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 Posted: Wed, 12th Mar 2014 18:21 Post subject: Neil Young's PONO (PonoMusic/PonoPlayer) Kickstarter |
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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1003614822/ponomusic-where-your-soul-rediscovers-music
http://www.ponomusic.com/#home
| Quote: |
What is PonoMusic?
"Pono" is Hawaiian for righteous. What righteous means to our founder Neil Young is honoring the artist’s intention, and the soul of music. That’s why he’s been on a quest, for a few years now, to revive the magic that has been squeezed out of digital music. In the process of making music more convenient – easier to download, and more portable – we have sacrificed the emotional impact that only higher quality music can deliver. However, the world has changed in the last 10 years – technology has solved some of the underlying problems that forced that tradeoff. You no longer have to choose between quality and convenience when listening to music – you can have both. This is the fundamental idea behind PonoMusic.
More about the PonoPlayer...
The PonoPlayer is a purpose-built device, designed by world-renowned audio engineers, to do one thing and one thing exceedingly well - let you hear high quality PonoMusic as close to its original recorded resolution as possible, and therefore, the original musical experience.
Your PonoPlayer works in much the same way as most other portable music devices. The PonoMusic App (for Mac or Windows PC) provides you access to the PonoMusic.com Store, where you can browse, search, purchase and download high-resolution music to your computer. You then simply connect your PonoPlayer micro USB cable to your computer's USB port in order to sync your favorite music and playlists. Then you can enjoy your music on your PonoPlayer at the same quality level as the original recording. The touchscreen LCD allows for easy “swipe” navigation between songs, albums, artists, genres, and playlists. It also allows you to change the settings in the player to suit your personal taste.
The PonoPlayer has two output jacks. The first is a normal mini-stereo output specially designed for headphones and is meant for personal listening. The second is a stereo mini-plug analog output specifically designed for listening on your home audio system, in your car, or with your Sonos Connect – so you can share the PonoMusic experience with your friends and family.
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My missus is going nuts over this, she's a huge audiophile and has been wanting a high-end DAC for a while now - she has been eyeballing the new iRiver Astell&Kern AK100/120, both are ludicrously expensives €700/$1300 (€570/$800) players - but this new PONO seems to have really ticked all the boxes. Even product unheard (think sight unseen  ) she's considering jumping onto the Kickstarter for the $300 backer-lowered price.
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| Posted: Wed, 12th Mar 2014 18:33 Post subject: |
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| Posted: Wed, 12th Mar 2014 18:34 Post subject: |
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Argh I thought it said PornoPlayer. Now THAT would be something.
Anyway, who cares, anything can play music nowadays. Lossless music, too, even though it's retarded for headphone listening on the go.
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| Posted: Wed, 12th Mar 2014 18:35 Post subject: |
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| VGAdeadcafe wrote: | | Argh I thought it said PornoPlayer. Now THAT would be something. |
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| Posted: Wed, 12th Mar 2014 18:36 Post subject: |
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The biggest german tech magazine invited audiophiles (this happened 14 years ago) and setup professional equipment. The goal was to see if and by how much the audience would rate the difference between 128kbit/256kbit and uncompressed CD audio.
While almost all people could tell that the 128kbit was the worst, the 256kbit and uncompressed cd audio reached the exact same points.
I can see that this will have some very good audio but you'll have to spend the same amount of money for proper headsets, which imo are waaay to expensive. (like the mod you could apply to your sennheisers which made $200 ones to $350 ones with just a screwdriver )
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| Posted: Wed, 12th Mar 2014 18:39 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Aside from the aesthetic differences, the only physical difference was an additional piece of foam inside the cheaper HD555 headphones, blocking about 50% of the outside-facing vents. Since both the HD 555 and HD 595 are designed to be “open” headphones, reducing the vent with this foam would alter the frequency response slightly. So to save yourself $150, open your HD 555′s up and remove the foam. Done |
I still have to laugh at that I have 20€ sennheiser and I like how they sound better like the 10€ no name that my sis in law uses But then I also had the chance to use some 600€ dj headsets and to be honest, it just felt so off, as if there was constantly too much bass :/ |
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Saner
Posts: 6877
Location: Uk
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| Posted: Wed, 12th Mar 2014 18:48 Post subject: |
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| ragnarus wrote: |
I saw things like that in here and in other "woman problems" topics so...... Am I the only one that thinks some authorities needs to be alerted about Saner and him possibly being a rapist and/or kidnapper ? |
Saner is not being serious. Unless its the subject of Santa! |
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| Posted: Wed, 12th Mar 2014 18:51 Post subject: |
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Waargh
Posts: 6997
Location: hell on earth
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Morphineus
VIP Member
Posts: 24883
Location: Sweden
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| Posted: Wed, 12th Mar 2014 22:25 Post subject: |
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Blame my DJ days but I still go for Sennheiser stuff when it comes to headphones. Not too overly costly and great quality. Most other stuff just have too deep bass to being useful for Dj'ing.
