Article: Pono or Oh No - An Interview With Neil Young

[Boris75]

Thanks for a terrific interview.

 

I hope Pono is going to pan out and take high res out its current audiophile niche. Everyone, including us audiophiles, would benefit. If it also led to some progress in the loudness wars, then I would be doubly beneficial. Fingers crossed.

[slowdown5646]

Chris did you get a chance to fiddle around with the Pono Player at all? It'd be great to hear some impressions of the intuitiveness of the interface. Great review, looks very promising!

[Ajax]

Fantastic Chris. I remember with great fondness listening to "Harvest" and "After the Gold Rush" on a battery operated tape deck in the early 70's while sitting around a camp fire at a surf break on the edge of the Australian desert half way between Adelaide and Perth.

 

We were living in tents in an extreme environment and were into honesty, openness and solitude while surfing massive waves that took all my courage. Nature at its purest and most extreme. Neil's music fitted perfectly. Hopefully your interview will help enlighten those that remain skeptical that this man has never been about the money, he's about bringing back to his audience what he genuinely believes has been lost to them - his craft.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Chris did you get a chance to fiddle around with the Pono Player at all? It'd be great to hear some impressions of the intuitiveness of the interface. Great review, looks very promising!

I used the PonoPlayer a bit. The interface is simple and enables the user to get right to what he wants. I also got the impression that the interface will undergo some changes or improvements between now and when the player hits the market. Ii think the interface is on the right track with simplicity.

[Ajax]

Chris (apologies if this has been asked before), will you be able to use PONO player as a stand alone DAC with either a USB or digital input and analogue output?

[The Computer Audiophile]

Chris (apologies if this has been asked before), will you be able to use PONO player as a stand alone DAC with either a USB or digital input and analogue output?

This isn't planned for the first PonoPlayer.

[christopher3393]

It is kind of funny that Neil did not know about HDtracks.com, it's kind of like on that movie Knocked Up, where they wanted to release that "Flesh Of The Stars" webpage and they did not know about Mr. Skin's website!

 

Did not expect that analogy. Cracked me up. Ya think Neil's takin' it okay?

[bottlerocket]

This was obviously a very good question 'What would it take for you to say, "I've succeeded with Pono?"' That must have been fun. Great interview.

[bottlerocket]

From the Rolling Stone interview. Love Neil...

 

Q: Are you a good businessman?

A: No. But I'm not in charge of the business. I'm just the mascot — the hood ornament.

 

Read more: Neil Young on Pono, His New Album and Using LPs as Roof Shingles | Music News | Rolling Stone

[Onkle Je]

Hi Chris. Stupid Question : despite all my inquiries, I haven't been able to determine if classical music (both modern one and transferred to numeric old analog recordings) will be concerned by the pono offer ? Any ideas ?

 

Thanks !

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Chris. Stupid Question : despite all my inquiries, I haven't been able to determine if classical music (both modern one and transferred to numeric old analog recordings) will be concerned by the pono offer ? Any ideas ?

 

Thanks !

I suppose some classical will be available if the major labels participate.

[Wildgift]

I'm on board for sure, happily ordered a NY signature pono player. Chris, great site and interview. I'm new here. I've been busily ripping my Dvd-a discs to try out. I'm cautiously optimistic that the Neil Young, REM and Talking Heads rips at 96kb will sound pretty good.

 

One question I have not seen answered: will the player have a shuffle mode? I use that all the time in my car and at home. Thanks again!

[The Computer Audiophile]

I'm on board for sure, happily ordered a NY signature pono player. Chris, great site and interview. I'm new here. I've been busily ripping my Dvd-a discs to try out. I'm cautiously optimistic that the Neil Young, REM and Talking Heads rips at 96kb will sound pretty good.

 

One question I have not seen answered: will the player have a shuffle mode? I use that all the time in my car and at home. Thanks again!

My guess is yes it will have shuffle mode. That's a trivial feature to add for zero additional cost.

[monteverdi]

Ny's answer to CC's question about Loudness wars is somewhat discouraging. Same old process sold as artistic expression.

