[duydangle]

Hello guys, I am interested in buying a Pono but still questioning about its lineout quality. Can anyone have both X5 and Pono compare their lineouts for me or just review Pono lineout would be great, I would be very appreciate it.
 
I am using Leckerton UHA-6S.MKII (with some pairs of op-amp) and Yuin ok1 <3.
 
My music taste are instrumental and pop.

 

[KT66]

DX90 has a great line out

 

[olddude]

Pono is better than the X5 across the board, sound-wise.

 

[acap13]

Hello fellow pono owners..i have Pono on my hand almost one month already.
its really without a doubt the most refined DAP i have ever heard in the price category.it even challenges higher end DAP in the market.
having been enchanting the Pono player not just because of it has Young's brand on it,but utmost respect to the Ayre accoustic as the overall technicalities involvement by their own founder and designer,Charles Hensen.as the award winning high end audiophile equipment company,he claimed that the Pono would sound about 80%-90% if not more than their flagship KX-R Twenty pre-amplifier that sells about $27,500..so,what could u expect any lesser for the player that costs about $400..it is a no brainer..
on that reason,i highly doubt for hooking up the player with any external portable amps that costs below than Pono or higher ,would make any improvement in sonic qualities.even if it does,maybe theres no longer speciality of what Ayre's house signature u are actually having.somehow,sound quality wise is always subjective and down to preference and taste.
im really happy with my player and so do anyone in this thread.give sometime for ur player to have runtime and burn in period..indulge the incremental in SQ of ur Pono by times and rewards yourself a high musicality experience.Proud to be a Pono player owner.
 
Happy Listening and Cheers.

 

[doctorjazz]

I often do use the line out, because I have some difficult to drive headphones (the Hifiman HE560 is too much for the Geek Out Special Edition, and the acs T1 customs also seem to benefit from extra juice), and also because it's there, helps me justify spending money on the Ray Samuels HR-2

 

[charleski]

  Hello fellow pono owners..i have Pono on my hand almost one month already.
its really without a doubt the most refined DAP i have ever heard in the price category.it even challenges higher end DAP in the market.
having been enchanting the Pono player not just because of it has Young's brand on it,but utmost respect to the Ayre accoustic as the overall technicalities involvement by their own founder and designer,Charles Hensen.as the award winning high end audiophile equipment company,he claimed that the Pono would sound about 80%-90% if not more than their flagship KX-R Twenty pre-amplifier that sells about $27,500..so,what could u expect any lesser for the player that costs about $400..it is a no brainer..
on that reason,i highly doubt for hooking up the player with any external portable amps that costs below than Pono or higher ,would make any improvement in sonic qualities.even if it does,maybe theres no longer speciality of what Ayre's house signature u are actually having.somehow,sound quality wise is always subjective and down to preference and taste.
im really happy with my player and so do anyone in this thread.give sometime for ur player to have runtime and burn in period..indulge the incremental in SQ of ur Pono by times and rewards yourself a high musicality experience.Proud to be a Pono player owner.
 
Happy Listening and Cheers.

Beyond a very basic level price is not a arbiter of quality. There's plenty of absurdly-priced gear that's poorly designed and plenty of reasonably-priced gear that's well designed. So judging an amp (or any component) simply on its price isn't a useful approach.

 

[duydangle]

  DX90 has a great line out

 
Thanks for your impression. I'm not really interested in DX90 because its battery life and specially after I use dx50. The build quality is not good and dx90, like dx50, have volume changing lineout, which is not good. By the way I also heard that X5 is better than dx90 with lineout. That's why I'm more interested in X5 and still wondering between X5 and Pono.

  Pono is better than the X5 across the board, sound-wise.

So great you say that. Could you give me more details about your impression? About lineout, headphone out, battery life? What about its signature?
 
I also heard that Pono can drive HD600 without any problems? So can it drive 150ohm pk1/ok1 easily?
 
Thank you so much.
 
