PONO Hands-on Review

You should be able to download the track I used for free from 2L site (I got a 24/352 DXD original from 2L's HiRes Download - test bench section, which I then downsampled to 24/88 & also made a 16/88 track using SoX 14.4.1 utility). Thing is, I do not consider my result a true test, since I was specifically listening to a ~15-second fadeout section at seriously elevated volume...

 

I guess, you failed... You may want to update your ABX Comparator plug-in (& foobar2000 player software, too), BTW.

 

Kudos.

What most folks on this board (I'm new and only starting to read most of the dribble) can't seem to fathom is that the start of your audio chain (the source) is the most important component because nothing down the line is going to improve on the signal the source sends out. You can improve your audio up to the point of what your source is outputting. Garbage in, garbage out.....

 

I got the files and can play them. I'll sox them tomorrow and have fun trying it with Bozza. All my foobar and ABX are recent but I can check.

 

EXACTLY.

 

thanks for checking in. I wonder how long it will be before they start fulfilling these orders. my status has said "Order Submitted After Review" since about a day after I first placed it.

 

It's true but there is still a need for proportionality. Consider distortion, for example. Makes sense to minimize it, right? So let's look at the biggest contributors to distortion: loudspeakers and to some extent their crossovers. Why worry about a tiny improvement in distortion in the source component when there is a giant distorter further down the chain?

Another way of looking at this is that "You can improve your audio up to the point of what your source is outputting" is true but only useful to the extent that we DO improve our audio to that point. Systems do NOT get full-fidelity reproduction of the source, because of deficiencies later in the chain.

Tim

 

Stereophile's Pono measurements. Not bad, but somewhat short of spectacular...

 

The entire Stereophile review is very positive. As it should be . . .

 

The great headphone reviewer Tyll Hertsens has weighed in with a highly positive personal review of the Pono player.

It's all the more impressive given that he was inclined to be underwhelmed, but it's something of a rave:

And then it hit me, the Pono Player was delivering exactly what it promised: a deep connection with the music. It pissed me off. I'm a wizened and experienced reviewer with large dollops of skepticism ready to be brought out at a moments notice; I'm not s'posed to be swept off my feet some three-sided marketing gimmick. What the hell is going on!?...

The more I experience the Pono Player, the more it reminds me of a pair of Sennheiser HD 600s and the Bottlehead Crack. There are all sorts of ways in which both of these products fall short of a reference quality reproduction, but this pairing is almost universally praised by headphone enthusiasts as an inordinately musical combination. The Pono Player is like that to me: It's simple and relatively inexpensive, it's not a hot rod or race car delivering ultimate performance, but it delivers a pleasurable listening experience way beyond what the price tag might have you believe.

 

Some questions about the PONO player: a AAC 320 kbps file will sound better on PONO than on a iPod? What about a 16-bit FLAC file, it will sound better too? The difference between a AAC file and a 24-bit 192kHz FLAC file is completly noticeable on a PONO player? What about the difference between a 16-bit FLAC file and a 24-bit 192kHz FLAC file? Cheers.

 

I don't have a Pono, but I do have a FiiO X1. In my opinion, everything sounds significantly better on it compared to my iPod Touch. I believe the experience would be similar on the Pono since Pono has better DAC and processing chain than an iPod Touch. iPods don't sound terrible through the dock connector either.

My reason for switching to the FiiO is I didn't want to have to keep paying Apple every time I wanted more storage space.

 

Thanks for the reply.

About the FiiO X1 (or any similar player), can you notice the difference between a 320 kbps file and a FLAC file on it? I ask that, cause i can't notice that on the iPod. And can you notice the difference between a regular 16-bit 44,100 kHz file and a 24-bit 192kHz studio master? Cause i don't see the point on buying this PONO HD files if the human hear can't notice the difference between them and a regular FLAC.

Cheers.

 

Which encoder at 320kbps compared to FLAC? iTunes AAC? No. LAME MP3? Yes.

 

So you can't hear the difference if we're talking about a AAC file? Well, i guess i don't see why should i retire my iPod Classic then. And i guess there is no point in buying PONO or HDtracks 24-bit 192kHz studio master if you can't hear the difference, right?

