PONO Feedback? Anyone have one yet?

If you're willing to give it another shot, try holding down the Pono's circle button for a full 30 seconds. That might restore the device to working status if you decide to sell it.

I still love my Pono much more than I expected to.

 

I searched for comparisons between the A&K Jr and Pono before buying the Pono player but didn't find any. I'd appreciate if you provide more details on A&K Jr. vs Pono sound quality. I'm still thrilled with Pono's SQ but I'm still curious what I missing with the A&K.

Thanks for your help.

 

I just read this. Really interesting to me.

This also:

http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/pono-player-and-promises-fulfilled-page-2#pOtMXiYAdDvGiTWQ.97

 

With all the positive reviews in Stereophile and on line, I've really found TAS' ignorance of Pono puzzling. I'm not an industry insider, nor am I naive, and I do enjoy the magazine. However, they've gone out of their way to treat Pono the way the Soviet Union treated Stalin. Bizarre.

 

My new Pono just arrived today. My initial impressions match my expectations: twitchy UI, sounds good. Pretty exciting, going to do a lot more listening and testing in the next few days. I'm not sure if I will be able to be happy with this UI but I also read the Fiio X5 II I am interested in has a slow UI, which I wouldn't like. I like that Pono is based in San Francisco like I am

 

The UI will get easier to endure. I gladly do it for its sound and plan to for a long time. It is a trusted friend now; my wife even comments oh you spend x amount of time way too much on your Pono now having never heard of thing until it was brought into the house.

 

Pono Music Portable Music Player, Black
List Price: $399.00
Price: $337.00 & FREE Shipping. Details
You Save: $62.00 (16%)
In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.


http://www.amazon.com/Pono-Music-Po...=1454821956&sr=8-1&keywords=pono+music+player

 

Yeah, not the best UI or screen, but OTOH I find the Artist view list very serviceable. And I quickly learned where to touch on the screen and how hard to push. Now I'm not sure how it could be better while still keeping it simple - other than a higher resolution screen.

 

Hella, that's exactly the item I bought this morning (with same day shipping, we are in the FUTURE). Mine didn't come with any microSD cards, nor Leather pouch. Did other people's? I'm wondering if this lower cost offering dropped those from the package. The bamboo case is smaller than the original ones I saw videos of.

 

The players purchased through Kickstarter all came with a 64 GB microSD card. The players purchased at reatail do not come with a microSD card.

The silver limited edition players that are signed all came in the larger bamboo box and also included the leather pouch. The regular black and yellow players come in the smaller bamboo box and don't include a pouch. Also, players shipped to Australia and other countries that ban or restrict the import of bamboo (due to risk of bugs and parasites that might hitch a ride inside the bamboo) do not include the bamboo box.

 

The SD cards were indeed dropped after the initial shipments. 128gig cards are cheap these days - well under $50.

 

Like Ham Sandwich and DaverJ said.

Here is a Kick Starter Limited Edition image:

 

Great, thanks guys, just wanted to make sure I was getting what I was supposed to. I already had a 200GB card waiting after seeing the $79.99 sale earlier in this thread.

 

Love my Pono. I am amazed by how it engages me with my music....just as others have said here. Never expcted I would use it so often.

 

I believe there were some anecdotal reports on the Pono forum of players purchased from Fry's during one of their recent blow outs that had the extra card. I assume that was just am old stock situation, and no one should expect the extra card.

My player, purchased last July via Amazon did not come with the extra card.

 

I bought mine from Fry's on black friday but didn't come with an extra card.

Love this player. Even FLAC files sound terrific.

 

The original shipment of Pono's came with the extra card. It was dropped in early summer last year. All Kickstarter versions also had the card. The Pono site, at least once recently, has offered the Pono with a card as a bonus. They also run discounts on the 64gb cards from time to time in their store.

The case has never been offered and only came with Limited Edition Kickstarter versions.

 

After reading all the excellent reviews here and over at Head-Fi i decided i wanted one. After waiting for a discount i purchased a Pono Player from Amazon and got it shipped to the Netherlands.
When i unpacked the player I did have a scare for a moment, because it had completely slipped my mind that the States have different powerplugs and voltage than we do here in Europe! Quite silly of me, since i've been in the USA, so i should have known. But after a quick look at the Pono website i discovered you can just plug it into any USB charging device, and it will start charging without a problem. Pfew!
So, after charging it for a couple of hours i hooked it to my laptop, updated the firmware, copied some music to it (Tom Petty, Frank Sinatra, Basil Poledouris' and Rob Dougan) and started listening.

Before this player, i used my Sony Xperia SP phone with the Audio Technica's M50x headphone for dedicated listening, and i was (and am) quite pleased with the sound of that. But i'm glad the Pono Player is just way better. I've never heard music sound this good. (That doesn't say much since i have no experience with true 'audiophile' quality speakers/headphones/amplifiers though.) You can sometimes almost hear "through" the music, if that makes any sense. As others have said, it's a much more engaging experience. Very glad that i bought this player!

The software doesn't seem too bad, but i prefer the 'copy/paste' way, so i guess i'll only use it for firmware updates. The 64 gig internal memory is enough for me for now, although i might add a memory card when i go on vacation or on a long journey.
The logical next step would be to get a headphone with balanced mode capabilities, and in time i probably will, but for now i'm very happy with the sound i'm getting from the m50x (stock pads as well!)
The touch screen is not as smooth as the one on my phone, but not hard to work with at all.
Buying music from Pono World is not possible (without a proxy) unfortunately, but hopefully that will change in the future, and if not, we'll still have Qobuz and other services here in Europe.

Thanks to everybody here for contributing your experiences and information Without it, i probably wouldn't have bought one and i'm very glad i did!

 

Thanks for sharing @Centurion , and greetings to The Netherlands! Please keep in touch.

 

Can anyone recommend a good 3.5 to RCA cable to connect my Pono to my amp? (let's say $50 budget?) Thanks

 

I went with the one linked in this post:

PONO Feedback? Anyone have one yet? »

Important - double-check the length needed!

 

Is the latest firmware still v1.0.6? Thanks

 

I've noticed that the songs with file names (not song titles) with things like é î ü in them do not show up in my playlists on my Pono. I've learned to change them to their "basic" letters for them to appear in the playlist. I guess with a North American rock-oriented customer base, this wouldn't be that noticeable. Anyone else notice this?

 

Down to $299.00 now. These are getting to a price point where I'm seriously considering one as a pre-emptive replacement for my iPod Classics before they pack it in...

 

Thank you! I am still within my return period so I'll get them to match the new price and save $50.

I just returned the Fiio X5 II I bought at the same time as the Pono to compare against. The UI on both is terrible but the Pono's is snappier, and the Pono sounds much better to me so I will deal with the worse battery life.