[innocentblood]

 Hi I am looking forward to getting my sig edition Metallica Pono player today from UPS.

 
i'm really interested in finding out what 2 albums the Metallica Pono comes pre-loaded with. i agree with you that i'm not excited about the hardware - its the awesome potential of the pono music store that really gets me dizzy with anticipation. when you get it, it would be great if you can comment on the quality of the music and if they are indeed hi-res files. thank you very much in advance

 

[MisterMoJo]

   
i'm really interested in finding out what 2 albums the Metallica Pono comes pre-loaded with. i agree with you that i'm not excited about the hardware - its the awesome potential of the pono music store that really gets me dizzy with anticipation. when you get it, it would be great if you can comment on the quality of the music and if they are indeed hi-res files. thank you very much in advance

Hi innocentblood, I am listening to one of the albums right now coincidentally.  It is Death Magnetic (I know....) and it is 88.2/24.  Or at least that is what it says on the folder.  The other one is The Black Album at 96/24.  A little disappointing for me since I have the DVD-Audio of the Black Album which sounds identical to my ears.  At least this version has no compression, though.  SQ on the Black Album is good, not spectacular, but I like it.  It was mixed and mastered well, so it comes off pretty well.  Death Magnetic sounds a little compressed, as you would expect.  It is interesting, the song titles all say for example: The Unforgiven III_UnMastered-3.flac.  Why it says "UnMastered" in every title is anyone's guess.  It sounds like I remember the original CD sounding.  Maybe slightly better.  But the dynamics leave a lot to be desired.  It sounds kind of thin to my ears.  Did you get one of the Metallica Pono Players?  I like the player.  It sounds good to me and I am glad I got it.
 
PS- Welcome to Head-fi!

 

[innocentblood]

  Hi innocentblood, I am listening to one of the albums right now coincidentally.  It is Death Magnetic (I know....) and it is 88.2/24.  Or at least that is what it says on the folder.  The other one is The Black Album at 96/24.  A little disappointing for me since I have the DVD-Audio of the Black Album which sounds identical to my ears.  At least this version has no compression, though.  SQ on the Black Album is good, not spectacular, but I like it.  It was mixed and mastered well, so it comes off pretty well.  Death Magnetic sounds a little compressed, as you would expect.  It is interesting, the song titles all say for example: The Unforgiven III_UnMastered-3.flac.  Why it says "UnMastered" in every title is anyone's guess.  It sounds like I remember the original CD sounding.  Maybe slightly better.  But the dynamics leave a lot to be desired.  It sounds kind of thin to my ears.  Did you get one of the Metallica Pono Players?  I like the player.  It sounds good to me and I am glad I got it.
 
PS- Welcome to Head-fi!

thank you so much for your reply. i did not get the player. in fact when i found out about it, it was already long gone but what i am really looking fwd to though is the kind of music that will be available on the music store. i think the pono music store - if it does deliver on its promise - will have a significant advantage over HDTracks. i'm kinda disappointed to hear that Death Magnetic has no significant improvement than what we have available currently - i guess i will stick to the GHIII version of Death Magnetic for now. i already have the Black Album on DVD-A so that one is redundant to me currently also. 
 
enjoy your new toy & thanks once again for welcoming me here

 

[flatmap]

I've had my PonoPlayer for about a week.  I've used it most with my Sennheiser HD 650s and Etymotic HF5s.  
Have also spent a couple of evenings taking the audio line out into my main system.  Also for the Sennheisers, I'm
using both single ended and balanced operation.  I have a couple of other headphones that I'll pair up later,
but for this first week the HD 650's gives the pairing that I most enjoy.
 
I can't begin to give the nice comparisons that others have contributed here, but here's my summary.  I am very
pleased that this can give good voice to the HD650 without further amping.  The full range of sound
is nice with lots of detail and character in the bass and the highs are sweet & enjoyable.  I listen quite a lot to operas,
cantatas, and that ilk.  The voices come through very nicely but not overly lit.  So its a good midrange sound,
but don't expect that otherworldly single ended triode midrange.  Mids are just nicely balanced with the rest
of the gamut.  There is enough definition of vocals where you can appreciate the nice tonal interactions in duets,
but also get the whole gestalt of the singers + orchestras... absolutely without effort. 
 
