PONO Hands-on Review

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Bowie Fett, Nov 15, 2014.

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  1. wolfram

    wolfram Slave to the rhythm

    Location:
    Berlin, Germany
    Do you really consider this a limitation? How many quality DACs offer that? And what for? Are there any files offered in that resolution? It seems that 24/192 is already a rarity, and probably for good reason.
     
    Robert C likes this.
  2. ElvisCaprice

    ElvisCaprice Forum Resident

    Location:
    Jaco, Costa Rica
    If using as a desktop model, in answer to the quote I referred to, then yes. You can get DXD audio files. You can also do your own ADC rips in 32 bit or DXD. I often do vinyl drops in 32bit float, it's just natural to the operating system.

    As far as a portable player, no, it's not important, yet, to be able to carry 32 bit word length or DXD files around. But DSD, yes, often some certain albums are the best or only I have in DSD. With Pono player, I would not be able to playback these files.
     
  3. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    The version of Android you get for embedded devices (like a PonoPlayer) is different than the version of Android that you get if you're developing a full featured device like a phone or tablet that is fully Android licensed and also supports the Google Play store. The embedded version of Android is quite stripped down. Not as many features or support for many features in the embedded version of Android. Just because an Android phone can support something out of the box doesn't mean the embedded version of Android can do the same out of the box. Developers using the embedded version of Android may need to roll their own support for certain features. Rolling their own support may mean doing custom driver development to support a feature or custom modifications to parts of the OS or developing custom libraries for certain support. Things that are non-trivial to code and may require a lot of coding time to implement.

    Adding gapless playback support to the embedded version of Android may be a lot of development work. I'm sure it was more of a priority to get the UI and other basic features of the device and software working before taking the time to work on all of the support code necessary to do gapless. Would not be smart to spend all of your time implementing gapless early in the development project only to end up missing the more critical project goals required for the device to function.
     
    jhm, Brother_Rael and Gabe Walters like this.
  4. Gabe Walters

    Gabe Walters Forum Resident

    It's a beta product currently only available to Kickstarter backers. They've said they will have gapless playback by Q1 2015, which is the earliest the device might ship to the general public that preorders it. What more do you want? They're working on it.
     
  5. Brother_Rael

    Brother_Rael Senior Member

    What more do I want? The earth dear boy, the earth.  Better to have rolled out a rounded product, but it's the way of it these days.
     
    LEONPROFF likes this.
  6. mindblanking

    mindblanking The Bourbon King

    Location:
    Baltimore, MD
    Someone has to say this... If you substituted some of the grownup words in this thread for words like "doody head" "spazz" "sped" etc. the thread would sound like every playground argument I ever heard in 5th grade. Oh and by the way.. the Pono sounds to me like a must purchase.
     
  7. Gabe Walters

    Gabe Walters Forum Resident

    They're essentially using their Kickstarter backers as beta testers. Does it help to think of it that way? By the time you get one, these issues will be resolved.
     
    Brother_Rael likes this.
  8. wolfram

    wolfram Slave to the rhythm

    Location:
    Berlin, Germany
    Yes, it seems that DSD becomes a standard with newer DACs or hi-res players (though it's still a much smaller niche than hi-res PCM), but from what I see, 32 bit and higher than 192 khz is very much the exception. It might make sense in your case, when creating your own hi-res files. But I wouldn't point it out as a flaw in a device like the Pono.
     
    Nielsoe likes this.
  9. PanaPlasma

    PanaPlasma Forum Resident

    Location:
    Belgium, Europe
    I would love to have DSD and DXD, but it's just a niche within a niche. Most labels even fail already in offering 24bit-44.1kHz-files.

    I'm afraid that DSD and DXD will be mainly used for audiophile classical recordings by niche labels like 2L.

    I'm hoping it might change one day, but I'm afraid not. The people aren't ready for that.

    Kids pay without hesitating the most ridiculous prices for smartphones and beats headphones ... but paying for music or high resolution they found ridiculous.
    They don't own hifi-gear. They can't hear difference between 320kps mp3 and 192khz-24bit files on their smartphones, so it's rubbish for them ...
    Let alone paying a premium price! Kids don't want to pay for music ... Except for streaming service or thrift store vinyl (a small bunch of Crosley-hipster college students).

    You'll need to change the mentality from the labels and the people, to make high-res audio become mainstream.

