The Open Pandora: An ultimate portable player? - Page 3

Shame the poll doesnt have the response "hell no - this looks like an absolute joke" available!

I remember SqueezeBox, many are funs of Burr-Brown chip. The default operation system for this Open Pandora box is a version of Linux, does it mean playing 24/96 music files is possible? Can someone please tell me, why do you think this one can't sound good? As to size, some brick size players are praised highly in Head-fi, so size of this box shouldn't be a problem.

takato14

 

how on earth can you talk so highly about something when you don't even have it?

+1 

No offence, but I think any Android based DAP in the market would be better choice than this device. For such small device without touch screen and/or hardware shortcut keys (play/stop/forward/backward etc) will just mean non-usable as portable DAP....

 

Actually, on their own web site, this device is advertised as a gaming console to play some classic PC/console games. That maybe a better usage for this device. Sometimes, even on Android, it will be really hard to play those classic games without a real keyboard as those games are not originally designed for touch control.... 

I think it's important to keep in perspective what the Pandora is all about. It's a 100 % community-developed retro-/homebrew gaming device that just so happens to be so feature-ladden that it's basically a general-purpose mini PC. But gaming and game development are at the heart of it.

I will eventually get one, mainly for Amiga/N64 gaming on the go, but also because it is such an awesome project that it deserves any support it can get. A few guys who met on a retrogaming online forum, decided to build their own handheld gaming device for crying out loud. Yes, it might not be absolutely up-to-date specs-wise, yes, build quality isn't absolutely top-notch, but if you read up on the history and development of the Pandora and the many, many problems they had to overcome, you'll understand what the Pandora is and why it's an utterly amazing project.

Disclaimer: I'm just a fanboi, I'm not in any way directly associated with the Pandora.

Oh, and audio-wise, it might be able to support any DAC with Linux-support, which could make a nice transportable setup.

It does have a touch screen, also many other controls, such as:

 

It's definitely usable as a portable DAP; I use it as such.

 

   case closed:

      two shoulder buttons - prev / next track

      input lock - prevents accidentally changing the track

      suspend - stops the music

      analog volume knob

 

   case open:

      touch screen - for whatever

      D-pad - could do prev / next and seek within a track

      keyboard - find a track by typing part of it's name

 

It's not optimised as a portable music player, but I find it's very good (not ideal) for the purpose.  The main down-point as an audio player, is that it's quite large for a pocket device.

 

Given that most of the time I'm enjoying the music, not fiddling about changing tracks, and that audio quality is very good, it works very well.

 

One advantage with an open device, there are very many good audio and video player apps available, so it could play any audio or video format, and do many other such as video cropping, audio equalisers, filters and effects, you can even compose your own music on it, record music, code your own alarm clock, it has TV-out, etc.

 

Honestly, I would not buy Pandora if I only wanted an audio player, and nothing else that it can do.  But given that I am interested in other things such as gaming, programming, using internet, reading e-books, editing documents and spread-sheets, etc., it's a great little pocket computer.  I don't think you will many laptops or computers with better audio than this little pocket device.

 

So, we fanboys were just kindly letting you know about this pocket computer that also happens to have great audio; much better than a Mac Book, iPod, iPhone; and comparable to just about any high-end portable player.  None of us has a commercial interest in the Open Pandora company, we're just keen (yes, maybe too keen!).

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/19891088.jpg

 

Anyway im out, ill admit i was interested in this years ago but considering i could just buy most of the consoles for next to nothing and use them properly or use emulators etc on my pc.  For on the go gaming i think our phones cover us lol.

 

As for audio your all making a lot of claims about how great the audio is due to parts (you can have good parts and crap sound) etc but at the end of the day no respected reviewer will likley touch it, so I take claims such as "just about any high end portable player" very very lightly.  

 

Good luck with the purchase though, I do hope you get what you want out of it.
 

This thread is one of the most ridiculous I've come across in recent months. 

 

Pocket computer?

 

A high end portable audiophile player?

 

 

Take a step into the modern world and take a look at what's out there. Get real guys. 

 

Reality and reasonability are not topics that can be connected to this forum so easily. The Open Pandora is not to be sold to people who expect something trimmed and smooth like an iPod touch, which in fact is better in almost all sections but sound quality. AND this is the reason why the Pandora is discussed here. The Pandora is an 99% engineers product, there is no marketing team or cost management team behind it... I assume.