The Sad State Of The So Called Audiophile DAP Market
Mar 26, 2014 at 12:40 PM Post #1,156 of 1,456
  Where did Neil Young get the name pono from?  The only pono I know is a hawaiian word.  


Straight from the kickstarter:

What is PonoMusic? 

"Pono" is Hawaiian for righteous. What righteous means to our founder Neil Young is honoring the artist’s intention, and the soul of music. That’s why he’s been on a quest, for a few years now, to revive the magic that has been squeezed out of digital music. In the process of making music more convenient – easier to download, and more portable – we have sacrificed the emotional impact that only higher quality music can deliver. However, the world has changed in the last 10 years – technology has solved some of the underlying problems that forced that tradeoff. You no longer have to choose between quality and convenience when listening to music – you can have both. This is the fundamental idea behind PonoMusic. 
 
Mar 26, 2014 at 12:41 PM Post #1,157 of 1,456
 
Straight from the kickstarter:

What is PonoMusic? 

"Pono" is Hawaiian for righteous. What righteous means to our founder Neil Young is honoring the artist’s intention, and the soul of music. That’s why he’s been on a quest, for a few years now, to revive the magic that has been squeezed out of digital music. In the process of making music more convenient – easier to download, and more portable – we have sacrificed the emotional impact that only higher quality music can deliver. However, the world has changed in the last 10 years – technology has solved some of the underlying problems that forced that tradeoff. You no longer have to choose between quality and convenience when listening to music – you can have both. This is the fundamental idea behind PonoMusic. 


Ok so what's the Hawiian for Self Righteous?
 
Mar 26, 2014 at 12:49 PM Post #1,158 of 1,456
 
Straight from the kickstarter:

What is PonoMusic? 

"Pono" is Hawaiian for righteous. What righteous means to our founder Neil Young is honoring the artist’s intention, and the soul of music. That’s why he’s been on a quest, for a few years now, to revive the magic that has been squeezed out of digital music. In the process of making music more convenient – easier to download, and more portable – we have sacrificed the emotional impact that only higher quality music can deliver. However, the world has changed in the last 10 years – technology has solved some of the underlying problems that forced that tradeoff. You no longer have to choose between quality and convenience when listening to music – you can have both. This is the fundamental idea behind PonoMusic. 

 
Figures.   I wonder what my Hawaiian friends back home think about it.  They hate it when the haoles rip off anything hawaiian.
 
Mar 26, 2014 at 2:41 PM Post #1,160 of 1,456
If that pono player wasn't so stupid looking I'd already have put money down on one. 400 is not that bad in this digital audio player market. I wish Google would get into the player hardware market. There's some good android music players out there. They just need better hardware to satisfy music lovers

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk
 
Mar 26, 2014 at 6:22 PM Post #1,161 of 1,456
 
Ok so what's the Hawiian for Self Righteous?

English Word   Hawaiian Word
        self           Iho, kino, pono'i
  Righteous     pono
 
so => Iho pono, kino pono, or pono'i pono take... your pick.
 
Mar 26, 2014 at 8:30 PM Post #1,162 of 1,456
  English Word   Hawaiian Word
        self           Iho, kino, pono'i
  Righteous     pono
 
so => Iho pono, kino pono, or pono'i pono take... your pick.


Now then pono'i pono would have been a much better and appropriate name for the player:)
 
Mar 26, 2014 at 8:56 PM Post #1,163 of 1,456
 
It's to center your chakras
biggrin.gif

 
Pyramid Power!
Cleanse your Aura!
 
Apr 8, 2014 at 9:39 AM Post #1,167 of 1,456
Having given up on the FiiO X3 firmware ever approaching a bug-free state, I've been following the FiiO X5 thread, only to get more discouragement.
 
I posted this just now:   http://www.head-fi.org/t/661411/fiio-x5-thread-info-updated-on-jan-17th-2014/6345#post_10438397
 
Note that my $249 Sony PCM-M10 recorder/player, that has been trouble-free with nearly daily use for over three years and counting, is still running version 1.0.0 firmware - and Sony has never offered an upgrade to that firmware - because it's bug-free.
 

