[doctorjazz]

That's really interesting...I've been using JRiver since Pono app went away. Have been using a balanced Westone W40 (Trinity balanced cable) for the longest time, really nice combo, but I just got the Cardas A6 with a Pono balanced cable from them, trying it out, so far, so good (have to still play a bit with tips, and I don't think it's burned in yet). Anyway, enjoy!

Just listened to my Pono Player for the first time in a very long while, and it sounded incredible. Much better than my desktop gear. Music: Jazz at the Pawnshop. IEMs: Westone UM Pro30 IEMs. Absolutely fantastic. 


As most of you here know, Pono has released a new desktop app, Pono Music Vault. Many of us are testing the beta releases. It needs a lot of bugfixes and features, but IMHO it's a far better idea for Pono than the now-expired Pono Music World by JRiver. Many users will never need more than PMV, but for those that do there are a wide range of established choices, including the full JRiver and the free MusicBee among many others. 


Neil Young has also announced that streaming is coming, and has put his own music back on all the streaming services. What will it be? 44.1 FLAC? MQA? Nobody outside of Pono knows. Meanwhile the Pono store is still offline, but to be honest both the store and the client were such a mess that I only purchased a few albums there before heading back to HDtracks a long time ago. Hope they get it right this time. 

 

[daniel_hokkaido]

Hey all 
 
I have having trouble fully erazing an sd card on my mac. Even when I use disk utility and do a secure 2 pass eraze when i put it back in the pono it still shows old meta data even though the card is empty. Then when I check it again on my mac it is full again. when mounted it has a small question mark icon beside it I noticed. Anyone else run into this issue before? 
 
Dan 

 

[Rdwng1975]

What would be a decent starter balanced cable for the Pono and hd600. Not looking to spend over $100.

 

[L8MDL]

What would be a decent starter balanced cable for the Pono and hd600. Not looking to spend over $100.

SurfCable. Been using one for over a year with no problems. I got the heavier version (20awg) but would recommend the lighter version (24awg) if I were buying again. 24awg is just too stiff, imo. I use 20awg on my HiFiMan 400s phones and they work fine.

https://www.surfcables.com/products/sennheiser-headphone-cables?variant=1319757955

 

[barondla]

Rdwng1975, if you solder it is simple to convert your current cable to balanced operation. The grounds are seperate all the way down to the connector. The wires are enamaled and are easier to solder with a solder pot.

 

[Rdwng1975]

Is anyone out there using the HD600 in balanced mode with the Pono? If so how does the sound change vs single ended? I purchased the hd600's out of curiosity and had never heard them. What a difference from my HP50's! Brighter, less low end but the open can presentation feels so much bigger. They are also a lot more comfortable for me that the HP50's.

 

[Happy Hamlet]

Is anyone out there using the HD600 in balanced mode with the Pono? If so how does the sound change vs single ended? I purchased the hd600's out of curiosity and had never heard them. What a difference from my HP50's! Brighter, less low end but the open can presentation feels so much bigger. They are also a lot more comfortable for me that the HP50's.

 
I have the HD580, which is the predecessor of the HD600. Balanced mode on the Pono makes a big difference with these cans, the headphone really comes alive. I use the 'cheap' cable from custom cans.

 

[oneway23]

Is anyone out there using the HD600 in balanced mode with the Pono? If so how does the sound change vs single ended? I purchased the hd600's out of curiosity and had never heard them. What a difference from my HP50's! Brighter, less low end but the open can presentation feels so much bigger. They are also a lot more comfortable for me that the HP50's.

 
Been using my HD600s with a Pono for a couple of years now with Venus Audio cables.  Fantastic combo!

 

[doctorjazz]

Liking the Cardas A8 balanced out of Pono (Cardas makes a balanced Pono cable for it...i went to their table at CanJam NY, they were selling the A8 at a discount, I believe they're updating it, and they threw in the cable free). Was using Westone W40 balanced with Trinity cable before, have to compare them one of these days.

 

[CarstenF]

Hi,

I'm new to Pono, just bought a used Limited Edition version from someone. In Europe, the Pono Player is not available new. I think the company needs a marketing / sales professional because the website can only be used to buy T Shirts...

I'm impressed by the sound even unbalanced. Very good sound stage, good bass, relatively natural sounding presentation. Overall I like it better than my IBasso DX90 (dual Sabre 9018M) and my Chord Mojo. Ordered a balanced cable from an EBay Seller. (To 4 pin XLR).

I have 3 questions:

1. I wanted to make a backup of the Limited Edition free albums in order to have my music all on one 200gb card.
Somehow I cannot see these files when the Pono is connected to a Windows 10 PC. Are these limited edition albums protected against copying?

2. I downloaded Pono Music Vault V1.1 from the Pono Website and checked it with virustotal.com.
Virustotal checks it with 54 different virus checkers. Of these 3 report a virus infection with the hack tool VK Tools.
Since the Pono site is very badly maintained, it is possible that the site was hacked and a virus infected version of Pono Music Vault was put there / exchanged for the original one by some hacker.

