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

[mypasswordis]

Not sure which is worse, that ponosucks website layout or the fact that some idiot decided to make a DAP in the shape of a triangular prism, and a bunch of other idiots along the way didn't stop it from happening. Someone should make one in the shape of a horse and call it Ponee

[EdipisReks1]

Nobody bought any, so what difference does it make?

[Torpedo]

I purchased a Pono player at the Kickstarter phase. The damn thing sounds really good, I guess the Hansen engineering had something to do, but other than the couple of Herbie Hancock albums this edition had loaded, I haven't been tempted to buy any of the Pono's music. Since it has a big capacity due to the support of microSD cards up to 128GB, I use it when away from home for a few days. Not using it on daily commutes, the shape is just nuts and very impractical. I wish they had made it in a regular flat prism shape.

[CarlSeibert]

Really poor timing on old Neil's part. Ten minutes after he comes out with a stupidly shaped (if great sounding) DAP, phones start supporting USB DACs and there's Red Book streaming and even rectangular DAPs mostly become small paperweights. Oops

[Grahame]

Meanwhile ...

It's going to be called Xstream (no, really)

http://pitchfork.com/news/73040-neil-youngs-new-streaming-service-is-xstream-no-really/

http://www.vulture.com/2017/04/neil-young-announces-streaming-service-xstream.html

https://gizmodo.com/neil-youngs-painful-rebranding-of-his-music-service-won-1794565958

https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/22/15394224/neil-young-high-quality-streaming-music-service-xstream-pono

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/neil-young-preps-new-high-quality-streaming-service-xstream-w478281

https://consequenceofsound.net/2017/04/neil-young-is-launching-a-high-fidelity-streaming-service-called-xstream/

http://www.spin.com/2017/04/neil-young-xstream-empire-streaming-service/

[Grahame]

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/ca/bits-and-bytes/pono-is-officially-dead-r695/

"Pono lasted from December 16, 2011 until its dissolution on December 21, 2017. Based on the Delaware dissolution documents, Pono had an outstanding debt of $2,519,955 and its creditors moved to foreclose on its assets."

[robm321]

Rectangle > triangle? Or is there more to it?

[Voltron]

Was just asking about Pono status the other day and correctly assumed that it was belly up. Oh wel, seemingly good intentions...

[Dusty Chalk]

6 hours ago, robm321 said:

Rectangle > triangle? Or is there more to it?

I doubt it.  Weren't they oblique about the resolution of their files?  Audiophiles like their numbers.

[grawk]

Nothing about that product made sense.  Poor aesthetics on the player, smoke, mirrors and snake oil on the sound quality, and yet another file format that no one else adopted.

[Kattefjaes]

Oh, I thought the Pono stuff used FLAC- what did it use?

Edited March 6, 2018 by Kattefjaes

[grawk]

oh, my bad, I guess it did, I remembered something different, but I guess by the time it became a product they'd given that up.

[robm321]

Now that it's mentioned, I do remember some nonsensical claim(s) early on in an interview (I think) that got some people stirred up. 

Edited March 6, 2018 by robm321

[blessingx]

Reviewing the end. 

The 21st Century Record Player