PONO Hands-on Review

If you want to argue about how and why high-res makes no sense, please move your discussion over to this thread:
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/24-192-music-downloads-and-why-they-make-no-sense.278967/

This thread is supposed to be about PonoPlayer reviews.

 

Jobs would have built a better ipod (or, today, iPhone).

 

Don't feed the trolls.

 

I find it interesting that a significant number of people who chose Tom Petty as well as Neil Young (natch) are getting their players while other artists, not so much and mostly not at all. I wonder if part of the bottle neck is trying to get the high def masters for the players going out? I would I ago e if the artist or the label was trying to play hard to get it could slow down the process though I don't know why an artist would do that. I have a Willie Nelson player and I haven't seen one of his mentioned as put anywhere I have looked. I'm not concerned though. As someone said here recently, this is a new company with new everything from infrastructure, including people, to product had to be created or put together after the money was acquired through Kickstarter. The fact that they've had some hiccups should come to no surprise to people with experience from creating something from nothing. I'm ok with waiting. I'd rather have the product I was expecting rather than Pono shipping out a poorly made product that isn't really ready. So far I see nothing to be concerned about. ​

 

Jobs would have admired the Pono player.

 

If I could buy one, i'd probably get Tom Petty.

 

Jobs would have already upgrade the IPod classic to do 2496. But the market is small compared to what the folks at Apple market to.

 

As a startup product and quality in general, yes, as a design, I'd guess not however.

You might also include the Astell & Kern portable as well. Except for that daft rotary volume knob though...

 

Jobs would have partnered with Neil Young...I have no doubt

 

I've read about five reviews by owners now and they all seem to say "lean" sounding. So much so that one contacted the company and were told it would fill out with break in. Whoa. Lean?

 

Yeah, it's pretty hard to believe a company is being ballsy enough to say wait between 40 and 100 hours for it to change! What? The burn-in myth confirmed by Pono? Well, there you go! I'm also hearing reports to the effect "oh, your rips and mp3s will sound lousy, but the hi-rez tracks sound incredible." Well, duh. That's like saying my Patricia Barber albums will sound incredible on my iphone compared to my Sex Pistol mp3s. What are we talking about here? The tracks or the player? Right now I want to hear about the player. I know what hi-rez sounds like (with the right recordings).

 

I should get my player today and I will post my experience with it tonight if I get a chance, for the moment these reviews should silence the naysayers, compares really favourably with the Astell and Kern top of the range player. Ayre have knocked it out of the ballpark!!

http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2014/11/19/review-pono-music-player-part-1/

 

I'm a little skeptical until I read a side by side with the FiiO players. So far, my X1 and X3 both sound really nice with my ALAC rips.

 

Not the old tired myth-ola about mp3 still...*sigh*

I guess that makes anything Barry Diament or Steve did crap by default the minute it becomes a 320Kbps rip.

First we had the Pono Player, then the Pono Store and now we've got Pono Tosh. Tiresome.

 

So I was told there would be hands-on reviews in this thread.

 

There are hands on reviews, see the link in my last post which has 2 reviews of the player, when I get mine I will post, as for break in periods it is accepted that many products need a break in period before they sound their best! Nothing strange or unusual here.

 

Jobs had plenty of opportunity to partner with Neil Young; they had conversations on this topic. He didn't.

 

Really? Have you read this?
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/feb/01/neil-young-ipod-steve-jobs

 

Yeah. "Neil Young has claimed . . ." is the key passage there.

 

And the reason to doubt him would be?....what reason would Neil have to lie?

Honestly, let's bring this thread back to talking about how the Pono sounds, which is great - I don't think it is lean sounding at all. More reviews and less crapping, thank you.

 

I completely agree with you about keeping the thread on track. My only point is that Neil and Jobs had conversations about this alleged product while Jobs was alive, and Apple did nothing and has continued to do nothing. At least nothing visible, yet. I doubt Pono would exist as a company if Apple were planning to do this with Neil.

 

I think they are two completely different business models for the two companies. Completely different. It's not difficult to see why Apple chose its path and has reached millions of people while Pono is niche. Therein lies your answer.

 

I agree. The issue is, Apple was a different company when Jobs was alive. I know that the iPhone 6 would be a very different animal if he was still alive. Jobs also liked to offer diversity to his customers (hence the coloured iMacs), so I feel that the iPod Classic would have been replaced by an audiophile model like the Pono. Apple is about keeping a profit going, not about innovation - which ultimately will be their demise. The company is already dying...slowly, but dying nonetheless.

 

Unfortunately for that idea, nowhere will you get the kind of profit that Apple aims for from that kind of niche product. If they'd tried to do the Pono, it'd have been another Apple Hi Fi.

And remember, under Jobs, they'd had ample opportunity to deliver the kind of product you're talking of since 2001 and they didn't go near it bar to offer Apple Lossless.

Their model is bringing their product to the masses not addressing a shrinking market.