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dcba
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).

I wonder how many other industries actively promote poorer technology and poorer results as the wave of the future. It all started with CDs.

Actually, 8 Track wasn't screaming hot either.

Hear Neil Young Explain His Pono Music Player At SXSW (March 12)

Full Neil Young's speech : [www.npr.org]

Neil Young wants to start a revolution against the MP3, against the CD, poorly made vinyl and poor audio quality in general. He wants people to hear the music the way it was made.

So at SXSW yesterday (and on Kickstarter, which I'll get to in a moment), Young introduced Pono. In Hawaiian, the word means righteous or goodness. For the world of sound it's an audio player that Young says he's been working on for two-and-a-half years, one that's capable of playing music at the same quality at which it was recorded.

Right now, most portable players are capable of playing music at about the quality of a CD. In his talk at SXSW, Young pointed out again and again that when music is originally captured in studios, the quality of that recording can be better than a CD. Pono is built around the idea that whatever sound the musician records will be played back on the device without any manipulation. It's not format specific — MP3s will play on the Pono devices Young's team is selling, just as the super-high quality digital files he speaks so lovingly about.

Below, you can read some of the highlights of Young's speech, but the whole thing is worth listening to. At the end of the address, he played a video full of testimonials about Pono's sound by musicians including David Crosby, Sting, Jack White, Beck, Eddie Vedder, Arcade Fire, Gillian Welch, Norah Jones and dozens more. You can see that video here too — it's the same one on Pono's Kickstarter page. That Kickstarter drive had an $800,000 goal when it launched last night. By now, it's already got over $1.5 million pledged.


Highlights of Neil Young's speech on Pono

What he sees as the limits of digital music: "I'm a fan of listening loud. I love to listen loud. That's what it's all about, really, for me. I love to hear rock and roll really loud, and I love to hear even acoustic music really loud. Loud for whatever it is it's being played on. I like to take whatever it is to the limit, and then listen to it right there. When I started doing that with these machines, it started to hurt, and I couldn't do it for very long, so the part of the record-making experience that I used to enjoy became painful. That was a sign to me that something was wrong. I complained a little, and I might have bitched and moaned a little about that too. Then time went by, and I got some better machines, but they weren't really that much better — it didn't change it. But I noticed when I listened to CDs in my car, the same thing happened — it hurt my ears a little bit. And then the MP3 came along, and that's when the recording industry really went into duress."

Why he thinks high quality reproductions are important: "Whatever you believe about where things come from, the human body is unbelievable. I's so sensitive. And when you give it something, it loves it. You give it good food, it grows. It's nourished. And when you give it good input, it loves it. When it sees great art, it feels good. We all are like that. So with our music, we were deprived. And we started getting very little, a minuscule 1/20th of what we [are] capable of getting what we used to listen to. So then one or two listenings, you'd heard it. Your body was not getting anything new after that. you've already figured it out. That's it. Okay, I recognize it. And music even changed a little bit. ... music adapted. It became beat-heavy and it became right for what the media was that was selling it. It became smart, it became clever, tricky."

One reason he was frustrated by the rise of the MP3: "I love making records. That's what I do. I love every song on the record, I love every note on every song on every record. They meant something to me. They're a family of songs that were telling a story of how I was feeling. They weren't just filler. I'm not the only one who feels this way."

How Pono was conceived: "You're all listening to a lot of MP3s. They're very convenient. So what we decided to do was come out with a new system that was not a format, had no rules, respected the arc, respected what the artist was trying to do and did everything that it could to give you what the artist gave, so that you get to feel not just what the artist intended you to feel, but actually what the artist did. And that it what Pono is. Pono plays back whatever the artist decided to do or the artist's producer decided to do."

How he hopes the audiophile world responds to Pono: "All those big things that you had to give away or put in the garage, they can come back now. All those stereo stores that had to close because there's no reason for big speakers any more because people listen to little things that look like lozenges? Because those are the new sound? How cool they could be? You can put it right on the kitchen table next to the toaster and it sounds exactly like an MP3. Now maybe those stores will start to open up again."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-03-13 01:23 by kowalski.

A different opinion, but has some validity.

---

Neil Young Wants $400 for a Digital Music Player? Seriously?

Do people buy standalone digital music players anymore? More to the point, do people buy expensive music players? Neil Young thinks we do, or at least, that we will, once our ears feast on the sweet tunes pumping out of his new $400 Pono Player.

