Be careful... this conversation is straying into focusing on bitrate/codec as the primary factor
It's
'a' primary factor, but even
more important is Recording & Mastering quality.
As has already been discussed several times within this thread, the only way PONO musicstore will bring anything truly 'new' to the marketplace is if they have such integrity that they are willing to put in the legwork to ensure that
all of their HD content is:
1) Mastered to a standard substantially exceeding a lot of the (
so-called) 'HD' junk already released by the likes of HDtracks.com. This would include the issue of dynamic range.
2) TRULY HD content (i.e. not with some offerings being upsampled redbook, as some other very dubious vendors have been touting)
Although they will undoubtedly jump on the
lossless codec bandwagon at some point in the very near future, Amazon and Apple won't put in the legwork discussed above, neither will many of the existing HD vendors, neither will many of the major and minor record labels. It will need a venture with enough clout and enough integrity to
proactively push for higher quality, and Neil's the only
high-profile individual who is talking about such things in the public eye. ...but talk is cheap. I'm still not entirely optimistic that Neil will bring such integrity to his musicstore, simply because of the vast resources it would take to undertake a re-evaluation of the quality of each and every master for thousands of albums from different artists and labels.
The PONO player is, to my eyes, little more than a vehicle to pull the PONO bandwagon into the public eye (you can't take a digital musicstore onto Letterman, for example - it's just too intangible), and a physical object for PONO groupies to buy into to pledge their support. If it sounds amazing, then great; the whole DAP-buying public (including some audiophiles) have another option available to them, but PONO as a whole will stand or fall based on the quality and integrity of their content offerings.