Going balanced gives you a bit more (apparent) power and more precision/detail.  But single ended is very good and musical.
 
I don't have the fancy stuff to compare (like the AKs and high end FiiO and Sony DAPs).  However, anyone living
on a staple of to iPods/iPhones and similar won't feel any need for those anymore.  IMO. My iPods just sound tired
in comparison. And the PonoPlayer easily outshines my MBP+Dragonfly -- even using the nice aftermarket software players.  
 
Unless you're coming from the really high priced spread already (and I know a lot of you are!), I expect you
will like this player quite a lot.  Sorry I haven't spent so much time with rock, jazz and so forth.  That will come
later.  I'm most critical of sound when listening to classical recordings -- and that's the genre I most love -- so I wanted to hit
that first.
 
 P.S.  I was a bit worried about the UI, coming as I was, from the iPod/iPhone experience.  Yeah it is not as good as these
modern smart phones, but also no big problems.  I was using it intuitively, clicking the buttons while it was in my pocket
by the end of the first day. Very happy that the touch screen works fine and is sufficient resolution and it is not a
struggle in any way.  Software is still in Beta, but this is basically the JRiver platform and once I come up the learning
curve I think it will be very nice to have.  Currently, I'm using it mostly to build and synchronize playlists.  You can
also just drag and drop to the USB-mounted player and SDCard.  I expect more firmware updates are going to be needed;
sometimes you have to try multiple times to get it to mount.  
 

 

[inoace]

There comes my pono player and I like it!

Others have written about its form factor, package and so on, I want to limit my first impressions to my experience of sound quality, build quality and handling.
 
I use various, rather good headphones and normally stream 320 kps mp3 in the smartphone which is a level that satisfies me. With 128k files, I virtually do not sense anything and the music stays distant and I doubt that I would prefer any quality above CD level (so far). The pono player suited me to serve as a dedicated music device and it seems to be an excellent choice.
The build quality is good and according to its price class, but not premium I'd say. The player has a rather simple screen with low viewing angles (I am used to an amoled screen), but it works.
I actually like that the player tries not to be visual at all, but just sound. With the simple buttons you can push inside your pocket one should be fine. Navigation works fine.
 
The sound? The included tracks (Herbie Hancock) sounded nice on studio and DJ headphones, but did not tell me so much so I loaded the player with some flac encoded songs I know well (classical, jazz, electronic). It was fairly simple to load the player. I can really say I have not heard these songs like I hear them now, complete excitement! The pono is the first mobile device I have seen that easily drives all my headphones, including the AKG K701 which is surprising. Amazing sound, really.
The gaps between tracks are quite small, but I hope they can achieve gapless playback with an update as promised.
 
About pono so far, they focused on right things first, kept the deadline better than expected and I hope will keep up this excellent spirit. Hope the player does not break as I use it in Europe.
 
Up with the whole ripped CD collection to this fellow,
inoace

 

[The Auricle]

They may have "kept the deadline better than expected" for those lucky few who have received their players. The most recent numbers I saw have only about 1/3 of the Neil Young solo LE players shipped. Many of the other artist editions haven't even started production yet. Most of them were targeting an October delivery. Of the thousands of pledges for non-artist players, a few yellow players are starting to be delivered, but no word on the black ones.
 
I value and appreciate everybody's personal perception of the sound quality and experience with the UI and software, but any assertions that they met their deadlines are suspect until all of the promised players have been delivered.

 

[oneway23]

  They may have "kept the deadline better than expected" for those lucky few who have received their players. The most recent numbers I saw have only about 1/3 of the Neil Young solo LE players shipped. Many of the other artist editions haven't even started production yet. Most of them were targeting an October delivery. Of the thousands of pledges for non-artist players, a few yellow players are starting to be delivered, but no word on the black ones.
 
