PONO Feedback? Anyone have one yet?

Do you doubters think some of the hostility towards Pono, and the store, is because it could drive more nails into the CD coffin?

 

If you have a sh**ty system and you're resigned to always having a sh**ty system, then you're probably not going to spend money on this or anything else that may improve your sh**ty system.
I think the manufacturers target audience would be everyone else, i.e. those looking to improve their sh**ty systems.

 

Uhhhh, No.

 

I guess I am a "Pono doubter"...I think my feelings stem from the fact that the device (and store) were originally touted as "changing the way people experience music", while they really offer nothing new at all.

If folks want to spend their money on Pono because they think it is a cool audio toy, and/or because they love Neil Young, then more power to them.

CD has been pretty much dead for awhile now...and Pono had nothing whatsoever to do with its demise.

 

Yay! My Pono is.... lost by the shipping company.. yay!!! Guy there said "It's an Apple - it's probably stolen" I was so taken aback by that statement. LOL (it's manufactured at the same facility I believe) I find it funny that he said that knowing where it came from and what was on the packaging. Guess they have had numerous incidents of Apple products being stolen. Not sure how you steal a package at a large shipping facility... Good news - at least Pono picked up the phone and they will look into it... the better news - I'm going to go buy some vinyl and listen to music the way it's supposed to be listened to !

Update - Pono just called me - they must have spoken to a much more knowledgeable shipping company employee who told them that despite my hold at facility instructions days earlier - they put it on a truck anyway for 1 delivery attempt (what?? makes no sense but I'll roll with it) So.... patience... but I still have to laugh at the original shipping company's supervisor comments to me.. One would think he would have simply told me the same thing if that's normal procedure.

 

Good heavens, NY gets wind of this he will immediately drop work on Archives II and come up with a new shipping delivery system (I'm picturing a fleet of Ford Econolines), because we are only getting 5% of our packages.

 

I'm thinking Neal has a big divorce case on his mind. Oh . Curiously UPS is now updated to on hold at facility. I now have three different stories from three different sources. I'm scared to call UPS to see what the 4th version is but if the website is correct it may have been found.

 

Sure they do: lossless files, and a quality portable playback device that plays hi-rez.

 

Those of us that think this is interesting, whether or not we think it will succeed, are most interested in the fact that he chose not to invent a new format. He's pushing 192/24 FLAC which is an open DRM-free standard that can play on any player. And he has said that he is asking his music friends to use their influence to give him original session tapes so that he can remix. Whether they will, or whether they have influence or even legally control their tapes is another matter we will see. So he's saying the right thing and trying to move music forward to the best available technology something the industry has studiously avoided doing since about 1995.

 

Thanks -- this is working like a charm.

 

Grateful Dead Pono 289 is here... In a strange bit of zemblanity (the opposite of serendipity-I had to look it up) my trusty 120 GB Classic collapsed last week. I ordered the Pono in the Kickstarter frenzy months ago but was not planning to fully abandon the iPod. Awaiting the UPS truck the past few days, I debated hard drive repair, selling the Pono on Ebay, etc. This morning I opened the box and started to dive in... Only Neil's "There's a World" was loaded. I was promised two Dead albums as well. Hmm...

Why the hell did I buy one in the first place? I hoped to be able to rotate the 1000's of flac files (many of them 192/24) I have accumulated without having to convert to wav or the apple equivalent. I have a ton of music that I just don't listen to because it is not portable and I don't sit and listen to music much at home any more.

First impressions:

Not as big or clunky as noted. Relatively simple to navigate with combination of buttons and small touch screen. I do like the way it sits up- the screen does rotate depending on how the unit is held or positioned. So now it is time to starting loading up some tunes. The first bit of bait and switch; it is billed at 128 gb, but arrives with a 64 gb micro card. I know.. I am sure I didn't read everything all that carefully, but the idea of forking out another hundred bones for a bigger card is not sitting too well right now-more on this later.

Figuring out Pono World (one key stroke from trouble on this one on Google) has taken most of the day. I had high hopes about easier loading, click and drag etc. but it is a bit of a beast. Once I had the app loaded it prompted me to search for music on my computer. This was an eye opener as it pulled all kinds of crazy stuff from the far reaches but missed the bulk of my library. I guess this is okay because I am not planning on most of my iTunes going onto the Pono anyway. Going back through and cleaning out all my son's (c)rap took a chunk of time. I also dumped any mp3's that filtered in. It was interesting to see what music came in full CD resolution and what came in at 256k. Ten years of iTunes has made quite a mess of my music. Loading some of my flac music, renaming and getting it lined up was pretty cumbersome. The developer of this app must be quite the geek as there are thousands of tagging options for unnamed files, but my god, really? So.. now I have a few test pieces loaded and I am ready to sync. So I plug my Swiss chocolate bar in and immediately get a firmware update and in load Workingman's Dead and Terrapin Station in all their 192/24 glory. So far so good. It does appear that I will have to reload any CD's I want on this gizmo just to ensure full resolution.

Syncing is not plug and go. There are a few tiny back flips that need to be done on gizmo and computer to make it happen. I suppose I will get used to the process, but it seems unnecessarily balky (a little scary to read that there is no pono to sync when clicking the sync button. So now I have music loaded. Time to listen...

