Pono Music Player/Pono Music World

I've been purchasing HD music files from Pono Music World pretty much since they first opened up shop. I also invested in their Pono Music Player and had been very happy with both. Recently my Pono Player stopped being able to read music files on its micro card. At Pono's request, I sent the player to them for repair or replacement under warranty. They acknowledged the recent of the player with a service ticket that merely said "In Progress". It's now been three weeks and I've received no updates from Pono and in fact, the service ticket was "Closed". So here I sit with no Pono Player and with over $1000 invested in their HD music files. Has anyone heard anything about Pono getting ready to fold or anything of the sort? Prior to this, my customer service experience with them has been good.

Thoughts?

 

Wait a month. The world does not revolve around one Pono player. Not much else that you can do which will not result in more frustration.
-Bill

 

If they did go under one would assume they would have plenty of players left to give you a replacement.

 

I was curious, how many microSD cards were you using?

 

I've been waiting several weeks for a refund for a music purchase. They keep closing the ticket as resolved, but the refund hasn't posted to my bank. I wonder if they just can't afford to refund me the $18.

 

I'm happy to report that I received an update from Pono. Seems my Pono Player was mailed back to me yesterday. Not sure if that means they repaired the one I sent them or they sending a new unit instead. Never the less, Pono is not dead. Guess I picked the wrong month to stop over-reacting to life's stresses.

 

Getting a new unit is unusual when it comes to repairs. A company won't last long doing that.

 

On the plus side, the files you purchased from PMW are FLAC and have no copy protection. If you ever decide to move away from the Pono player for any reason, the files can come with you to your next DAP.

 

I was wondering what happened because tonight for some reason my player did not read a card. Actually the screen was flipping between showing artists and not showing artists, then went blank even though you could see the screen was on. Take the card out and no problem. Testing a different card now but kind of worried.

 

Yeah, look what it did to the iPod. I don't think Apple ever even changed the battery in those. Replacing whole units (with a new or "refurbished one") is VERY common in the electronics industry these days. Often much cheaper than trying to diagnose a problem and replace individual components in a complex system.

 

glad to hear things moving toward more positive outcome ... just curious again please ... how old was your device? just askin' as I've had mine a couple of months and so far it's all wicked good, especially the sound over our stereo(s), car and/or headphones

hopefully you've backed up copies of the files on any card ... just in case ... ;~}

 

Replacing with a refurbished (IE: someone else's) unit is common and a more likely scenario with the Pono...that is unless a particular Pono is a limited edition unit.

 

FYI: Ponomusic World is timing out on 6/1/2016, but I am not sure they have the correct link up on 5/25/2016. Just beware you may want to check in a day or two.

 

Any news on PonoWorld? Are they done for? Not really worried about it since I never bought anything from them, but probably would if they come back up.

 

Now Pono Software out today. Just got the e-mail. Of note, the updates include "Support for DAC."

Does this mean you can now use your Pono as a USB DAC like the Fiio players? I have never used any of the Pono software or bought anything from the store, preferring just to side-load my own files, but this would cause me to change my ways.

 

I'm guessing that "support for DAC" is about getting PMV to better support bitperfect and exclusive playback to DACs connected to the computer. That would have nothing to do with the PonoPlayer.

PMV has a very big job ahead to get good playback to various DACs, PCM and DSD playback support, good library management, good syncing, behaving well when connected to a NAS, and all of the other things that are part of a modern media player and media file management program. It's a very big job. Software like that gets complex. Almost like a mini operating system in terms of all of the things it needs to do. Managing I/O, managing different processes happening at the same time, scheduling, managing networking, keeping real-time requirements for playback, and more. If you look at all the things a good media player has to do and look at the things an operating system has to do there is a lot of similarity.

 

Ah, that makes sense.

I still have no idea why anyone would use Pono's half-baked software with their Pono player rather than just side-loading it.

 

I don't want to manage my Pono or any other portable by manually side-loading music to it. That's a PITA for managing what is already on the player and managing what I want to put on the player. I want my media player to manage all of that for me. If I have to get into the directory structure of my library to copy files over to a portable device then that solution is a big FAIL. The media player software should manage that. The media player software should manage a playlist of what is on the portable and make it easy to sync any changes to that playlist to the portable. I should never ever have to see the directory structure of my library or the portable device when managing what is synced to the portable. If I have to see the directory structure while syncing and managing what is on the portable then I consider that a big fail for the software and the portable device.

 

Please let me/us know when PMV reaches that stage! I'm really not interested in being a beta tester/fixer.