Gotta say the Pornplayer is quite affordable compared to the others. And if it delivers the quality then fuck aesthetics for that price difference 
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Raccoon
Posts: 3160
Location: Poland
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| Posted: Thu, 13th Mar 2014 00:30 Post subject: |
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| Raccoon wrote: | | @sabin1981 I don't get it - so this thing is a portable player that aims for some really high quality audio output, right? With $399 price tag. |
A price tag significantly lower than other high-resolution audio players, yes.
| Quote: | | But to appreciate its quality, one would need at least something along the lines of AKG K550, or even more expensive AKG Q701 / Sennheiser HD600. These aren't very good for walking around with. |
You don't need the highest of the high end phones just to enjoy music, why would you think that? You just need decent ones, not some Goodmans 99p piece of shit from PoundLand You can get studio-quality Grados for less than £100 and they're outstanding. My S400s cost me £30 and they get RAVED about on Head-Fi.
| Quote: | | Unless you want to combine the PornoPlayer (sorry, don't get mad; I just can't help myself- this cannot be unseen ) with one of more expensive in-ear/airbuds stuff. |
I know it can't be unseen, it's a ridiculous name that immediately brings to mind... "alternatives" And yes, you can combine with expensive buds or even overhead cans, as above; not everything has to cost $300. I use my JVC S400s, my missus uses her Grado sr80is/sr125s and her Sennheisers. I don't know why they're supposedly so bad to walk around with.
| Quote: | | For some reason, I just can't connect the idea of portable audio with high quality audio in my mind. |
You mean you can't understand why people want high quality portable audio rather than the standard iPods? Really?  Why do you think iRiver are still in business? Of COURSE people want high quality audio with portability, that's why portable DAC players exist and that's why iRiver's Astell & Kern players are $700 and $1300 respectively. Even the non-DAC iRiver/iAudio players are incredibly high end and expensive, because people want quality that you just can't get from standard players -- and this is coming from someone that had a classic and a touch iPod. I wouldn't go back to those again, not after going back to my Creative Zen, which was $300 when it launched
Don't get me wrong, you say "don't get mad" as if I'm part of all this; I'm not. I couldn't care less if this fails as it's too much of a niche product for me and far outside my comfort zone for prices even if I WANTED it. I'm happy with my Zen. I just posted this because I know (or thought....) there were audiophiles on the boards that wanted high quality stuff but weren't exactly willing to pay iRiver-style prices  My missus is likely going to get this and I'll see for myself whether it was worth it or not, but please don't think I'm defending this - I'm just calling out the pointless mocking. If you can't see (hear?) the difference between the audio quality on an Android phone (my Xperia Ion and wife's Xperia Z  ) then this obviously isn't for you, because a mobile phone simply isn't going to sound as good - regardless of format - as a dedicated player.
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Raccoon
Posts: 3160
Location: Poland
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| Posted: Thu, 13th Mar 2014 03:17 Post subject: |
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@sabin1981 I'll reply to your post tomorrow. I'm just too tired and sleepy right now. Stay tuned.
=============
If you guys were ever wondering what all the fuss with this high resolution music is about, here's something for you. I definitely recommend trying this out because you'll be surprised how nice it actually sounds, especially when there's some high quality audio hardware at your disposal.
Direct Stream Digital is a format of digital audio compression, created by (as usually) Sony and Philips, which works completely different than commonly used PCM standard; therefore we'll need some "tricks" to get it working.
Here's the explanation for foobar2000:
What you need is basically a plug-in (component) called DSDIFF Decoder. So download it and place 'foo_input_dsdiff.dll' inside Foobar's Components folder.