Listening to a combination of music on my son's AT 50's and indeed the music sounds great- yes, the Hi Res tunes are crisp and clear with nice roundness (and the glass of Zinfandel I am drinking is voluptuous with lingering elderberries and hints of toasted vanilla in the oak). Sorry, I can take the pretentious mumbo jumbo of so much of first world living these days. Anyway, the sound really is great. Is this because I am stopping to really listen with pretty good head phones? Sure. Listening on my home system with a good aux cable into a moderate receiver with pretty good speakers: the Pono has better punch and clarity than my phone or the iPod before the hard drive went off the road. Is it mind blowing? No. Is my mind capable of being blown at this point in my life without the addition of enhancement? Probably not.

Now the big question... is it worth it? During this full day of fun, I did start to write my Ebay posting and took some pictures, but after some cookies and milk, I have decided to hang onto it, not for the sound quality so much but for the portability of flac files that I have been craving for many years. This will require more monkeying around with Pono World and building new files as I go. In order to get all this incredible sonic benefits, the files have to be massive; the Pono won't hold the 12,000 songs of the iPod. I am guessing the the Pono will hold around 100 full length concerts at a shot- once I buy that freaking 128 card!!!! At the same time, I will repair the iPod for the versatility and ability to pump out 1000 Christmas songs in decidedly low fidelity each holiday season. I may purchase a few classic records from the store down the road, but that is not really part of the plan.

So there it is, a short on scientific analysis of Neil's new toy (no, I am not talking about Daryl Hannah). The Pono is a lot like Neil. Sort of ugly, quite intriguing, somewhat frustrating and hopefully satisfying when all is said and done.

 

I know all that already. It looked like morinix was saying Pono will fail because it uses a nonstandard format, but maybe I misunderstood him. I'm asking him to explain what he meant.

 

I was whacked a bit. I meant service rather than format.

 

May be beyond me, insert the mini SD card. You'll be Grateful.

 

You should have 64 gb on board memory plus your card and your free Dead music should be on your card....

 

I did. Still only got 64 g of storage. Hmm... Time for more computer time. Thanks!

 

Sorry I did a fat finger on the reply. Meant to reply to Benefactor and others that think it is non-standard or that he is doing nothing new. The library will be new if he gets a large track count of new well-mixed high res stuff. And it's nice that he is moving it forward in a very standard way (meaning open, non-proprietary FLAC). If you think back that is rare: most digital media advances come with a new wave of restrictions, copy protection and other hoops that never stop anyone that really wants to copy and only gets in the way of legitimate enthusiasts. Think SACD, DVD, Blu Ray, DRM, DSD etc etc. This doesn't. Step off soap box. I have no idea if it will work - I think a big part of that depends on what terms the master tape owners extract (or don't).

 

Thanks for the detailed report. I know the statistics are not valid, but I count 3 for 3 of first impressions reports that have not returned or re-sold it on ebay. Although it looks like you thought about it. So it must be doing something useful for somebody.

One tip that I can give you after having tried large library scans on about five different media players over many years: Unfortunately sync is never push button, always requires some gymnastics. Jriver is a power-user player (I haven't used that but a friend is an expert). It can do just about anything. You should be able to scan in just the directory you want, not whole computer. One important tip you won't discover until too late - it's all going to be about syncing playlists. Make sure to save a copy of all in open format (.m3u seems most common) and back them up elsewhere.

That said I don't think Jriver is known for ease of use. If the player does things you want and is good quality I guess you have to live with that.

 

Been listening today on a pair of MEElectronics SP51s and the magic is starting to happen.

It's not so much what you hear with hi-rez files on this unit -- clarity and detail, smooth bass, space, roundness (for lack of a better term), reverb trails -- it's also what you don't get, namely ear fatigue.

Listened so far to DVD-A rips from Music From Big Pink, Harvest, On the Beach, Beck's Sea Change, the 24/96 of Chris Whitley's Dirt Floor, and vinyl rips of Wish You Were Here, The Final Cut, R.E.M.'s Fables of the Reconstruction, and Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage. The native HiRez stuff in general sounds a good bit better than the vinyl rips. I think the trick with vinyl rips is to rip those magical sounding pressings with an excellent turntable/cartridge and to judiciously use Click Repair to clean the files. At 24/96, any surface noise is very clear and a touch distracting.

The first track that really blew me away was "Tears of Rage." I have never thought of Big Pink as any kind of audiophile masterpiece, but by golly it sounded that way on the Pono. So did On the Beach.

Maybe I'm just expecting it to sound good. But it's meeting my expectations.

I haven't had as much trouble loading it as May Be Beyond Me. It is a bit clunky, but the files get there. I haven't been using the software, just copying to the SD card with the unit plugged in. Can't get at the on-board 64GB though. I'll have to bite the bullet on the software eventually.

 

Huh, the 64 GB was just another drive for me. Added files the same way as the SD card.

 

I hate to raise the "B" word, but these things are fresh out of the box. Might give them a couple days get up to speed. I need to head over to Head-fi now, where the serious reviews will be.