[InfernoSTi]

Congratulations on the interview Chris…it sounds like you really connected with Neil. And you covered much of the CA concerns on a variety of topics. Really nice work.

 

John

[REShaman]

Ny's answer to CC's question about Loudness wars is somewhat discouraging. Same old process sold as artistic expression.

 

Same reaction, but even more so than "somewhat discouraging". I must be naive when it comes to what artist's expressions include. I thought the Loudness affect was antithetical to conveying an artist's sound. That is, I am distinguishing what the Loudness War affect does to my sense of the music and sensory input, fatigue and general distaste. If that is congruently an artist's expression vs production quality, I am back where I started.

 

Congratulations, Chris, on your interview. You make us at CA proud.

 

Enjoy the music,

Richard

[flatmap]

Same reaction, but even more so than "somewhat discouraging". I must be naive when it comes to what artist's expressions include. I thought the Loudness affect was antithetical to conveying an artist's sound.

I hear you. And like you, I don't really feel the need of those compressed fuzzy vocals, etc.

 

But I think the way he said it is right -- using lo-fi in the mix is one of the musician's tools and so they'll use it and continue to experiment with it. From that point of view, isn't compression used just like a fuzz box?

[Archimago]

Just wanted to check...

 

Does anyone know if the Pono comes with headphones?

[firedog]

Just wanted to check...

 

Does anyone know if the Pono comes with headphones?

 

does not

[Boris75]

I finally fell for it and signed up for a Herbie Hancock Pono.

 

I hope the sound quality beats that of 320kbps AAC and mp3s on my iPhone4 which is currently what I use on the go with ER4P in-ears or Bose QC15 cans so that Pono justifies (1) its price and (2) its form factor.

[Schwebung]

One a first quick reading of this inteview I'm very happy NY addresses the studio/creative side not only of resolution but also of the use of compression, limiting &ct.

It's not an evil thing by default but can be used as a tool to deliver the artist's aesthetics.

 

Looking forward to read again with more time, great work Chris.

 

Stephan

[mav52]

Nice work Chris C.. I support Pono as I have the Tom Petty player coming in Oct 2014. Been following the guy since his first band the 'Sundowners' (Petty was 14 at the time) then the Epics in Gainesville Fla which later became Mudcrutch.

 

Anything Pono can do to improve upon the music experience is ok by me.

[labjr]

Thanks for asking the questions about provenance. Seems to be a difficult issue but hopefully getting better. I wonder if Neil can pry the Rolling Stones masters away from Jody Klein?

[Wavelength]

Chris,

 

Great interview! I know the whole rock star thing is so crazy from my experience starting with ELP in 1980 and now with NAMM exposure to our work with Barenaked Ladies. It's kind of funny how in the end they are just normal people.

 

~~~

 

First as someone who does a lot of PRO audio work. Doing everything at 192 is still kind of silly. It does not down sample to 16/44.1 very well. The use of 176.4K makes so much more sense.

 

Second I think a lot of people are confused by Pono. The two pieces (online store and the hardware) seem to be clumped together and people are not realizing that the music they download can be played by any hardware.

 

I have had so many really crazy emails since last week its almost funny. Many of the questions were "How do I plug the Pono Player into my DAC?". Many think this is the only way to playback the music they bought on the online store. But all these files are FLAC so they can be played back by most playback software (though not iTunes).

 

I may suggest to the Pono people a little more explanation would go a long way.

 

Thanks,

Gordon

[matt123]

This has been really interesting to watch. Thank you Chris. I was (and am) still a bit skeptical about how they've decided to launch their business. But, you can't argue with the success they've had on kickstarter.

 

Maybe they'll start out with the same files HD Tracks and others have.* But, if this does take off - and if they are open to posting feedback about the quality of the files - they I think they'll have a real impact on the industry. The most credible thing about this is Neil Young's ability to connect with artists. That feedback, represented by his Pono users, should have a real impact. He's put his money where his mouth is in a big way, and you gotta respect him for that. Meanwhile, I'm still holding out for a Bob Dylan signature player....

 

*I just read his interview with Audiostream. at that point in the day, he seems to be very aware of HDTracks.