The Ponoplayer - a high end type music source - coming early 2015 ...

I jumped on the Kickstarter for this and am expecting mine next month. A limited clear version of the player. It'll be pre-loaded with a selection of tunes. I've got a number of FLAC files ready for it, but I'm hoping the Ponomusic.com download store is able to make good on bringing out High-Def versions of albums, closer to the source. The major labels have been signing on to it...of course, anything for a sale!

Got mine already. No 91 of 500 of the Neil Young edition:-)
Sounds great!

Other than having a "portable" FLAC option, is there any advantage to the PONO vs. a high-end sound card from a PC into my favorite tube preamp/amp?

JohnOPhonic wrote:Other than having a "portable" FLAC option, is there any advantage to the PONO vs.  a high-end sound card from a PC into my favorite tube preamp/amp?

The little thing sounds darn great. The circuit was developed by Ayre, a reputable firm I think. It offers also balanced output for headphones or preamps. I do not have a highend soundcard, but I use a highrez external DAC via USB and a Mac Book pro and so far the Pono sound better to my ears. Let's wait until the honeymoon is over

Right now I tunes has a corner on the electronic music downloads market I'm curious what if any change this my force them to do as far quality, I'm guessing they will respond to the competition, time will tell hopefully we will all benefit

I too "invested" in Neil Young's dream of higher quality music for the masses. I only invested $50 and at that level I got a PONO Music T-shirt. Pretty cool - except when I wear it, 80% of people think it says "PORNO Music" so that leads to some interesting and often unwanted discussion ;-)
I'm very curious in the concept but still don't know how much music will be available initially, how much the music will cost, will it play through my DAC, do I even need a DAC, will I need a standalone or cloud based storage server, will the PONO files play off of my computer or only via the portable player......Anyone that has some insight - please share......Neil Young where are you ?

My hat's off to Neil - been a big fan since I was a teen - but the fact is I don't care much about portability and don't very much like listening on headphones, especially earbuds. So I may get one of these someday to give me more options, but I don't see it revolutionizing my listening habits.

Controversial topic.  

I recently got a OnePlus One phone with 64 Gigs for $350.00 and I'll take it over a $400.00 all it can do is play back files gadget.   I can do everything with the phone the pono can, plus a lot more and do it wirelessly as in streamed to the system via WiFi or Bluetooth.  Can the pono even do that?   If not, and from the specs I read it cannot and has to be connected to the main system through a wire anyway, there's no advantage/higher resolution/sound quality improvement over what my phone can do via a USB into a stand alone DAC (or into my asynchronous Oppo 105 which has the exact same ESS Sabre 9018 DAC as the pono) and then into the main system.

Lots of places offer Hi Rez files today.  Sound Stage Direct and Acoustics Sounds to name a few.  

I take the LPs I have and record/digitize tracks into Hi Resolution 24/96 .wav files and use them as my digital source.  Scientifically they're not supposed to be better sounding than vinyl, but to these ears a vinyl track, converted and recorded through a decent DAC, always sounds better on playback than any purchased digital track, no matter the resolution.  When convenience is called for I just stream from the phone to the system wirelessly either at home or on the road.  

To further stir the pot:

http://stereos.about.com/b/2014/03/12/piling-on-pono-addressing-the-criticisms-of-neil-youngs-new-high-res-music-service.htm

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/05/pono-neil-young-24bit-192khz-review

All that really matters is if the one buying it is happy with it.  Maybe if I was very young and just starting a music collection this would be a good way to go, but after all the music purchased over the years on various formats: LP, 8-track, reel to reel, cassette, CD/SACD/DVD Audio, I refuse to buy the same tunes over again, or any new ones, on an "improved" format.  I've ended up where I started so many years ago: vinyl through tubes into two speakers.

It would be nice if my iPod played high-rez files but I don't really need it to. I like the Pono design and appreciate being able to add more storage space. That's definitely an improvement over the iPod. I don't think it's worth $400. The prices they're asking for these portable hi-rez players is kind of ridiculous. Especially if they're trying to market to the next generation.