This digital music player stakes its price tag on delivering uncompromising audio quality. Where MP3 files are compressed and shed "a lot of the musical information that often reveals the most pleasant and satisfying aspects of the music," Pono's high-resolution FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) music files will return a "sense of realism, dynamic range, and detail" to your tracks. At least, according to Pono's Kickstarter page.

Pono promises to deliver, at a minimum, six times as much musical information per-file as a "typical" MP3. The lowest resolution audio file Pono will deliver will be CD quality, 1141kbps, (44.1 kHz/16 bit) file. The highest resolution music, at 30 times the digital information of an MP3, will deliver a 9215 kbps (192 kHz/24 bit) file. You'll pay for this experience, though, not just in the $400 price tag that the player commands but for the digital files themselves. Pricing on individual tracks hasn't been announced but price ranges for digital albums have been pegged between $14.99 and $24.99.

The experience, according to Pono's name-dropping testimonial video, is richer, fuller and flat-out better than what most of us ear bud-ladden saps are used to.

The real question, though, is whether this higher-resolution music is all that noticeable to the average listener. The folks at the digital music distribution service RouteNote, for instance, don't think much of it. According to their blog, "extensive tests" have revealed that consumers can't really tell the difference between a high-res FLAC file and your typical MP3. More compellingly, Monty Montgomery makes a strong case that greater than CD quality sound is a pointless investment for consumers because of how your ears work. If Montgomery is correct, Pono's entire premise is aural overkill and expensive at that.

Audiophiles, naturally, beg to differ. So what gives? It could be that, much like our taste in wine, we tend to use price as a mental trigger for quality when in fact the link is a lot more tenuous.

In any event, even though Pono has smashed its Kickstarter goals, it's difficult to see this product taking off beyond the admittedly passionate niche of consumers who demand the highest quality experience. It's expensive and with only 128GB of storage (64GB internal and 64GB with an included memory card) it can't actually hold much music. The design is awkward (it doesn't look comfortable in a pocket) and the product category itself has already been gobbled up by smartphones, which, when paired with streaming services like Pandora or Spotify, can access tens of millions of tracks on demand.

[www.realcleartechnology.com]

So far Pono has "sold" about 4900 units and raised over $2,000,000 in a little more than 24 hours.

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jamesfdouglas

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Winning Ugly VXII

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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??

The link is for a breakout cable .... 1/8" inch stereo mini jack to dual RCA stereo , .... not a separate adapter.

It will not degrade the sound quality versus a standard 1/8" inch stereo mini jack to 1/8" inch stereo mini jack cable. It's the same cable,just terminated differently at either end.

Also,it will not put any pressure on the OUTPUT (or input) jacks that is any different from a standard cable. (It is the same connection on the player's end.)

[www.audiostream.com]

Hello Mr. Soul: My Interview with Neil Young
By Michael Lavorgna • Posted: Mar 13, 2014

ML: People have commented on AudioStream things to the effect of I can already buy HD downloads from a number sites and play them through my DAC. So what's the new thing with Pono?

NY: There's nothing, there's nothing new. There is no new thing. It's just available. It's available to everybody.

Audiophiles have really got a bad name. They just want to deal with shit, they want to hear it. And now people think they're geeks. The fact is they are the pioneers, they're looking for the sound and they'll do anything they can to get it. And you know, more power to them.

But now what we've done is we've created something that let's Joe on the street listen to audiophile quality sound. But really what it is its consumer quality sound. Its consumer sound. This is the new floor for consumer sound. You know records in the '70s, they were great. Right?

ML: Yes

NY: That was consumer sound. Consumer sound went downhill for 45 years creating the largest opportunity in the history or recorded sound. And the only people who knew this were he audiophiles who tried to find the upper end. And of course they can go to HDtracks and then they'll be able to go to Pono and they can go wherever they want.

Pono guarantees its the best that can be had, our stuff is what is the best. We get it right from the horse's mouth. We go in there and we find the history of it. And we do our best to bring the best. And if its ever made any better, which is our goal to make it better, to say wow what about this 44.1 file you gave us its the only thing you mastered why did you not master it in the 96 you cut it on? Why not master from 96 and then dumby it down to 44. That'll be the new thing people will start doing.

So its not like we are going to be married to what we make. We provide the best it can be and if the best it can be gets better, Pono will supply the new track for nothing. You get it. You already bought the best it can be, the best it can be just got better, so you don't have to pay a penalty. That's why you bought it and doesn't cost more.

