Now that you can preorder who will go for it?

People have lost the habit of paying for a specific device to listen music on (they use their mobile phone) and they've lost the habit of paying for music (they grab free mp3's off the Net) so I'm not that optimistic.

Dunno, it sounds attractive to me, but I'm a bit confused with all these formats.
Maybe I'll ramble on in the thread on let it bleed bluray..

From [www.computeraudiophile.com] :


Neil Young announces the launch of ponomusic



March 10, 2014 – (Santa Monica, CA.) - PonoMusic is a revolutionary movement conceived and founded by Neil Young with a mission to restore the soul of music - bringing the highest-quality digital music to discerning, passionate consumers, who hunger to hear music the way its creators intended, with the emotion, detail, and power intact. "It's about the music, real music. We want to move digital music into the 21st century and PonoMusic does that. We couldn't be more excited - not for ourselves, but for those that are moved by what music means in their lives," said Neil Young, founder and chairman of PonoMusic.

PonoMusic is a full system that includes both an online music store (PonoMusic.com) and a playback device (The PonoPlayer). The PonoPlayer offers a digital-music listening experience that transcends the limitations of a multi-function smart phone. The PonoPlayer will bring this experience to you in your home, car, or through your headphones. PonoMusic.com will offer the finest quality, highest-resolution digital music from both major labels and prominent independent labels, curated and archived for discriminating PonoMusic customers. The Pono desktop media management application allows customers to download, manage and sync their music to theirPonoPlayer and other high-resolution digital music devices.

"Our goal was to offer the highest quality digital music available from all the major labels and build the world’s best sounding, easy-to-use portable music player. We’ve achieved our goal and we are excited to launch our Kickstarter campaign this week to invite music lovers everywhere to join the PonoMusic community and reserve a PonoPlayer for their own enjoyment," said John Hamm, CEO of PonoMusic.

The PonoPlayer is a purpose-built, portable, high-resolution digital-music player designed and engineered in a "no-compromise" fashion to allow consumers to experience studio master-quality digital music at the highest audio fidelity possible, bringing to life the true emotion and detail of the music, the way the artist recorded it. It also features a convenient and simple LCD touch screen interface that is totally intuitive. The audio technology in the PonoPlayer was developed in conjunction with the engineering team at Ayre, in Boulder Colorado, a leader in digital audio technology.

PonoMusic and Ayre have collaborated to achieve a lofty goal -- to make the power and majesty of music available to everybody. “We are absolutely thrilled to be a part of this project. We will always be grateful to Neil Young for changing the landscape of recorded music," said Charlie Hansen, CEO of Ayre Acoustics. (www.ayre.com)

The PonoPlayer has 128GB of memory and can store from about 100 to 500 high-resolution digital-music albums, depending on the resolution and length of the original recording. Memory cards can be used to store and play different playlists and additional collections of music. The PonoPlayer will be sold at PonoMusic.com for $399 MSRP and is available for pre-order at a discount on Kickstarter.com as of March 12th.

PRESS RELEASE UPDATED AT 2:57AM Monday March 10th 2014.

Like Betamax, it'll flop.

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shadooby
Like Betamax, it'll flop.

I wouldn't be that sure. There are already a couple of portable HD audio player devices available and people are buying them.
Actually the main probleme with HD music so far has been the lack of trust in sources used. If Ponomusic can offer trustable HD music downloads it could really make the difference.

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kowalski

Quote
shadooby
Like Betamax, it'll flop.

I wouldn't be that sure. There are already a couple of portable HD audio player devices available and people are buying them.
Actually the main probleme with HD music so far has been the lack of trust in sources used. If Ponomusic can offer trustable HD music downloads it could really make the difference.

To get that one extra little hair on your ear lobe to stand on end are you ready to fork out your hard earned cash? If so, more power to you. I've been an audio nut my entire life, I listen to my collection via turntable, cd player and mp3 player/ipod and notice very little to no difference. If Neil thinks he can convince the world he's smarter than Jobs and our own ears for his own monetary benefit so be it. I'm not falling for it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-03-11 00:45 by shadooby.

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shadooby

Quote
kowalski

Quote
shadooby
Like Betamax, it'll flop.

I wouldn't be that sure. There are already a couple of portable HD audio player devices available and people are buying them.
Actually the main probleme with HD music so far has been the lack of trust in sources used. If Ponomusic can offer trustable HD music downloads it could really make the difference.

