PONO Hands-on Review

Sorry. Did not know.

No need to be that ironic though.

 

Sorry

 

I'm just curious- what would the outcome be if you repeated this test 50 times, or 100 times. It seems like you would need more than 10 "tries" to be able to say with any statistical certainty that you weren't just making "lucky guesses". I'm not a statistics wiz, but I do know that sample size can make a big difference...

 

The difference is quite trivial to spot (one excerpt is less hissy than the other), so you can repeat the test infinitely & succeed every time. That's why it can't be viewed as an honest one, IMO. Still awaiting the results of honest ABX tests from fans of true HR audio...

 

10 tests in an ABX is plenty to get a better than 95% confidence that the result did not come from chance. The math works out. It's all based on probability theory and the structure of the ABX test.

If you flip a coin 10 times, what are the odds that you get 9 or 10 heads? Very slim.
If you take an ABX test with 10 trials, what are the odds of passing with 9 or 10 correct guesses based on chance? Very slim.

 

Here is one with 20 trials for ya :

Code:

foo_abx 2.0 report
foobar2000 v1.3.7
2015-01-30 21:53:45

File A: 13 - Bozza- Children’s Overture (from La Voie Triomphale) (2488).flac
SHA1: 19315719e5ca526122ab992abacfa9e33d2d8da1
File B: 13 - Bozza- Children’s Overture (from La Voie Triomphale) [16-bit, S-TPDF] (2488).flac
SHA1: 41e04c7c50aec3cf434ffdc321376d477ad2ab43

Output:
ASIO : ASIO4ALL v2
Crossfading: NO

21:53:45 : Test started.
21:55:42 : 01/01
21:55:58 : 02/02
21:56:10 : 03/03
21:56:23 : 04/04
21:56:35 : 05/05
21:56:42 : 06/06
21:56:52 : 07/07
21:57:05 : 08/08
21:57:17 : 09/09
21:57:26 : 10/10
21:57:35 : 11/11
21:57:42 : 12/12
21:57:49 : 13/13
21:57:59 : 14/14
21:58:09 : 15/15
21:58:17 : 16/16
21:58:26 : 17/17
21:58:34 : 18/18
21:58:44 : 19/19
21:58:52 : 20/20
21:58:52 : Test finished.

----------
Total: 20/20
Probability that you were guessing: 0.0%

-- signature --
8830edcc4001d30845f1fdf2ae7707e1c1b00adb

Again, I just wanted to illustrate what kind of report(s) I'd like to see from the proponents of true HR audio (based, of course, on musical content, not just fadeout / silence)...

 

That link is remastered and has higher bit depth...

 

Sorry, didn't realize you were pointing out an issue with the test, now it makes more sense.

 

No issue with my ABX test, really... To make it more challenging, I'd edit the samples not to include fadeins / fadeouts or silence (just music). I also wanted to point out that the updated fb2k's ABX Comparator plug-in is now more sophisticated & includes hashes for audio files being compared (to ensure that multiple users compare the exact same non-tampered samples) + signature that can be used to verify the ABX report's authenticity.

 

I'm going to wait until I get my hands on my own Pono before delving into the arguments here. Call me crazy.

 

Wanting a Pono after reading all these threads IS crazy hahaha.

 

I have one and I'd buy one at retail if I didn't already have it.

Knowing what it might sound like and not wanting to even listen to it is what I'd call crazy.

 

You're crazy....

 

I haven't read all the posts in this thread, but here is my analysis...

I am an IT person responsible for over a hundred users...

I am not impressed by the software. I like the player itself, it feels comfortable in the hand and can accept anything I have thrown at it. The bamboo box is nice too.

I got involved with the KickStarter initiative. Before I received my player, I setup a PC (Linux - Fedora 20) to play my Hi-Res files. I now don't really need my Pono player. (I don't want to get rid of it.) I also have a Classic iPod. I don't regret buying my Pono Player, but have found another solution to playing Hi-Res files. I wish the Pono software was different. (I want to be able to manually add files.)

