PONO Feedback? Anyone have one yet?

Phew. That's a relief!

 

The Pono does have shuffle. But will take you out of shuffle mode if you select a new album and start at the first track. I believe there are some additional situations where it will disable shuffle in preference for proper album track order. But I haven't experimented yet to find out what its logic is for determining that.

I don't shuffle so it's all moot to me. Almost everything I play is a full album in the proper track order.

 

Store has now added resolution below the albums. It's slowly getting better.... BTW - my Pono made my 12-13 hour drive from Philadelphia to Atlanta very enjoyable. Yes I realize it's my car system (stock Nissan Bose ) but the source really does matter. Never heard better sound in my car. Majority of my listening was actually rebook ripped vinyl.

 

Yes, you can shuffle tracks but specifically not from within the album view - only from within the songs tab or playlist view.
And that's not an omission it's by design. Something about respecting the album form and that's not a bad thing at all.

Shuffling whole albums though is a different matter. The Pono player doesn't support album shuffle - for that matter neither does Jriver's PMW desktop app (unless you choose to go through some incredibly arcane playlist scripting).
By album shuffle, I mean playing all the tracks in sequence then randomly selecting the next album from the current view and playing it in its entirety, repeating until all albums in the playlist/album view have been exhausted.
Should mention that I'm talking about firmware v1.0.4 - really hope this is something that can be addressed in future upgrades. iPod Classic did album shuffle brilliantly. Another member here (forget who) has posted in the past that no other DAPs do it well or do it at all - hope Pono can seize an opportunity here.

 

I'm trying to figure out how to search at Pono's website. Am I crazy or is there no way to search by genre?

 

i asked this in a different thread, but i'll ask here too:

if your pono breaks, do you lose all music you purchased. or is it stored somewhere that you can go get it again?

 

I don't know if you are allowed to redownload it or not, but it should be on your computer. You must use a computer to purchase and download the music before you transfer it to the Pono device.

 

I have to admit, while I think a lot of this crap is audiophile BS, I do hear a difference between 16-bit material and 24-bit material if it's extremely well-recorded. And I also feel I can hear a difference between lossless audio files and lossy files.

There's always the danger that you're changing and not the source you're listening to. I've never been convinced that solid state or digital devices change over a few weeks. Tubes and transducers, yes. I concede that the psychological factor of wanting to believe a difference is there is very strong, and I've been subjected to that before many times.

 

Curious...how do you connect? Dedicated cable built into the glove box or center console? If so, does the stored music appear on the head unit or nav system's screen?

 

no - just a stereo mini from Pono line out ( you can also use headphone out) to an aux jack on the dashboard. no info on screen.

 

There were many interviews given in the Spring of 2014 where Ponofolk referred to a "storage locker" of sorts, but, this has not been mentioned in quite a while, at least to my knowledge.

 

Pono support told me they are working on an enhancement to make re-downloading easier - similar to what iTunes does if you lose a song. You should be able to simply go to "my orders" when logged into Pono to re-download as of now.

 

According to Audiostream.com, Pono's EVP of Technology Pedram Abrari told both Audiostream and and Jason Serinus from Stereophile that DSD playback was coming to Pono "soon, sooner than you think."

Thoughts?

 

My first thought when I saw that was "DSD playback on the current PonoPlayer or the next version?".
Second thought was "I hope DSD playback is gapless".
Third thought was "Good, this will get the DSD fanatics to shut up".
Fourth thought was "I personally don't really care about DSD playback on a portable".
Fifth thought was "Will DSD playback sound better than PCM on the player?"

Interesting if they can add DSD playback to the current player with just a firmware update. They'd have had to have been thinking ahead when designing the hardware side of the player to have it be DSD capable.

 

My only thought was your third. Actually, that's not entirely true, is it?

While I'm not personally invested in the idea of DSD as a playback format, I did wonder if the Pono would offer native playback or some form of PCM wizardry.
I do seem to recall DSD playback as being well within the confines of the DAC the Pono uses, though I'm not entirely sure how DSD would jibe with the internals.
Someone more knowledgeable can interject.

