[Bas72]

I used to buy a lot of music at Qobuz (a French company) and a lot of albums would not be available for me in The Netherlands. In some aspects, the music industry is still deep in the middle ages.

 

[Kokomo O]

PalJoey, I was just in Costco, and noticed they're selling 1TB drives for $70. Can't beat that.

 

[flatmap]

 
Take those 24/192 files in your computer, downgrade them to 24/96, 16/44.1 and 320kbps mp3. Then compare all those 4 files in blind test, make AB comparisons.
 
That's the only way you can find the truth. Don't forget to use a high resolution c/iem and/or headphone with nice source+amplification.

Also, not least, you'll want your DAC to be capable of rendering the 24/192 and 24/96.  
 
Purely my view, but in looking for differences, I like to identify, a priori, some of the characteristics of the music that are important to me. Sometimes it's texture of the bass, how the musical bridge seems to lift off into it's own space, speed of attacks, note shape... or whatever.  I find it's easier to keep my mind on these 'directed listening tasks' -- and also more fun.

 

[szeiger]

  I used to buy a lot of music at Qobuz (a French company) and a lot of albums would not be available for me in The Netherlands. In some aspects, the music industry is still deep in the middle ages.

 
I usually buy from highresaudio.com. I've also used Qobuz which sometimes has lower prices but more restrictive licensing (i.e. for highresaudio it seems to be enough that I registered my account in Germany and have a German credit card but at Qobuz I still may not be able to buy something when I'm not also on a German network)

 

[Bas72]

I asked Qobuz to register me as a citizen of France. That helped, I can now buy everything I want. Still, it's weird that we have to resort to such measures.

 

[wnmnkh]

It seems Ponomusic has sold all of the first batch of production units (October) and selling second batch now (December). It seems a lot of people want the player.

 

[Mimouille]

I asked Qobuz to register me as a citizen of France. That helped, I can now buy everything I want. Still, it's weird that we have to resort to such measures.

I just use a VPN and buy anything I want on Qobuz.

 

[Bas72]

I just use a VPN and buy anything I want on Qobuz.

That's what I did, but I don't have to anymore. In addition: who knows what data is sniffed by the proxy? This is safer.

 

[Koukol]

  It seems Ponomusic has sold all of the first batch of production units (October) and selling second batch now (December). It seems a lot of people want the player.

So the first Editions are gone?
 
DAMN!

 

[shockdoc]

  It seems Ponomusic has sold all of the first batch of production units (October) and selling second batch now (December). It seems a lot of people want the player.

Interesting. Can't wait for the first reviews here on Head Fi. Hopefully we'll get some useful feedback including some blind A/B tests with the same files played with the same cans on different hi-res players. Still not a huge fan of the shape/size so I'll wait for definitive proof that the sound is at least on par or superior to what we have available already.

 

[AirForceTeacher]

Ok, just out of curiosity, how much of an audiophile do you need to be to jump up to stuff like this.  I primarily use my iPhone 5 through Klipsch x10 IEMs to listen to music.  Music I really want to listen to I buy the CD and rip it at 320kbps, because when I A-B'd 320kbps with the original CD (Clapton's CLAPTON over optical from my Macbook to a Yamaha recevier and USHER speakers) I couldn't hear a single difference. I can most definitely tell the difference between 128 and 320.   I asked on here and the consensus was that most people couldn't tell the difference.  Other than the likelihood of this driving new mastering of old content and better mastering of new, what does something like the Pono bring to the average almost-audiphile?

 

[Koukol]

Does anyone know how the DAC in th Pono compares to the DAC in the Fiio X3.
 
This should be what separates the two, no?

 

[fenderf4i]

  Does anyone know how the DAC in th Pono compares to the DAC in the Fiio X3.
 
This should be what separates the two, no?

 
 
 
The difference I think will be when you have Ayre's digital filter turned on.

 

[a_recording]

  Ok, just out of curiosity, how much of an audiophile do you need to be to jump up to stuff like this.  I primarily use my iPhone 5 through Klipsch x10 IEMs to listen to music.  Music I really want to listen to I buy the CD and rip it at 320kbps, because when I A-B'd 320kbps with the original CD (Clapton's CLAPTON over optical from my Macbook to a Yamaha recevier and USHER speakers) I couldn't hear a single difference. I can most definitely tell the difference between 128 and 320.   I asked on here and the consensus was that most people couldn't tell the difference.  Other than the likelihood of this driving new mastering of old content and better mastering of new, what does something like the Pono bring to the average almost-audiphile?

 
You should try AAC at 128 or 160, you might be even more surprised! XD

 

[Llloyd]

I'd like to see support for the idea that anyone can actually hear the difference between high resolution and 16/44. High resolution is great in the studio while doing signal processing and the like, but I've not seen any convincing evidence that anyone can actually hear the difference once it has been decimated to 16/44.

se

 
thanks for saying this. there's a fundamental thing people don't understand about the different bitrates and why they are used.  It's been pointed out a number of times by very well spoken, intelligent, well educated people who know much more than most of us about this sort of thing.
 
It's really a shame to see a lot of these artists (in the pono kickstarter video) endorse better sound quality when their own albums are brickwalled.