Neil young announces the launch of ponomusic

[Teresa]

The PonoPlayer has 128GB of memory and can store 1000 to 2000 high-resolution digital-music albums.

 

That's quite an achievement since 128 GB typically stores fewer than 500 albums in 16/44.1 FLAC. What's the Pono definition of "high-resolution"?

 

Neil Young has been saying that PONO will be 24 bit 192kHz PCM. If that is the case a 30 minute 24/192 FLAC music album is over 1 GB, a 1 hour 24/192 FLAC music album is over 2 GB. So that would be 60 to 120 albums depending on length. If it really holds 1,000 to 2.000 high resolution music albums that is some major compression going on.

[Teresa]

Pono will not give recorded music its soul back. Only good recording engineers and producers dealing with musicians/composers who happen to sport of bit of soul will do so. And they can do it just fine without hi-rez. (Don't get yourselves all in a snit, I'm not saying that some can't hear longer tails on cymbals or whatever, I'm just sayin' that redbook or even high bitrate mp3 ain't no soul killer).

 

High resolution PCM is not only about higher resolution such as the longer tails on cymbals you mentioned, but more comfortable and more enjoyable sonics that makes me and others want to listen to music for enjoyment.

 

Nevertheless, back in those days we had no problem with the soul of that music, no matter what we listened to it on, good stereo, cheap stereo, cassette walkman, certainly nothing even near hi-rez. The not so great sound of Four Way Street managed to move us immensely as did much of early to middle period Mr. Young, none of which sounded better than average in terms of SQ.

 

Even the lowly low resolution 8-track cartridge had soul and comfortable sound except for mechanical noise and that annoying click when it changed tracks, often in-between songs. All analog formats that are derived from analog master tapes I have ever heard have soul and comfortable sound and make music enjoyable, they are just not as convenient as digital formats. By listening to high resolution digital on my computer I have proven I am willing to give up some of the wonderful analog sonics in favor of convenience.

 

The 4 track 7 1/2 ips prerecorded reel to reel of CSN&Y’s Four Way Street sounded fantastic in my system and was one of my favorite tapes, way above average in sound quality and would be a great high resolution release in my humble opinion. I regret having to sell my Teac reel to reel tape deck.

 

Actually, one of my big problems with redbook and MP3 is this lack of soul Neil Young and Mark Levinson discuss. See Mark Levinson: CD vs. SACD and LP

 

We don't need Pono to put the soul back in music, in fact unless it is involved in the actual production of the original masters it won't have anything to do with soul. What we need is good recordings, and great remasters instead of the compressed stuff made from non-original first available copies of whatever. And please give us dynamic range back. Now that would make a difference.

 

We need everything to return soul to music, including never using less than 24 bit 96kHz and preferably 192kHz or higher or even better 5.6MHz DSD or 2 track 15 ips analog tape.

 

I would like to see the return to tubes for all recording equipment, the end of the use of pro-tools and most other editing equipment including dynamic range compressors. I would love to see recordings make like the direct to disc LPs were of yesteryear. Put up the mics in the best location, record and that’s it.

 

First paragraph of the Pono news release:

March 10, 2014 – (Santa Monica, CA.) - PonoMusic is a revolutionary movement conceived and founded by Neil Young with a mission to restore the soul of music - bringing the highest-quality digital music to discerning, passionate consumers, who hunger to hear music the way its creators intended, with the emotion, detail, and power intact. "It's about the music, real music. We want to move digital music into the 21st century and PonoMusic does that. We couldn't be more excited - not for ourselves, but for those that are moved by what music means in their lives," said Neil Young, founder and chairman of PonoMusic.

 

-------------------------------------------

 

This is what bugs me about Pono. The attitude. Just read this carefully and parse this paragraph for yourself. The hi-lite or lo-lite for me is "restore the soul of music." Really? You're going to do that? Wow!

 

All us poor schmucks have been listening to soul-less muck all these years hungering for the real thing day after awful day. As a matter fact 99.9% of the population that fancies music has never heard the soul of music (at least in a recorded version). Unless of course it just suddenly died one day; oh yeah, I remember now, the day the music died back in American Pie days. So, vinyl had soul?