I have several iOS devices which serve their individual purposes for me. If I listen to music from them it's more casual and I'm not as concerned about fidelity. The vast majority of my digital files are uncompressed and sound good already. When it comes to critical listening I stick to my main system where I can either listen to all of my music files or spin vinyl.

I just love reading the naysayers who think their phone is as good as it gets, or, to quote: "barely if at all audible and totally unimportant". I don't know where all the places are that are offering hi-res, but having major labels sign on to this is potentially a Big Deal. Two places mentioned: Sound Stage Direct only has vinyl. Acoustics Sounds has a relatively small collection of hi-res.
I don't intend to replace my collection, but I know there are things in my collection that I would love to hear at higher quality than I have! Read: closer to the source. The vast majority of music being recorded now starts out a high quality, and only goes down from there. I doubt I'll ever quit consuming music (rather: ain't never gonna happen!), why would I want to just settle for whatever is thrown at me?

I don't know about FLACs or other "hi-res" digital files that COME from professional sources. As a fan of the Grateful Dead, I've seen their "dead.net" offer a choice of downloads in MP3 or FLAC 16-bit OR FLAC 24 bit. The 16 bits were a bit more money and the 24 bit even more. I have yet to download and listen but these were Jerry Garcia Band shows that were recorded anywhere from the mid 1970s through the 1990s. These were likely sourced from 15 ips reel to reel from live shows (at least from the 70s shows) so can that be a really good way to judge? Maybe the 1990s were recorded using DAT. It might be interesting to check out sometime.

My interest in hearing FLACs are mostly for personally recorded vinyl. I too find that if one records a good vinyl recording on a system with good ADC's into 24-bit FLAC, the end result sounds (to these ears) indistinguishable. One retains the warm feel of the vinyl and this may have to do more with the RIAA EQ that comes along than anything else. The FLAC recording does pick up all the crackle as well that might be part of it and maybe it's simply a nostalgic reaction that I'm favoring. I certainly do not hear any compression artifacts like I would on MP3.

That said, I listen to my FLACS on the home system via PC with an EMU USB audio device, but I'm fairly certain there are decent portable players that can play my personally recorded FLACS without shelling out $400 bucks.

John,

There is an option I stumbled across a couple of years ago.  I have an Olympus mrobe MR100 (OK, stop laughing everyone! Seriously.) and I replaced the firmware with something called RockBox that turned a real turd of an mp3/wma player into something that can handle nearly all formats including flac.

If you have a supported player you just down load the installer and allow it to replace the firmware on the device.  Mine works really well for playing flac files as well as mp3s.

Otherwise, most Andorid phones have built in support for flac files, at least my Nexus 4 does.

It's an option to get your feet wet without spending any money.

Tony

JohnOPhonic wrote:
My interest in hearing FLACs are mostly for personally recorded vinyl.  I too find that if one records a good vinyl recording on a system with good ADC's into 24-bit FLAC, the end result sounds (to these ears) indistinguishable.  One retains the warm feel of the vinyl and this may have to do more with the RIAA EQ that comes along than anything else.  The FLAC recording does pick up all the crackle as well that might be part of it and maybe it's simply a nostalgic reaction that I'm favoring.  I certainly do not hear any compression artifacts like I would on MP3.  

I've ripped most of my vinyl collection to FLAC, and it's all about the equipment you use and doing your homework. Can't say how many options I tried before settling on a process, and even then I got quite a few cut before stumbling across a better way.

I'm sure I could do even higher quality, but we're talking a lot of hours at real time, I figure at this point to leave well enough alone. Very satisfied with what I'm hearing - which compares favorably to "professional" source. Much better in fact in many cases than "classic rock" CDs that were pushed out fast when the medium took over. Some real shite there.

HiRes ... don't have the bandwidth here to do a lot of that, and the few albums I've downloaded didn't exactly blow my ears off compared to either vinyl or newer Redbook versions. Good example - Porcupine Tree Stupid Dreams and Lightbulb Sun at 96/24 - I actually prefer the tone and ambiance of the standard CD releases.