SWL Posted April 23, 2017 Share Posted April 23, 2017 http://www.theverge.com/2017/4/22/15394224/neil-young-high-quality-streaming-music-service-xstream-pono Sent from my SM-G920R4 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnA Posted April 23, 2017 Share Posted April 23, 2017 At $400, I *might* buy a Pono, but only if I could buy the music, or copy my CDs and DVD-As to it. Streaming with iffy connections, or none at all on my bike in West TX? Monthly fees? Nope! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted April 23, 2017 Share Posted April 23, 2017 I think I will stick with Astell&Kern... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DizRotus Posted April 23, 2017 Share Posted April 23, 2017 I was a Kickstarter supporter of Pono. I use mine almost daily. Yesterday I used it to feed a playlist for 50th high school reunions to my DIY boombox. It saved me on the 16 hour flights to and from China. The ESS ES9018K2M 32-bit Sabre reference DAC is worth the purchase price. It plays high resolution files, whether from Pono, HDTracks, etc, as well as files ripped to FLAC files from CDs, vinyl, etc. Even Mp3 files sound better when played via Pono using the JRiver platform. That said, Neil Young and Pono dropped the ball. Too much emphasis was placed on "portable" which opened it to criticism for its "Toblerone" shape. To me, when portability is at a premium, I'll use my phone. I would never strap a Pono player to my arm for a jog. To me, the player is portable in the sense that I can take it, and the vast music library stored on swappable Micro-SD cards -- each the size of a fingernail -- with me wherever I go. My biggest criticism is the lack of a remote control feature. Another benefit to me is the Pono player's balanced outputs into balanced headphones or into my gmarsh "Wiener" TPA3118 chip amp. I like mine so much I'm seriously considering buying another as a backup. There is NOTHING available for the $300 I paid for my new Pono player that can touch it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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