PONO Feedback? Anyone have one yet?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Ephi82, Nov 6, 2014.

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  1. dianos

    dianos Forum Resident

    Location:
    The North
  2. dividebytube

    dividebytube Forum Resident

    Location:
    Grand Rapids, MI
    My fellow audiophile friend brought his black Pono player over and we listened to some 192 files on my ol' studio monitor UREI speakers. I was very impressed. I'm a big turntable/analog guy at heart, so I was surprised to hear how nice the Pono treble was - not harsh at all - and the layering of voices. It easily beats - at least with hi-rez files - an entry-level turntable and I preferred it any redbook CD player or DAC I've owned.

    Rips from CDs were also good - though not quite matching the quality of the hi-rez files. I think lots of the magic here is in the Ayre electronics, not necessarily in the files themselves, but, at least to my ears, hi-rez would be my preferred way of listening.
     
  3. cliffbig

    cliffbig Forum Resident

    Location:
    Marietta, GA
    Had a Pono for a couple of weeks. Sound is good, but not any better than other HD file players to my ears. Some files, such as the first Crosby Stills and Nash, sound worse than my Audio Fidelity CD copy. The player has a poor ergonomic design. And the software is abominably bad--poorly designed, consumer-unfriendly, and non-intuitive.
     
  4. Growing pains. Microsoft's Zune interface and usability were horrible when it first came out. After about two years, Microsoft was able to refine the UI into something really good, but then dropped the line of players due to poor sales. Hopefully Pono does not follow the same trend.
     
  5. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    Now that Fremer has weighed in to defend the fort it would be interesting to have him do a review or listening impression of the player. :D
    I know that portable audio isn't his area. That's what AudioStream and InnerFidelity are for. And AudioStream has already done a review of the player. But still.... Always fun when Fremer weighs in on digital gear.
    :hide:
     
  6. scobb

    scobb Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
  7. brimuchmuze

    brimuchmuze Forum Resident

  8. Drew769

    Drew769 Buyer of s*** I never knew I lacked

    Location:
    NJ
    Just got back from a weekend trip with my kids (Adventure Guides). I took my Pono and a set of good headphones, and it was great having such great sound on the road with me. After a long day of activities, it was nice to be able to relax and escape into music. Never did that with my iPhone.
     
  9. Steve Douglas

    Steve Douglas Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, England
    I've been following the progress of Pono eagerly over the months, and now find myself close to having the disposable funds to actually buy one. I live in the UK, do they ship here? And if so, are there any additional problems (power sources, import taxes) that I should be aware of?
     
  10. Drew769

    Drew769 Buyer of s*** I never knew I lacked

    Location:
    NJ
    I don't believe you can access the Pono Music Store, if that matters to you. Plenty of other places to high res music in the UK anyway.
     
  11. padesu

    padesu Forum Resident

    Location:
    united kingdom
    I've had one of the Neil Young and Crazy Horse limited editions since before Christmas and no problems here , using it through my Naim system sounds great!
     
  12. Steve Douglas

    Steve Douglas Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, England
    Irritating, but not a deal breaker for me, I have a huge FLAC library that I'd prefer to listen to on the go, rather than iPod/MP3s. I suppose my immediate worry is any import tax that might be added to my spend.

    Additionally, and please ignore/delete this question if it breaks any forum rules, is there an easy way for me to rip the few SACDs I have to a hi-res portable file?
     
  13. Greenears

    Greenears Active Member

    Maybe this is known widely .... but I went to the Pono store and today I can browse and purchase music. I do not have a Pono and did not order one.

    A search for "24bit" and "24 bit" yielded a few things but probably not the whole selection.

    Interesting development though.
     
  14. mknappe

    mknappe Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Sunnyvale, CA, USA
    Picked one up late last week. Great sound, but same sentiments here on the ergonomic design and software. Software can be fixed, but I think it's a miss that there are no hard buttons for track advance / go-back.
     
  15. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    double click the "O" button for track advance
    triple click the "O" button to go back a track
     
  16. Brother_Rael

    Brother_Rael Senior Member

    WHF is more of an entry-level to midpriced gear. They do on occasion cover the high ticket stuff, but anything on the far side of £3,000 and they're putting that in the Temptations section (if it's still there, haven't bought the magazine for ages now).

    In terms of an opinion on hi-res, I bet they'd be talking it up!
     
  17. mknappe

    mknappe Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Sunnyvale, CA, USA
    Ahhh thanks... really should read the quick start guide that came with it. :)
     
  18. htom

    htom Senior Member

    Location:
    Montreal, Canada
  19. mknappe

    mknappe Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Sunnyvale, CA, USA
    One nice thing about the Pono which I'm not sure is common knowledge is that music doesn't have to come from the Pono store, the Pono app was able to automatically scan and suck in all my 192/24 hirez files downloaded from Acoustic Sounds and HD tracks.
     
  20. Steve Douglas

    Steve Douglas Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, England
    Nothing like any sort of dealbreaker, but I am curious nonetheless....does the Pono player allow you access to any tag data embedded in files? Or, more data than an iPod does? (Conductor, Year, Songwriters etc.)
     
  21. Nostaljack

    Nostaljack Resident R&B enthusiast

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Consumers don't generally allow for "growing pains". You have to get it right the first time. Blow it and your reputation is sealed. The other major issue it had is that the iPod was already deemed the standard so nothing else was going to get a foothold.

    Ed
     
    sunspot42 likes this.
  22. htom

    htom Senior Member

    Location:
    Montreal, Canada
    Connecting the player to your computer without opening the Ponoworld app means your computer should see the player as two accessible drives (the internal memory and the MicroSD card). The files on the player should then be accessible for editing.
     
  23. Steve Douglas

    Steve Douglas Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, England
    Thanks for the reply, that wasn't what I meant though. I meant displaying on the Pono's screen, which after wading through a few YouTube vids I discovered it does, to a point. I saw that a double tap of the album art brings up some extra info, format, resolution etc., and also 'Year' and 'Writers' which is nice (for my use). I like to have that info 'on the move', something that has always disappointed me about iPods. I'd like a little extra (conductor, for example), or some customisation, but like I said it's just a little extra icing on the cake.
     
  24. htom

    htom Senior Member

    Location:
    Montreal, Canada
    Oh sorry, I misread. That being said, the tag info you get on the double tap is about as much as anybody usually appends to a file, going down to the "composer" field only, though resolution is something extra (that is, not in the tag itself). I assumed classical tags sometimes simply stuff all the soloists and conductor in the same Artist field most stick the orchestra into...
     
  25. Steve Douglas

    Steve Douglas Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, England
    That's ok, I don't think I explained myself very clearly. :)

    So I suppose there's a slight chance it can display more, if filled in. It's a feature I love on the Squeezebox, where it displays *everything* (even custom tags) when you press the '+' button. Very useful for me, as I listen to lots of stuff from the Great American Songbook, and I'm often just as interested in who wrote the song, when I listen, as much as who's singing/playing.

    Really looking forward to being in a position to buy myself a Pono now, when I can afford it.
     
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