[RRod]

I was disappointed when the comments section had the usual generalization being thrown about on how audiophiles are all people who buy $10,000 cables and who all insist that hi-res is better. (When there is actually much debate on that issue in the community.), but of course that sort of thing is typical of Internet comments on the field.     

 

[bigshot]

  How can one tell if it is a different master apart from listening? Is there anything descriptive in a file download, or is there information on a CD cover/vinyl cover where one could see information about this?

 
No, I'm afraid not. Mastering is just something they do as a matter of course.

 

[nanaholic]

  How can one tell if it is a different master apart from listening? Is there anything descriptive in a file download, or is there information on a CD cover/vinyl cover where one could see information about this? Or is this a daft question (very likely)?

 
If you have access to a PC the first thing to try is throwing the files into foobar with the Dynamic Range Meter plugin and do a run.  My experience thus far, at least with pop and rock songs, are that the "Hi-res" files usually have more dynamic range than the CD versions (not because they are enabled by "hi-res" formats of course, but they are just less compressed during mastering ie they messed it up less).  The other is throw the files into a wave editor and check how much clipping it has.  CD releases of recent tends to be mixed quite hot and clips like crazy.

 

[Greenears]

   
-My guess - mind you, guess - would be that the Official Release Series of remastered reissues are the same masters as are being used for the Pono store. It would not make much sense to go through all the work of preparing the remasters in 2009-2010 or so only to repeat the process a few years later.
 
Come to think of it, that would be fun to find out. I'll order ATGR ORS right away.

 
Yes, this would be the acid test so to speak...
 
I see CD set discs 1-4 online for $15 (for the whole set?) not a bad deal.  I was looking for an individual track I could download.  Yes it's very curious because I think even one album on Pono is maybe $17 or so.

 

[OddE]

 
I see CD set discs 1-4 online for $15 (for the whole set?) not a bad deal.  I was looking for an individual track I could download.  Yes it's very curious because I think even one album on Pono is maybe $17 or so.

 
-Yup, I got the set of four remasters (Neil Young, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, After The Gold Rush and Harvest) for €14 ($18 or so) shipped; EKTIN and ATGR alone would easily be worth that price.
 
I've just browsed a little bit in the Pono store, but it appears a lot of 16/44.1 album downloads are priced at $17-$18 each whereas the 24/192 ones are in the $21-$22 range.
 
In the context of 16/44.1, the Pono store makes you pay an awful lot for the privilege of not having to wait a couple of days for albums released 45 years ago to arrive by mail rather than download them directly - assuming, of course, they sound the same, which I strongly suspect they will.

 

[miceblue]

I've just browsed a little bit in the Pono store, but it appears a lot of 16/44.1 album downloads are priced at $17-$18 each whereas the 24/192 ones are in the $21-$22 range.

Do they sell 16/44.1 albums on the store? I only see 24/44.1 ones.

 

[OddE]

Do they sell 16/44.1 albums on the store? I only see 24/44.1 ones.

 
-They do; just browse Neil Young's back catalog, for instance - several albums are available in both 24/192 and 16/44.1 - and also some are only available in 16/44.1, interestingly enough.
 
(I assume that simply means they are not done preparing the 24/192 releases - with other labels' artists, I understand that there may be issues with licencing etc. but I would expect that if Neil went to Reprise/Warner (I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for any goodwill from Geffen!) and said he wanted to make all his albums available as 24/192, they'd say 'sure', rather than holding back on some albums while allowing others to be made available in hi-res (At first glance, all 24/192 albums are Reprise ones, and all the Geffen ones are 16/44.1))

 

[reginalb]

  Article on Slate about the Pono, generally concluding that it is worth no more than any Apple product because hi-res is not a superior format in any useful way: 
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2015/02/ponoplayer_review_neil_young_s_new_streaming_device_sounds_no_better_than.html
 
The article says less about the player and more about the debate between hi-res and redbook audio files though. 
 
I was disappointed when the comments section had the usual generalization being thrown about on how audiophiles are all people who buy $10,000 cables and who all insist that hi-res is better. (When there is actually much debate on that issue in the community.), but of course that sort of thing is typical of Internet comments on the field.     

 
To be fair, I don't know that there's that much of a debate in the community. Take the hi-res topic to any other part of the forum, and see the response. 

 

[Koukol]

OK, I'm someone who bought into the hype when Pono dragged all those Artists out proclaiming they heard God.
I thought that if I wasn't impressed I could sell it for almost what I paid for it since it was $100.00 off for early adopters.
 
So know I have it and while it sounds really good with some cans... it sounds horrible with my HD650's.
There's just not enough power to unveil these HPs.
 
I mainly listen to music on my headphone setup in my bedroom with a affordable Marantz CD Player running into a Little Dot MKIII Tube Amp.
(Right now I'm waiting for a mini jack to RCA cable for the Pono to see if there's an improvement over my Marantz.)
The only other place I listen to music is in the car where I can blast out my Rock.(Eclipse & MB Quarts when they were still good)
I'm in need of a new head unit for the car so I was thinking of getting one with a USB port and an AUX input so I can have that Pono orgasm experienced in their video.
 