ML: One area that seem to have been a problem with this high resolution downloads is people couldn't agree on what to call them...

NY: Pono. They're Pono. Its one thing, its righteous. Its the one, It is what it is. Its like God. Its one thing. Its just a level.

What the artists have done is what we want to serve. We don't want anything on it, we don't any special sauce, we want no magic, we want no encoding/decoding, we want nothing. We want a straight shot from whatever the artist created to go right into the consumer's ears.

And the artist now instead of the key of C and the melody and the beat being the only important things and the lyrics and all that, now the resolution is going to matter.

[...]

Read full interview here : [www.audiostream.com]

Nice on paper to see quality getting a pus...now where is that link again for the blind testing done by audiophiles of SACD vs CD? If Google can't find it for you I must have it somewhere!

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IORR Links : Essential Studio Outtakes CDs : Audio - History of Rarest Outtakes : Audio

In all honesty I don't think Neil can tell the difference between mp3 and HD files after all these years of sonic abuse (remember he was by his own admission semi-deaf after the 1991 "Weld" Tour).
But he's doing it for us, folks so we should feel compelled to buy a Pono!

Serious now : it's a bit saddening to see hardly anyone wants music to make the big jump to HD format.
I mean you watch insane crappy TV in HD format, some of you (I got names... ) watch porn which nowadays IS in HD, then why let music be the poor man's mass media with ugly dated formats (mp3 or CD) that belong to the 20th century?

You dumped your VHS cassettes for DVD or BLuray discs is it this hard to make the same move with music?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-03-13 21:26 by dcba.

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gotdablouse

[...] where is that link again for the blind testing done by audiophiles of SACD vs CD?

"Why 24/192 Music Downloads make no sense" from xiph.org

"DSD vs. PCM" from Wikipedia

"DSD vs. High-res PCM (176.4KHz/24bit)" AES Convention Paper (originally a Master thesis at HFM Detmold in Germany)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-03-13 22:00 by Irix.

Another interesting interview with Neil Young about Pono Music :


[www.theabsolutesound.com]



[...]

Finally, Neil Young was ready to talk with me, and I stepped into the room where he sat relaxed on a sofa: His iconic hat was tilted slightly forward, and his trademark boots, black pants, and leather jacket rounded out the ensemble. He smiled, we shook hands, and then we jumped right into things.

The Absolute Sound: When you’re at home, vinyl or digital?

Neil Young: Both. Depends on my mood and the quality of the digital. Old vinyl is great, but Pono is great. Pono through a good system is really great. In my car I use Pono.

TAS: How do you convince the younger generations to adopt Pono when compressed music services like Spotify, Pandora, and iTunes have such a stronghold?

NY: First of all, young people are interested in doing new things, and very few aren’t interested in trying something new. Young people aren’t just looking back, they are also looking forward. I have a lot faith in the younger generation of music lovers. Youth isn’t living in the past; if somebody tells them that there’s something better than what they currently have, they’re going to check it out. And if they like it, they’re going to get it. I’m not worried about the youth.

TAS: What about the diehard vinyl fans? Will they use Pono?

NY: If you can take your vinyl into your car and put it in your pocket, then you should do it, because it would be a miracle and you should be on TV [laughs all around]. Vinyl is great, I made a lot of vinyl, but I don’t want new vinyl that’s from digital sources, because that’s a rip off. 44/16 is ok, but I’m not happy with it, and I don’t want vinyl sourced from it, either.

TAS: How did Pono initially start? Did you lead the charge, or did someone come to you?

NY: No, no one came to me and asked to partner. People actually ran away from me. No one said that they wanted to rescue an art form. An old buddy and I just kept working at this, and we never stopped. The people working with me here have been working with me for over a year without getting paid. They just love music. I explained what I wanted to do, and they saw the vision. We built this thing called “The Revealer” that would play various resolutions in real time, no A/B comparison, and it allowed people to hear the difference between MP3 all the way up to 192/24. It was really jury rigged, but it was real.

TAS: Did people notice the difference?

NY: Instantly. One artist heard 192/24 and didn’t want to go back. And that’s the key. We didn’t have to do anything, the quality did all the work.

TAS: What about the people who say they can’t hear a difference in file resolution?