 

The PonoPlayer uses the Sabre ESS 9018M DAC chip. That chip is DSD capable. Same chip that products like the Geek Out use. And the Geek Out does DSD. The chip in the PonoPlayer can certainly do DSD. It's a matter of designing the rest of the hardware in the player to be able to support that. I'm assuming that they must have thought ahead and designed DSD support in even though it was not enabled yet.

The PonoMusic World software (JRiver) already knows how to deal with and play DSD files. It will be able to handle managing and syncing DSD files. So that side of the equation is already ready for DSD.

 

That's exactly what I'm looking for in my HD listening experience, a previously inaudible audience fight. Now I am sold! Thank you Pono! LOL

 

Actually it is not all that unlike when HDTV came out and all of the news reporters all of a sudden had to worry about the condition of their jackets ties and dresses more than ever. You can see every piece of lint! Seriously though the level of clarity captured in high resolution audio is fairly amazing when captured correctly and reproduced on a great device. If the goal is to get you into the studio, we are probably closer than ever.

 

I have heard 16/44 that sound better than 24/192 and 24/48 that sounded like crap and vice versa versa vice all over the place.
It's like arguing over what speaker material is the ultimate, most accurate reproducer.
Unless the recording is very old I can almost always identify lossy by the anemic upper frequency reproduction.
To me, that's why ear budder\iPodders don't care about lossless, the bass still comes through and the external noise trashes the high end anyway.

To me a key question about "break-in" is that it really is break-down if you believe in SS break-in.
If break-in is a reality, it has to be an ongoing process that never stops until all of the components go kaput.
It just can't magically stop after 50-500 hours and reach some sort of audio nirvanic stasis or can it?
Ask Art Dudley or Sam Tellig, I'm sure they'll come up with some sort of bullsh!t butterfly sneeze explanation as to how this magic occurs.

Obviously tubes wear out like vinyl so listen close for the first 200 hours because it's only gonna get worse.

 

Yeah, I get it. I said that tongue in cheek. In fact, I'm going to stop at Fry's today after work and see if one is in stock.

 

did someone post this already?? sorry if so
http://www.whathifi.com/news/does-high-res-sound-better-cd-pono-execs-reportedly-arent-sure

 

What stores is PONO supposed to be sold in today? I checked Frys and NONE of the stores in California have them.

 

Right there with you. I've read a lot of comments stressing that your ears should be the end all be all when debating those that have stated that they won't go near a DR below a certain point and while I agree that you should at least give anything a listen (provided you're interested in it to begin with) I've found that when I think something doesn't sound good I've checked the DR database only to confirm that the DR is low. So maybe some members just know from experience that they will be wasting their time when the DR is at or below a certain point. As hard as it is to admit it, my favorite album last year sounds borderline offensive as the DR is hovering around 7. Given the sonics on the album, I think it's a crying shame that it got mastered that way and see it as such a missed opportunity especially given the fact that so many in the industry have figured it out and are trying to reverse the damage the LW caused. It's the same thing with the early Oasis albums (not sure about the DR on the latter but I'd suspect they're squished) where it would have been interesting to see if sensible mastering would have helped or if loudness and low DR actually compliments the album. Simple Minds "Big Music" has great sonics on it but I've noticed that I can only take so much of it due to the compression that turns it into a bit of an assault on the ears. I'm guessing that you have just learned over time that low DR recordings take all the fun out so DR has been added to the list of things you consider before buying. Cheers

 

@Vocalpoint @Havoc

I wish they would release the uncompressed version along with the radio version. That is the real promise of digital - bits are virtually free. So for a small premium you should be able to get a package of the radio version, uncompressed version, and maybe a couple of masters with different or no EQ, some liner notes maybe some video interviews what have you. Youtube is doing very well letting people explore different versions and live performance. The studio have never figured out that digital is an immersive medium.

 

That's a great idea! I'll admit to only being aware of the dangers of bad remasters and loud new releases but fortunately I came here and was able to benefit from the knowledge and experience of the members here so I can make more informed choices and what did I do with that knowledge? I ran right out and bought the Oasis remasters the second they were available. I guess what it will do is keep me from concluding immediately that a remastered version is automatically better and hang onto my originals if I really want a newer release for whatever reason. It would be interesting to listen to a more dynamic version of Big Music but then again, maybe it was designed to be compressed as even though it's an assault on the ears it is still very exciting to listen to.