It's interesting that the Sony NWZ-A17SLV is the only high resolution digital player with an FM radio tuner (unless you count the old Sansa Fuze as high resolution which it really is not although it can handle some FLAC files) .

No FM tuner with Fiio , iBasso , Pono , ColorFly , HiFiMan etc. as far as I know. I am not sure what the reason is for this.

Neil Young Recording New Album With Willie Nelson's Sons

During an interview at CES, Young revealed that he's working on new material with Lukas and Micah Nelson

By Andy Greene | January 8, 2015
Neil Young sat down with Rolling Stone Executive Editor Nathan Brackett at the International Consumer Electronics Show on Wednesday to discuss the long-awaited rollout of his Pono music player, but he also shared details of his next LP. "I'm working on another album now that I'm going to do be doing with Willie Nelson's sons," he said, jokingly suggesting he would title it The Monsanto Years after the agriculture company he's been railing against for years. "It's an upbeat review of the situation."

Young was less sure about his other future plans. "I don't know much about the future," he said. "I want to [focus on Pono] and I want to continue playing music. Those two things should keep me pretty busy. I have some film editing and things to do on the side. I'll probably be writing some more books. I want to keep doing what I do. I'd like to continue doing it for a long time."

Young has no tour dates on the books right now other than an appearance at the pre-Grammy MusiCares tribute to Bob Dylan on February 6th in Los Angeles. "I did a tour last year called Honor the Treaties that went across Canada to try and help the aboriginal first nations tribes enforce their treaty rights in the constitution of Canada," he said. "If I do anything this year, I might do that again in a bigger way. At first it succeeded, but it succeeded more than the artists I was trying to get thought it would. If I do that again maybe it'll get more artists. At this point, it's interesting to try and do something meaningful and try and make some sort of a difference because I've attained a certain level that I feel a responsibility to use for positive things rather than just getting my name in People magazine or something."

The majority of the interview was devoted to Pono. The website launched this week and the player began selling for $300. "This is all about making music sound as good as it can," he said. "Music is about having a good time feeling in your soul, whether it makes you laugh or it makes you cry. The mission of Pono is to make you feel as much as you can. We're sharing all of our technology with anyone that wants to make anything. Any manufacturer that wants to make this kind of quality, we'll show you how to do it."

Despite his busy schedule, Young found time to release two albums last year, tour Europe with Crazy Horse and play a series of solo acoustic dates across America. He also played with Lukas and Micah Nelson, two highly accomplished guitarists, at Farm Aid, the Harvest the Hope benefit and the Bridge School Benefit, but hadn't previous that indicated he had any intention of cutting new material with the duo.

Watch the rest of the new interview right here to hear Young talk in tremendous depth about Pono.





[www.rollingstone.com]

i go see willie every chance i get and his son lukas has been doing the opening set lately.

people are gonna be very suprised when they see him-he's an unbelievable musician.when he does blues or rock and roll he has his own voice,when he does country you can here a hint of his father in it.what suprised me the most was his guitar playing,you dont see many people under 40 playing like that anymore.

It seems Neil and Pono may have realized that their business of making cutting edge electronics may not be competitive in this world of so many others who may be able to do it quicker, better and cheaper. Now he is talking about licensing the name, the technology and his approval to "anyone who wants to do this".

The idea was/is great but I've always doubted Pono could create a profitable business with so many others in the playing field. I still may be wrong and I'm happy Neil used his fame to give everyone a kick in the butt concerning audio quality, but I'm not sure he is poised to keep up with the fast paced consumer electronics industry and unfortunately, the resoultion and technology of Pono could be obsolete or copied more cheaply before he sells enough to be profitable.

But, no doubt Pono is awesome, and I'm not going to be betting against my friend Neil. He has the resilience of a cockroach and enough respect in the music industry to get lots of people on board. I hope he gets enough that his "Pono Revolution" lives and grows for years to come and the digital vs. analog sound debate disappears forever.

peace

I don't have high hopes for his product because it is too expensive. Therefore people making music will not be drawn into producing music in the high resolution - high sampling rate format that his device is ideally suited for. No content and you are dead in the water.

Beyond that, when people do double-blind listening tests and all that stuff, they can't really tell the difference. Even a CD can sound "warm" if the production in the studio is not doing all of the compressing so that their songs can be heard in a car on the highway or over a bar's sound system.

Nowadays we all have home theater 5.1 amplifiers. I never _ever_ choose one of the "concert hall" DSP effects on my sound system. I bet most people are the same. And even worse are the disgusting "3D effects." All of that crap must be switched off all the time.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-01-08 21:37 by MileHigh.