3. The Pono Music World software can still be found on the Internet. Does that software still work or is it a time-limited version which has expired?

Best regards,
Carsten

 

[doctorjazz]

Hi,

I'm new to Pono, just bought a used Limited Edition version from someone. In Europe, the Pono Player is not available new. I think the company needs a marketing / sales professional because the website can only be used to buy T Shirts...

I'm impressed by the sound even unbalanced. Very good sound stage, good bass, relatively natural sounding presentation. Overall I like it better than my IBasso DX90 (dual Sabre 9018M) and my Chord Mojo. Ordered a balanced cable from an EBay Seller. (To 4 pin XLR).

I have 3 questions:

1. I wanted to make a backup of the Limited Edition free albums in order to have my music all on one 200gb card.
Somehow I cannot see these files when the Pono is connected to a Windows 10 PC. Are these limited edition albums protected against copying?

2. I downloaded Pono Music Vault V1.1 from the Pono Website and checked it with virustotal.com.
Virustotal checks it with 54 different virus checkers. Of these 3 report a virus infection with the hack tool VK Tools.
Since the Pono site is very badly maintained, it is possible that the site was hacked and a virus infected version of Pono Music Vault was put there / exchanged for the original one by some hacker.

3. The Pono Music World software can still be found on the Internet. Does that software still work or is it a time-limited version which has expired?

Best regards,
Carsten

Congratulations on your purchase, which Limited Edition did you get?
I love my Pono, recently bought a back up (I've used it just about daily, since I got the crowd financed original, and the battery isn't holding charge as long as it did. Figured, at $200 sale price that sometimes pops up at Fry's, it was worth getting it). Yes, it sounds great single ended. But, it sounds better balanced, you'll see.

I have just used JRiver, which was the basis of the original Pono software. It is not free, but I really like it.
I have no problem copying things from internal memory, but I don't know if the Limited Edition music is different.
Enjoy.

 

[Left Channel]

<snip>

1. I wanted to make a backup of the Limited Edition free albums in order to have my music all on one 200gb card.
Somehow I cannot see these files when the Pono is connected to a Windows 10 PC. Are these limited edition albums protected against copying?

2. I downloaded Pono Music Vault V1.1 from the Pono Website and checked it with virustotal.com.
Virustotal checks it with 54 different virus checkers. Of these 3 report a virus infection with the hack tool VK Tools.
Since the Pono site is very badly maintained, it is possible that the site was hacked and a virus infected version of Pono Music Vault was put there / exchanged for the original one by some hacker.

3. The Pono Music World software can still be found on the Internet. Does that software still work or is it a time-limited version which has expired?
 

<snip>

 
Re 1: The internal memory and SD card should show up as two different drives, like "G:" and "H:". That's all I can think of. They are not copy-protected and if they're not showing up then you may have some corruption there. Hopefully not hardware issues, but that has happened to others.

Re 2: Viruses, that's a new one. What else can go wrong for poor Pono? LOL. Seriously though, with that kind of ratio it's more likely that those three virus checkers are giving false alerts. Are you able to submit it to them for further analysis?

Re 3: PMW is time-limited. The last version expired at the end of the year. If you want to stay away from PMV for now (it is still a buggy beta, after all), there are many options including side-loading directly from Windows. You can probably also get it to sync with free products like MusicBee or purchase JRiver which as the other poster mentioned is the full version upon which PMW was based.

Sometimes it's useful to ask questions, request features, or just generally complain and whine on Pono's own Community forum at https://www.ponomusic.com/cc_topics

 

[CarstenF]

Hi,

yes perhaps those 3 out of more than 50 are false alerts.

I can see two drives in Windows 10. But the 64 GB card with the Patti Smith Limited edition albums are not shown in Windows explorer. Windows thinks that the drive needs to be formatted when that card is inserted.
I put it into my PCs SD card reader and receive the same result.
When put into the Pono the albums show up normally and play fine. I could try if a Mac recognizes the card.

 

[Left Channel]

Hi,

yes perhaps those 3 out of more than 50 are false alerts.

I can see two drives in Windows 10. But the 64 GB card with the Patti Smith Limited edition albums are not shown in Windows explorer. Windows thinks that the drive needs to be formatted when that card is inserted.
I put it into my PCs SD card reader and receive the same result.
When put into the Pono the albums show up normally and play fine. I could try if a Mac recognizes the card.

 
There may be some corruption on the card. If the Mac won't recognize it either, reinsert the card into your Pono Player and try syncing it to your desktop using PonoMusicVault. I don't know why that would work, since PMV relies on the desktop OS, but it's worth a shot. Otherwise, maybe there's some SD Card recovery software that would work. The goal would be to get the music off the card, reformat or replace that the card, and re-sync to upload the music back to your Player.

 

[barondla]

Fry's Electronics is running the Pono Player on sale. You must be signed up for emails to get promo code. Scan down ad to find the Pono.