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Hands-on with Neil Young’s Pono music player
verge,ces,CES 2015,music player,the verge,CES,music,consumer electronics show,pono player,pono,pono music,ces 2015,best of ces,neil young,audiophile
Our first hands-on look at Niel Young’s high-fidelity, expensive music player.
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does it play mp3s?
Sorry, but 128Gb of memory is not enough to contain “all the music in your library and then some” unless your library is pretty small…or unless you’re using compressed audio files, which defeats the purpose of this unit.
is he color blind ??? its yellow not orange
I’m sure there’s a reason these units are appearing, as opposed to just an app that can playback hi-res audio files on an existing device, but I don’t know what it is. Can someone fill me in on why a separate unit for uncompressed audio is needed?? Just curious. Thanks.
everyones complaining about how it looks yellow, not orange, did anyone notice the fucking shape? is that triangular shape really necessary? it must be like walking around with a Toblerone in your pocket all day..
shakey hands!
YELLOW!
i don’t get having fewer buttons. i know everyone is inspired by apple’s success, but what’s wrong with pause/play, vol. up, vol. down, next track, previous track…5 buttons in people’s pockets would really be that confusing?
Shake much?
Porno Music Player sweet all the lovemaking tunes I can hear all day!!!!
Just me, or is this UI super sluggish and ugly..?
i’ve read porno music player …
–shape is great, no stand, no case, no pressure on your headphone cables, no problem anywhere and anyway you set it. perfect shape for an audio player.
–fits in every pocket i’ve tried. buttons work from in pocket nicely.
–sound is amazing. best digital i’ve ever heard.
–16/44 CD rips sound pretty good, best i’ve heard in a long time.
–24bit anything really opens it up and gets you hooked. huge soundstage, total detail, amazingly real sounding, like being in the studio.
–cool feature is that it only play music. that’s it. no other anything, just plays music. highest mobile quality possible. pure.
–other cool feature is that the 2 output jacks can work 4 ways: single headphone, double headphone, single line out, and balanced out.
–a full review plugging it into all manner of crap http://wp.me/P2MP5A-10Z
My LG G3 plays FLAC files, guess I won’t be needing this!
Ok people, would like to tell you ALL. I had one of these for 3 days and sold it, it’s a complete waste of money. the difference between a 16bit and 24bit audio file on paper looks like a big difference, the difference is minor, the clarity is still there in a 16bit, as long as you are playing it on a good system you’re gonna get good response. The albums cost over £10, with some costing up to £18. DON’T BUY IN TO THIS.
This crashed before it left the launch pad. A well polished turd of a product thats cumbersome to carry around. This will see as much success as the Zune. Do you think people in 2015, in a generation thats dominated by mobile ubiquity, would want a device that fucking huge, and have it only do ONE thing? Oh and it looks like a monster Toblerone bar.
Excuse me sir I think you left out the r in pono.
I’ve just watched a 5 minute commercial before a 2 minute video…
I can’t get over the shape. It just doesn’t make sense to me. As a Bluetooth player or something, sure. As a portable music player? No.
Fuck this nonsense.
To all the previous posted comments: Yes there are better players at cheaper prices. The Pono Player is a great product but, how many times do you want to buy your music collection all over again? I’ve converted my entire CD collection to FLAC and play on my already purchased equipment with very good quality headphones and it’s really good enough for most Audiophiles.
If you really want high quality Hi-Fi music then invest in recording sound studio Apps & Hardware, otherwise the younger generation are going to continue to listen to inferior MP3 on their Smartphones with cheap earbuds and that’s the bottom line these days because they are the one’s buying new technology and they don’t really want to carry an extra device above and beyond their Smartphones.
The older generation Audiophiles don’t have the money to go out and reinvest enough to carry this product into a profitable market investment.
Marketing a product like this is to understand your Marketing Strategy and your Potential Buyers.
The Potential Buyers these days are the younger generation of “Smart Devices.” Do you see the younger generation carrying a Pono Player with their Smartphones? I don’t think so.
As I see it, it’s not a matter of Hi-Fi, it’s a matter of the bottom line of a smart marketing strategy.
Example: Target Canada Stores are all closing down in Canada. Why? Someone didn’t do their Marketing 101 Study of the Canadian Retail Market.
Here is an example of what the “Smart Generation” might be more interested in — https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/z‑ero-the-world-s-1st-digital-earphone
I’d buy this for like $60 max. I know it’s for a niche but c’mon, $400?
ummm… Chris? I think you might be COLOR BLIND… You may want to check that 😉
Porno music player?
Ok i conclude that this thing is a piece of shit. Overpriced garbage with hype like beats and it will die like an ouya. Which suffered from too much fake hype
Lies, lies and more lies. This thing is just a scam.
I guess that I am color challenged
Check out http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112817/?ref_=nv_sr_3
Neil Young soundtrack, rocks !!!
64/128 gb will hold all of my music in high rez or even mp3. You are crazy.
Nice idea, Neil Young is sincere about sound, but $399 (ok, prices drop through volume sales) but really, when out and about, is high quality audio really necessary, to this degree?
I actually fell for the Pono hype, and immediately returned it after comparing it with my friends Fiio X5.
Fail.…
Bro that’s yellow
I really hate The Verge for endorsing this product, it’s a total piece of crap that, in reality, doesn’t sound any better than an iPhone. It doesn’t matter how many people backed it on kickstarter, that doesn’t change the fact that this overpriced chunk of plastic is only worth about $40, not $400.
People be like: “Hell yeah the few extra kHz I get on this audio sound rly great with my Beatz by Dre… Where can I spend more money now plz?”
The thing i don’t get is how NY can hear any difference? He must be half deaf anyway from playing guitar so loud for decades.
that is just a stupid way to spend $400
Yellow: It’s the new orange!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Yellow-Pono-Music-Player-Original-Backer-Customized-/162092385497?hash=item25bd7584d9:g:SdgAAOSwepJXUg‑t
ITS JUST AN MP3
64 gigs a lot for music storage? Clearly you don’t listen to music that much. For $400, I’d expect at least a terabyte in storage. You can buy terabyte hard drives for $60, what makes this outdated mp3 player so special?
I want one
heads up… this thing is bullshit. If you’re really into high end audio stay away.
Pono
Bun ne
I bought one via Kick Starter and never got it to work properly.
That’s NOT orange. It’s yellow.