P.S: I also considered AK100 but it does not have true line out (double amp) and its power is not very good to drive ok1, so I ignore it although in my place AK100 in good condition is just a little more expensive than X5. I tried X5 lineout and quite impressed with it, while AK100 max volume sound dull with my headamp.

 

[charleski]

  I also heard that Pono can drive HD600 without any problems? So can it drive 150ohm pk1/ok1 easily?
 

It's unfortunate that Pono haven't chosen to release proper specs on their player, and AFAIK no-one's done any comprehensive measurements of it yet. The only detail I can find is buried near the bottom of this article, where Hansen states that those with high-impedance phones will need to use the bridging mode (along with the necessary cable modification) to get enough power. The Yuins are rated at 109dB (I assume this is for 1 volt), so you might just be OK, though.

 

[flatmap]

  I also heard that Pono can drive HD600 without any problems? So can it drive 150ohm pk1/ok1 easily?
 

Search the various threads and you'll find several positive reports on Pono+HD600.  It'll
be better with balanced cable, no doubt.  I'm using the HD 650 (balanced cable)  with
the ponoplayer and it is very satisfying.
 
Audiostream gives this teaser post (on the 650 not 600) that may be of interest.

 

[duydangle]

Thanks @charleski and @flatmap, so glad to hear that. I am so interested with the Pono power, and so glad that Pono can drive even HD600. Any detailed review about its battery life. I heard that it can stands 8 playing hours, which is a little bit of short.

 

[L8MDL]

Thanks @charleski
and @flatmap
, so glad to hear that. I am so interested with the Pono power, and so glad that Pono can drive even HD600. Any detailed review about its battery life. I heard that it can stands 8 playing hours, which is a little bit of short.

Playing high def through phones needing a lot of power, it seems about 6 hours is the norm. Too short for my use.

 

[oneway23]

  Search the various threads and you'll find several positive reports on Pono+HD600.  It'll
be better with balanced cable, no doubt.  I'm using the HD 650 (balanced cable)  with
the ponoplayer and it is very satisfying.
 
Audiostream gives this teaser post (on the 650 not 600) that may be of interest.

 
This is just my opinion, but I feel like balanced cables are almost a must if you are planning to use the Pono with a pair of HD600s.  In using both single-ended and balanced cables with my pair, there simply is no comparison.
When I use my Pono with a single-ended cable, the volume easily hits 100% while listening.  That's for a comfortable listen, but there's no headroom.
 
With the balanced cable, that same listen is at about 60% of the volume.  I don't have the "audiophile" terminology to describe the difference, but I guess if I had to use one word, it would be "presence."  Everything is just a bit tighter and more well-defined with the balanced cable.
 
When you start getting into headphones with that much resistance, there's a big difference between driving a pair of headphones and driving that same pair of headphones well.

 

[FFBookman]

I'm also finding about 7-8 hours of battery time playing 16 and 24 bit files.
 
Ponoplayer makes the home systems sound much better too, so it's smart to leave it's charger by your favorite home system.  Makes my stock Toyota/JBL car system sound amazing, best I've ever had in a car, and I've had lots of car systems. Huge upgrade from CD and mp3, no question. Will take standard car charging, but does not ship with car plug.
 
Standby time is at least a couple of days, but I have been trying to shut mine down since it reboots so quickly. Shutdown takes 0:02, startup takes 0:25 on mine. It does do a weird blank screen about 6 seconds into startup, but this is still early firmware and a v1 product, so it's minor and maybe something in Android they can't avoid.
 
PP can get pretty warm after a few hours but it doesn't seem to be concentrated or at dangerous levels. I had mine in an inner coat pocket for hours so it was not ventilated at all. 
 
I haven't heard the Fiio's or Sony's, but I'm having a hard time believing they could sound better than the PP. The discreet analog section is pretty impressive, and we already know it has a nice DAC. It's the widest, cleanest, and most realistic digital I've ever heard. And I'm still running unbalanced out of the mini jack. I haven't used line-out in a critical way yet. I am waiting on Monoprice to do balanced headphone cable then I'll upgrade that.
 
