Neil Young readies Pono music service for expansion Part 4

I saw an Ayre rep yesterday at Audio Element's open house. He says that if someone orders a Pono today, it will ship in April, 2015. No word on when (if) that "order placement to fulfillment" window will ever shrink.

 

Someone in the thread link below received a shipping notice (post #5):
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...ed-the-email-their-player-has-shipped.390509/

 

Okay, so Evanston, Il., but not Chicago. New Jersey but not NYC. Wheat Ridge, Co., but not Denver.

Tampa? Virginia? Not Houston, Texas? In other words, they've only got one of the top major cities in the US - LA...

..."Uptight."

 

I see a store in the suburbs of the top 3 cities in the U.S. (New York, LA, Chicago). Pono players aren't even going to be on sale at retail for months.

 

I think it's Ayre dealers only that will have them for now, hence the small list.

 

A few people over at head-fi.org have received theirs. One got the Herbie Hancock Signature version, and another got the Pearl Jam. So they've begun appearing.

 

I hope that expands at some point. I went online to find a local dealer for the FiiO x5 player and there was nobody in New England selling those either (closest was NYC). Am I old school in that I want to actually test equipment before spending money? Do people just blindly order things these days?

I'm looking forward to hearing some reviews!

 

no email , no package... grrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

It isn't really ordering blind when return & exchange policies make it very easy to get satisfaction.

 

A user on Reddit received theirs too: https://www.reddit.com/r/neilyoung/comments/2lv0vw/my_neil_young_limited_edition_pono_arrived/

So they're starting to appear.

 

God I am stuck here in Europe expecting that folks form overseas who received their Ponos will review, in audiophilaic terms, their experiences with the sound...


How hard can that be now?

(I am trying to be funny here, and still convince people to step up...)

thanks and yes, that is all...

 

Psst. Check out the last few pages (post #211, #187, #156 and maybe a few others) of this thread:
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...layer-has-shipped.390509/page-9#post-11370512

 

Well sir, you made my day... a very big awesome THANK YOU!

 

One opinion of Pono vs Ak240
http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2014/11/19/review-pono-music-player-part-1/

 

Pono Announcements — Ian Kendrick (Moderator)
NEW PONO UPDATE ABOUT FIRMWARE - GOOD NEWS ON GAPLESS AND ID3 TAG AMONGST OTHER THINGS

Firmware Version 1.0.4 Release Notes:

Feature Enhancments:

Gapless playback support for lossless files (FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF)
Gapless playback is defined as two tracks played back to back as if they were the same track. We have add this functionality as a native function of the PonoPlayer for lossless file types only. Tracks for lossy file types (MP3, AAC) are played with no gap added by the player - however any padding added by the original file encoding process that is contained in the file itself is not removed.

Removed "Done" button on the Music Transfer Mode popup
The functionality of this button was causing confusion and issues for many PonoPlayer owners. We have removed this button.
Once you complete transferring files to your PonoPlayer, please use your computer to eject the PonoPlayer drives, then remove the Micro-USB cable.

Turn off shuffle if an album is selected for playback
If the Shuffle option is left toggled on and a track from an album is selected, Shuffle will be automatically toggled off. Simply tap the Shuffle option on the Now Playing screen to toggle the option on again.

Pause playback if an audio cable is removed
During playback if a cable is removed from the Headphone jack or the Line Out jack the player will automatically pause the currently playing track.

Bug Fixes:
Support for FLAC files with ID3 tags at beginning of file
Some PonoPlayer owners have ripped CDs using external software which added tags at the beginning of the files causing the files to not be recognized by the player as FLAC files. We have added support for these types of files. Note that the player will ignore the ID3 tags on these files and use the metadata in the FLAC file header.


Additional notes on previous Firmware, Version 1.0.3 Release Notes:

Feature Additions/Improvements:
Playlists display artist names and list duration.
Playlist entries now display the title of the playlist, a brief list of some of the artists included in the playlist, as well as the duration of the playlist in HH:MM:SS

Playlist Scanning performance improvements.
Improved scanning performance for playlists containing pathnames that do not resolve to valid full absolute or relative paths


Bug Fixes:
Fix for shutdown while playing soft reset.
There was a bug where the PonoPlayer would reset it was shutdown while a song was playing. That issue has been fixed and should no longer occur.

Fix for removing the microSD card while scrolling on the Albums tab crash.
If the MicroSD card was removed while scrolling through the album art on the Albums tab, the PonoPlayer would crash and a Force Reset pop-up would appear. This issue has been fixed and should no longer occur.

 

Welp, there goes another batch of issues rectified for those in this place and elsewhere who continue to seemingly revile this player while never having heard one.
Yep, still in beta, folks.
Congrats to the Pono team for being open and receptive to feedback while moving rapidly to address issues.

 

Wow, looks like great progress on the firmware!

 

I'm hoping someone will post a waveform so we can see if they're any different than what's already out there. True, it's not Pono's fault or Neil Young's fault. They are only selling what they are given to sell, but - I forget who - isn't the catalogue curated by a decent mastering engineer? I thought it was someone named Botnick. They should refuse stuff that is not mastered to a certain quality standard.

 

Not a waveform and not sure if it's one of the albums from the RHCP LE Pono Player but DR info of an RHCP album from the Pono store:
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/78815

 

That album was also mastered better than Californication. Californication is really the one I want to see redone correctly.

 

This is true but am I being heartless to remember Neil saying that CD had killed the soul of music? But apparently the killer has gotten off lightly because he has a winning smile and deep pockets.

 

CD hasn't killed the soul of music, poor mastering has.

 

You will have to take up that argument with Neil. I was just quoting him from years past n juxtaposition with your point about selling what's available..

 

Well, seeing that the Pono store is largely stocked with 16/44.1 material, it's obvious that he has backed off his comments about CD-quality resolution.

 

I know a few people who have tried to get in contact with the Pono people. Specifically, they were trying to find out what files were being used to demo the Pono when he drove those people around in his car with it.

If Neil considers CD-quality "underwater," how come his site is selling music at 16/44.1? Anyway, will be happy to see what they have there when it becomes available. Hopefully the mastering will be better than what's out there already.