Years ago (1970s) I was always looking for perfection in audio. I went though amplifiers and speakers for a few years, until the deeper truth became apparent. No sound reproduction system, even those I heard in high-end stereo stores, ever came close to live music. I've done enough recording and...

Vamp898 said "Sorry for the rant but somehow this Hobby is turning more and more from "Listening to see what sound well" to "What does meet the personal taste of this single YouTuber"." This is an interesting comment to me because the only way I know of to find out if I like the sound of...

I turned 70 this year. I've been experimenting and playing with audio for over 60 of those years; we had a Voice of Music tube tape recorder that sparked many of the experiments. How does this work? What are its capabilities? I have continued to do live recording ever since, most recently with a...

Thank you for the responses. Following Pono Player practices, I simply formatted the cards in the DMP-Z1, then transferred music without opening the card on the computer. Last night, troubleshooting, I opened a card to make sure the music files were there, and noticed the MUSIC folder. I...

I understand that I'd get nearly unlimited choices in streaming music. Something in me resists doing it, even from CD-quality sources. Maybe I'm just too cheap... Is there a secret to getting the DMP to read from a micro-SD card? I've formatted cards on the DMP, then copied files to the card...

I haven't moved into the Streaming Age, other than to sample music on Youtube. I buy CDs, buy albums to download from Hyperion and Bandcamp and Artistshare. That all resides on a 2 TB RAID-1 SSD system, directly attached. I've compared 16-bit, 44.1kHz files to 24-bit, 96kHz files, some recorded...

I don't remember when I first heard of the DMP-Z1. Beautiful, I thought, and capable, but why replace the computer? Be nice if I could justify it. Move forward a few years. There are times I don't want to start the computer. A portable player would do the job. My Pono Player had become gummy...

I was very pleased with my Denon headphones (AH-D2000, I believe) for 10 years of regular use. I used them for music and recording monitors. I had many hours on them, and then they broke. Just stopped working. I looked for replacements from Denon, but ended up with Audeze. I use things until...

I've had my LCD-4 for a few years now. I look around at new products mainly for curiosity, and to see how technology progresses. I'm as pleased with the sound of the LCD-4 as I was at the start. I am tempted by the LCD-5 due to its lighter weight, but feel no great need to change. My only...

A few weeks ago, the Denon AH-D7000 that I bought about 10 years ago quit working. They'd been well used, and if I could have found a new pair just like them I'd have bought it. For a time I thought I could live without headphones. I have speakers now, which I didn't have 10 years ago. After a...

I don't agree. I bought this device to play music without interruptions. There's an implied contract with the maker that the device will do its job reliably, and "stuttering" incidents destroy the flow of any piece of music in which they occur. To me this isn't acceptable. It's too late for me...

Last night I was listening to music with the Pono Player, when it became silent for a second. The music came back. The track is known to be good, both on the Pono when listening earlier and in the main library.   This is the third time I've had an anomaly with the player, in a total of about...

1. To get what you want, yes. I also have been disappointed by the selection available on download sites, such as HDTracks, Pono and others. I find the best selection at Amazon.   2. EAC is an accurate ripper of CDs, which are 16-bit, 44.1kHz. It extracts the files as accurately as it can, and...

Sao Paulo Symphony Orch, John Neschling: "Complete Choros and Bachianas Brasileiras of Heitor Villa-Lobos" (7 CDs) Various artists: "Mongolia: traditional music" (Smithsonian Folkways/UNESCO) Various artists: "Instrumental Music of the Uighurs" (King Records) Various artists: "Uzbekistan...

I've had one incident, when the Pono was playing a known-good track and stuttered for a couple of seconds, as if it were going back and repeating part of the track. The track was from a Hyperion download I'd copied to the Pono's MicroSD card. Later, the track played without problems so I'm...