[L8MDL]

Battery life is around 5 hours. I keep mine plugged in and use it mostly on my home system. Line out works fine. I have seen very little battery degradation.

Balanced is better for phones but not for amplification. My Macintosh wants 4.0v balanced and the Pono is rated at a little less than 2, as I recall, so I use line-out. For phones, I have Senn 600's, HiFiMan 400i's and Meze Neo's, all with balanced cables from SurfCables.com. Check their prices - they'll be much better and they are a great company. I, too, use it daily for 4-6 hours with no problems since purchase in May of 2015. I recommend an amp for 300+ impedence phones such as the Senns - I use either a Schiit Valhalla 2 or a Neve RNHP. I believe the Nighthawks are 25 ohm and they should be great, even unbalanced, needing no additional amplification. I would try them out before investing in balanced cables.

As for loading speed, I filled the base unit with "keepers", never to be changed as it can be very slow. Once loaded I haven't touched it since the unit was new. I use sd cards (200gb SanDisk) for additional storage. I load using USB 3.0 on my computer, just drag 'n drop.

AFAIK, there have been no upgrades other than firmware. Ver 1.0.6 is the newest. Enjoy!

 

[barondla]

Hello all, I'm thinking of picking up the Pono player at Fry's Electronics soon and pairing it up with the Audioquest Nightowls Carbons. I am planning to go balanced. I have a few questions before I make the purchase. If you can answer these I appreciate it. Early thank you.

1. Is there any report of sound difference from members and owners between the older manufactured ones and the newest ones? and also a few posts suggested there is a sopund difference between a transparent case and the regular case?



2. Is there much difference between single mode and balanced mode? I would have to order a Balanced cable for the NightOwls from Audioquest which is priced at $140.00. Please recommend or not?

3.How long is battery life and can I plug into a small PC speakers and have it playing? I thought there was a line out but I would like to make sure.


Happy listening everyone!

I have an original Kickstarter yellow (came with 1st firmware) and a much later made black (came with 5th firmware). After much more than 200 hours of breakin the black sounds like the yellow.

Balanced drive is worth it. Less noise, more resolution, more volume capability with tough to drive headphones. It isn't subtle. You can read the Stereophile balanced measurements update on line. John Atkinson shows the balanced advantage.

I am also surprised Fry's has any Pono Players to sell. It is out of production. When you get 1 make sure to update firmware to 1.0.6.

Battery 5-6 hours. If you need longer plug in a micro usb battery. Indoors just plug it into wall.

Enjoy the world class reference sound quality.

 

[Headmusic]

It sounds really great, i use it straight into my valve hifi and its still my best sounding DAP. My battery hasnt flaked yet, but i already had one pono die due to the memory card going and the replacement unit is still,terrible when xferring to knternal memory, external card it fine.

 

[barondla]

It sounds really great, i use it straight into my valve hifi and its still my best sounding DAP. My battery hasnt flaked yet, but i already had one pono die due to the memory card going and the replacement unit is still,terrible when xferring to knternal memory, external card it fine.

I loaded favorite "can't do without" albums on internal memory and never touched it again. Memo cards (now 400GB) are so large they make the internal memory insignificant. Then use a mSD card adapter and computer SD card slot or mSD card reader to fill cards via side loading.

 

[SearchOfSub]

Hi, Pono Player vault link on their website is not working.. Anyone know where I can download the Vault? Thanks,

 

[SearchOfSub]

I want to download the firmware but the website is down. How can I get the new firmware for the Pono? Is there difference in sound quality?

 

[barondla]

I want to download the firmware but the website is down. How can I get the new firmware for the Pono? Is there difference in sound quality?

You can go on the official Pono community and ask for help. Members there have the newest firmware update. You can update the Pono without using Vault.

For the most part firmware updates didn't affect sound quality. Though if you want DSD to play properly 1.0.6 is a must.

 

[SearchOfSub]

You can go on the official Pono community and ask for help. Members there have the newest firmware update. You can update the Pono without using Vault.

For the most part firmware updates didn't affect sound quality. Though if you want DSD to play properly 1.0.6 is a must.

I just registered and posted at the website commmunity. I hope someone can answer because I would love to listen to DSD!

 

[barondla]

I just registered and posted at the website commmunity. I hope someone can answer because I would love to listen to DSD!

What firmware does your Pono Player have? 1.0.5 turned on DSD, but there was a glitch. Only 4 minutes or so would play before stopping. The final firmware was 1.0.6 and it fixed this. Pono plays single and double rate DSD. Good luck.

There are a few free DSD tracks on the Oppo Digtal website.

 

[barondla]

I just registered and posted at the website commmunity. I hope someone can answer because I would love to listen to DSD!

It is now almost 3 hours since you "posted" on the official Pono community. I don't see your post there. Pono doesn't make new members wait before posting. Are you sure you signed up and posted at the official Pono Music community?

 

[Left Channel]

I just registered and posted at the website commmunity. I hope someone can answer because I would love to listen to DSD!

It is now almost 3 hours since you "posted" on the official Pono community. I don't see your post there. Pono doesn't make new members wait before posting. Are you sure you signed up and posted at the official Pono Music community?

He posted it as an Update, rather than under a topic like "The PonoPlayer": https://www.ponomusic.com/_ui/core/u...

Those sometimes get answered, but I don't know how anyone sees them. I'm at "Key Contributor" level and still have not figured out the organization of that site.

 

[barondla]

He posted it as an Update, rather than under a topic like "The PonoPlayer": https://www.ponomusic.com/_ui/core/u...

Those sometimes get answered, but I don't know how anyone sees them. I'm at "Key Contributor" level and still have not figured out the organization of that site.

The site has a very strange organization. I don't even know how he posted in a place that doesn't show up in the main feed. At least you and someone else saw it. They will help him.

 

[SearchOfSub]

I hope so! LOL

 

[SearchOfSub]

Hello so I was able to download the firmware manually. There is improvement in sound IMO and also DSD capability! It is a must! Here is the link. Thank you all!

https://www.ponomusic.com/_ui/core/...=sfdc.ProfilePlatformFeed&fId=0D51500002CvzvR

 

[thefitz]

Does any of this firmware fix the transfer to internal memory?