[Audiophilliac]

Personally(and admittedly just from my own perceptions and aging ears) when I first got my Pono it did sound slightly muddy, but as time went by it really opened up for me and smoothed out, the sound became clearer and the soundstage improved becoming wider. This took around 100 hours or so playtime.
I prefer the Pono to my Shozy Alien, Fiio's X1 & X5 & even my beloved Colorfly C3.

 

[fiascogarcia]

  Personally(and admittedly just from my own perceptions and aging ears) when I first got my Pono it did sound slightly muddy, but as time went by it really opened up for me and smoothed out, the sound became clearer and the soundstage improved becoming wider. This took around 100 hours or so playtime.
I prefer the Pono to my Shozy Alien, Fiio's X1 & X5 & even my beloved Colorfly C3.

Sounds like a great bang for the buck unit!  Have you been using the Pono store?  Curious how that's working out.

 

[acain]

Almost a week ago I've received my Pono LE player which I bought 2^nd hands here on HF.






 


Pepper signed all the way...






 


Gotta love that blue light and the sq of the files when it appears...


The mastering of the Pono files (I have RHCP, Beck and Neil Young albums on it) must be excellent, because to my ears these files sound much better than all the 24bit ones (with maybe Pearl Jam's Ten Redux as an exception) that I have from HD tracks .






 


SQ is great with iems (mainly used V6S and 1plus2). Very detailled, wide soundstage, good depth and excellent lows, mids and highs. I don't miss eq or an extra amp at all, imo it just sounds fine this way. Listening with my PS500 & LCD2 straight out of the Pono, the music sounds a bit to thin (lacks body) to my ears, but I guess listening in balanced mode with the right cable or adding a good amp will give the needed improvement for those 2 hp's.






 


Pono in a nutshell: what's not to like?

Pearl Jam Ten my favorite alternative album ever song is great especially Black. Its great to see others still listen to real music.

 

[Kerouac]

  Personally(and admittedly just from my own perceptions and aging ears) when I first got my Pono it did sound slightly muddy, but as time went by it really opened up for me and smoothed out, the sound became clearer and the soundstage improved becoming wider. This took around 100 hours or so playtime.
I prefer the Pono to my Shozy Alien, Fiio's X1 & X5 & even my beloved Colorfly C3.

From what I've read the Shozy Alien should have spectacular SQ also (but hard to navigate without a screen). I also have the X5 (Pono beats it imo on sq) and ordered a Colorfly C3 about 2 years ago. The C3 unfortunattely never made it to my doorstep (it was ''lost'' in a postal sorting office)

 
Btw, this is why your Pono started to sound better: http://www.ponoworldtimes.com/ponoonlygetsbetter.html
 

Pearl Jam Ten my favorite alternative album ever song is great especially Black. Its great to see others still listen to real music.

Yep, a real classic indeed! I always like to think that there are many others (like us) out there

 

 

[Dinerenblanc]

Anyone else happen upon this article about the Pono from the perspective of its engineers? 
 
http://nypost.com/2015/01/11/do-consumers-really-care-about-digital-quality/
 
https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/2yngcr/for_whom_the_bell_tollsbut_it_is_a_hires_bell_so/

 

[olddude]

Just more sound science crud.  If people are happy listening to MP3 on an iPhone 6 and Apple buds, more power to them.  If someone wants something that seems, to them, better, then more power to them.  I HAVE an iPhone 6 and to my ears my Pono wipes its feet with it.  YMMV.  I use CD rip FLAC or 24 bit or DSD and, to my ears, it all sounds great.  YMMV.  It's all about the user's experience.  You may think a bottle of wine is worth $100 and, to my taste, a $6 bottle is fine.  But I'm not going to try to prove that you are fooling yourself.  Why bother?  To what purpose?  You are happy.  
 
So, if you HAVE a Pono, I'd love to hear your take on it.  However, from your sig I see you use an iPhone 6 and not a Pono.  So you are simply posting info (derogatory info at that) by someone else.  To what purpose?  The majority of us HAVE a Pono and the majority of us USE 16/44 or better files.  So we KNOW what a Pono sounds like.  Why would we need to see foolish information when we already have hand's-on experience with the unit itself?
 
My $100 bottle of wine tastes great.  Why are you telling me it doesn't?

 

[meat01]

What is wrong with posting 2 sides to the story of how great the PONO player is?  Are we only allowed to post glowing reviews of it?  Why can't someone who is on the fence about it see that not all people think it is the best thing since sliced bread?
 
Here is a link to something that is not science and actual people's experience with the PONO player. It seems a lot of people prefer their ipod 6, not just 1 or 2 people.  In fact no one in this video actually preferred the PONO.
 
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/it-was-one-of-kickstarters-most-successful-109496883039.html

 

[olddude]

Pogue is also old news here.  
 
My point is, if I want to find out what something sounds like, I'll ask people who have it and use it.  You are merely posting someone else's take on it.  Often, as in Pogue's case, a bunch of folks who apparently are very happy with iPhones and MP3s.  So?  They are happy.  OK.
 
Every time I want to buy something new, I come here and ask ACTUAL USERS, get it?  From them I can get a good idea of the pluses and minuses of what I am interested in. 
 
There has been a wave of Pono bashing.  The links above have been posted here before.  They serve no purpose.  They don't reflect what is good about this site, which is that actual people can ask other actual people how they like something.  
 
Again, if YOU have listened to a Pono for any length of time , PLEASE post how you like it or hate it.  That's great feedback.  