NY: They Probably haven’t heard high-quality music. They need to be alone with the music, they need to try it out without anybody looking at them and pressuring them. If they take it home and listen, they will hear the difference. People will check it out, and if they like it, they like it.

TAS: Have you had any record labels that don’t want to be a part of Pono?

NY: No, we’ve had success across the board. That’s because they know I’m a record company guy. Most of the presidents and CEOs of record companies haven’t been around as long as I have, so they listen. I’m not a tech company, I’m a musician, and I’m here for the record companies. I want to give them back the power to make all the marketing decisions. I want the labels to decide, not the tech giants. When we give the power back to those who make music, everyone wins.

TAS: What kind of stereo do you have at home?

NY: I have a lot of McIntosh equipment that I use for listening. My studio is full of different stuff, Tannoy and an old pair of Altec [Lansing] speakers with Mac 275s running them. It’s the old Voice of the Theater speakers. They’re ridiculous [laughs]. Also some reel-to-reel gear.

TAS: Speaking of reel-to-reel, how does Pono source its material?

NY: We make sure to go to the Master Tape, right to the original. That’s what our goal is. When we do Thriller, we’re going to get the master.

TAS: So when can we start buying music from PonoMusic?

NY: October. We’re trying to have it available before that, but October for sure.

TAS: Why use Kickstarter to fund this project?

NY: Now that we have some funding, we can actually do this. Before, we couldn’t find anyone that wanted to support this and save an art form. The money is coming from people who actually care about music. It’s the absence of format availability that’s driving this movement, because people didn’t have a choice, they were stuck with compressed, low-res music that was sucking the life out of the art of music.

TAS: You mentioned that everyone understands the importance of high-res photography and other digital media. Why do you think there is a disconnect between high-res music and the general public?

NY: It’s because they’ve never had a choice. When digital music downloads became available, there was only low-res. It’s simply not there. In America, of all places, there’s no freedom of choice when it comes to digital music like there is in France and Germany and elsewhere. There are the niche sites, but most people are handed MP3s, and that’s it. The giants who sell that music have actually created the largest opportunity yet for a renaissance in music.

TAS: The readers of hi-fi magazines like The Absolute Sound are already very familiar with the benefits of high-res music. How do you plan to attract them to Pono?

NY: We build a great, easily accessible platform. We’ve built a player, we’ve built a site, and we guarantee that the music is the highest quality available—no upsampling, no gimmicks, just the original master as it was meant to be heard from the best source we can get. And if it ever gets better, and you’ve already bought it, you will get the best version for free. We will pay the record companies to upgrade the music.

TAS: Are there plans to push record labels to upgrade?

NY: They’re already doing it. Whatever the artist wanted to do, that’s what we’ll do. If they recorded in 192/24, then we’ll sell it at that rate. But we don’t judge it. Resolution is a tool that the artist uses to get a sound, and we support that. We present it how they want, whether hip-hop or classical. We just give people the platform to distribute it.

TAS: How many albums will be available on PonoMusic?

NY: As many as we can possibly get. Record labels don’t want to hold back. If an album comes out, there’s no reason why people shouldn’t have access to it immediately. We want people to buy the music the same day, in the original quality.

TAS: Any final thoughts?

NY: Yeah, thank you music lovers for supporting this. It’s a pleasure and an amazing opportunity to change the music world. We’re signing on as many artists as possible, like Tom Petty, Patti Smith, and James Taylor just signed on. We all want the same thing: For music to be heard as it was originally intended.


Also read the interview of John Hamm, CEO of Pono, here : [www.theabsolutesound.com]

I can get FLACs and play them on anything....this is so 2002. Zunes mach 2

anyone silly enough to blindly believe celebs deserves what they get.

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dadrob
I can get FLACs and play them on anything....this is so 2002. Zunes mach 2

anyone silly enough to blindly believe celebs deserves what they get.

Interesting point of view. Can your phone play high res FLAC files? Does your phone match the quality of a dedicated music player?

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Irix

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gotdablouse

[...] where is that link again for the blind testing done by audiophiles of SACD vs CD?

"Why 24/192 Music Downloads make no sense" from xiph.org

"DSD vs. PCM" from Wikipedia

"DSD vs. High-res PCM (176.4KHz/24bit)" AES Convention Paper (originally a Master thesis at HFM Detmold in Germany)

Thank you, that first link is an excellent summary of what I've read over the years, namely that the superiority of 24/192 over 16/44 is not proven in double blind tests and that the reason some SACD's sound better than CDs is that the source is an improved master.