To get that one extra little hair on your ear lobe to stand on end are you ready to fork out your hard earned cash? If so, more power to you. I've been an audio nut my entire life, I listen to my collection via turntable, cd player and mp3 player/ipod and notice very little to no difference. If Neil thinks he can convince the world he's smarter than Jobs and our own ears for his own monetary benefit so be it. I'm not falling for it.

First, I can notice a difference between a mp3 album and a CD, and even more between a 16-bit audio file and 24-bit audio file...
The thing is the High definition quality for music is already available on some websites (HDTracks, Qobuz...) and for some years now. Also there is more and more people convinced that this is the future of digital music. Actually most of today's vinyl albums are made from HD audio files and that's one of the reasons (and possibly the main reason) they sound better than CD or mp3.
Music industry should be selling 24-bit audio since more than ten years. But instead they went for low quality audio files (mp3 or itunes files) and maybe that's why people found interest in other things such as blu-ray for movies or high quality video games. I mean I don't see why music should be the only entertainment product that can't benefit from technology improvement.
Maybe it'll take a little while before people realize what they are missing when they buy mp3 or itunes audio files, but at least I think Neil Young and his Pono music service are heading in the right direction.

I am not in the market for Pono, awful name BTW. The only time I use my Sansa zip clip is when out for a walk...and MP3 quality is good enuff for me when out walking. I am happy enough to have portable MP3 Stones and others to listen to.

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triceratops
I am not in the market for Pono, awful name BTW. The only time I use my Sansa zip clip is when out for a walk...and MP3 quality is good enuff for me when out walking. I am happy enough to have portable MP3 Stones and others to listen to.

I also use a Sansa clip player but with files in Flac quality on it. Question is why deniying the best quality for music when it's available... We all like blu-ray quality for movies. I just want the same quality that already exist for movies on blu-ray but for music. Pono is a funny name, not worse than another one. What's important is the service provided though.

It will be very interesting to see how the hardware is priced and how much the music sells for. Will it allow import of audio purchased elsewhere. Will it be tied to a subscription service or have DRM. I think that somewhere, someone in the recording industry has to be working on a new format that will allow limit copying thru DRM or limit copying files by putting them all in the cloud with access by subscription, etc. Maybe enough of the general public would support it if they received a noticeably better listening experience (or maybe not!)

Quote
kowalski


I also use a Sansa clip player but with files in Flac quality on it. Question is why deniying the best quality for music when it's available... We all like blu-ray quality for movies. I just want the same quality that already exist for movies on blu-ray but for music. Pono is a funny name, not worse than another one. What's important is the service provided though.

Right you are that the Sansa will accept low quality MP3s (me) and high quality MP3s for you. Will it hold and play other music formats? I don't know enough to say

on a Sansa player you can many different music formats such as mp3, CD quality files (Flac for example) but nothing higher than 16 bit (at least to my knowledge). That's what the Pono player (and other portable devices already available) is offering.

I wonder how discerning ears are as one ages. I'm 47 and feel like just this year I've started to have to listen harder (only a bit, though) when someone talks to me in a noisy area.

Does this suggest that my ears are less fine-tuned than they were? Would I not notice a difference between MP3s and these?

T@3

[www.audiostream.com]

"In terms of the music, Pono will deliver the highest resolution available so if a digital studio master is in 24/96, you'll get 24/96. If its 24/48 you'll get 24/48. Analog recordings will be delivered in 24/192."

More infos tomorrow apparently...

Also : [www.sddt.com]

"Quality and convenience don’t have to be mutually exclusive when it comes to portable, digital music. Neil Young will announce PonoMusic — an online music store and playback device — in his keynote speech Tuesday at South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas — an achievement that was realized with the help of a San Diego product-development expert.

“The system is not designed specifically for audiophiles — we think there’s a much bigger audience,” said Phil Baker, who has a regular column in The Daily Transcript. “We think that people who love music will really hear the difference.

“Many young people have never heard anything but MP3 [music] and when they hear this, they’ll be amazed at how different it is. It goes back to the days when many of us listened to vinyl, and over the years music has been dumbed down for convenience sake.”

With this new effort, Young hopes to bring back the experience that artists have when they record music. MP3 music has about 5 percent of the data of a high-resolution file, Baker said, “throwing away” about 95 percent of the information.

