achouza wrote:How happy are folks with their Pono audio quality?
Was thinking about getting one and now I just read this article where a blind sound test vs an Iphone had bad results (for the PONO). Apparently Neil Youngs professional audio comparison tests were done vs low quality mp3 files versus the standard audio files sold on itunes today. Now seems like a bit of a sham. Thoughts?
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/it-was-one-o ... 83039.html
You got to read this thread
I like mine real well. Though the times are a changing. Looks like streaming music is headed towards CD quality. The PONO player can play CD quality all day long as well as all the different mp3 stuff but it will also play high resolution audio files. These are supposed to sound much better than CD quality. It's basically like going from CD to Super Audio or Blu ray audio. Long story short it has mush less compression and no compression is what your after really for audio and even video.
The PONO has a built in DAC that is of high quality so this will make the music played from it sound quite good. CD quality will sound even better and of course the high resolution files sound awesome.
Hopefully one day streaming music will be available in high resolution. PONO and Tidal both push the envelope on sound quality. This will make folks like Apple step up to the plate so thats a good thing.
I think in the end Apple will start offering CD quality on purchases and possibly offer high resolution too. They want to keep the market. Then you will have to decide if you want to convert them to a lower resolution so more will fit on your iPod !
What I like about the PONO is it has 64gb built in and another 64gb available via removable memory cards. You can put quite a few high quality LP's on 128gb's.
You can hook up the PONO in your car and you can hook it up to your home stereo. If you don't have a high end stereo with a good quality DAC the PONO will make up for that. Then it just boils down to the quality of your speakers and your power source. Of course it sounds great with headphones. I like mine.
I'm just glad to see a push for high quality sound from streaming and downloading. I don't purchase songs from iTunes because all I get for my money is 256k. If I spend money I want atleast CD quality. So I buy CD"s and rip them myself to lossless.
I hope this leads to Lossless downloads coming with vinyl LP's. Once that happens no more CD's for me.
Get ya one.