A useful reminder that the easiest way to improve the listening experience is by using better headphones...has NY given any info about what will ship with his luxurious device?

Finally I don't even understand why anyone's bringing up the comparison with video, unless you're blind, EVERYONE will see the difference between SDTV/DVD and 720p. Above that the differences become more subtle unless the screen size is above 50"...Actually it could be argued that Neil is trying to sell us an improvement from 1080p to 4K...

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IORR Links : Essential Studio Outtakes CDs : Audio - History of Rarest Outtakes : Audio

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gotdablouse

A useful reminder that the easiest way to improve the listening experience is by using better headphones...has NY given any info about what will ship with his luxurious device?

Maybe a Sennheiser IE 800 or a AKG K3003 ..... just kidding

I don't get this. Kudos for trying, but the future is the live streaming on demand. The way to win the future is to have every track ever made being available at anyone's fingertips, while having the highest possible quality and data charges kept low. That's the way, and nothing else. Neil is obviously feeling strongly about this, but it seems he's created more of a bump in the road than a helping hand.

JumpingKentFlash

I don't see a reason to stream on demand when you could just download on demand (in the highest possible quality which humans can discern).

I do like the idea of having every track available although , preferably not from iTunes .

I agree that " Pono " is an odd name but,it is not half as bad as " iPod " .

.... " i " everything ..... It reminds me of all of the cheap,raggedy garbage on the market. Examples such as the " iHome " brand junk.

By the way,the Pono player itself COULD offer an improvement in sound quality depending on its parts ; components etc. .

.... " i " everything ..... It reminds me of all of the cheap,raggedy garbage on the market. Examples such as the " iHome " brand junk.

....and everything in the supermarket is "organic" ...



ROCKMAN

I think the whole idea behind Pono Music is to give people access to the masters in their original form and the ability to hear these masters in the purest way through the Pono player. If an album was originally recorded digitally in 24 bits/96kHz you'll get it in this format. If it was recorded analogue you'll get it in the highest digital resolution available. No need anymore to downsample everything to CD or mp3 "quality".

Interesting take on the concept behind Pono Music : [www.audiostream.com]



The Sound of Pono
By Michael Lavorgna • Posted: Mar 18, 2014

[...]

I've also seen any number of articles, Facebook posts, tweets, and comments about Pono with the expected naysayers chiming the death knell before the first PonoPlayer hits the market. Especially from audiophiles who "already can play back 24/192 files on my XXX portable player". I think the main point that people appear to have missed, is summed up by this quote from Mr. Young: "We're bringing it to the mainstream."

Notice, he did not say we're bringing it to Audiophiles. You see, we don't mind loading drivers to get our Windows machines to play back 24/192 files, running third party media players so our various sample rates play back in their native rate, or converting our FLAC files so they will play in iTunes. We don't even mind having the choice of various file formats and sample rates for the same album and buying HD downloads from one site, Studio Masters from another, and DSD from yet another. The more [complicated and obscure] the better, could be the audiophile creed.

I'd suggest that the mainstream, i.e. the non-audiophile, is more interested in a simple solution when it comes to listening to music. No PC tweaking, no comparing different versions of the same software for sound differences, no UPnP/DLNA to wrestle with. Purchase, download, and play. What Neil Young and Pono promise is PonoMusic will be the best quality available so when you buy a Pono download, it may be 24/48, 24/96, or 24/192 but whatever it is that's the resolution it was mastered in. Is that HD? Is that a Studio Master? Its Pono. I'd also suggest that since PonoPlayers can play most file formats, it won't be long before some of those people from the mainstream branch out to other sites in search of more Pono-quality music.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-03-19 15:12 by kowalski.

Neil means well. To me it's not an economic issue, it's an issue of it changing my life. People in general seem to have many distractions in life and sitting back and listening to music with ZERO distractions are long gone. At least to me. There will always be a phone call, something needing your attention where you have to keep hitting pause. There is little chance of the full audio experience.

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trainarollin
Neil means well. To me it's not an economic issue, it's an issue of it changing my life. People in general seem to have many distractions in life and sitting back and listening to music with ZERO distractions are long gone. At least to me. There will always be a phone call, something needing your attention where you have to keep hitting pause. There is little chance of the full audio experience.

