Neil Young claims he was working on an audiophile iPod with Steve Jobs

[nopants]

128GB ++ is super nice. How about the sound? Whoa....co-developed by Ayre?

I think they're just borrowing ayres windowing filters

[blessingx]

It better play back 24/352.8 DXD. None of that 24/192 crap.

And Korg AudioGate can convert between PCM and DSD. Just feed it your Twitter account to use free.

Edited March 11, 2014 by blessingx

[justin]

256kbps mp3 is my prediction 

[postjack]

256kbps mp3 is my prediction 

256kbps LAME mp3.

[TMoney]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1003614822/ponomusic-where-your-soul-rediscovers-music

[justin]

Neil Young + good software (this is one area where all the other audiophile DAPs are fail) + good inputs/outputs = potential win. except for that triangle shape.

[Grahame]

Works for Toblerone

[Wmcmanus]

What the fuck were they thinking with that product design?

[Dusty Chalk]

To stand out?

[morphsci]

I really do not see what is wrong with the shape. Unless I am missing something this is not meant to be used like a mobile DAC but rather as a transportable DAC. Can you really appreciate "Studio-Quality Sound" in a mobile environment? Besides, that shape may work for some in their pockets.

Edited March 12, 2014 by morphsci

[Grahame]

Is that a Pono in your pocket?

At least it won't roll off your desk.

[CarlSeibert]

Judging by the size of the fingers in the picture, the thing is huge by mobile standards. Still, as a device to carry around the house, it's a reasonable size. Just as long add it doesn't need an amp or an external DAC strapped on to make it sound ok.

[justin]

the specs say it's 5x2x1", 4.5oz, 8 hr battery life. some of the photos are making the triangle look taller than it really is. i thought it was an equilateral triangle until i looked closely.  

[CarlSeibert]

That's pocket-able.

[justin]

here's a comparison of the profile with the Pico, for those who are familiar with it. Except the Pico is 2.75" long (plus knob) while this is 5" long, or just barely longer than an iPhone 5 which is considered a small phone

 

[luvdunhill]

I like the triangle.

[Dusty Chalk]

For the record, I have no problem with the triangle.  One of my main pieces of hardware is a trapezoid:

[Grahame]

You should tessellate ...

Edited March 12, 2014 by Grahame

[Dusty Chalk]

I do listen to Tesseract, does that count?

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

[skullguise]

What?  I thought this would be a new format......so this is just another FLAC player?

 

 

 

• The PonoMusic.com Store uses FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) audio format as its standard, for compatibility, although the PonoPlayer can play most popular high-res music formats from other sources. PonoMusic has a quality spectrum, ranging from really good to really great, depending on the quality of the available master recordings:       
• CD lossless quality recordings: 1411 kbps (44.1 kHz/16 bit) FLAC files
• High-resolution recordings: 2304 kbps (48 kHz/24 bit) FLAC files 
• Higher-resolution recordings: 4608 kbps (96 kHz/24 bit) FLAC files
• Ultra-high resolution recordings: 9216 kbps (192 kHz/24 bit) FLAC files

[grawk]

someone probably talked sense into him.  Or said "hey Neil, there already are better formats than mp3 that people actually use."

[skullguise]

Yeah.....I suppose it makes the player a little less interesting or special.  We'll see what the store does for pricing.....

 

"I'd like to order the Grateful Dead 'Dick's Pics Volume 2,768' please...."

 

"Would you like that in lossless, high, higher, or ultra-high?"

[RudeWolf]

I wonder what's the ENOB for this device. 21 bits is considered to be extremely good for desktop DAC's. Dunno how much is lost by the amp stage.

[Salt Peanuts]

here's a comparison of the profile with the Pico, for those who are familiar with it. Except the Pico is 2.75" long (plus knob) while this is 5" long, or just barely longer than an iPhone 5 which is considered a small phone

Didn't realize it was that small. It sure looks a lot bigger on most of their photos.

[Riotvan]

For the record, I have no problem with the triangle.  One of my main pieces of hardware is a trapezoid:

Toblerone > Bounty imo