Pono Portable Music Player

Product Description

Top Reviews

I wanted to take some time with it so understand what I liked and what the shortcoming were
by Woodsanta (4 out of 5 stars)
November 2, 2015

I have had my Pono about a month. I wanted to take some time with it so understand what I liked and what the shortcoming were. I bought the Pono because I got really tired of Itunes for Windows which is one of the worst pieces of software written. I love my Ipods but Apple, in their infinite wisdom, decided not to make them anymore and software is so far out of date.

Enjoyments:

The sound from the Pono is fabulous. With a good (high quality) headset, the quality is much higher than on an Ipod. I took same pieces of music (mp3) on both devices and I can hear the difference. I took the same piece of music, but two different formats (mp3 vs FLAC) on the Pono and the FLAC is substantially of higher quality and resolution. If you are an audiophile, this is a no brainer.

When routed through the car or home audio system, tremendous sound quality increase. Sound just comes alive with a good speaker system.

Frustrations:

I thought Itunes for windows was bad. Do not even download and use Ponomusic World. It is poorly written and fully frustrating. The people who wrote the software should be ashamed. Best, simplest and easiest way to move music to the Pono is drag and drop. If you customize or change your music files, Ponomusic World (PMW) will likely not recognize it. I tried uninstalling and reloading to no avail so I just dumped it and will not go there.

Poor battery life so carry and an extra charged auxiliary battery with me when working out side and keep it plugged in in the car or home.

The Ipod is a marvelous piece of software and hardware so if you are comfortable with it, you will have a learning curve because Pono is not nearly as flexible.

The shape is funky but no big problems.

Audible book files (aax) need to be converted since they do not play on the Pono but that is not a big issue. Several good converters available for download.

Would I buy it again knowing what I know now? In a heartbeat. Going to purchase another for the home audio system. If you do not really appreciate and enjoy music, this is probably not for you however if you are an audiophile, order it now.
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Sounds great, but....
by Amazon Customer (3 out of 5 stars)
January 18, 2017

Let's start w/ the strengths of the pono. It really sounds fabulous. I don't think there is any better sounding digital music player at this price point. The sound is detailed, natural, and smooth; without being too analytical. With a good pair of headphones this thing is great. From here my experience hit some limits. I am not a big fan of the form factor. The shape isn't as big an inconvenience as some people say, though a byproduct of the shape is a very small screen, and there are real issues with a touch screen that is that small. The player is however small enough and light enough to be really portable. My real problems were with the Music Vault Beta software (current in December 2016). Unfortunately the online data bases for classical CD metadata are a mess, and the pono software was not robust enough or flexible enough to practically manage a classical music library. The metadata imported was mostly incorrect (which is not the fault of pono), and in some cases the software was not capable of overwriting it to create playlists. Additionally, playlists would not always move from the computer to the player, or at least would not appear in the menu on the player. They did seem to be lurking somewhere in the memory of the player. I think the satisfaction of most users will depend on their musical interests & listening habits. If you listen to popular music (where the data basses are more reliable), and you mostly play albums or just shuffle a library, you will love this thing. If you want to manage your library in a more specific way, you will find lots of frustration. Hopefully the next generation of the software will be better. At this time I would rate the pono five stars for sound, but only between 1 & 4 stars for user experience, depending on how you listen to music. I can imagine enjoying the pono, but didn't work for me.
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battery life is not fantastic, but the sound quality was what I was ...
by Amazon Customer (5 out of 5 stars)
March 30, 2016

I bought the unit after reading a lot of reviews, and most of them are accurate. There are niggles about the touch screen interface, battery life is not fantastic, but the sound quality was what I was after. And it truly delivers on sound quality.
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I like it
by KINGTED (4 out of 5 stars)
April 3, 2016

Pros:

Sounds great.

I like the form factor, it stands up on end or on its side and the buttons are easily identifiable by feel.

Cons:

It does not play WMAs at all which stinks because most of my collection is in WMA. However the JRiver based PonoMusicPlayer does auto convert to mp3, flac, or alac.

Battery lasts at most 8 hours while playing.

There is no hibernate function, so either the battery drains (slowly) or it shuts down entirely which requires a slow library scan and loses your place in the playlist.
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I am an experienced audio enthusiast and am used to really good equipment and really good sound
by Mark (5 out of 5 stars)
March 7, 2016

Stellar player. I am an experienced audio enthusiast and am used to really good equipment and really good sound. The quality of sound from this player is simply amazing, especially for the money. I found the touch screen hard to use at first but now have no problem with it, and the player is otherwise easy to use. And I don't really understand the comments about it not fitting into a pocket--it fits into mine just fine. I plan to buy a couple more of these for family.
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I LOVE this thing - all muscians should have one!
by Barry Miller (5 out of 5 stars)
May 26, 2016

I'm sure that the Pono isn't for everyone as the features are specifically for those who actually listen to the music. If music is just background noise to shut out the world - and that's OK - the Pono is too much work. But as an engineer and a musician, this is exactly what I was looking for.

