[Brendo09]

This is purely my opinion, so feel free to disagree. 
 
Neil's Pono is a player, which most of the people under 40 [generalisation] here would recognise and be fairly familiar. Most of those people above 25 would be familiar with CD's as well, so to get them interested, he's got this Pono player that's different to the mainstream players in shape, making it stand out. 'Oh that? That's a Pono, not everyone has one of those. Let me tell you the details...'
 
For those under 25, he's letting them know that a medium rate MP3 version of a tune is selling it short. So now they're listening as well 'What? You mean this isn't as good as it gets? Wow!'. 
 
The Pono Store is a place where those two groups meet. It's stocking CD or higher quality tunes, so the older group can play it on their Pono players, and the younger group can see what all the fuss is about. 
 
Is there a hint of salesman puff in there? Sure there is. Everyone knows that Red Bull doesn't ACTUALLY give you wings, doesn't stop if from being sold that way. 
 
I hope it all comes off and works for him. It's been great that there's been this much discussion on a player and some HD tracks, even that has to be seen as a win for the music industry as a whole. Right?

 

[doublea71]

I don't mind criticism as long as there is some evidence to support it. If it goes on and on, it does get tiresome (even with evidence), but it's easy enough to block members or move to a different thread if it chafes you in the swimsuit area. That being said, unconditional support is just as dogmatic as baseless criticism, though more palatable to read (especially if you've backed Pono via Kickstarter). 

 

[Spadge]

. Everyone knows that Red Bull doesn't ACTUALLY give you wings, doesn't stop if from being sold that way. 

....not everyone, it appears
13m Lawsuit proves that Red Bull doesn't give you wings

 

[RRod]

I'll admit that Pono deserves a fair shake just like any product of its ilk, but NY attracts a bit of, IMHO, deserved criticism for trying to pitch his product via musings such as "the best the IPod can do is 5% of the sound" and other lies-my-father-told-me-about-redbook.

 

[PalJoey]

  I'll admit that Pono deserves a fair shake just like any product of its ilk, but NY attracts a bit of, IMHO, deserved criticism for trying to pitch his product via musings such as "the best the IPod can do is 5% of the sound" and other lies-my-father-told-me-about-redbook.

A bit of hyperbole is all part of the sales process, but I do agree that his oft-quoted percentage comparisons weren't the best idea.

 

[goody]

Well i am not buying it...How come the adverts are showing people gushing about how good it sounds and nothing else apart from artists that have a vested interest doing the same ..put the samples of the pono player into the hands of people on sites like these if it is good they will let NY know about it ....heck with the hype train on this site people will buy it in droves.......This cloak and dagger nonsense with player and the omnifone company spewing out so called HD crap does not give me much confidence with the pono....BUT I MIGHT BE WRONG 

 

[PalJoey]

  Well i am not buying it...How come the adverts are showing people gushing about how good it sounds and nothing else apart from artists that have a vested interest doing the same ..put the samples of the pono player into the hands of people on sites like these if it is good they will let NY know about it ....heck with the hype train on this site people will buy it in droves.......This cloak and dagger nonsense with player and the omnifone company spewing out so called HD crap does not give me much confidence with the pono....BUT I MIGHT BE WRONG 

Perhaps they will put the player in the hands of people on sites like these when it is actually available.
 
I'm not going to buy the player because I don't listen on the move much. I will, however, be checking out the Pono store to see what they offer.

 

[Ableza]

  Perhaps they will put the player in the hands of people on sites like these when it is actually available.
 

They will put the first players into the hands of those who funded the Kickstarter campaign, many of whom (like me) are members of this forum.  So reviews and early impressions will get posted here.

 

[roadrat]

They will put the first players into the hands of those who funded the Kickstarter campaign, many of whom (like me) are members of this forum.  So reviews and early impressions will get posted here.

+1

 

[goody]

And i do hope they give us a review

 

[miceblue]

And i do hope they give us a review

Or rather, a well-written non-fanboy review.

 

[walfredo]

   I'm assuming the Pono store can only be accessed from the Pono player; although I'm sure I'm wrong on that statement.

 
So, why do you assume stuff you are sure your are wrong????

 

[Ableza]

When you assume that you're sure you're wrong, you are usually right.

 

[Sam Edwards]

I ordered the Patti Smith signature artist edition. I think I was one of the first 25 or so for that model. I remember trying to decide between the first 100 units at $200 or one of the artist signatures, so I know I was there very early. If the website's to be believed - that the first units ordered will be the first ones shipped, mine should ship next week, or by 11/15 at the very latest.
I have an AK120 and a Chord Hugo, and two Meridian DAC's and I'll give you a comparison to those DAC's using the headphones in my collection (UERM, IE80, HD800, TH900). I don't really expect it to outperform the more expensive gear - especially with the big cans, but as I've stated earlier, I really hope that my $$ helped move the market towards better digital transfers of great artist's music. I was especially glad to do so as a fan of Patti's for over 30 years. 
If the transfers are good and the device is just OK I'll be fine with my purchase. It didn't seem like anybody else was going to support artists like her anytime soon. I'll also open the files in an audio editing program and check for clipping. As a backer I'll complain loudly if the tracks are too loud. 
I'm really not convinced that we need 24 bits or sample rates above 44.1k to enjoy good music, but it helps me stop worrying about it and enjoy.  On the Chord Hugo, the difference between standard sampling rates and high ones is pretty minimal, on the AK120 it's more apparent. But I don't spend my life decimating tracks and comparing. If there's a little extra insight into the performance occasionally it's easily worth the storage space, as these cards are getting huge these days. I have several 64GB sandisk MicroSD cards left over from my early AK120 days and I'm also looking forward to being able to swap them in the Pono player. 

 

[Sam Edwards]

I've heard a lot of complaining about HDTracks and dynamic compression, but the Clash's London Calling is pretty clean and a good listen...