Neil Young readies Pono music service for expansion Part 3

I doubt hi-rez Pono will take even the smallest blip out of Apple's iTunes sales. In short, they don't care! If Apple felt like there was good money to be made selling the bigger/more unwieldy hi-rez versions, they would have done so already.

I don't buy tracks from iTunes (except for the rare iTunes-exclusives from favorite artists), but I do buy hi-rez downloads. I hope we do get some good masterings from Pono, at reasonable prices. But I'm not holding my breath for its long-term success. Convenience and ease-of-use (iTunes) are what leads to widespread success.

 

LOL. Certainly you can fit a good DAC in a tiny Pono player, but I can't imagine any "audiophile" analog audio stage living in a package that small. Have you seen the size of some of the newer headphone amps?! They look like (slightly) scaled back integrated amps!

 

That's one reason I prefer a dedicated line out or better still a coaxial digital output on a more expensive portable digital audio player.

 

That was their explanation for the triangle design, though. To fit bigger caps above the board.

 

Still. If any hi-end company tried to put those Pono guts in a full size chassis, they'd be laughed at. Obviously we'll let the sonics do the talking, but there are some laws of physics that are tough to overcome.

 

There are couple of reviews of the Astell and Kern AK-240 device (yes, I know it is very expensive) that seem to show that very high sound quality can come from a small package.

 

It appears Neil found out he needs a bit more cash:

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/13/neil-young-ponomusic-crowdfunding-equity

I'll save you the click: $2.5 Million

 

And he already has it: 2.7.

 

Had to payout John Hamm...

 

First PonoMusic Listening Party - August 1st, 2014

 

Thanks for posting that.

 

Maybe I missed it in the video, but were any of the players connected to headphone amps? Does PONO put out enough juice to drive high quality cans?

 

watching the video.....seems like to me, they are blaming MP3s on the crappy quality instead of the mastering itself. How does Green Day or Foo Fighters sound on this thing? Garbage in, garbage out....

 

No external headphone amps in use.
The big headphones there were the Audeze LCD-X and LCD-XC. The models in the Audeze line that are "efficient". They've also used the LCD-2 and LCD-3 with the Pono player for other listening sessions. The LCD-2 and LCD-3 require more power than the X and XC to get up to volume and get a sound that is open rather than closed.

They also didn't have any of the headphones connected using the balanced listening mode. Balanced could possibly deliver more power for big headphones, but I haven't seen specs for that. How would the LCD-2 be in balanced listening mode? Could it drive it adequately? Driving them adequately is more than just getting adequate volume. We'll see. But I'm really not planning on using my LCD-2 with the Pono. The LCD-2 aren't portable friendly and aren't something I'd take to a coffee shop or other places. The Oppo PM-2 though...

 

Mp3 isn't the enemy.

Hopefully Pono has enough clout to elicit fresh masterings from all the labels. Otherwise, this is just another portable device with a decent DAC.

 

I agree....MP3 isn't the enemy.....that's my point. They seem to be blaming MP3 for crappy music, when 98% of the problem is mastering. I would rather have a dynamically mastered 128kbps MP3 than a hi-res brickwalled file.

 

I just want to say that $399 for a 128g player is kind of a joke to me. When you can rockbox a 249.99 160gb ipod to play 24bit flac files I don't know why I would buy a 128g player. I would have been excited with a 320-500gb player.

 

Seems doubtful, given that Omnifone is providing the music content.

 

128 GB is plenty for a portable. And the Pono will accept microSD cards of 128 GB or higher. So you can always add a larger microSD card for more storage and even have a couple to swap in and out for "infinite" storage.

With a portable I don't want too many albums and files on it. The UI on a device like that is never going to be well suited for drilling down through thousands of albums to find the exact album you want to listen to. While a 500 GB player would be technically possible, I would not find it practical in actual use.

 

So it is expandable. How's the audio guts?

 

Ayre Electronics was involved in the design but they are manufactured off shore - Ayre have a good reputation.

 

The details are available in this thread and on Pono's site. It's got a Sabre ES9018 DAC.

 

Thanks. Just looking for detains quick. This is a multi thread thread of 22 pages. Don't know that I want to read all that before deciding to depart with 400 bucks for a portable music player. But based in what you said, I'll give it a listen when it comes out.

 

Yeah, I'm thinking it should sound pretty good. I'm on the fence about the price too.

 

Good point - the demos were EJ, NY, Adele, etc.

They didn't test RHCP!