Audiophiles are rejoicing over the release of the PonoMusic PonoPlayer, which delivers master-quality sound in a portable format. Available in yellow or black, the player features playback resolution of up to 192 kHz/24-bit and is compatible with a variety of formats, including FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, DSD, AAC (unprotected), and MP3. The player offers 64GB of internal storage and includes an expansion slot that accepts microSD SDHC/SDXC Type 10 cards (up to 128GB) for additional memory.
The player was built by audio engineer Charles Hansen, founder of Ayre Acoustics, with a no-compromise approach to sound quality. The unit utilizes a fully discrete output buffer with all individual parameters, circuit values, and parts fully optimized for the finest sound quality possible. The fully balanced D/A converter chip provides two discrete 1/8" output jacks. In its “balanced” mode, the PonoPlayer separates the left and right signal to each of the two outputs, allowing for true stereo operation when connecting to the balanced XLR input connectors on hi-fi systems or with cutting-edge hi-fi headphones from Audeze, Sennheiser, and others. The two 1/8" jacks will also power two sets of headphones or a set of headphones with an unbalanced stereo connection to an audio playback system.
PonoMusic is a fast-growing high-definition online music store with more than 2 million tracks of high-quality music, ranging in resolution from 44.1 kHz/16-bit to 192kHz/24-bit. The company pledges that any music purchased through their website is upgradeable once the same tracks are made available at a higher resolution. This prevents the user from having to re-purchase music once a high-resolution version becomes available. The PonoMusic World software is an application that rounds out the Pono Ecosystem. The software allows you to rip music from your CD collection and transfer to the player, as well as download music from the PonoMusic store, create and manage playlists, and download new firmware updates for the player.
1 Comment
I had it. It sounds great, does NOT fit in your pocket, runs very hot, and the battery last 3-4 hours and that is it. But the sound is good.