Very curious if any our our IORR people have listened to the Stones stuff available on the Pono site. Some of it is in high resolution while some is in CD quality, all are .flac files.

Get Your Ya Ya's Out is the only one available at 192Khz, 24 bit, while most like Sticky Fingers are unfortunately only available at 44.1 KHz, 16 bit.

peace

Sony has revealed on January 6, 2015 a new version of the Hi·Res-ZX-Walkman, the DSD-capable model ZX2:


Sony Walkman NW-ZX2


But the price is pretty brave: 1,119.99 US-$ respectively 1199.00 EUR ....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-01-08 22:40 by Irix.

Quote
lem motlow
i go see willie every chance i get and his son lukas has been doing the opening set lately.

people are gonna be very suprised when they see him-he's an unbelievable musician.when he does blues or rock and roll he has his own voice,when he does country you can here a hint of his father in it.what suprised me the most was his guitar playing,you dont see many people under 40 playing like that anymore.

He also turned up on Willie's Heroes album recently, and I was quite impressed with him. 1,000,000% better than John Carter Cash !

Love Neil's music and have seen many of his concerts. Politically we are different but I understand both sides. The Pono thing he needs to dial back. The
Biggest tragedy is Peggy, wife, whom has been traded for a mermaid. In light of
The trade the classic lyrics lose their meaning to my ears. Not spreading rumors
But his fans will get the coment.

Quote
swimtothemoon
Love Neil's music and have seen many of his concerts. Politically we are different but I understand both sides. The Pono thing he needs to dial back. The
Biggest tragedy is Peggy, wife, whom has been traded for a mermaid. In light of
The trade the classic lyrics lose their meaning to my ears. Not spreading rumors
But his fans will get the coment.

If you're going to talk about Pegi, at least have the respect to spell her name right. Of course it's none of our business the why's and how's, but for your sake I'd assume the reasons were mutual and necessary so you can go on enjoying the music.

And why should he dial back something he is obviously passionate about? The concept of better quality music reproduction is unimpeachable.

peace

Well we disagree. The music is great though including Peggie's (with an I). It's
Personal business and really should not have been brought up by myself. Wish the
Best for them - they both are talented. Neil's newest book is a good read. Very cleaver the way his classic rides are interwoven into his recollections. What a
career Neil has had. He is amazing and a true chameleon. You never know what to expect and each turn he brings a freshness to his legacy. I never intended to
Offend any fans and apologize.

Quote
swimtothemoon
including Peggie's (with an I).

Keep trying.

I know...spell checker - sometimes savior sometimes slightly less.

Pegi

.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-28 15:39 by camper88.

Lots of Stones stuff on Pono Music : [ponomusic.force.com]

But at first sight not different from what's available on other online retailers (HDTracks, Qobuz...)

Neil Young's Pono Finally Launches, But Will Anyone Care?

pono



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-01-10 05:45 by palerider22.

I'll just hide my mp3 player in a box of these and be done with it.



it's tasty and much cheaper too.

Extensive review of the Pono player : [www.audiostream.com]

Selected conclusions:

The Pono player
I find the Pono Player's triangular form factor to be a big plus when using it to play music on my hi-fi. The player sits nicely and the screen, which changes its orientation as you move the player around from vertical to horizontal, is both easy to see and use on its 45 degree angle. It is much better situated than most portable players and smartphones that lie flat like a dead fish. For portability, the Pono Player's size and shape are not the most pocket-friendly but it certainly fits in any and all of my pockets (...or are you just happy to see me).

PonoMusic World
I suppose the name is intended to imply more of an experience than an app but it always makes me smile and think, Elmo's World. PonoMusic World can act as your computer's media player (you can think of it as a version of JRiver Media Center), CD ripper, your interface to the Pono Music Store, and your Pono Player device manager. Firmware updates, for example, are handled automatically through the app.

Overall, I found the PonoMusic World app to be relatively easy to use, fairly bug free (v.20.0.50), but I could see how a first-time user could be a bit overwhelmed with all of the available options which I will not get into here. Is PonoWorld as easy to use as iTunes? I don't think so but I also don't think it's a disaster as some people have suggested online.

The Sound of Pono
One of the things the Pono Player gets so right, and it's something I noticed right away, is tone. Everything just sounds right, natural, and real. There's also a very nice solidity to the sound image which is, through my main system, laid out in a very broad and deep space. Overall, music sounds just right which led to many hours of pure listening enjoyment.