 

And I'm so jazzed that they, Neil Young et al are so excited, not for themselves, no, but for us, the forlorn schmucks that might have been moved by the meaning of music if we'd only been given the chance to experience the "real" thing (recorded version). And now we will. The Pono express is on its way to save the day.

 

BTW, I have nothing against the actually thing. It's no big deal to me one way or another and doesn't seem very likely to make a big splash, at least according to my reading of what it actually will be.

 

Chris

 

I agree with that First paragraph of the Pono news release as for me music lost it’s soul and comfortability with the introduction of CD, which at the time I called a music destroyer. For me it still is today, if high resolution digital did not exist I would still be spinning LPs and prerecorded reel to reel tapes. High resolution digital brought the soul that I was able to hear in every single analog format to the digital realm. CD and MP3 are unacceptable for music in my humble opinion!

 

While I was writing this post I listened to Earl "Fatha" Hines M&K RealTime Direct to Disc LP and right now I'm playing Earl Klugh's Finger Paintings MFSL LP both as 24/96 music files on my computer. Both have soul and beauty aplenty, however the original LPs played in pure analog are even better in my humble opinion.

 

I will be thrilled if Neil Young can return most of the soul that analog formats of yesteryear had in the convenience of high resolution music files.

[Teresa]

Boomboxes are gear with very distorted sound. Good systems sound like music, not gear. That's why people own them.

 

1+

 

Sam, I agree a good stereo system sounds like music not gear when playing well engineered recordings in a decent playback format.

 

The ideal is to get equipment out of the way and let the music bloom so one can forget they are listening to equipment and become one with the music.

[Teresa]

My prediction is that when people find out they can't really tell the difference listening to hi-res on a crowded noisy street, they will eventually settle for more affordable downloads (i.e. not hi-res).

 

Perhaps they will discover premium in-ear headphones such as those form Sennheiser which pretty much cancels most outside noises. There are also noise-canceling headphones. I see no reason the headphone out of a well designed portable player cannot equal or surpass the headphone outs of a home preamp or receiver.

 

I hope with all my heart that low-resolution PCM goes the way of the dodo.

[Teresa]

Otherwise, I thought i'd share this article with some more details on Ayre's involvement:

DENVER: Boulder firm develops chip for Neil Young venture | Celebrities | The Island Packet

 

Best,

 

Thanks for sharing the article, a couple of selected quotes:

 

"That's one of the most critical points where you can either capture the music as it was originally made, or you can kind of destroy the soul of the music and make it lifeless," said Brent Hefley, Ayre's marketing manager. "(Young) listened to that and said, 'That's the sound that I want in this portable player.' That's the point where they called us up and asked us if we would meet with them in regards to designing the circuitry for the PonoPlayer."

...Hefley said.

"This PonoPlayer is by far the best sounding portable player that will ever touch the market."

 

My hope is this well designed player might just make high resolution digital mainstream.

[Teresa]

The iPod market is dying because the iPhone has replaced it. People don't want to carry around multiple devices when one will do it all.

 

This is true, however if iPods offered true high resolution like Pono then those who abhor cellphones would not be carrying around multiple devices, just their music players and leave their landline phones at home.

 

The Astell & Kern is too expensive.

 

Agreed Pono’s $400 is much for affordable than Astell & Kern’s least expensive high resolution portable at $700.

 

Well, I think there are two market segments here. One is the people who only want to carry around one device. The other is people who want something more from music, and are willing to to carry around 2 devices. And as Chris says, those don't wan't to negatively effect use of their phone by having it be the primary music player.

 

The first market is larger, but that doesn't mean the second one isn't large enough to support a system like Pono. It is also possible that some members of the first group will move into the second when they are exposed to the SQ. Before the better and relatively affordable SQ was available, there wouldn't have been a reason for them to be in the second group.

 

Make that three market segments, people who love music but hate cellphones. Thus their music player is the only device they carry around on the go.

[Teresa]

... do you think they sounded good because the mastering was good; because they were High Res files or because the Pono player was good?

 

Eloise

 

Perhaps a combination of all three? They were all played MP3, 16/44 and 24 bit high resolution versions of the same music and every single person preferred the high resolution versions by a considerable margin and were very vocal about the resulting sound.

 

Neil Young said in an interview that he has never meet a single person who preferred MP3 over high resolution PCM but If he ever meets that mythical person he will respect their preference.