Neil young announces the launch of ponomusic

[Savage]

The question all along with this has been about how open the technology is: is there DRM (apparently not; that's good), can one play PonoMusic files anywhere (this release suggests yes; that'd also be good), and can one play whatever non-PonoMusic files on their devices (I can only guess yes).

 

So then if this is just 24/192 FLAC (not clear, but I'm guessing), what's the value proposition for these devices? What's revolutionary about the entire concept? Is it just the content?

 

Well, not revolutionary to us..but then there is the other 99.999 percent who know iTunes and iPods and little else.

 

Amused here that they used Kickstarter, certainly the dollars & juice are available to get press coverage and retail space in the traditional way. It's still likely to give them some extra buzz though.

 

I am guessing it comes in for far less than Astral&Kern dollars, has a little Ayre magic and will also have a hi-res download site. What's not to like?

[Savage]

As the saying goes: CONTENT IS KING. If Apple had launched the iTunes store without having deals with all the record labels then the masses would not have shown up.

Look also to the turn-around of many cable/satellite TV channels: All the original and compelling shows they began producing a few years ago have completely reversed their fortunes.

If PONO launches with compelling content then it stands a chance. Otherwise it will just become a curiosity and then the best we can hope for is it somehow spurring the larger services to offer higher-resolution downloads. Frankly, I'd be happier if I could buy 16/44.1 tracks and albums from iTunes. I am getting tired of oredering CDs from Amazon.

 

A companion, lower-priced ADC could shake that up. With vinyl resurgence, you could carry your vinyl-rips in your pocket on SD.

 

I am not sure what Sony is going to do with their catalog and hi-res files but they seemed to make noise about doing "something" when they released specs on their new players. With Pono & Sony sites it may allow Apple to negotiate with their existing labels to make higher bit-rates available.

[Savage]

New article posted on Time confirms 24/192.

 

Neil Young’s Pono Music Player to Cost $399 via Kickstarter Campaign - TIME

 

Anyone want to take a wild guess at the total funding received for the 30 day kickstarter campign?

 

I will be demo'ing the unit on Wednesday in Austin, TX.

 

Any info on power or output impedance for the headphone section?

[Savage]

Has anyone found what the output power and impedance are? Kind of a big deal for a headphone device these days & the Pono response was that they have heard of headphones and dropped a couple names.

 

[Savage]

The PonoPlayer is still in its infancy after the switch from Meridian to Ayre. I don't even think Ayre knows what the final output power and impedance will be right now.

 

Thanks Chris that is a better answer. No answer had me thinking the had put the flee in flea-sized and didn't want to cop to it.

[Savage]

I would expect it to be less than 2 ohms output impedance - it would be embarrassing to have your high res player be worse than an iPhone.

 

I was hoping for 1 ohm but the Meridian Explorer is 5 ohm and the Dragonfly is 12 ohm. Hopefully they do much better than these other early portables.

[Savage]

I guess they wanted a discount... :-)

 

 

dammit Eloise...lol!