rlisin
Quad 4 life
Some people have 17,000 posts. Each one a unique subject, no doubt.
:yes:
Interesting PONO Article
- Thread starter shacky
- Start date
:yes:
It's all in how you use mobile audio. For biking and riding the bus to work I was fine with 128k AAC on my iPod and it's pack-in earbuds until I got Etymotic in-canals. Then I needed 320VBR for good sound once I got to work. The isolation of in-canals wasn't all that conducive to working with others in an office so I resurrected my old semi-open headphones and bought an amp for them. Then 320VBR became limiting and fatiguing. So I re-ripped my library for the 3rd time in ALAC. It works for the commute and the office, but 2 big iPods didn't hold my library so lately I'm using my MacBook Pro at the office and the iPods in the car. When the iPods wear out I'll be looking hard at the Fiio players.
timofred
I'm just a garbage man...
Let me elaborate,
His intonation of the leading statement to the 'guinea pigs', showed a definate bias against the device he was trying to evaluate,
subtly or discretely, this WILL influence his audience.
That's what makes him an idiot.
+48V
hi-fi or die
So, at the end of the day, for Joe Blow Earbud looking to discover “jaw dropping” SQ improvement; Pogue’s advice to forgo a $600+ Pono and just buy a $200 pair of decent headphones for their current device is a disservice?
Nah. While his embellished draw may have been a bit shaky; he hit a bullseye smack dab on the target. Yaaahoo!
Nah. While his embellished draw may have been a bit shaky; he hit a bullseye smack dab on the target. Yaaahoo!
Reynolds531
Active Member
What specifically are the shortcomings of an iPhone 5s or 6 as a music player? Other than the supplied earbuds, of course.
rufusx
Active Member
Some people have 17,000 posts. Each one a unique subject, no doubt.
Bingo.
:thmbsp:
fredgarvin
Super Member
You can also play the files you currently have, lossless or mp3. The author is indeed either an idiot or a shill for some entity that relies on audio noobs.
Reynolds531
Active Member
hmmm...the author shows that an iPhone, which has flat frequncy response across the entire range of human hearing and has virtually inaudible noise, harmonic distortion, and IM distortion sounds as good as or better than a Pono and he's a shill?
maybe he's simply outside of the cult of audio equipment worshippers who use anectdote and testimonials as the basis for beliefs that contradict physics and physiology.
shacky said:
More like like the Pono folks are misleading the masses
No valid reason or sonic benefit to rip and (up sample ) CD 16/44.1
to a higher resolution........Ofc. FLAC is considered loss-less either way .
OTOH one could always just play 16/44.1 ,MP*** or AAC on a Pono and keep their collection same with a FIIO X3,X5 .
The only legitimate added value in the 2 channel hires music world beyond 16/44.1 is when the source recording and or mastering is a better quality and (less compressed) master than a lot of commercial CD's and only available in hires but that has nothing to do with hires other than a sales channel for *some* better quality recordings and hires hardware and NO vinyl doesn't sound better than
a good CD on a good playback chain ,just different sometimes and some folks prefer that ....ofc Vinyl can sound very good also on a good playback chain .
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truckrglenn
Lost
What's an iphone? What's an earbug?
Reynolds531
Active Member
An iPhone is a device produced at a rate of about 30,000 units per hour by a company that spends $6 billion per year on R&D. a company full of world class PhD scientists and engineers--those people who know things like physics and data theory and physiology of hearing. People who know that capacitors and wires don't break-in, that people don't hear tones above 20 kHz in music, and that 16 bits yields about 100 db of dynamic range
the unprecedented economies of scale and unprecedented intellectual and economic resouces applied to device development have yielded a world class music player in a cell phone.
earbug is a nice perjoritive for a low qulity earbud.
fredgarvin
Super Member
Or maybe not. His article is, as pointed out, ludicrous on several levels. I'm happy you like your phone though.
It has science and physics!
NOHDjunkie
Well-Known Member
I took the authors main point to be that Pono's claims of a "night and day difference" (or whatever their hyperbole is/was) was exaggerated at best.
IMO it is. but it's advertizing, what do you expect?
IMO it is. but it's advertizing, what do you expect?
Reynolds531
Active Member
but detailed measurments and subjective testing both show that the iPhone DAC, amp, and circuit design give superb audio output eqivalent to expensive boutique DACs and headphone amps, although not powerful enough for some headphones.
The iPhone does lack vapid pseudo-audiphile hype and a degree of hobbiest exclusivity. It is a mass market device that provides no identity to the owner.
The iphone can't play 50 kHz signals from high res files which could be useful for driving mice away. Maybe that is the advantage of Pono.
RobInONT
Active Member
Perhaps David Pogue's Pono wasn't broken in.
http://www.ponoworldtimes.com/ponoonlygetsbetter.html
http://www.ponoworldtimes.com/ponoonlygetsbetter.html
Naptown Rob
Ponographer
This mindset is why I find much of the criticism of Pono - almost all of which comes from people who've never even heard one - either absurd, or at least off target.
Apparently you (and many others) can ONLY think of the Pono as a portable player. I almost never use mine that way.
It's usually (98% of the time?) running line level out into an Apt/Holman preamp into a pair of McIntosh MC60 monoblocks. At 300 bucks, it's the cheapest component in my living room system. Christ, the cartridge on the turntable cost that much.
I will take it with me when I go on long car trips, and it sounds great. For me, having that mobile capability (with a chip set that is pretty much universally recognized as significantly better than yours) is just frosting on the cake.
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Reynolds531
Active Member
Actual disclaimers from Pono website: (in summary, we are not responsible for the bs we spew)
PONO AND ITS THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS, GUARANTIES OR WARRANTIES REGARDING THE RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, TIMELINESS, QUALITY, SUITABILITY, TRUTH, ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE WEBSITE, THE WEBSITE CONTENT, OR ANY OF THE GOODS, SERVICES, INFORMATION OR OTHER MATERIALS PROVIDED ON OR THROUGH THE WEBSITE OR IN CONNECTION THEREWITH, OR THE RESULTS YOU MAY OBTAIN BY ACCESSING OR USING THE WEBSITE, THE WEBSITE CONTENT, OR ANY OF THE GOODS, SERVICES, INFORMATION OR OTHER MATERIALS PROVIDED ON OR THROUGH THE WEBSITE OR IN CONNECTION THEREWITH.
ev13wt
Super Member
Indeed. You've already lost the content with the Redbook standard. There's no getting it back.