best product we can.

No, and neither do records. You use the companion Syne phone app to control the settings. Plus, you don’t want fingerprints all over the screen, do you?

No, it’s never lonely! Currently, the display will go into an “art visuals” mode. This starts to display some art from the Syne visual team to turn your music companion into a beautiful art piece.

Alternatively, you can use the companion app to tell the NP-19 to take a snooze when no music is playing. In sleep mode, the display goes to sleep so the NP-19 appears to be off, ready to pop back on once you start playing music again.

As of right now, we natively support Spotify and Soundtrack Your Brand. That means your NP-19 will connect directly to your DSP to fetch the artwork / data. Both Spotify and Soundtrack Your Brand provide high quality images that we think look fantastic on the NP-19.

We can also support other DPSs via SONOS. If you have a Sonos speaker, your NP-19 can connect to your Sonos speaker & account to do the same thing. In that case, the NP-19 will be fetching the data via Sonos, who in turn gets it from your DSP. At this point, we have pretty limited control over what quality of an image we can get through this path. Here’s the image quality we’ve observed so far (but these are not guarantees):

Native:

Soundtrack Your Brand - 800x800 px - SUPER nice.

Spotify - 640x640 px - very nice

Via Sonos:

Spotify - 640x640 px - very nice

Tidal - 640x640 px - very nice

Amazon Music - 500x500 px - Not quite the quality we’d hope for, but fine from 8 feet away

Apple Music - 400x400 px - starting to see some real “blur” (compression artifacts). We’ll be honest - This “works” but doesn’t look fantastic if you are close to the display.

To the very best of our abilities, absolutely. Sometimes it can be hard for us little guys to get the attention of bigger companies, but as we grow, we plan on seeking partnerships with any DSPs our community asks for.

For now, the NP-19 does not support microphone-based audio recognition, but we’re always working on new features and expansions for this product as well as others down the pipeline. Please sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on product features, and you’ll be one of the first to know when the NP-19 learns new skills!

hang on let me get my soapbox

Honestly, we’re tired of products that claim to do everything. You’re often left with what’s called “bloatware” - software that you never use and seems to do nothing but slow down the product. There are already so many products out there that can do just about everything your laptop can do. Some are great, and some aren’t. That’s not the game we want to play. We think there’s something lost in a world of hyper multi-tasking.

Right now, all of us at Syne Research are really driven to make things that do one, two, or maybe three things, and only if they do those things to the absolute best of our ability. That’s what the NP-19 does. It is a celebration of the art that surrounds music, and while its feature set will certainty grow, it will probably only grow in that direction.

And no, it doesn’t show you ads.

The Founder’s edition of the NP-19 will be available in the countries that support the streaming services that we have listed above. Mostly international.

Please be advised that all orders shipped outside of the United States may be sold on a Delivery Duty Unpaid (DDU) basis. This means that the prices displayed on our website may be exclusive of all taxes and duties, including value-added tax (VAT), goods and services tax (GST), and any other taxes applicable to the destination country.

As the recipient, you are liable for all import duties, customs and local sales taxes levied by the country you are shipping to; payment of these is necessary to release your order from customs on arrival. The total cost charged to your purchase may not include these additional charges. We are unable to predict what your particular charges may be. For more information, please contact your local customs office.

By placing an order for international delivery, you agree to be responsible for any such additional fees and taxes. Your acceptance of this policy constitutes your agreement not to hold Syne Research, LLC liable for any taxes, duties, tariffs, or any discrepancy with your local laws and regulations.

We appreciate your understanding and thank you for shopping with us. Also that hat looks amazing on you.

The Founder’s Edition pre-order is a non-refundable purchase to be one of the first 100 people to get access to our flagship product. We are using the funds to build you the best possible product and can not offer refunds. All sales are final.

Unfortunately, we cannot offer returns for the Founder’s Edition of the NP-19, but if you have an issue with your product, reach out to our team - we want to make it right.

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Shoot us a line at support@syneonline.com and we’ll get back to you ASAP.