A little work is in order to get the full benefit. First off, get rid of all MP3's. Out of 1200 albums, I have about 300 that I'd downloaded from Apple or had imported from a CD using MP3 rather than loss less compression. I copied over a couple dozens clips at random to the Pono Player and was able to identify the MP3 copies within 10 seconds of playing each. The difference is that profound. That's when I realized that the iPad simple beats the hell out of all formats, so everything sounds mediocre but homogeneous. This also explains why I stopped listening to music from the iPad and iPhone. After the MP3s are gone, CD quality should be the minimum level for all material. The Ayre Digital to Analog (D to A) converter is vastly superior to anything in the standard commercial world. This is a manufacturer that deals exclusively with high end audio and it is really amazing what they've done in this little package. So even CD quality is pristine and well above what you'd get from most CD players. Next, it doesn't support blue tooth or WiFi and that is a good thing. Blue tooth is another technology that negatively impacts audio quality. And Wifi isn't much better. The USB interface works great and it's easy to add a library by just copying to Micro SD chips. In your car, get a really good 3.5 mm cable to plug into the AUX input that hopefully you have. The sound system in my Avalon finally sounds impressive! And get a good set of headphones.

If you record your own material in the studio, it plays WAV files and sounds as good as any active reference monitor assuming you have decent headphones. And speaking of active monitors, the Pono supports a balanced line output configuration that allows you to connect directly to powered studio monitors. My monitors (Focal Solo 6) sound unbelievable with this unit plugged in. So this is definitely my "toy of the year"!

I wanted to add some additional comments: for those who mention the power issue, I understand that can be annoying. However, I finally read the little manual that comes with the Pono (don't tell anyone) and turning off the screen does help substantially. And I bailed and bought an external power unit that can also charge my phone, iPad, etc.I know this seems like a big failure on the part of the designers, but from an engineering standpoint, I'm guessing that this is a result of not cutting corners so that quality is preserved. When you cheat to make the thing work for longer periods of time, there will be deficits elsewhere, so I'm glad they didn't go that route.

The other thing that people mention is the speed at which the interface works in transferring files.Once you start adding material to Micro SD chips (versus the on board memory), you can do that directly to the memory stick and it's all a matter of the hardware at that point. Plug into a USB 3.0 compliant port and buy Micro SD chips that support the highest bandwidth. I haven't found much of a difference using different USB to Micro SD adapters aside, obviously, for the differences between USB 2.0 and USB 3.0. So make sure the adapter supports 3.0.

A few people have mentioned that they hate the JRiver PC application. I've found that it allows me to do everything I want to do with re-arranging my Library and is significantly better than iTunes. But it's powerful because I already know a lot about how they handle their file system. That may not be something for everyone, but for the knowledgeable, it rocks!

So I'm still loving it and having loads of fun listening to music that doesn't sound damaged.

Update January 14th, 2017 - The Pono folks have a beta version of an interface application to replace the JRiver software. It will probably eventually make everyone happy who wants a simpler interface. But it's a work in progress. Fortunately it doesn't cost anything. I have it installed because I'm assuming it will be a way to upgrade Pono firmware (although that's not in the current version). I bought the full JRiver software package which is a non-Pono version of the one they had supplied previously for the Pono Player. I've really gotten to like the JRiver stuff and the full version seems to be more robust than the Pono only version. And it can be installed on multiple PCs.

I also added Sony MDR-Z7 headphones to my Pono set-up which comes with cables for balanced mode on the Pono. Wow! I'm not sure how it could get any better.
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Never received
by Felix Horlacher (1 out of 5 stars)
May 7, 2019

My fault should have written much earlier.

There were Dog Chewing Bars in the box and I missed writing instantly
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Great job pono
by Kindle Customer (5 out of 5 stars)
October 17, 2015

Excellent sounding device that easily crushes the sound of my beloved ipod. Which was great until it finally died. I just got this unit yesterday and it already can compete with my 1500$ reference dac. I am using grado ps500 headphones and a set of akg k340s . The grados are easy to drive the akgs are not. This device sounds great with both. Overall I am very pleased with the entire presentation and sound. Great job.

After about a week...the Pono is still amazing..like carrying my home system with me. It sounds AMAZING in the car...believe it or not...

PS. It does eat up batteries...mostly while running hi res files...then again my ipod classic did the same thing with flacs.

Looks...I dont understand all the references to the tolberone candy bar. To me it reminds me of my small guitar tuners I own.