Now set up your sound card to maximum sample rate possible, either via drivers or Windows - it doesn't matter.
Open Foobar -> File -> Preferences -> Input -> DSDDIFF Decoder and set 'Maximum Sample Rate' to match that of your soundcard's.
Let's start with DSD 64. Go here: http://www.highdeftapetransfers.com/page.php?wid=27. Some free samples are available for download. I like "Shostakovich Cello Sonata".
Providing you've set everything up properly, DFF files should now be perfectly playable in Foobar.
Sounds nice, eh? Let's move to the real deal, though. DSD 128.
Visit http://www.2l.no/hires/index.html for really good stuff. I recommend getting "Vivaldi: Recitative and Aria from Cantata RV 679, "Che giova il sospirar, povero core" Tone Wik & Barokkanerne (period instruments)".
Helpful reminder:
At around 20 seconds in, I bet you probably started enjoying classical music; even if you weren't a fan before.
Now going back to regular 16 bit / 44.1 kHz FLACs might seem painful, let alone YouTube's streaming music... Don't blame me.
"Anatidaephobia is the fear that somewhere in the world there is a duck watching you."
Fuck Polish government for oppressing women!
"People are such awful conversationalists that they’ll interrupt you when you’re answering a question they asked."
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| Posted: Thu, 13th Mar 2014 05:13 Post subject: |
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whats so gamebreaking about this? every phone plays FLAC files ( original quality , not just "high resolution" ) and has cheap expandable SD memory going 64GB+.
add higher quality DAC to phone and get yourself better set of earplugs and... yeah
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| Posted: Thu, 13th Mar 2014 05:17 Post subject: I have left. |
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Waargh
Posts: 6997
Location: hell on earth
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| Posted: Thu, 13th Mar 2014 09:20 Post subject: |
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| Shoshomiga wrote: | | ITT: Placebo |
This.
Honestly you can't hear the diff on portable audio. At home with some bigass headset probably, but on the go... I've listened to my friend's Kenwood high-end portable player + some uber headphones while on the street and in subway and it just didn't impress me. Same thing at home - and I felt the difference.
Today I didn't even need to use my AK. I gotta say it was a good day. (c) - Ice Cube
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| Posted: Thu, 13th Mar 2014 11:29 Post subject: |
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ITT: I can't hear any difference = there is not a difference
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Waargh
Posts: 6997
Location: hell on earth
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| Posted: Thu, 13th Mar 2014 14:26 Post subject: |
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| PumpAction wrote: | | ITT: I can't hear any difference = there is not a difference |
Yes, exactly. Nominal difference = there's no difference. And illusions (placebo) of a difference doesn't mean there is one. The human mind has funny ways of making us believe we hear and see something.
Anyway, when commuting with portable headphones (even awesome and expensive ones) it doesn't matter what you listen your FLACs on. There are some devices that sound exceptionally bad but most do fairly well or even great for a portable solution.
I just don't understand the need to waste $1-$2k on something you won't notice. I'm totally fine with wasting 10 times as much on home audio.
Today I didn't even need to use my AK. I gotta say it was a good day. (c) - Ice Cube
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| Posted: Thu, 13th Mar 2014 14:44 Post subject: |
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| Waargh wrote: | | PumpAction wrote: | | ITT: I can't hear any difference = there is not a difference |
Yes, exactly. Nominal difference = there's no difference. And illusions (placebo) of a difference doesn't mean there is one. The human mind has funny ways of making us believe we hear and see something.
Anyway, when commuting with portable headphones (even awesome and expensive ones) it doesn't matter what you listen your FLACs on. There are some devices that sound exceptionally bad but most do fairly well or even great for a portable solution.
I just don't understand the need to waste $1-$2k on something you won't notice. I'm totally fine with wasting 10 times as much on home audio. |
Hope that I was able to help you in understanding what this thread is about
*legend: red is where personal opinions are projected as general opinions* |
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Waargh
Posts: 6997
Location: hell on earth
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RatKing
Posts: 1212
Location: Nondescript cave in the land of the polar bears, Finland
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| Posted: Thu, 13th Mar 2014 14:53 Post subject: |
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| VGAdeadcafe wrote: | | PornoPlayer |
First thought.
I can understand why people would be interested in this. Don't believe it makes that much difference compared to the price range. |
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Definitely has a very unfortunate name 
