Bono vs. Pono: U2 works with Apple on "New Format"

People seem to bash Neil for his involvement with PONO, but he has been right before. I read an interview with Joe Gastwirt yesterday, and he talked of being dismayed with the digital music world, until someone fron Neil Young's camp brought in a table-sized contraption, with wires and alligator clips poking out everywhere. He said that it was such a weird contraption that he didn't think that it could possibly work.
Apparently the contraption made giant steps between the sound of CD's previously made, and the sound that "Mirror Ball" finished up with.
That's about all that I know, but Joe said that from then on he wanted analog tapes to convert into CD's as opposed to whatever digital recording technology they were using previously. I think of Dire Strait's digital recordings, and how much better they would have been had their studio pecordings been captured on analog tapes. I LOVE Dire Straits.
I would like Steve to comment what he knows about this, or if it's a bunch of BS. It seems to me that Joe's name is spoken with nearly the same reverence as Mr. Hoffman's name is. I know that Steve is a genius at the control board, and I wondered if this "contraption" that Joe spoke of has anything to do with the HDCD Process, or the SACD process that results into today's amazing CD quality.
I feel that if this contraption made giant steps in the progress of CD's moving from a relatively crude digital medium into today's SACD's and HDCD's, Neil may really be on the verge of a great transition from MP3's alleged 5% of the studio's actual recorded sound level into PONO's sound, which is described as SACD quality or better.
Steve, if You're out there would You please comment on what Joe described as Neil Young's camp and the contraption that they delivered to Joe Gastwirt's studio. I am just hoping that a PONO IS a generational jump into a new medium, because I am in favor of anything that makes the music that I buy more full of the actual Recording Studio sound than MP3's have been.
I have never bought an MP3 player for that reason. I still carry a CD player for the extra sound that it packs. The only MP3's that I have ever purchased are on my iPad, as a way of carrying music that I love with me along with my iPad, which has taken the place of my notebook computer for work. Also, I never stole any music from file sharing services, because I have always felt that if my favorite bands are not being paid, they will just go away, never to be heard from again. If they are well paid, they will continue to improve, providing me with even better music.
I for one hope that PONO is the real deal, and it sounds like Neil has struck before

 

Did anyone actually read this? Pages of discussion around new file types and FLAC vs ALAC and hirez, and that's not what's being proposed at all. Looks like they're trying for a new business model that may allow writers artists to get better paid for their art.

What it will be and whether they will succeed is an open question. At least someone is trying.

 

Sure both are trying...let your kingdom come $$.

 

The planet where Apple says "we'll pay you in stock and run another $20M+ in commercial placements"

 

I just checked out the Pono web site. Seems like it might be a nice product when it launches. However, I am turned off by the "all sales final" stipulation attached to both player models they are carrying. Too risky, especially considering it's an unproven device and service.

 

Wow- that is not the way to launch new hardware and offer any sense of security to consumers. Not good if this is setting the direction of their future customer service experience...

 

Where is it? Ah, yes, here we go . . .

 

Huh?i d

i don't think that their new album is as bad as some around here are saying. Commercial and safe ? Yeah probably. But I read so many posts here praising albums that I feel are extremely boring and bland. U2 is a target now. Too bad really.

 

What is interesting is at this point the fact that music "fans" are not willing to pay for music, because they don't have to, like generations past, has now penetrated the skulls of all but the most delusional artists.

 

Like the iPod Classic.... oh, wait.....

 

I don't understand Your post. I assume some type of sarcasm, but at who?

 

Just at the concept of the new .bono file.

 

This...

 

I really want to buy into the Pono but imo, Young and his cohorts have fatally botched this thing starting with the clunky design right through getting solid info out to the consumers to blowing the street date and doing another round of fundraising. The publicity has just been horrible and there's so much technical misinformation especially in articles prematurely slamming the idea that it's almost painful to watch. There's no way I'm gonna blow a significant chunk of change on something before it's even available that is looking more and more like it will never make it out of the factory.

 

I'm curious about this issue actually. I read so much about streaming on SHF, but then again this is a music forum. I wonder how many people "out there" are streaming. Any idea how popular these services are with the masses?

I ask because I know exactly one person who regularly (daily) streams music and another who listens daily to sat radio.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/18/music-streaming-1bn-sales-barrier-spotify

Keep in mind those are the people who PAY. That doesn't include people who use the free services to just listen to random tracks.

 

LOL that name... PONO(though it was a joke).....PONOBONO

Finally google it, so finally FLAC.....nice! see Apple? Other people are really thinking different...

update: bah, forget it!

3. The Pono Player Can’t Hold Much Music
I find it very funny that the size of the music player itself was only mention in fine print in the footnotes of the Kickstarter campaign. The Pono Music player has 64 GBs of internal memory and a removable 64GB microSD card included – thus, 128 GBs memory. The average FLAC audio file will be around 70MB. Thus, you will only be able to fit 1,872 tracks on the whole Pono Music player.

Limited? Well, very much so compared to an MP3 audio player!

http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2014/03/12/ponoworst

 

I agree that if this new format is not intuitive and easy to use, it will fail.

 

We don't need another format/Don't even cross my doormat (effects pedal solo).

But wasn't the "need" for this entire thread obviated with post #27? Paul Hewson was talking about a format for the release of music, not a new digital format.

But to the extent the thread has morphed into a Pono discussion, a few months ago I went to Pono.com and it's clear that the player will use better components (higher quality DAC and headphone jack, etc.) than that found in a typical mp3 player or iPod, so it could very well make your music sound better.

 

Interesting - thanks

 

For the average person, the sound quality, headphone jack, etc. on a typical mp3 player or iPod sound more than good enough. And when I'm at work or in the car, I don't carry around the kind of expensive headphones necessary to appreciate what I'm sure is the better sound quality that Pono offers. I do my careful, "audiophile" listening at home with my turntable. When I'm not at home, I'm not really concerned with chasing the ultimate possible sound quality while I'm driving down the road with my windows rolled down. Maybe enough people are concerned with that that Pono will succeed. We shall see.

 

Personally, I have zero interest in audiophile quality sound "on the go". I make the point about the Pono's components because, in my estimation, that's where the rubber will meet the road in terms of it actually producing better quality sound than the portables available now. And, yeah, you'll have to be using good quality headphones to notice any difference, I would suspect. You'd probably negate any added sound quality benefit of the Pono by plugging Apple earbuds into it.

 

Yep. I'm not carrying around $300 headphones with me every day. I'm not buying a tube amp for my office. I don't need super-mega-audiophile sound quality when I'm not at home. Maybe other people do.

 

I've got to say that ever since I walked my Macintosh downstairs and plugged into my Peachtree with the USB PRINTER CORD, not an audiophile cord, how much better those files sound. I will never consider switching to downloading files in place of physical media. Over my dead body. I'll always buy CDs, DVD-a's, Sacd's and Blu Ray's. Having said that, I've just purchased an audiophile USB cord which I'm very much looking forward to hearing the results as it's not arrived just yet. I also agree with Driver 8 and wavethatflag that I don't need audiophile results when I'm out walking around with crappy headphones and my iPhone.

 

This is exactly what I was talking about in an earlier post today regarding the PONO player - a lot of misinformation floating around and the seeming inability of the PONO business to get clear, relevant info out there to potential consumers.

You can upgrade the storage of a PONO player with up to 2 256GB SD cards giving the player a combined max storage capability of almost 2/3rds of a TB.