Neil Young’s high-quality digital music player Pono has gone on sale but with a $399 price tag, lack of storage and high-cost digital files, it will struggle.
The Pono is being marketed as the first serious competitor to Apple’s iPod. On the positive side, you can listen to music in high-quality studio sounding FLAC format as well as ALAC, WAV, AIFF, AAC (unprotected) and MP3 but not all music available through the Pono store is up to the quality of the player.
At the Pono site, Neil Young explains, “Finally, quality enters the listening space so that we can all hear and feel what the artists created, the way they heard and felt it.”
“This is done when the artist makes the best available, wanting to share it with you. It happens when the artist lets you hear and feel more than what is on your CD or MP3 of any song. CDs and MP3s are derived from the original masters, and now, with the PonoPlayer, you can finally feel the master in all its glory, in its native resolution, CD quality or higher, the way the artist made it, exactly. That’s the beauty of Pono”.
That’s all very well, but with Pono the quantity is compromised for quality. With 128GB storage on the device storage is an issue. The Pono will take a 64GB microSD card but the idea behind owning a digital player is to eliminate auxiliary parts to carry around. It does however have a USB port so you can plug-in an external hard drive, but again, that is defeating the purpose of a portable player to start with.
Pono’s battery life is limited as well. The player can only handle up to 8 hours of playback before it needs recharging. Compare that to an iPod that will get you listening all the way from Sydney to London and back again in one charge.
Albums are expensive via the Pono store as well, even Neil Young albums. Neil’s ‘After The Gold Rush’ costs $US21.79 via the Pono store. The same title is $10.99 on iTunes or the CD through Amazon for $8.99.
Foo Fighters ‘Sonic Highways’ is $17.99 through Pono, $9.99 through iTunes and $9.99 through Amazon.
AC/DC ‘Rock Or Bust’ also sells for $17.99 via Pono but is only available in 96.0kHz/24bit sound, not the 192kHz/24bit sound the player is capable of reproducing.
The Pono is also an odd shape. The triangular ‘Toblreone’ looking device won’t fit easily in your pocket but may attract comments like “is that a Pono in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?”
Orders are now being taken for the Pono player for delivery in February at
https://ponomusic.force.com
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