Neil Young's Pono music player and online store set for early 2014 launch

rohitharsh
rohitharsh Posts: 20
edited December 2013 in Going Digital
I was wondering what everyones opinion is regarding Pono?


http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/3/4692320/neil-young-pono-music-service-hardware-2014-launch



Will it actually sound better than FLAC? I think ease of use will be a big consideration too.
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,647
    edited September 2013
    There's a few issues that I see.
    the goal with Pono was to deliver master-level songs to the masses who are used to buying what he has criticized as poorly-compressed MP3s.

    The "masses" don't care about sound quality.
    Despite the fact that a growing number of people listen to music store on smartphones nowadays — the Pono-sourced songs will playback on a triangularly shaped, proprietary music player

    The "masses" already have their smartphones and are not going to carry around another device.

    The "masses" are not going to pay for music they already have regardless if it sounds like dog poo.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

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  • headrott
    headrott Posts: 5,496
    edited September 2013
    F1nut wrote: »
    There's a few issues that I see.



    The "masses" don't care about sound quality.



    The "masses" already have their smartphones and are not going to carry around another device.

    The "masses" are not going to pay for music they already have regardless if it sounds like dog poo.

    Excellent points all around.
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  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 50,647
    edited September 2013
    Since Neil Young seems to be interested in hi-rez music he should release his entire catalog on SACD. At least the folks that buy SACD's are interested in hi-rez.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • tonyb
    tonyb Posts: 32,981
    edited September 2013
    Is it me, or has anyone noticed a complete lack of details about the device itself ?
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  • decal
    decal Posts: 3,205
    edited September 2013
    F1nut wrote: »
    Since Neil Young seems to be interested in hi-rez music he should release his entire catalog on SACD. At least the folks that buy SACD's are interested in hi-rez.

    Probably won't happen, he prefers DVDA to SACD. We may see some of those but it's hard to tell with Neil. finicky the way he is.
    If you can't hear a difference, don't waste your money.
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  • BlueFox
    BlueFox Posts: 15,251
    edited September 2013
    F1nut wrote: »
    Since Neil Young seems to be interested in hi-rez music he should release his entire catalog on SACD. At least the folks that buy SACD's are interested in hi-rez.

    Unfortunately, while Neil has the right idea on digital music, he has been all over the map in support of it. A few years ago, he announced that he was going to release his entire catalog on Blueray audio since that is the best audio platform available. However, after volume one this project has stalled.

    I suspect Pono will fail since the target audience will not buy a dedicated music player, and audiophiles just want high-res files at a reasonable price, and not another format requiring another source device.

    http://neilyoungarchives.warnerreprise.com/shop/vol1/
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  • Tornado Red
    Tornado Red Posts: 939
    edited September 2013
    F1nut wrote: »
    Since Neil Young seems to be interested in hi-rez music he should release his entire catalog on SACD. At least the folks that buy SACD's are interested in hi-rez.

    +1 But, it appears his target market is partially the youngins' who won't want or buy an SACD player either. If this is his target market, he'd better find a way to stick a virtual keyboard on that sucker so they can text. Even then, what are they going to listen through, a set of $25 ear buds? I do give him kudos though for how he thinks music is being offered and played back today, his answer just seems a little weak. But who knows, maybe we'll all be Ponoing our arses off in a few years....

    Just to add...has anybody heard his blu-ray le Noise? You owe it to yourself if you haven't and are a 2 channel fan. Only 30-40 mimutes long, just him and different guitars. The video portion is B&W and, umm, different...the sound however is in LPCM2.0 (192khz/24bit) and pretty impressive.
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  • cnh
    cnh Posts: 13,284
    edited September 2013
    All he had to do is get one of the Big Boy record Companies behind him, perhaps SONY! Need a major AD campaign pushed by a large electronics concern?

    PONO is a good idea, but I believe Jesse is right, in the end!

    cnh
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  • mccarty250
    mccarty250 Posts: 220
    edited December 2013
    I fear that if he buys onto one single format type then this is going to fail. For those of you interested in the PONO, the product that actually does what he is espousing already exists and is very reasonably priced in the Fiio X3. Integrated 192/24 DAC, supports flac playback etc., integrated headphone amp, expandable flash...I want one.
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