Bwahaha. First review I'm reading the Head-fi reviewer names his portable system he'll compare it with:

Up until now my mobile rig consisted of a macbook pro with Audirvana 1.5 driving a Audioquest Dragonfly 24/96 DAC and a Ray Samuels Hornet amp driving Shure SE535's all connected with Moon Audio Silver Dragon cables (both custom for the Shure's and also a short run to go between the DAC and amp). The Dragonfly was cheap and convenient (small) but does not give the sound performance of the Meridian Explorer I use on my home computer. Note my earlier post about comparing the pono/ayre to the meridian using a little dot MK9 with Audeze LCD-2s

You've gotta love Head-fi.

Well, just so folks here can see the kind of reviews you get there at headfi , I'll post this guy's first impression. Sounds good.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/629454/pono-neil-youngs-portable-hi-res-music-player/1410

So the comparison in this case is between:



1. macbook pro/Audirvana 1.5 with a Audioquest Dragonfly 24/96 DAC and a Ray Samuels Hornet amp driving Shure SE535's all connected with Moon Audio Silver Dragon cables.

2. pono/ayre with a Ray Samuels Hornet amp driving Shure SE535's all connected with Moon Audio Silver Dragon cables.

3. pono-ayre driving Shure SE535's all connected with Moon Audio Silver Dragon cables.



I'm going to use three audio files for testing.



1. Walk Across the Rooftops from The Blue Nile...24/96 rip of original UK vinyl made with my Lynx Hilo AD/DA from my Rega RP6 processed through my Cary SLP98 tube preamp.

2. Herbie Hancock "Chameleon" from Headhunter...this was a 24/96 file provided with my HH Signature pono.

3. Dick Hyman Motet Swing from Reference recordings (24/176)



I did my best to adjust volume to equivalent levels.



Blue Nile

-compared to the audioquest the pono/ayre has a much broader sound stage. the bass is much more detailed.

-the hornet amp really helps the bass in my opinion...its fuller directly from the pono/ayre, but its better detailed and has better space around the drums going through the hornet amp.

-I would choose the pono/ayre in a second over the dragonfly with or without the hornet.



HH Chameleon

-no contest between the pono/ayre and the dragonfly...drums are real through the pono/ayre...not as phat...real...detailed...tight...the drum/bass solo is outstandingly groovy...damn...the 70's!...I grew up with this tune performed by Maynard Ferguson...but herbie takes the day.

-once again the hornet does a better job than the pono/ayre amp...more detail...the pono/ayre just has more thud...I suppose the hip hop crowd will probably like that sound...but I know what drums and bass actually sound like...and the pono/ayre / hornet gets it best...but it should for an extra $400...the pono/ayre by itself is completely listenable however...much better than the dragonfly.

Dick Hyman

-this is a light atmospheric piano centered track...with an acoustic small big band...recorded at 24/176 by Dr. Johnson...recording quality doesn't get any better

-the pono/ayre with hornet is really ectasy on this track...I feel like I'm playing my playing my trombone in the gig...completely natural sound stage...the piano is real...I can tell the type of mute on the trumpet. The decay on the snare rattles is right on the pono/ayre compared to the dragonfly.

-note on this file Audirvana has to downsample because the track is 24/176 and the DAC is only 24/96.

Thus, I'd say the pono is a big improvement over my dragonfly...I also like having a stand alone music rig that is independent of my laptop.
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Sounds good. The Dragonfly is supposed to be quite good.

 

What??? Oh, hell no! If this is true, he should know better! You don't want to remix, you just want the master two-tracks. I'm wondering if you got that information correct.

 

You are new here, so I suggest you read the forum rules.

 

The record labels usually own the masters. The labels are in the process of, or have completed the process of converting their vaults to hi-rez. If you look over the Pono Music site, you will see just how much music there will be, and how much hi-rez there will be, too.

Apparently, many people do not organize their digital files, and many let iTunes do it. That would certainly create issues. I know people who think Windows should "just know" where to put everything. I've seen their computers, and they are unorganized disasters!

I have always manually managed my own music files on my computer/drives. I also use a specific tagging convention that works for me, so it will all be simple for me to use.

 

Sorry about that. Thought it was a fairly tame thought-won't happen again.

So, Day 2 of my new audio world continues. Building files, tagging and loading. I do indeed have the full 128 storage, but... the two drives seem to be partitioned (at least as far as loading goes). This explains why I could not load 88 gb yesterday and why I was given the opportunity to sync 2 players when I only have one plugged in. I am currently loading the on board storage and will move onto the SD card in about an hour or so. There still might be a 128 card in my future. (Interesting side note- the leather carrying case has two pockets for micro cards stitched right in.

As a live music lover, I am very sad to find out that the transitions between songs is not seamless, there is a slight gap that is neither smooth nor pretty. Dark Side of the Moon and the second side of Abbey Road have never sounded quite like this (and not in a good way). Reading the member forums, this issue is very high on the list of things that need fixing sooner rather than later. This is a must fix for me as I love live music; a chop in each transition will have this unit out in Ebay within a year.

Thanks to all for the warm welcome here!