 

 
I'm taunted by the fact that Sony has begun shipping their new, DSD and 192 kHz PCM-capable recorder/player with a 32-bit proprietary DAC, gap-less playback of  DSD, WAV, FLAC, MP3, WMA and AAC-LC formats on SD, SD-HC,or SD-XC cards, plus both Line Out and Optical Out - with 25 hours of play time on four AA batteries - and... you can make recordings with it!  
 
Sony PCM-D100
 

 
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1008089-REG/sony_pcm_d100_portable_stereo_field.html
 
http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/cat-audio/cat-recorders/product-PCMD100/
 
$800 will get you a rather bulky and heavy but (extremely probable) bug-free transport, that offers a weak headphone amp, but for those willing to carry a portable amp, this thing would would be a potent transportable source and could likely do a very good job as a desktop source, too.
 
Can you imagine what the retail price of this machine would be if it weren't produced in huge quantities?  If a niche-market manufacturer like HiFiMan, iBasso, or FiiO tried to produce something with this feature set and quality, in small quantities, we would have to pay more than $10,000 for it.  Ask yourself what the retail price of a a HiFiMan HM-901 would be if they could sell thousands of them instead of hundreds(?)  So why not take advantage of using this mass-produced device in ways for which it was not intended?
 
Some people would answer:  It's ugly.  It's heavy.  It's bulky. I don't want to pay for mics and pre-amps I'll never use - even if the bang for the buck is enormous compared to something like a HiFi-Man HM-901. It only offers folder browsing. I can't search by artist. I can't search by album. I can't search by song. It doesn't have repeat. It doesn't have shuffle. It doesn't support playlists. Its headphone out is weak. I don't want to carry a portable amp. It doesn't have an OEM DAC chip I recognize. I don't need 192 kHz PCM capability.  I don't need DSD capability.  I like small all-in-one DAPs with expensive, proprietary battery packs that only last 5 to 6 hours on a charge.  I like torturing myself with products that don't work the way they're intended. I love waiting for firmware upgrades and applying them regularly, never actually achieving a bug-free experience.
 
I don't suffer any such thinking, myself, but I'm holding out (feeling foolish for doing so), waiting for a less expensive, bug-free solution.  Meanwhile, my PCM-M10 is holding down the fort.
 
Tick, tock, tick, tock...
 
Mike
 
Apr 8, 2014 at 11:49 AM Post #1,168 of 1,456
I just got messaged yesterday, the Fiio X5 tour unit will be in the mail by Wednesday at the latest. For those who don't know, I'm part of the Fiio product tour lineup. I'm rather interested to see what Fiio has come up with. If the X5 delivers in all categories then the X7 might be the top tier DAP we've all wanted and have been waiting for. Fingers crossed ladies and gentlemen.
 
Apr 8, 2014 at 12:02 PM Post #1,169 of 1,456
  Some people would answer:  It's ugly.  It's heavy.  It's bulky. I don't want to pay for mics and pre-amps I'll never use - even if the bang for the buck is enormous compared to something like a HiFi-Man HM-901. It only offers folder browsing. I can't search by artist. I can't search by album. I can't search by song. It doesn't have repeat. It doesn't have shuffle. It doesn't support playlists. Its headphone out is weak. I don't want to carry a portable amp. It doesn't have an OEM DAC chip I recognize. I don't need 192 kHz PCM capability.  I don't need DSD capability.  I like small all-in-one DAPs with expensive, proprietary battery packs that only last 5 to 6 hours on a charge.  I like torturing myself with products that don't work the way they're intended. I love waiting for firmware upgrades and applying them regularly, never actually achieving a bug-free experience.
 
I don't suffer any such thinking, myself, but I'm holding out (feeling foolish for doing so), waiting for a less expensive, bug-free solution.  Meanwhile, my PCM-M10 is holding down the fort.
 
Tick, tock, tick, tock...
 
Mike

 
I don't mind folder browsing, nor searches, nor playlists, etc. But I NEED Shuffle throughout my whole collection!!! That's my only need and if this new player delivers that, I can just place everything (every file) outside of their folders and do that (and sell my M10). But I don't think it will so... Different people, different needs, hence why those buggy players are still selling... I've actually been happy with the AK 100MK2 ... It sure does have a couple of issues but at least it recognizes all my files with no problems, I can travel by folder and it indeed shuffles through everything (even though that function is not completely fleshed out... correctly implemented...).
 

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