The lack of distortion, especially the kind that affects soundstage and reverb, is impressive in PP. Since other devices have this DAC I think the valuable IP here is the analog stage, and the focus to deliver an iPod-like experience without any useless features. 
 
The focus to just play music and to avoid every attempt to distract from the music playback, to avoid everything that requires radios or clouds or apps, I mean, it's purity is impressive. It's the perfect DAP if you want to sound the best without being that guy that spent way too much for something he can barely work, something that just replicates something else. It's simple and easy to love and sounds amazing. 
 
It's at least as good, and as important (to me) as the iPod was for it's time. It basically is the iPod, circa 2004, with a high-end audio chain for under $500.
 
Now we need more music at 24bit, asap, and I'm buying music again. The Ponomusic store has been growing quickly, but the hi-res offerings are still slim.16/44 FLAC sounds pretty damn good on PP, though.

 

[FFBookman]

oh some more random findings:
 
- it really feels good in the hand and most pockets, and it's rugged feeling. not metal rugged, just plastic, but as best as they needed to do. no case necessary, it's almost more like a piece of pro audio gear, or the first iPods. The shape is going to be ripped off by Korg and m-audio and Samson any day now. The triangle really works, in a "can't believe no one else tried this yet" kind of way.
 
- more on the form factor - it sits any way you set it, it does a decent job of protecting your headphone plugs, the buttons are perfect (but a little flimsy feeling). very good to only have 3 buttons.
 
- large 3 button + small touch screen operation = perfect marriage.
 
- i've dropped mine once, onto a hardwood floor from about 5 feet. it landed flatly and made a dull plasticky crack sound that scared me into thinking i kilt it.
 
- no ill effects from the drop that i can detect.
 
- the clunk-warm up sound that used to pre-empt your first playback seems to be lessening. perhaps this is the "burn-in" we have been told of?"
 
- it's working with all my standard iPhone and other brand USB chargers. PP has a mini-USB jack that hasn't worked with every cable I've tried. I assume there's 2 shapes of mini-USB plugs out there? But generally standard stuff.
 
- Totally allows for side loading right from finder. Get your tags together though, just like MP3 files. The client software is really powerful, and stability has improved quickly. It's iTunes for power users and listeners, and it's free for ponoplayer owners, and that's pretty cool. 
 
- that's about it for the hardware.  as far as the shopping advice:
 
 
IMHO if you have a DAC on an iPhone you should cash in your change jar for a ponoplayer. If you are in MP3 denial land you def need to at least find some CD's to play, deaf suckers, haha.
 
- if you already have a PP competitor to like Fiiio/Sony or some others I don't know, I say rock on , fight the power, keep hi-fi music alive, for the good of mankind. Pono is pretty hippy about their ways, they don't want to be the only brand, they want to push HD with discrete audio chain out as the next big thing, with everyone making them and hearing them.  
 
The more the merrier. Make sure you  share your hi-end audio with someone whenever possible, so they can capture just a whiff of what's out there.

 

[FFBookman]

   
This is just my opinion, but I feel like balanced cables are almost a must if you are planning to use the Pono with a pair of HD600s.  In using both single-ended and balanced cables with my pair, there simply is no comparison.
When I use my Pono with a single-ended cable, the volume easily hits 100% while listening.  That's for a comfortable listen, but there's no headroom.
 
With the balanced cable, that same listen is at about 60% of the volume.  I don't have the "audiophile" terminology to describe the difference, but I guess if I had to use one word, it would be "presence."  Everything is just a bit tighter and more well-defined with the balanced cable.
 
When you start getting into headphones with that much resistance, there's a big difference between driving a pair of headphones and driving that same pair of headphones well.

 
 
so what sort of price range am i looking at to upgrade to balanced cans? i'm interested and a quick web search didn't find anything from my main brands. new cans plus the cable needed to drive from PP, anyone have a price range or suggestions?