    For major labels the autotune protools pop, generic mainstream edm,... is a gift from heaven.
    It's cheap to make (a computer - 90% of EDM including Guetta and Calvin Harris is made by '1 ghostproducer'), you don't need session musicians, band,... and they can make money out of it. But making this available in hi-res would open many eyes ... people would start to realise that all that music sounds 'very cheap'. Why should they invest billions in the search for a new Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, The Band,... if they can make more money with Pitbull? For them it's 'financially safer' to continue selling lossy audio, and keep the people "ignorant" for soundquality.

    That's the reason why majors are 'boycotting hi-res' at the moment. The majority of current interesting artists is now at the independents, including Adele. When one of those artists moves to a major (e.g. Columbia or Interscope) their releases sound worser, and content is far more generic due to label politics (marketing guys decide, not musicians). I'm holding my breath for Adele, hope she doesn't move to Sony/Columbia ...
     
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2014
  10. Brother_Rael

    Brother_Rael Senior Member

    Thanks for the confirmation. Am all tooled up for playback gear though, too much in fact!
     
  11. Master_It_Right

    Master_It_Right Forum Resident

    l like my FiiO X3 just fine.
     
    GetHappy!! likes this.
  12. T'mershi Duween

    T'mershi Duween Forum Resident

    Location:
    Y'allywood
    Yet you are very involved in a thread about the Pono player! You don't find that a bit, er... trollish? :confused:
     
  13. Brother_Rael

    Brother_Rael Senior Member

    Are you telling me that on a public forum? Really? What a strange mindset to think someone can't have an opinion on a new product not offering a certain type of functionality. How very limited.
     
    GetHappy!! likes this.
  14. Metralla

    Metralla Joined Jan 13, 2002

    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    Sorry, but I don't know what EDM means.
     
    Billy Budapest likes this.
  15. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    Electronic dance music
    Artists like Deadmau5
     
  16. bangsezmax

    bangsezmax Forum Resident

    Location:
    Durham, NC, USA
     
  17. Metralla

    Metralla Joined Jan 13, 2002

    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    Thanks
     
  18. Vinylsoul 1965

    Vinylsoul 1965 Senior Member

    Nothing wrong with having an opinion - but when the thread's title is "PONO Hands-on Review" and you have not heard one, or have one in your hands and begin to make critical comments..yeah...we really should create a general thread "All About Pono" which can focus on the general thoughts about the player. Very few reviews in this thread so far :(
     
    Robert C and stereoptic like this.
  19. Brother_Rael

    Brother_Rael Senior Member

    Then be good enough not to focus just on me but reply to everyone else who's supposedly off-piste too then will you?

    Sorry but you can't expect a review of a product to not generate comment around player functionality.
     
  20. Vinylsoul 1965

    Vinylsoul 1965 Senior Member

    I have been as much as I can...but the message goes to everyone. No offense meant to just one party.
     
  21. Greenears

    Greenears Active Member

    Just curious - can't you convert your DSD to 192/24?
     
  22. cwsiggy

    cwsiggy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vero Beach, FL
    Still struggling with the J River skinned Pono World software. I've pretty much given up on using it to transfer music. It still doesn't always recognize both drives (internal memory and SD card) - very frustrating. It's easier to just drag and drop via Mac's finder ... They have a lot of work to do on the software front. I think there are going to be a lot of frustrated people and for this to succeed, they need to make the software easier to use.
     
    Vinylsoul 1965 likes this.
  23. ElvisCaprice

    ElvisCaprice Forum Resident

    Location:
    Jaco, Costa Rica
    Yes, Greenears, you can, but if your going to do that then how far down the rabbit hole do we go? Might as well go all the way to MP3's if your going to listen to buds on the go. What do you gain or lose? And now the argument made for Pono is lost. Rock and a hard place.
     
  24. testikoff

    testikoff Seasoned n00b

    I wonder if anyone yet tried to compare a genuine Hi-Rez track (24/192, 24/176, 24/96, 24/88, 24/48) and its downsampled/dithered 16/44 version upsampled/uprezzed back to its original format (all using quality linear-phase SRC like SoX & preferred dithering algorithm) on their Pono player... ;)
     
  25. Greenears

    Greenears Active Member

    Is there anything else portable that plays DSD under $500?
     
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