I value and appreciate everybody's personal perception of the sound quality and experience with the UI and software, but any assertions that they met their deadlines are suspect until all of the promised players have been delivered.

 
I empathize with the position you are in as far as waiting for a player, but I think people need to familiarize themselves with exactly what Kickstarter actually is.  
We're talking a delay on certain Ponos of a matter of weeks, here.  Missing a deadline seems to be the norm on KS, and is certainly not exclusive to Pono.
I'm impressed that they've delivered as many so close to the promised deadline as they have.  I was certain the KS rewards would be slipping into Q1 2015, as so many sites seemed to report.

 

[inoace]

  [..] lucky few who have received their players. The most recent numbers I saw have only about 1/3 of the Neil Young solo LE players shipped. Many of the other artist editions haven't even started production yet. Most of them were targeting an October delivery. [..]

 
Oh, I was not aware of that, is that really the first batch tergeted on October? Is this really as you say and are you waiting for your player? A lot of people are very impatient and tend to exagerrate about this I guess.

 

[Ableza]

I received my CSN&Y signed LE player on Nov. 7.

 

[Sam Edwards]

Still waiting on Patti Smith LE player. Not a big deal but I would rather have it...

 

[audiofrk]

no red hot chilli pepers versions have hit california either

 

[jwbrent]

Quote:
 

  Much talk of Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden as an example. Was laid down in 16/44.1 (maybe 48?) as I recall so all of the SACD/DVDa recording are no better. All I want is a straight dump of the master tapes, with no 'making it better' involved.

 
I love this album and am sorry to hear there won't be a hi res version. I did buy Colour of Spring from HDtracks as a 24/96 FLAC file and I'm happy with my purchase.
 
I'm wondering if the hi res files from the Pono store are going to be the same as what's available from the other hi res outlets ... I would think so. I haven't seen Deja Vu on the other sites, though.
 
How much are 24/96 and 24/192 albums selling for on the Pono store?

 

[The Auricle]

   
Oh, I was not aware of that, is that really the first batch tergeted on October? Is this really as you say and are you waiting for your player? A lot of people are very impatient and tend to exagerrate about this I guess.

Yes, I am waiting for my Neil Young solo LE player. I pledged in the first day. The NY LE sold out in hours, IIRC. I actually know somebody who pledged after I did and received their NY (with a number in the high 400's) a couple of weeks ago. I've even seen it in person. A Pono staff member said two weeks ago that 157 NY LE players had been shipped or delivered, and the remainder would be shipped in 7 to 10 days (which came and went).
 
If anybody is exaggerating, it's Pono. I guess I've just seen way too many posts on several web sites with the same Pono talking point about being only a few weeks late on making their deadline. They haven't finished the job yet, so we can't say how many weeks they missed by.
 
But I really do resent the implication that I'm just being impatient. A more accurate statement would be that a lot of people are extremely frustrated with the miscommunication and lack of communication on what amounts to at least several million dollars worth of product. Insulting those people will only turn the frustration into anger, and I don't think that would be good for Pono or any other start-up company that places themselves in the same boat.

 

[inoace]

For my Ponomusic PonoPlayer Impression which was the topic, they delivered and I am satisfied with what I received and that had not changed so much if I had received it around christmas.

 

[Errico]

I just received my yellow Pono player yesterday.
The first impression is: good sound, expecially the flac files I ripped from cd.
I don't think the Neil Young track from the "Harvest" album, included in the Pono, sounds particularly good.
I am not that happy with touch screen and UI, coming from iPhone and iPod experience, the Pono UI is barely usable.
I didn't use any software to download music, I just inserted a uSD that I use with my Sansa Clip+. I don't think I will never use any software to download music, one of the reason I backed Pono is to get rid of iTunes.
I am happy with Pono sound and the device is nice, it's light and even if the form factor can seem odd, I like it, it's not extremely portable but it' s good.
In my opinion they have to improve the UI