“You can imagine how much better the music sounds when you have 100 percent of the information,” Baker said.


Baker has been working with Young since January 2012 to help develop the PonoPlayer — a portable, high-resolution digital music player. A mutual friend introduced Baker to Young after he read Baker’s book about product development.

“He asked me to come together and form a team. I ended up putting together a team of some of the best engineers I had ever worked with in my career,” Baker said.

The team worked with Ayre Acoustics, “which is one of the finest audio component companies in the world,” Baker said. The results of the two-year effort will be showcased today at South by Southwest in Austin. Young will announce the specifics of the music store and the player, as well as reaction from the music community.

“We did all of the engineering of the PonoPlayer,” Baker said, adding that Young was part of the team. “It started with Neil’s vision — the idea of what the player should be — and the team did the industrial design, electronics, mechanical design. We basically created the whole product from scratch.”


The PonoMusic online store will offer high resolution digital music — selling only the highest quality that was made. Depending on the quality, the device can hold from 100 to 500 albums.

“Every track that we sell is the best that’s available for its performance,” Baker said. And the PonoPlayer will play back music “in the highest quality possible.” The device has 64 gigabytes of storage mounted inside and an additional 64-gigabyte memory card. The memory card is interchangeable and removable, allowing users to carry as many songs as they want — which is unlike other players, he said."

FINALLY!

A portable system that understands what studio-quality music sounds like!
I can't wait to finally be able to plug in a proper 1/4" headphone jack into something so I CAN enjoy what this product is boasting!


Oh, wait.
Yeah... no.

[thepowergoats.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-03-11 18:09 by jamesfdouglas.

More infos on Pono Music kickstarter page : [www.kickstarter.com]

Limited edition witht he signature of Neil Young...

Quote
jamesfdouglas
FINALLY!

A portable system that understands what studio-quality music sounds like!
I can't wait to finally be able to plug in a proper 1/4" headphone jack into something so I CAN enjoy what this product is boasting!


Oh, wait.
Yeah... no.

The ports are somewhat disconcerting at first glance. I've got to assume that you can hook this thing up to your stereo/receiver without signal loss. But $399 (or whatever it is) is a no-go for me, as is the subscription thing. Cool that Neil Young is at SXSW--I guess I could walk over there and check it out...

So my question is, ok, this Pono stuff is so great, but how does it compare to a Linn or Naim streamer?

C

First hands-on review : [www.antiquiet.com]

"At first, I didn’t notice any real difference. The guitars and light drumming that open Heart Of Gold seemed standard to me. However, when Young’s vocals cut in, that was when my eyes widened. It actually sounded like Neil Young was singing the song into my ear from an inch away, the clarity in his voice unlike anything I’d ever heard before. As a kid who grew up in the digital age, it was almost ominous to me."

Hook it up through a stereo with what? A 1/8" inch jack?
This alone makes this product a joke.

How can it sound that good when it doesn't have this ONE BASIC REQUIREMENT?

[thepowergoats.com]

Quote
jamesfdouglas
FINALLY!

A portable system that understands what studio-quality music sounds like!
I can't wait to finally be able to plug in a proper 1/4" headphone jack into something so I CAN enjoy what this product is boasting!


Oh, wait.
Yeah... no.

I have an adaptor I could loan you.

Quote
jamesfdouglas
Hook it up through a stereo with what? A 1/8" inch jack?
This alone makes this product a joke.

How can it sound that good when it doesn't have this ONE BASIC REQUIREMENT?

I am not sure what you mean. The 1/8" inch stereo jack is quite standard these days.

The fact that this is designed to be a portable device prohibits a huge array of output connector jacks. This is in line with every other portable music player that I have seen.

The 1/8" inch (3.5 m.m.) stereo jack should be fine. Maybe you need one of these ????

* [estore.nuforce.com] *


[cdn2.bigcommerce.com]

[www.rollingstone.com]

Neil Young Reaches $800,000 Pono Kickstarter Goal in 1 Day
Veteran rocker achieves goal 34 days ahead of schedule

By
Jason Newman
March 12, 2014 12:10 AM ET

Well, that was fast.

At 11:00 p.m. EST Tuesday night, less than 10 hours after launching a Kickstarter page to raise money for his new digital music service PonoMusic and its accompanying player, Neil Young surpassed his goal of $800,000. Young and the PonoMusic team had set an expiration date of Tuesday, April 15th to raise the necessary funds.

