PONO Hands-on Review

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Bowie Fett, Nov 15, 2014.

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  1. SammyU

    SammyU Forum Resident

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA, USA
    Judging by what is included with various LE players, there should be at least some unique hi-res stuff at some point.
    (RHCP Californication 24/96, Tom Petty Wildflowers 24/96, Eagles Long Road Out Of Eden (24/192), Foo Fighters s/t 24/44.1 and Wasting Light 24/192, etc.)
     
  2. audiomixer

    audiomixer As Bald As The Beatles

    :whistle:
     
  3. bangsezmax

    bangsezmax Forum Resident

    Location:
    Durham, NC, USA
    I'm not seeing any of these available in HiRez from the store except Californication.
     
  4. Master_It_Right

    Master_It_Right Forum Resident

    how's californication sound in 24/96?
     
  5. SammyU

    SammyU Forum Resident

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA, USA
    I'm sure they'll all eventually be available. I don't have access to the store yet (waiting for my black player to ship), but I'll probably buy several of these in 24-bit when I have access/they are available.
     
  6. wolfram likes this.
  7. Apesbrain

    Apesbrain Forum Resident

    Location:
    East Coast, USA
    Oh no, that baby had a 20GB hard drive: plenty enough for 80+ FLAC albums.
     
  8. JeffMo

    JeffMo Format Agnostic

    Location:
    New England
    This will sound like a heretic, but have you compared MP3 or AAC tracks on Pono vs an iPhone or iPod? I'm curious if there is even a discernable improvement in SQ for 256 or 320kbps files, of which I do have some tracks. If there is, this will also help sell this unit to the unwashed masses out there...
     
  9. JeffMo

    JeffMo Format Agnostic

    Location:
    New England
    Sorry, must have been an older Rio model that I had (inherited from a coworker when he got an early iPod).

    I only had it for a month or so when it fell out of my pocket on the stairs, and it died on impact!
     
  10. mmars982

    mmars982 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    I had absolutely no interest in getting one of these, but these reviews (brief as they are), and seeing the actual product is starting to pique my interest. I'd like to see some bugs worked out first (especially gapless playback), but I can see myself getting one of these in the near future.
     
    hutlock likes this.
  11. Greenears

    Greenears Active Member

    Do they have anything less than Redbook FLAC? Or is 16/44 lossless the minimum for all 1.6M tracks? (I'm guessing yes.)

    If so ... does this make Pono the largest lossless 16/44 or better library in the world?
     
  12. Master_It_Right

    Master_It_Right Forum Resident

    Hopefully it will be priced competitively with CD's.
     
  13. No gapless playback (yet)? Wait until the gapless crowd starts going bat$#!+ crazy on the Internets . . .
     
    Ghostworld likes this.
  14. PanaPlasma

    PanaPlasma Forum Resident

    Location:
    Belgium, Europe
    Off course not, they ignore independent labels and focus on audiophile baby boomers.

    At the moment, nothing can compete with Qobuz: http://www.qobuz.com/fr-fr/quality/HD-24-bit/download-streaming-albums
     
    Last edited: Nov 20, 2014
    c-eling likes this.
  15. Apesbrain

    Apesbrain Forum Resident

    Location:
    East Coast, USA
    It was probably a Rio Nitrus/Carbon. They had quarter-sized (1.5-4GB) hard drives that were prone to failure. Surprisingly, if you'd dropped it on the stairs again it might have come back to life!

    [​IMG]
     
    JeffMo likes this.
  16. PanaPlasma

    PanaPlasma Forum Resident

    Location:
    Belgium, Europe
    Nope. Labels don't want hi-res ... So they price it extremely high. I know many titles that are cheaper on both cd and vinyl (new releases).

    I always wait for special promo actions, last week there was a promo-action at Qobuz ... I ordered for 98€ and had to pay 49€ with special promocode (because I ordered for 25€ the month before). Every order between 50€ and 100€ was -50%.

    Right now selected titles of Blue Note are specially priced. But watch out ... some titles are twice in the list. e.g. Norah Jones both in 96kHz and 192kHz. They're both the same price ...

    When you order the 192kHz, you'll have access to both 192kHz + 96kHz + cd-quality + mp3 quality.

    When you order the 96kHz, you don't have access to the 192kHz version. I guess it's an internal error. Check twice before you order that you pick up the highest resolution ...
     
    Last edited: Nov 20, 2014
  17. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I used to think this too, but have learned that the labels will usually provide whatever the vendor requests. The label has the hi-rez versions.
     
  18. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    In the U.S., most of the music America loves is owned and controlled by the three major labels. Here, you must have a lot of content from Universal, Warner, and Sony/BMG to be taken seriously. That's just the way it is.
     
  19. SammyU

    SammyU Forum Resident

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA, USA
    Pono has stated several times they are working on deals/have deals with smaller independent labels. So they apparently are not being ignored.
     
  20. hutlock

    hutlock Forever Breathing

    Location:
    Cleveland, OH, USA
    I'm in that boat. I have an iPod Classic that I use when I'm on the go and an SACD/DVD player at home that plays hi-res already, but when that iPod dies, I could definitely see replacing it with a Pono now.
     
    Robert C likes this.
  21. martinb4

    martinb4 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Irvine, California
    Well, at least it didn't suffer.
     
  22. The "powered by Ayre" has certainly piqued my interest. It's by far the least expensive Ayre-designed audio component. However, it's also the only Ayre component not manufactured in the U.S. :(
     
  23. PanaPlasma

    PanaPlasma Forum Resident

    Location:
    Belgium, Europe
    hutlock and morinix like this.
  24. oneway23 likes this.
  25. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    Why shouldnt every company jump on the bandwagon? They probably already have the hi-rez files on hand and when haven't companies taken advantage to re-sell us stuff we already have? Those Technics people are shouting: IT'S A NO-BRAINER, CHIEF!
     
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