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Neil Young's Pono


Tarheel

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I only caught the last few minutes of the interview on CNBC but it seems Neil has a new music "device" that is high rez and is backed by some deep pocket investors such as Jimmy Tyson of Tyson foods. His device is called Pono and will stream music at 24 bit 192 kHz.

Anyone catch the whole interview?

Edited by Tarheel
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Young writes passionately in his recent autobiography of his lead in the development of and vision for PONO . . . great to see it came to fruition and gives us another choice . . . an expanded recording range, why many of us still play vinyl, but now in a digital choice beyond SACD . . . definitely a "disruptive technology."

Edited by Rhetor
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A lot of negative vibe from Digital Music News . . . already, after only two days in release.

http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2014/03/12/ponoworst

I am reserving judgment.

No surprisingly, the reviewer is concerned about the amount of files that it can hold and they essentially state that audio quality does not matter. Not exactly the target user of this device.

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I see all of this to be a very, very narrow market. Ask yourself how many people that you know are as passionate about Audio as you are. Then take away the people and friends you have met here or some sort of other audio gathering. I have three friends that I have known since High School (over 2.5 decades ago) that have decent Klipsch speakers and modest Electronics like myself. And yes, their ownership was influenced by my old setups growing up, so this even negates the probability of them looking for better audio having not being influenced by me. Would they consider to swap out a X-over and try a new one on their own...no. Would they consider taking time to update or re-wiring and old speaker searching for that last little bit thats probably not there....no. Do they ever complain about the quality of a 256K download..no. I guess Im the only freak in our small circle. Going further than that, a big portion of the people here balk at a $30 DVDA, Bluray audio or a $20 SACD. Now, everyone knows we can't afford to always buy lossless and the offering is not that great anyway. In time, I hope a lossless download is the norm, and I sure hope it gets here sooner than later. I applaud this push by Young as it will takes steps like this to get us there.

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I risked $300 to be an early adopter and support better digital audio.

I love my return to vinyl, but maintain that vinyl recordings sound good despite being vinyl, not because.

On the other hand, compressed digital recordings sound bad despite being digital, not because. Neil Young seems passionate about wringing the best sound out of a digital format. The promise of dynamic range without the ticks, pops, etc. of vinyl is compelling.

That said, This time I'll keep vinyl in the mix no matter what the future holds. Who said, "won't get fooled again."

Edited by DizRotus
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I have no idea what it would look like but I was hoping for a totally new music format.

Frankly something has to change soon as I am getting very disillusioned with current offerings. Compressed CDs or noisy vinyl....not much of a choice.

And yes I have tried listening beyond the ticks and pops to get to the music but sometimes that suggestion is like the judge instructing the jury to disregard the white horse.

What Diz said above "dynamic range w/o the ticks and pops of vinyl" and I would add a great recording of the master tape a la some of Mallette's preaching :)

So to be clear I would like for some thoughtful sound guys who care about their product to record some really wonderful musicians who care about their performance and for all of this to be transferred to a non compressed or modified medium that is free of noise and distractions. All for $12.99 a copy!

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LIsten to some Jazz CD's, which are not compressed. I'd be happy with just exploiting what CD's can do. 24/96 would be great too but didn't they try that (SACD)?

At least Neil Young is supportign the cause.

My mother asked me the other day if she should get some of those "little speakers she saw at RC Willies." I said no...

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