[DizRotus]

That sounds right. I have no need to play DSD files, so I’ll not update firmware on my new backup Pono player. In the unlikely event I acquire a need to play DSD files, I’ve got two Pono players with 1.06 firmware.

 

[slumberman]

Hello all,

I hope this is not a superfluous question but I was wondering if you’d recommend purchasing a used Pono: is it still a relevant and great piece of equipment today? I have an A&K SP1000 which I love, but I am thinking about something smaller and more portable (and I love the Pono’s history as well )

thanks in advance for your opinions!

 

[DizRotus]

My answer to your question is a qualified yes. The fact that I purchased four—one of which is now not functioning properly—confirms my advice. Since NIB units surface on eBay occasionally, I’d suggest watching for one of those. Two recently sold for approximately $200 each. I bought one of them. I would not pay more than $250 for a player. Search eBay completed listings to get a sense of the market.

For my purposes, Pono players are used as a pre-amp and digital audio player. Hi-Res, or CD quality, files are fed in balanced mode to my balanced DIY class-D chip amps. Given the excellent ESS Sabre DAC, there is nothing else that could replace it for several times the purchase price.

Assuming you’re not in need of the balanced capabilities, it’s utility to you might be diminished.

 

[turbo87]

So, i just bought a NIB Pono player on ebay. It arrived yesterday and I tried charging the battery overnight and it only charges to 75%. 3 bars on the display. I am assuming the battery is not going to charge to 100%. Anything I can do here? I have 30 day return policy, so will probably send back. Shame really, since I wanted to try out the Pono player again.

 

[rickhawk22]

So, i just bought a NIB Pono player on ebay. It arrived yesterday and I tried charging the battery overnight and it only charges to 75%. 3 bars on the display. I am assuming the battery is not going to charge to 100%. Anything I can do here? I have 30 day return policy, so will probably send back. Shame really, since I wanted to try out the Pono player again.

I would power off the Pono and then plug it in. You should see a display with a power plug icon that is partly green. It will be fully green when fully charged. See if that makes a difference as it charges faster with more power when off.

 

[turbo87]

It was powered off last night, when I was charging it. Anyway, i tried a different charger and looks like it charged it to 100%. Thanks for your input.

 

[Headmusic]

Hi Gents, I have an original Black KS Pono, I was wondering how you guys work it with power? I use it connected to my Tube amp and the batteries are starting to go. Can you use a Raspberry Pi
• 5.1VDC Output
• 3.0A Current. power saupply, or can you merely use the lesser amped Pono charge with Micro USB cable?

 

[Roy2001]

I threw a 512GB Samsung microSD card and it works fine. I decide not leave internal memory empty. The microSD card is class 3, with a Lexar USB to microSD reader, the write speed is more than 70MB/s.

 

[captainsemtex]

For my purposes, Pono players are used as a pre-amp and digital audio player. Hi-Res files are fed in balanced mode to my balanced DIY class-D chip amps. Given the excellent ESS Sabre DAC, there is nothing else that could replace it for several times the purchase price.

Can you share any more details about your DIY Class D amps, please? I converted my ATH-M50x headphones to work as balanced headphones and was blown away by the sound quality improvement when using the Pono in balanced mode. So I now want to explore building amps to operate my speakers with the Pono balanced output too. Thanks.

 

[DizRotus]

I have four Class-D chip amps that accept balanced inputs. Two are Behringer INuke 1000dsp amps, each used to power a pair of DIY tapped horn subs. One is a TPA 3118 configured by GMarsh, on the diyaudio forum, as a “Wiener” board. The one I use primarily is a Texas Instruments TPA3255EVM.

As I mentioned before, EVERYONE who listens to the output from a Pono player into a modest pair of Sennheiser cans, modified to play balanced or SE, prefers the balanced. I believe the same positive attributes, although to a less dramatically obvious degree, apply to playing through speakers.

I’m relatively new to this forum. I attempted to send a private message. If you receive it, contact me so we can discuss this in greater detail. Emails, text, or phone would be a more efficient way to exchange information.

 

[438555]

Picked up a pair of lcd-xc for listening at work, and increased teleconferencing. I already had a balanced cable for my LCD-2, which I didn't think paired well with the Pono. I like the schiit mjolnir way more for those. But the XC sounds really nice with the Pono.
So I can just swap to the Pono cables for working in the lab, and then to the ones with the built in boom mic for doing meetings.

 

[captainsemtex]

An interesting experiment was also trying to go into the device manager options in windows, right click the Pono drive, go to the tab that says Policies and opting for "Better performance".

Hello TheTrace,

I know it's been 5 years since you posted this idea but THANK YOU. This made Pono usable for me again. It's been years since I used my original Kickstarter Pono (James Taylor edition) but I recently blew off the dust and have been rediscovering this excellent device... especially in Balanced Mode. But when I went to use JRiver to upload new music, I was immediately reminded why I shelved my Pono in the first place... the impossibly slow transfer to the internal memory card. Even copying the files directly via Windows File Manager was impossibly slow... often File Manager became unresponsive in the middle of copying a file and unplugging Pono was the only way to recover.

But your suggestion to enable the "Better Performance" option worked perfectly. The real-world transfer speed is not very fast (~700KB/s) but it is stable and works.

Moving forward though the internal memory will just have the original Neil Young and James Taylor files and I will use a separate SD card for all my music.

Kind Regards
Ian

 

[defbear]

Hi Ian. Did you ever format the internal 64GB? When I did, it blew the Pono’s USB port back to 1.1 speed. I had to send mine into Pono to re-flash the memory. Since then I just use a 400GB TF card and ignore the internal memory.

 

[captainsemtex]

Hi Ian. Did you ever format the internal 64GB? When I did, it blew the Pono’s USB port back to 1.1 speed. I had to send mine into Pono to re-flash the memory. Since then I just use a 400GB TF card and ignore the internal memory.

Hi defbear... it's possible I may have done this in a fit of depair 5 years ago... but I cannot be sure. What I do know is that I considered doing it earlier this week but didn't because I have Raspberry Pis and know that formatting device memory can also zap hidden partitions. But given that I am experiecing USB1.1 transfer speeds, the evidence would suggest that I must have done this at some point.

Of course the option to return my Pono is long gone. So the next question is does anyone have a Pono image and utilties to reflash the Pono memory? I watched some teardown videos and saw no obvious JTAG spots on the PCB.

Kind Regards

 

[L8MDL]

Why not just remove the card and use a card reader for the transfer of files?