Absolutely. When I started to listen to high resolution music, the first thing that stroke me is it required all my attention. That's something that has vanished with the CD and the mp3. On the contrary, listening to vinyl meant you were going to be focused on what you're listening. That's the feeling I've got back when I listen to high res music... Nowadays, I guess a majority of people listen to music as a background while they're busy at something else - like browsing the internet...

Now this is a portable audio device

The demand for the Pono players is exceeding the expected level. If you were not one of the first 10,000 or so to reserve one,you could be waiting until December of 2014 or January of 2015.

* [www.whathifi.com] *

There are 2 or 3 other options for a high-res portable player,though. Examples are the Astell & Kern AK240 or AK120 at the high end : [www.wwstereo.com] ~

Also available (much more affordable) are the Fiio X3 and X5 : [www.fiio.com.cn] .

I would figure that the Pono tracks file service is compatible with these devices as well. That way we could / can listen to pure , un-down-sampled music on a high quality device as opposed to degraded music on cheap,disposable toys.

[techcrunch.com]

Neil Young’s PonoPlayer Passes $5m In Kickstarter Pledges

The portable music player is alive and well. Pono Music’s PonoPlayer just crossed the $5 million milestone on Kickstarter, making it the fourth most funded project in the site’s history. Twelve thousand backers have pledged enough to pre-order the device. And there is still 16 days to go on its campaign.

The project launched on March 11 and hit its goal within the day. It’s clear that consumers that want something more than an iPod.

The PonoPlayer is a high-fidelity portable music player. Rather than playing back MP3s, the device supports FLAC audio files that contain significantly more data than their MP3 counterparts, resulting in a dramatically higher quality sound than a traditional MP3 player.

Music is served through the PonoPlayer’s music store, which is also part of the Kickstarter project. The files are all lossless audio, therefore the file sizes are larger than the average iTunes download. The PonoPlayer sports 128GB of storage, which is good for about 100 albums.

Neil Young isn’t creating an iPod rival. This is something for people who listen to albums over and over again and crave the highest quality audio possible. It’s for musicians rather than a causal listener.

Call it a Toblerone bar. Call it a relic of the past. But you also have to call it successful.

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Winning Ugly VXII
The demand for the Pono players is exceeding the expected level. If you were not one of the first 10,000 or so to reserve one,you could be waiting until December of 2014 or January of 2015.

* [www.whathifi.com] *

There are 2 or 3 other options for a high-res portable player,though. Examples are the Astell & Kern AK240 or AK120 at the high end : [www.wwstereo.com] ~

Also available (much more affordable) are the Fiio X3 and X5 : [www.fiio.com.cn] .

I would figure that the Pono tracks file service is compatible with these devices as well. That way we could / can listen to pure , un-down-sampled music on a high quality device as opposed to degraded music on cheap,disposable toys.

This is very cool, but getting the first iteration of anything is usually a bad move for the consumer.

I love that early adopters take the risk, and I don't mind being in the second or third wave when the product's faults have been ironed out, and they've added the features that make it compelling.

I'm looking forward to this, because I ripped all my cd's in lossless format and it will be excellent to be able to have all that portable.

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treaclefingers


I'm looking forward to this, because I ripped all my cd's in lossless format and it will be excellent to be able to have all that portable.

If you're after a lossless portable player, you can get a Sansa Clip player for 30€. It's very small and sound is excellent with good earphones. That's what I'm using myself.

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kowalski

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treaclefingers


I'm looking forward to this, because I ripped all my cd's in lossless format and it will be excellent to be able to have all that portable.

If you're after a lossless portable player, you can get a Sansa Clip player for 30€. It's very small and sound is excellent with good earphones. That's what I'm using myself.

Thanks Kowalski...so what am I missing then, by buying the Sansa Clip now, and not waiting for the Pono?

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treaclefingers

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kowalski

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treaclefingers


I'm looking forward to this, because I ripped all my cd's in lossless format and it will be excellent to be able to have all that portable.

If you're after a lossless portable player, you can get a Sansa Clip player for 30€. It's very small and sound is excellent with good earphones. That's what I'm using myself.

Thanks Kowalski...so what am I missing then, by buying the Sansa Clip now, and not waiting for the Pono?

Nothing if you want to play CD quality files (ie 16 bit encoded). If you want to play higher resolution audio files there are already a few audio devices available (Fiio X3, Astel & Kern...) but apparently the Pono player will be delivering very good sound quality...

I don't know what to say about this:

[www.shakeypictures.com]