[PalJoey]

The early adopters will be getting their signature models soon. Feedback from them should mean that the regular models will have any problems fixed when they ship next year. Hopefully.
 
Anyone know when the Pono webstore is to be launched?

 

[Mython]

Anyone else notice that there was loads of PR machine activity when the PONO team wanted people to open their wallets, but ever since they've got their money, there has been a deafening silence?
 
On the one hand, I can respect 'all-hands-on-deck' to bring the product and ecosystem to fruition, but on the other hand, it would be nice if the silence was not quite so deafening as to induce a feeling of abandonment

 

 

[tinkertailor]

Howard Stern announced that Neil Young was finally coming into his studio. Perhaps its part of a larger drive to push PONO christmas sales (it wont be out but with certificates or what not).

 

[PalJoey]

Looks like production models are ready - pictures on Twitter show a different-looking screen and there are links to first reviews. Search Neil Young Pono.
 
Edit. My mistake; the reviews I've read are still of the early models.

 

[flatmap]

  Considering to buy one but don't know if this can drive pk1/ok1 150 ohms.

At this point, I think you'd want to wait. The first units come out within the month
and in 2 months there should be a bunch of user reports online using various headphones.
You'll get a much better idea that way.
 
But, as a head-fi reader, I'm very familiar with the way that money can excitedly chew its way
out of your wallet like so many crazed lemurs.  Happens to me over and over again.

 

[duydangle]

I would wait if I were you. Too many unanswered questions about this product. Lots of hype but let's see/hear the proof. Smells fishy. Just one mans opinion.

 

  At this point, I think you'd want to wait. The first units come out within the month
and in 2 months there should be a bunch of user reports online using various headphones.
You'll get a much better idea that way.
 
But, as a head-fi reader, I'm very familiar with the way that money can excitedly chew its way
out of your wallet like so many crazed lemurs.  Happens to me over and over again.

Yes I would wait till middle of the next year to consider to buy a new DAP, after I've just bought dx50 and found that it was too different from my taste. Pono is so great in shape (although many people think its shape is weird) and the UI... The downside is battery and I don't even know its sound signature and output power.

 

[roadrat]

Anyone else notice that there was loads of PR machine activity when the PONO team wanted people to open their wallets, but ever since they've got their money, there has been a deafening silence?

On the one hand, I can respect 'all-hands-on-deck' to bring the product and ecosystem to fruition, but on the other hand, it would be nice if the silence was not quite so deafening as to induce a feeling of abandonment :blink:  

Kickstarter backers are getting fairly regular updates.

 

[Mython]

Kickstarter backers are getting fairly regular updates.

 
Anything of any real substance?
 
If so, care to share? 

 

 

[Ableza]

Still on track to ship signature units in October.

 

[PalJoey]

If units ship on time, then can we expect the Pono webshop to go live at the same time?

 

[Ableza]

The web shop is live now. The music store is scheduled to open in November.

 

[PalJoey]

The web shop is live now. The music store is scheduled to open in November.

Ah yes, my mistake - I meant the music store.

 

[depaor]

The web shop is live now. The music store is scheduled to open in November.

Ableza, it might be no harm to be a little more accurate.
 
The web shop for pre-orders for the Ponoplayer is live now   "for delivery in Q1 (Jan-Mar) 2015", and only for delivery in the United States. "Note: Your credit card is charged for the full amount when you place the preorder." 
 
Ponomusic are still saying that they will launch the Music Store in October 2014. Unfortunately only in the United States. They say they expect to expand to Canada and the UK in Q1 2015, and expand to the rest of Europe after that and go from there. They are learning - no dates given for the latter envisaged expansions. So it's "live horse, you'll get grass".

 

[swannie007]

Sure sounds like a lot of horse manure to me. Hope it works out for the fools who ponied up their money on a promise with no substance other than "hey, I'm famous, give me your money and maybe you might get something in return". Hope I'm proved wrong, but I don't think so. Just my opinion.

 

[Mython]

I'm somewhere in the middle ground, with all this.
 
I'm skeptical about the player, in terms of what I see as very poor ergonomics (screen looks like something from a device from a decade ago, and the Toblerone shape is unfriendly to jean/trouser pockets, and also unfriendly to desktop usage, due to 60° screen angle. I suspect the shape was probably entirely dictated by Ayre's circuit designers, with an 'ergonomics-be-damned' attitude).
 
 
I do like the fact that it's reportedly a zero-feedback amp stage, and I expect it to sound respectable, but I hope Ayre reconsider and revise the 5 Ω OI (perhaps this is necessary to keep the zero-feedback design stable, but I'm no electronics expert, so I don't know).   I have an uneasy feeling that the 5 Ω OI might prove to be this players Achilles heel, and it appears to betray Ayre's background of building primarily fullsize, rather than portable, gear. The PONO DAP is unlikely to deliver a high mw output, so is unlikely to suit many audiophile fullsize cans, but, broadly-speaking, the high OI is not best suited to audiophile CIEMs based on balanced armatures. So that points towards a probability of the player being best-suited to driving small DD transducers;  something which may substantially narrow the appeal of the player (at least to audiophiles in-the-know). If Ayre/PONO expect punters to splash their cash on a PONO DAP but use it with crappy i-Buds, then that would be a 'questionable' strategy. After all, is this an audiophile venture, or not?
 
 
I don't see anything innovative about the music webstore, so I couldn't really care less whether that happens or not.
 
 
But, in spite of my above reservations, and my disapproval of some decidedly-misleading marketing claims, I do believe that Neil and his team have every intention of fulfilling their hardware orders & I don't believe they would let down their hardware customers.
 
 
.