 

[doctorjazz]

I have to agree, we have all seen the links to the people who want to Pono Bash. I think it is a reaction to Neil Young, both because he is famous (it wouldn't be news to bash the head engineer at Ayre, but Young...), and because he was so over the top with his promo of it, if it is anything less than the second coming, it falls short to some people. And, as Olddude mentioned, many people just don't care about sound, don't listen for things like detail or soundstage, and that's fine for them. It doesn't invalidate that many of us think the Pono sounds great, better than my DX90, better than various "I" devices I have, better than the Fiio X3 (all devices I own). And, again, if you heard a Pono, and think it sucks, by all means tell us so and tell us why. Otherwise, it's just more noise.

 

[Wildcatsare1]

As a person seeking information on whether to buy a Pono, DX90 or AK, I dont want to read what a bunch of anal retentive engineers have to say. Rude, but true, I want to hear from fellow Head Fi'ers, likes, dislikes, and otherwise. People like Drjazz, who I am familiar with his taste in music and equipment carry much more weight, IMO.

 

[castleofargh]

As a person seeking information on whether to buy a Pono, DX90 or AK, I dont want to read what a bunch of anal retentive engineers have to say. Rude, but true, I want to hear from fellow Head Fi'ers, likes, dislikes, and otherwise. People like Drjazz, who I am familiar with his taste in music and equipment carry much more weight, IMO.

I'm still waiting for the exact opposite. what do you actually know about the pono? where is all the engineering anal retentive giving intels about the DAP? I've been asking for some for months. the guys in the link just say that 16/44 is transparent. big deal. it has nothing to do with the pono.
since the DAP came out I couldn't even find basic specs. impedance? power output into 16/30/150ohm? dynamic/SNR? nothing at all. is it even flat? even sony gives slightly more information( and sony really sucks bad at giving specs). 
all that talk about highres, but we don't actually have any evidence to this day that the DAP measures good enough to simply output the beginning of an highres signal(well not that I expect a toblerone bar to create a revolution in the audio world with 130db SNR). from the start it's some mumbo jumbo about highres, and Young saying "trust me I'm a musician". What?
I'm not saying the pono is bad, I don't know anything to pass a judgment(really not a thing!). the damn DAP has been announced like 2 years ago, Young went everywhere on TV, and I mean everywhere!!!! and what do we know about the DAP? "mp3 is bad!".
cool story bro, but what's that stuff people have been buying in the end? what can it drive? no sé.

 

[doctorjazz]

I agree, I see no reason specs shouldn't be out there, some sort of corporate decision but not a very good one, as far as I can see. But, most specs really mean little to most people, they can be rigged to come out any way, how good (or bad) it sounds is the real important thing, but one should be able to access these things if they mean something to you.

 

[Kerouac]

  I'm still waiting for the exact opposite. what do you actually know about the pono? where is all the engineering anal retentive giving intels about the DAP? I've been asking for some for months. the guys in the link just say that 16/44 is transparent. big deal. it has nothing to do with the pono.
since the DAP came out I couldn't even find basic specs. impedance? power output into 16/30/150ohm? dynamic/SNR? nothing at all. is it even flat? even sony gives slightly more information( and sony really sucks bad at giving specs). 
all that talk about highres, but we don't actually have any evidence to this day that the DAP measures good enough to simply output the beginning of an highres signal(well not that I expect a toblerone bar to create a revolution in the audio world with 130db SNR). from the start it's some mumbo jumbo about highres, and Young saying "trust me I'm a musician". What?
I'm not saying the pono is bad, I don't know anything to pass a judgment(really not a thing!). the damn DAP has been announced like 2 years ago, Young went everywhere on TV, and I mean everywhere!!!! and what do we know about the DAP? "mp3 is bad!".
cool story bro, but what's that stuff people have been buying in the end? what can it drive? no sé.

Even if Mr. Young himself would appear on this thread to write: ''Sorry guys, my mistake. It's a piece of junk afterall that delivers crap for sound.'' then I would just smile and still enjoy it as much as I do now. With my iems (V6 Stage, 1plus2 & Rti1) the exact same files (16/24 bit flacs + mp3 @320) that I have on my DX90 & X5 (which are imo also pretty decent daps) just sound better on the Pono. No matter what anybody else's opinion on it is.
 
I must admit that (as I wrote before) it hasn't got enough power to make my PS500 & LCD2 shine, but I haven't tried it balanced yet...
 
Regarding specs: I also would like to have some information on this, but I'm not loosing any sleep over it. My ears are happy and that's what's most important to me.
Maybe in my case ignorance is bliss

 

[castleofargh]

Even if Mr. Young himself would appear on this thread to write: ''Sorry guys, my mistake. It's a piece of junk afterall that delivers crap for sound.'' then I would just smile and still enjoy it as much as I do now. With my iems (V6 Stage, 1plus2 & Rti1) the exact same files (16/24 bit flacs + mp3 @320) that I have on my DX90 & X5 (which are imo also pretty decent daps) just sound better on the Pono. No matter what anybody else's opinion on it is.  
I must admit that (as I wrote before) it hasn't got enough power to make my PS500 & LCD2 shine, but I haven't tried it balanced yet...
 
Regarding specs: I also would like to have some information on this, but I'm not loosing any sleep over it. My ears are happy and that's what's most important to me.
Maybe in my case ignorance is bliss

eheh. of course when you have the DAP you can make up your mind yourself. but my "modern" 2015 way of purchasing audio gears commands me to have an extensive vision of the specs, or to have listened to it myself. having the opportunity to do none, I'm in a pickle ^_^.

 

[doctorjazz]

I'm not sure specs really tell you that much about the sound of gear-sure, an obvious horrible spec could mean trouble, but even manufacturers of cheap gear know how to put up good specs. And, in the tube vs solid state world, or the digital vs analog world, specs are on the side of solid state and digital, but many audiophiles would argue the sound is better from tubes/analog, specs be damned! just sayiin'