 

Another Pono review. This time, it's from Ars Technica website.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/02/pono-player-review-a-tall-refreshing-drink-of-snake-oil/

 

Thanks. Not bad. However, I'm always amused by these reviews (not just for Pono) about hi-rez. It is amazing how they all seem to talk about frequency and what frequencies Neil and others can and can't hear. They don't seem to get that a higher resolution can be heard at any frequency you CAN hear. Even just the vocals can sound better at a higher resolution. "Higher range frequency audio"? Not sure if they know that sampling frequencies and what frequencies you can hear are different and mutually exclusive.

 

My local Fry's is showing that I can pick one up from the store right now...can this be accurate? Are they available in stores?

 

Yes. Fry's has them. The stores will be carrying them. Check the store's inventory to see if they actually have it.
I don't know if they'll have a demo set up where you can hear it first. I think that's in the plans, but not yet.

 

yeah, some stores definitely have them. a store here in NYC has Ponos for sale for $400.

I'm also wondering if anyone who submitted an order for the player via the Pono website in January has received confirmation of their order yet.

 

I don't know if this has been posted but former Wall Street Journal tech writer David Pogue takes on Pono versus iPhone. Watch closely at their listening tests.
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/it-was-one-of-kickstarters-most-successful-109496883039.html

 

Already posted in another thread. No need to rehash it all in this thread too.
Go here: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...ads-on-an-iphone.410188/page-12#post-11790556

 

I ordered mine in January but nothing from Pono yet.

 

Thanks for covering. I should had known someone had posted it.

 

Thanks!!! I "liked".

I am serious when I say I rarely get a log when challenged, and I really like it when I do. Let the games begin (as you can figure this is not my first rodeo).

I googled to find the track, all the HD listings show this as track 15 not track 13 - please confirm. It appears I can buy the individual track from https://shop.klicktrack.com/2l/413173 for $2.30 - please confirm track#15 is the right one.

What was your SOX incantation to generate the 16 bit?

If you confirm I will try to recreate it. I am all set up with sox and foobar so it doesn't take long.

 

@testikoff

:-( I guess you had me at "ABX 10/10" but then I read on and saw you were going for hiss at elevated levels. I would say if you have to crank the volume to a level you can't comfortably listen to for 10 minutes then the test is questionable. It's never invalid because you can't get 10/10 unless you can hear something (9/10 is good enough for me). But the question is whether what you're hearing is meaningful.

One of my best runs was this:

foo_abx 1.3.4 report
foobar2000 v1.3.6
2014/12/17 21:51:24
File A: C:\Users\Public\Music\HDtracks\Various Artists HDtracks Sampler\HDtracks 2014 Sampler\test192.flac
File B: C:\Users\Public\Music\HDtracks\Various Artists HDtracks Sampler\HDtracks 2014 Sampler\test192_16.flac
21:51:24 : Test started.
21:54:00 : 01/01 50.0%
21:54:44 : 02/02 25.0%
21:55:43 : 03/03 12.5%
21:56:20 : 04/04 6.3%
21:57:19 : 05/05 3.1%
21:58:47 : 06/06 1.6%
22:00:28 : 07/07 0.8%
22:02:40 : 07/08 3.5%
22:09:00 : 07/09 9.0%
22:09:51 : 08/10 5.5%
22:11:48 : 08/11 11.3%
22:14:34 : 09/12 7.3%
22:15:08 : 10/13 4.6%
22:16:53 : 10/14 9.0%
22:17:27 : 10/15 15.1%
22:19:06 : 11/16 10.5%
22:19:44 : 11/17 16.6%
22:21:06 : 12/18 11.9%
22:23:27 : 13/19 8.4%
22:24:13 : 13/20 13.2%
22:24:38 : 14/21 9.5%
22:25:24 : 15/22 6.7%
22:26:35 : 16/23 4.7%
22:28:02 : 16/24 7.6%
22:29:08 : 16/25 11.5%
22:29:35 : 17/26 8.4%
22:30:09 : 18/27 6.1%
22:30:57 : 18/28 9.2%
22:33:43 : 18/29 13.2%
22:34:14 : 19/30 10.0%
22:34:43 : 20/31 7.5%
22:35:29 : 20/32 10.8%
22:36:07 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 20/32 (10.8%)