PONO - the return of high fidelity or industry gimmick?

re-phaelam-ed · Post by **re-phaelam-ed** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 12:16 am

Mexicola wrote:
re-phaelam-ed wrote:i think devices dedicated to playing music are dying a hard one. everyone wants the all in one...AKA cell phone.
Careful with the 'everyone'. This one here is quite happy with a dedicated player and refuses to spend the ridiculous money for an iPhone here in the UK. Call me a Luddite I guess?

sorry.....'most'

Mexicola · Post by **Mexicola** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 7:03 pm

re-phaelam-ed wrote:
Mexicola wrote:
re-phaelam-ed wrote:i think devices dedicated to playing music are dying a hard one. everyone wants the all in one...AKA cell phone.
Careful with the 'everyone'. This one here is quite happy with a dedicated player and refuses to spend the ridiculous money for an iPhone here in the UK. Call me a Luddite I guess?
sorry.....'most'

Having had a few days to sleep on this now, I'm still in two minds if I'm 100% honest. Part of me wants to back this (and has), while part of me wonders whether it's another example of audiophile snakeoil bullshit, albeit with honourable intentions.

Tweeted Greg Milner, author of 'Perfecting Sound Forever' (which should be obligatory reading for anyone interested in recording and playing music by the way) and asked his opinion. For those who've read his book, you'll know that while it gives a fairly balanced view of the debate on this subject, it does at least appear to come down on the side of the audiophiles, generally speaking:

Q: curious to know what you make of Neil Young's upcoming Pono system?

A: From him, this means a lot but, but seems like other variables will still matter--e.g bad playback systems, annoying engineering.

Got a couple of weeks or so yet to make my mind up. After that, the $$$ leaves my account and I'll let you all know how it turns out sometime in October. Hmmm......

re-phaelam-ed · Post by **re-phaelam-ed** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:26 pm

the ONLY reason id buy this would be so i could have 128g of music in my pocket while snowboarding.
other than that...whats the point. id rather listen to my system [Grado PS-1000, Schitt amp, Schitt DAC]/[record player].

and im defo not walking around outside with the my nice phones....which then defeats the purpose of the player...WHICH...according to that article is pointless to begin with. UNLESS you can upload small files to it just to have more volume of music. if you cant do that.....then i say....BACK OUT NOW MAN!

Mexicola · Post by **Mexicola** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:02 pm

To be clear, you can also upload files other than FLAC etc. It plays everything else too.

However, it's just dawned on me that I'm going to have to pay 20% VAT on top too (around another £40 / $65 approx), which takes a big wet bite out of the $100 saving for pre-ordering too. Hmmm. I might have to rethink this and see how the reviews rate it once anyone has heard one outside of Neil Young's car. Damn it..

re-phaelam-ed · Post by **re-phaelam-ed** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:14 pm

Mexicola wrote:To be clear, you can also upload files other than FLAC etc. It plays everything else too.

However, it's just dawned on me that I'm going to have to pay 20% VAT on top too (around another £40 / $65 approx), which takes a big wet bite out of the $100 saving for pre-ordering too. Hmmm. I might have to rethink this and see how the reviews rate it once anyone has heard one outside of Neil Young's car. Damn it..

well then that makes it a little more viable. as im not keen to bring my phone snowboarding or mountain biking...or golfing for that matter. i dont want that option to pull out the phone. i want to be disconnected. AND ups my phones 16g capacity to 128g...so i could go deep on the sets i want to put together.