Would I buy, or recommend, the Pono Player knowing what I now know? Yup. If you are looking for a portable high res player that can do double duty in your hi-fi and deliver a very musical signal, especially when run in balanced mode, then absolutely consider the Pono Player. For $399, it strikes me as a steal of a deal. If, on the other hand, you are looking to buy into a complete ecosystem that makes the transition from hardware to software to music download store a seamless and relatively brainless operation, I'd say it's worth growing with Pono as they iron out their issues. Otherwise the only company I know of that has really pulled off this triple-threat treat is Apple but they left out the sound quality piece that Pono delivers.


Read full review here.

Quote
kowalski
Lots of Stones stuff on Pono Music : [ponomusic.force.com]

But at first sight not different from what's available on other online retailers (HDTracks, Qobuz...)

44.1kHz, 16 bit...isn't that just a CD rip?

What would I actually be getting here that I don't already have too much of?

Quote
treaclefingers

Quote
kowalski
Lots of Stones stuff on Pono Music : [ponomusic.force.com]

But at first sight not different from what's available on other online retailers (HDTracks, Qobuz...)

44.1kHz, 16 bit...isn't that just a CD rip?

What would I actually be getting here that I don't already have too much of?

If you look at the 60's records (click on "load more" at the bottom of the page), they're all in 24 bit (either 96kHz, 176kHz or 192kHz...).

One of the things the Pono Player gets so right, and it's something I noticed right away, is tone. Everything just sounds right, natural, and real. There's also a very nice solidity to the sound image which is, through my main system, laid out in a very broad and deep space

Sounds like the guy is talking about guitar amps and wine. One thing we don't want our player to do is change/manage the tone. Just give us the sound of the originally recorded material as close as possible, thank you.

If you are looking for a portable high res player that can do double duty in your hi-fi and deliver a very musical signal, especially when run in balanced mode

I doubt the average person is going to tell the difference between balanced and un-balanced mode with short cable headphones (always shielded) or a short shielded cable to hook up to your playback system.

Balanced audio has the advantage of cancelling out noise introduced into the signal path between the output connector and the end source. Good for studios with long low level signal microphone cable runs and possibly locations with huge amounts of RF interference, but for 99% of the customers no real benefit. Balancing the signal doesn't make it any more musical, just possibly less noisy.

peace

Speaking of Pegi...When I went to Waddy's show last week, Pegi Young sang back-up on 4 songs. 3 of them were Neil Young songs. I couldn't help but wonder if she felt awkward about it, but apparently not.

Quote
kowalski

Quote
treaclefingers

Quote
kowalski
Lots of Stones stuff on Pono Music : [ponomusic.force.com]

But at first sight not different from what's available on other online retailers (HDTracks, Qobuz...)

44.1kHz, 16 bit...isn't that just a CD rip?

What would I actually be getting here that I don't already have too much of?

If you look at the 60's records (click on "load more" at the bottom of the page), they're all in 24 bit (either 96kHz, 176kHz or 192kHz...).

ah ha!

But still, only a couple of albums...I guess it'll grow from there.

UK availability is still a long way off. I'm like a Neil Young title "Disappointed".

[www.nme.com]

My recollection is that Waging Heavy Peace was one non-stop rant about how much better vinyl was than CDs. Sounds like Neil will say anything to sell Pono. So those pricy vinyl editions of his recent releases and reissues of his old catalog are made from CD masters?

Mr. Never Sell Out taking the company line....interesting. peace

It isn't the vinyl that sounds better, it's the analog production--which today's artists do not use. Besides, doesn't vinyl only contain 90% of the bass that was recorded, otherwise it would distort and ruin the overall sound of the product?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-02-04 04:58 by stonehearted.

Worth a read ......

[www.laweekly.com]



ROCKMAN

Another great read from Jan 31...the international scramble to find 'lost' vinyl presses...
Vinyl Comeback

Quote
ab
[www.nme.com]

My recollection is that Waging Heavy Peace was one non-stop rant about how much better vinyl was than CDs. Sounds like Neil will say anything to sell Pono. So those pricy vinyl editions of his recent releases and reissues of his old catalog are made from CD masters?

He says later in the interview that vinyl is "a wonderful thing and I hope people continue to enjoy vinyl and it continues to grow because it's a good thing".

He probably went a bit fast on his statement or maybe he was misquoted. However there's some truth in what he says. The fact is most of today's vinyl are made from digital masters. Some digital masters may be not better than CD resolution (16 bit) while other are in higher resolution (24 bit). Then some rare vinyl are made from analogue masters - Neil Young's albums for instance.

Worth reading about NY's statement : [www.analogplanet.com]

Also : Does Vinyl Have Wider Dynamic Range Than CDs?

And : This is Your Brain on CD Resolution Sound



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-02-04 08:53 by kowalski.