 

What some here will argue is that the Pono player will play both files back better than an iPod, but that the differences between the files will not be that apparent when played on the same player.

 

I managed to get around to John Atkinson's latest write-up on the Pono in Stereophile today, and he is very enthusiastic regarding the current performance in balanced mode and is very surprised by the transcendent (yes, he used that word) performance in that mode. Neil Young's "manufacturer response" was nice to read too.

 

Thanks for the heads up on Neil Young's response. I completely overlooked it before. I have a Pono coming from Amazon tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to hearing it.

 

I went to the manufacturer's response section of Stereophile particularly to see what Kevin Hayes had to say about some of the testing anomalies JA noticed in his measuring of the VAC Signature. The Neil Young letter was a bonus.

 

Totally up to you. I think all my music files sound better on my Fiio X1 compared to my iPod Touch.

 

It's not at all surprising to me that Pono sounds much better balanced. At the end of the day, Pono is essentially a Neil Young-branded Ayre portable hi-rez player - and every Ayre component I've ever heard sounds significantly better balanced than single-ended.

 

You make a good point. Charles Hansen - like a number of other designers - is a big proponent of the balanced design.

 

Actually, I was listening to FLACs on my FiiO X1 (through HiFiMan RE-400) yesterday. I had just copied some new music folders to listen to. I was doing laundry and having a good time. I came to the end of an album and chose The Stooges - S/T (original CD mastering) to play next. What I heard made me stop what I was doing. Something was wrong with the sound.

Ended up that I had some old 320 kbps files in a folder under my FLAC folder for that album. I had not noticed this earlier. I had drilled down to the MP3 folder (I used to use these on a 1st Generation IPOD shuffle a few years ago). I started playing the FLAC files and everything was good again.

I know this is anecdotal and not scientific proof of anything. I just found it interesting. Especially since I used to enjoy listening to these MP3s on the Shuffle a while back. (I am not interested in doing any tests, BTW.)

FWIW, I have not been satisfied with the 320 kbps MP3 files that I have purposely put on the FiiO. Since I listen to music for the purpose of enjoying it - I have been sticking with FLAC 16-44.1 or higher. YMMV

 

John Atkinson's mentioning of the music and the recordings got me curious. I got the two latest CDs by The Portland State Chamber Choir. I got them last week. Both are available at CD Baby: Portland State Chamber Choir at CD Baby. Very good recordings and very good choral recordings and very good choral music. Recorded at St. Stephen's Catholic Church in Portland, OR. The recordings capture the hall ambiance and also have a great sense of depth. They're a style of recording that is able to go 3D on headphones and do what I call an enveloping headstage. They're also very very good recordings to show off that the PonoPlayer is able to do this enveloping headstage thing. That ability to do an enveloping headstage is one of the things that sets the PonoPlayer apart from the rest. So very few players, DACs, or headphone amps are able to do it. Very few. The PonoPlayer is one of the few. But you have to play the right sort of recording to really get the effect. And John Atkinson chose wisely. Very wisely. The Portland State Chamber Choir recordings show off this effect very very well. These recordings are going to become reference demo recordings for me. Perfect recordings to demo gear with to find out if the gear can do the enveloping style of headphone sound I'm after.

"Transcendent" is actually the perfect word to describe what happens when you combine the ethereal harmonies of the voices, the ambiance in the recording, the naturalness of the PonoPlayer's sound, and the enveloping headstage. Played on the PonoPlayer with my LCD-2 in balanced mode and it really does become transcendent. It gives me goosebumps listening to it. It becomes a whole new level of music listening. It transports me away to a new place. The music truly is transcendent.

And that's been my experience from the beginning with the PonoPlayer. With the right music, the right recordings, and the right headphones the player really can take you away to a new place where the music not only sounds good, but feels good as well. Even with lesser recordings there is still some of that magic in the playback. But with the good recordings that magic is more evident and obvious. Play a good recording and it is easy to pick the PonoPlayer out from the rest in a comparison.

 

Who is John Atkinson, what's this "balanced mode" all about and what did Neil Young said on his manufacturer response? I'm worse than Jon Snow here...