Neil Young's first 14 albums remastered and released as downloads on 12/23!

So Neil Young's first 14 albums of digital downloads are to be released on December 23rd. Resolutions of choice are 24/176.6 or 24/192. Since it is the 23rd somewhere, has anyone heard them yet? How's the sound? Share your thoughts of them.

 

A Neil Young thread, especially this one, not getting responses. Am I in the Twilight Zone?

 

They have already been released on Pono. . . And if you don't have a Pono you can't buy the tracks. I was hoping against hope that Pono would open its doors to all the not Pono people, but I am sad to say prejudices still exist in this world.

Neil

 

what file format would those be in for the pono?

 

Wait, seriously, is that how that works? You can't access the Pono store without a Pono??

 

the same hi-res flacs. . .

 

Yep, only the Pono need apply.

 

I have contacted the Pono Committee many times trying to get them to allow us poor outcasts to buy the tracks, and all they said was "you can always dream".

 

The Pono store is in beta. Only current Pono owners can purchase and download at the moment. Scheduled to go live to the general public in Q1 of 2015.

Really, there's no conspiracy here. Just a phased rollout that happens to use first adopters as guinea pigs.

 

Can I volunteer for the experiment?

 

Sure. Buy a Pono.

(Just don't Google "Pono" at work. Trust me. )

 

The Pono launch has been hilarious. Their website first claimed the store was going down for a couple of days in October, and then the store would launch. All that showed up was a preview of the store with a nonsense clock which apparently showed you in real time the tracks being "ingested" into their download store database - which of course it didn't, it didn't mean anything. It turned out they wanted to deceive people at some conference somewhere into believe the store had launched. It wasn't until early December that US backers could access the store with a rather poor design, minus many many releases. They've had months to design the store and it's still in beta and only open to US backers? lol There is surely no money in the players, and by the time they actually launch their store they will probably be one of several stores with the same content.

 

Buy a Pono? I already have an Fiio X5 which is far superior to the Pono. It's a very odd economic model to open a music store exclusive to 3000 people, and many of those who live outside the U.S. and own a Pono also don't get access. And even if I wanted a Pono it would be months before I got one. Check out the Fiio. . . It's an excellent player that holds twice the memory and it's flat so it doesn't feel like you've got Tobblerones made of brick in you shirt pocket.

 

Seriously? That was their reply?

I wonder how long it will take these to hit the torrent sites?

 

Haven't there been a lot of complaints about the Fiio's interface? I was looking at these a couple of months ago, but just saw far too many complaints to spend that kind of money. Have there been firmware updates that addressed the problems?

 

Too late. They're already there. No I didn't download them but they are there.

 

This is what I thought as well.

 

What website are they available to download from?

 

Yes. If you're talking about formats the Pono Music store is completely unrelated to the Pono Player. Their downloads will play on any device that plays 24bit/44.1, 96 or 192kHz FLAC files, although I think Pono Music boast that they will sound best when listening to on a Pono Player.

 

"time fades away", "everybody knows this is nowhere", "rust never sleeps" and "live rust" have all been released so far.

the first three are "out there", if you know what I mean. RNS sounds amazing.

I really hope these come out on disc, and soon!

 

Anyone know if any unreleased tracks with Paul McCartney playing with Neil will be part of this released.

There, that should get the juices flowing.

 

Pono store.

Or burn it to disc and be done with it.

 

So you've tried the Pono? Of course not, but you already know which one is superior. It must be nice to be all knowing.

 

Everything (including the Neil Young titles mentioned here) are all marked as, "Coming soon", on the Pono Music store. However, I have managed to download Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Time Fades Away and Rust Never Sleeps in 24/192 from another site which isn't exactly 100% legal. If they're not available yet, where on Earth are these pirate downloads coming from? I'm in the UK, so might that have something to do with them not being available on the Pono Music store yet?

 

Not that long as I already have 4 titles in 24bit- 192Khz.
Sorry but I have the cassettes, the vinyl and the cd's (multiple) so no more money now to Neil.