Neil Young Stuns With a Spellbinding Carnegie Hall Show

Per Kickstarter rules, project organizers keep any funds raised past the required amount. As Kickstarter notes on their FAQ, "Most of the time, what seems like 'extra' money isn’t extra at all. Ten times the funding often means 10 times the backers. More rewards have to be produced and distributed, and creators need that funding to do it (and sometimes some of their own money too).

"Sometimes when a project is overfunded it lets the creator put that money back into the project to create something better for the backers and themselves. More songs on an album, additional game elements, better materials, etc. In other cases, overfunding leads to better margins and the creator may even profit from the project. This often also means that the creator can continue the project beyond Kickstarter and backers are part of that story."

Young offered multiple rewards for financial contributions, including a "VIP Dinner & Listening Party" with the singer and limited edition Pono players signed by Arcade Fire, Pearl Jam, Beck, Foo Fighters and others. All 500 limited edition players with Young's signature laser-engraved on the device were sold for a minimum of $400 each.

The singer reached out to many of his musician peers for a testimonial video that accompanied the Kickstarter page. Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, David Crosby, James Taylor, Tom Petty, Sting and a slew of other musical icons provided glowing recommendations for the service.

The player, which has a suggested retail price of $399, will contain 128 gigabytes of memory and can store between 1,000 and 2,000 high-resolution songs, depending on the resolution and length of the recording. The device will also accept memory cards, which can hold more music and playlists.

Yeah!

29 people have coughed out 5K! ><



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-03-12 17:01 by dcba.

I find it funny how what I would call the younger generation has what I would describe as rolling over and playing dead while older musicians like Neil and Dylan have screemeed about the lack of digital quality. Instead of some young computer programmer we have the dedication to reproducing sound as it should be by those who used to appreciate it. It has bee a long painfull period for me from analog to Pono. Looking forward to hearing music again.

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Winning Ugly VXII

Quote
jamesfdouglas
Hook it up through a stereo with what? A 1/8" inch jack?
This alone makes this product a joke.

How can it sound that good when it doesn't have this ONE BASIC REQUIREMENT?

I am not sure what you mean. The 1/8" inch stereo jack is quite standard these days.

The fact that this is designed to be a portable device prohibits a huge array of output connector jacks. This is in line with every other portable music player that I have seen.

The 1/8" inch (3.5 m.m.) stereo jack should be fine. Maybe you need one of these ????

* [estore.nuforce.com] *


[cdn2.bigcommerce.com]

Yeah, 1/8" is standard these days.
Standard, just like the 128kbps mp3 is standard these days.

Adaptors degrade sound quality and put pressure on the input jacks which can cause permanent damage in no time.

If this pono is supposedly the best sound you can get digitally, then it fails to allow the best kind of headphone possibilities, so. what's the point again??

[thepowergoats.com]

Quote
jamesfdouglas

Quote
Winning Ugly VXII

Quote
jamesfdouglas
Hook it up through a stereo with what? A 1/8" inch jack?
This alone makes this product a joke.

How can it sound that good when it doesn't have this ONE BASIC REQUIREMENT?

I am not sure what you mean. The 1/8" inch stereo jack is quite standard these days.

The fact that this is designed to be a portable device prohibits a huge array of output connector jacks. This is in line with every other portable music player that I have seen.

The 1/8" inch (3.5 m.m.) stereo jack should be fine. Maybe you need one of these ????

* [estore.nuforce.com] *


[cdn2.bigcommerce.com]

Yeah, 1/8" is standard these days.
Standard, just like the 128kbps mp3 is standard these days.

Adaptors degrade sound quality and put pressure on the input jacks which can cause permanent damage in no time.

If this pono is supposedly the best sound you can get digitally, then it fails to allow the best kind of headphone possibilities, so. what's the point again??

Look, do you want to borrow my adapter or not?

Neil may be the useful idiot here : Pono may be more expensive and less sophisticated than the competition BUT Neil will put HD files readers on the map and that's the most important thing.
In our "Steve Jobs" era, marketing is key, alas. Products and their specs are 2ndary.

Plus let's hope Pono makes HD files trendy and will make mp3 as sexy as tooth decay among the music buyers that count (=hipsters).