The Pono Player Impressions Thread

[Ham Sandwich]

What does this have to do with the cable I bought?
It meets these criteria.
Are you suggesting that the cable company that sold me my balanced Pono cable for my HD 600 (which works great, by the way),
Is selling cables on eBay that will harm my Pono?
He's sold many of these already.
Are they blowing up all customers players?
Are you suggesting he's selling these without ever testing one of them?
Did you look at the cable on EBay?
It meets the criteria.
It has stereo plugs.

 
The technical sheet for balanced headphone wiring does not meet the criteria of that cable from Venus Audio.  That technical sheet does not show the negative wire for the right channel being joined with the negative wire for the left channel.  THIS CABLE DOES NOT MEET THE CRITERIA IN THE PONO TECH SHEET.  It does not.
 
There is a reason why you will not find a similar cable from other cable manufacturers that converts from balanced headphone jacks to an unbalanced TRS headphone jack.  It is not a good idea.  And will in fact damage some amps.  It is a type of cable adapter that should not exist on the market due to the possibility of it being used with an amp that will get damaged if that type of adapter is used.  It is a very very very bad idea.
 
Even if, and this is a very very very very very big if, that adapter doesn't blow up the insides of the PonoPlayer it is still a very very very very bad idea to have such an adapter cable available on the market.  Balanced headphone outputs are not designed to be converted to single-ended like that.
 
I'd send that adapter back to Venus Audio and ask for a refund. It should not exist.

 

[CarmenC]

The technical sheet for balanced headphone wiring does not meet the criteria of that cable from Venus Audio.  That technical sheet does not show the negative wire for the right channel being joined with the negative wire for the left channel.  THIS CABLE DOES NOT MEET THE CRITERIA IN THE PONO TECH SHEET.  It does not.

There is a reason why you will not find a similar cable from other cable manufacturers that converts from balanced headphone jacks to an unbalanced TRS headphone jack.  It is not a good idea.  And will in fact damage some amps.  It is a type of cable adapter that should not exist on the market due to the possibility of it being used with an amp that will get damaged if that type of adapter is used.  It is a very very very bad idea.

Even if, and this is a very very very very very big if, that adapter doesn't blow up the insides of the PonoPlayer it is still a very very very very bad idea to have such an adapter cable available on the market.  Balanced headphone outputs are not designed to be converted to single-ended like that.

I'd send that adapter back to Venus Audio and ask for a refund. It should not exist.

Just got an email from Venus Audio that he tests his cables with his personal Pono.

 

[Ham Sandwich]

Just got an email from Venus Audio that he tests his cables with his personal Pono.

 
If you can get an email from Charles Hansen from Ayre Acoustics saying it is OK then I'll admit that cable adapter is OK in that particular case with the PonoPlayer (Charles Hansen from Ayre Acoustics designed the PonoPlayer).  Otherwise, it is a very bad idea. It's a bad idea just on principle.  Balanced headphone outputs are not designed to be able to be converted to single-ended like that.  Such an adapter cable should not exist just on principle.
 
Just because it doesn't blow the amp/player right away doesn't mean it is OK.
 
Try some music by Shpongle or some binaural beats "digital drug" music.  Play it loud.  Both can have strong bass that can be out of phase.  See if the PonoPlayer blows its little circuits.  Willing to take the chance?  I wouldn't.

 

[Wyd4]

Agree. Balanced headphones converted to single end is fine. Single ended headphones to balanced you are asking to melt things.
You can have one negative and convert it to two. But you cannot bottleneck two negatives into one and expect to have a good day

 

[drew911d]

As I understand balanced outputs, each channel has a high signal and low signal.  The waveform of the high side is duplicated by the low side, just opposite in direction.  Low in this case is not a ground.  In stereo output mode the left high and right high are returned via ground as the common low.  
 
If you tie the low side of left and right signals in balanced mode you will have crossover effect from each channel and you distort the true stereo separation.  It just won't sound the same as true balanced out.
 
This is true regardless if you might damage your Pono or not.

 

[Wyd4]

Haha I havnt heard the pono yet. Keep missing out on them on eBay and can't buy them new in Australia.

I will get one one day lol

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

Got the Pono, it is comparing quite favorably to my other daps.

 

[Wyd4]

I look forward to hearing more

I am still looking for one myself

 

[doctorjazz]

Got the Pono, it is comparing quite favorably to my other daps.

To the point-but a bit more detail, Please

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

^ Im just going to put a few more hours on it before posting proper impressions, the 2,000uF capacitance will take some break in, and previous owner barely put any hours on it.

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

Pono has a slightly hyped sound to me, I think it may be tuned this way to bring out the detail in high res files, which are usually smoother sounding than their lower res counterparts, and high-res does sound very good on Pono, downside is that 16/44 doesn't sound convincing due to the hyped sound which doesn't do the lower res files any favors. I feel there has been a specific focus in the tuning of the Pono aimed at high-res. Pono is more detailed than DX90, but I consider my QA360 even more detailed than Pono. Main problem for me is that Pono doesn't have the most accurate tone and timbre. I hope Pono becomes a bit more organic with burn in.
 
Disclaimer: With continued use and burn in this could completely change.

 

[olddude]

Depends on your source material, as far as I'm concerned.  Put on a Stevie Wonder 16/44 CD rip and it sounds superb.  I have DSDs that don't sound as good.  I agree that the low end is a bit "light," but I think Ayre/Pono were going for flat eq.  To me the mids are wonderful, as is the detail especially in the upper end.

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

^ I actually don't find the low end light at all currently, if anything, it hits a bit harder than I'm used to, I suspect my Pono just needs more burn in to even out completely.

 

[olddude]

My X5 has more low-end than does the Pono (not a lot, just a bit).  Burn-in is good.
 
This also depends on what you are listening with and how.  Single vs. balanced cable and what type of ear device can make a big difference.  And your toys that you are used to with one device may sound (will sound?) different on another.  My X5 sounds different from my X1 sounds different from my Pono with the same iems.  Give it some time.  

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

^ I'm using Pono balanced out with Sony Z5, and comparing to QA360 (single ended). For now QA360 is my preference by a decent margin, but I do believe that the Pono has more potential to be gained from burn in, all of my daps transformed with burn in, some taking up to 200 hours, Pono has had maybe 50 hours, so still plenty of burn in needed imo, especially considering the large capacitance on Pono buffers.