So now I'm wondering if the money I spent on the Pono would be better served by using a BluRay player with SACD capabilities ( I already own the Sony BDR-S580 and Oppo DV 981HD... both being unused at the moment) and a affordable dedicated DAC?
Maybe even get rid of the Little Dot and get a DAC/Amp combo.
 
As far as the HD music files I could always put them on a USB stick.
 
I'm a"best bang for the buck" person as I can't afford the best.
 
Any opinions welcome.

 

[Greenears]

 
Any opinions welcome.

 
Hehe.  Never say that - you'll just encourage some totally contrary opinion like this one:
 
If you have budget limits - dump all your optical.  Rip it and sell all the discs and players before they drop further in price.  Sell the Pono.  Get a laptop with Realtek HD Audio (pretty standard), or get an external $100 garden variety external Async USB DAC 24 bit for an existing computer.  You can very well find the laptop used, you can just wipe it and use it exclusively as a player.
 
Given that I just picked up 3 decent microSD 128G cards around $70 each, optical is a dinosaur.  The cards are the size of a fingernail. There is no scientific difference to optical, and the sound I reference above is transparent.  For on the go use any high-end smartphone or pick up a 16 bit player the size of a quarter for <$100.  Use any solid state combined pre-amp amp that is transparent if you have speakers.  Avoid a headphone amp if you can.  I believe you can get the total electronics in the $1000 neighborhood.  Spend every cent you collected from the sales and savings on transducers - you can get lots of help on this forum on your budget and how to divide it between cans and speakers.  If you don't believe it is transparent, ABX it before you sell it.
 
Game, set, match, jump over the net and hit the ball into the stands.
 
I don't have anything against Pono - I think the store is interesting.  But you are in sound science and that's my opinion. 
 
But like I said - you opened the floodgates

 

[Koukol]

 

 
Any opinions welcome.

 
Hehe.  Never say that - you'll just encourage some totally contrary opinion like this one:
 
If you have budget limits - dump all your optical.  Rip it and sell all the discs and players before they drop further in price.  Sell the Pono.  Get a laptop with Realtek HD Audio (pretty standard), or get an external $100 garden variety external Async USB DAC 24 bit for an existing computer.  You can very well find the laptop used, you can just wipe it and use it exclusively as a player.
 
Given that I just picked up 3 decent microSD 128G cards around $70 each, optical is a dinosaur.  The cards are the size of a fingernail. There is no scientific difference to optical, and the sound I reference above is transparent.  For on the go use any high-end smartphone or pick up a 16 bit player the size of a quarter for <$100.  Use any solid state combined pre-amp amp that is transparent if you have speakers.  Avoid a headphone amp if you can.  I believe you can get the total electronics in the $1000 neighborhood.  Spend every cent you collected from the sales and savings on transducers - you can get lots of help on this forum on your budget and how to divide it between cans and speakers.  If you don't believe it is transparent, ABX it before you sell it.
 
Game, set, match, jump over the net and hit the ball into the stands.
 
I don't have anything against Pono - I think the store is interesting.  But you are in sound science and that's my opinion. 
 
But like I said - you opened the floodgates

Ok...
 
Anyone else?
 
 

 
Seriously... your advice is interesting and I'd like to hear what others have to say about it.
I didn't post this in the pro-Pono thread because I want this "can" opened.
 
Thanks!

 

[bigshot]

  If you have budget limits - dump all your optical.  Rip it and sell all the discs and players before they drop further in price.  Sell the Pono.  Get a laptop with Realtek HD Audio (pretty standard), or get an external $100 garden variety external Async USB DAC 24 bit for an existing computer.  You can very well find the laptop used, you can just wipe it and use it exclusively as a player.

 
Or a used Mac Mini for a couple hundred bucks
 
Doesn't your Sony blu-ray player do SACD?

 

[Koukol]

 

  If you have budget limits - dump all your optical.  Rip it and sell all the discs and players before they drop further in price.  Sell the Pono.  Get a laptop with Realtek HD Audio (pretty standard), or get an external $100 garden variety external Async USB DAC 24 bit for an existing computer.  You can very well find the laptop used, you can just wipe it and use it exclusively as a player.

 
 
Doesn't your Sony blu-ray player do SACD?

Yes (so does my Oppo), but I only have 3 SACDs,
I contacted Sony's chat today to ask if it would output 24bit files from a USB stick but they couldn't answer and wanted me to contact tech support by phone.

 

[bigshot]

Just convert to PCM and output using HDMI. It sounds exactly the same. You're worrying about the wrong things there.

 

[Koukol]

  Just convert to PCM and output using HDMI. It sounds exactly the same. You're worrying about the wrong things there.

I have no idea what this means.
Could you please elaborate?