Update-use my pono constantly. The pono website is fun and interactive. And yes the pono team actually gets back to you with questions. Also the pono music world is basically just j-river light. Every serious computer audio person I know uses j-/river. Including myself. And yes..The player sounds better the more you use it. Also...you will get better results with a very high quality headphone. So make that investment...imo.

Ok so its been about 3 years since I purchased the Pono player. I have had no problems with the device and it simply gets better and better with age. I truly do not know what I would do if it died...truly. I will state again ...don't purchase this product if you have cheapo...under 400$ headphones....its like buying a new suit and getting a old pair of shoes...Hi Res starts with a great player...my suggestion ....make the headphone investment or you will not experience the true value of the sound quality of hi res and Pono. IMO
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****TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!
by John ho ho (2 out of 5 stars)
July 19, 2015

TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!!! Good sound, will you notice the difference from iTunes? No. Lately there has been up to a 24 hr. waiting period before purchased music can be downloaded. If you have a problem you cannot talk to a live human, you have to submit a ticket and wait for a response. Awful!!
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Amazing sound, with some caveats
by Daniel Hirshleifer (4 out of 5 stars)
September 7, 2015

I heard about Pono early enough to get in on the Kickstarter when the players were still available at 50% off. And at that price, this little device was an absolute steal. First, let's break down Pono into two different pieces:
1. The Pono Player, the device being sold here on Amazon.
2. The Pono store, an online site where you can buy albums/songs in lossless FLAC format.

To be clear, you do not need to shop for music at the Pono web store if you purchase a Pono player. Alternately, you don't need a Pono player to play the files from the Pono web store. There are no proprietary file types here. If you buy the player, you can buy your music from anywhere that sells DRM-free music files of almost any type (I say almost because while the Pono can playback DSD64 and DSD128, it cannot do DXD).

So, that being said, what's the big deal about Pono and why not just buy an iPod, or a Fiio X3, or a Sandisk clip, or just use your phone? In a word: Internals. The Pono player was designed to do one thing, and do it really well: Play music. Of course, so were the iPod Classics, and the Fiio, etc. But Pono was custom designed by Ayre from the ground up with some really excellent components designed to make this player punch above its price point, and in that regard it excels. Ask the vast majority of Pono owners and they will tell you that they love their device, they love the sound of it, and for many, it made them rediscover music that they'd been listening to for years or decades.

Now, let me be clear, this isn't specifically a result of hi-res audio. With the Pono, pretty much everything you throw at it will sound better, because the internals are just that well designed. If all the music you own is on MP3/AAC, you will still hear the benefits of the Pono player. That being said, you may want to up your game to include lossless files, and the Pono can handle the industry standards of FLAC, ALAC, AIFF, WAV, and even DSD 64 and 128 (again, no DXD). That's a lot of flexibility, meaning you'll be able to listen to almost anything you want from virtually any source.

Now comes the other piece of the puzzle, which really has nothing to do with the player, but is relevant for someone who wants to get into audiophile listening: Audio resolution. As many people have experienced with MP3, the higher bitrate you have, the better the music tends to sound. This is because MP3 files are designed to remove information from the original source to create a smaller file. Most of this information is inaudible, but the lower your bitrate, the more corners the compression codec has to cut, resulting in worse sound. Many people feel that the best encoders can produce excellent sounding variable bit rate files, and that 320 kbps constant bit rate files are good enough for most listeners. But if you're looking at the Pono, you may feel you don't fall into the category of "most listeners", and you want to go further. You want to go lossless.

Lossless compression is just what it sounds like: Compression that removes no information from the source. These codecs, like FLAC and ALAC, give you the full data of the source recording, but without the giant file sizes of truly uncompressed audio. Obviously, since lossless contains more information to start than MP3, the files will still be bigger than MP3, but FLAC/ALAC is a good compromise between space and sound quality. Within lossless, you have different levels of audio resolution. The most common is 16 bit/44.1 kHz, which is the resolution of all audio CDs . According to digital sampling theory, 16/44.1 (or maybe 48 kHz if you've got really good, young ears) should be sufficient for playback of all audio. However, 16/44 is not great for recording purposes, which usually requires more headroom, so many recordings are made/mixed at higher resolutions, such as 24 bit/96 kHz or 24/192. The Pono player can play up to 24/192, but there is some question as to whether there's any tangible aural benefits to playing back music in such high resolution.

This is an area with a lot of FUD and people masquerading their opinions as facts, so my recommendation is this: Use your ears. Download some audio samples or buy a few tracks and use a program to create copies at different resolutions (always go from highest resolution down, up sampling to a higher resolution will not give you any benefit). If you think 24/96 or 24/192 sounds better to you than 16/44, then get your files at those resolutions. If you can't tell a difference between 16/44 and anything higher, than save your money and hard drive space and either buy 16/44 files or rip CDs, which are all 16/44 anyway. If you can't tell the difference between high bitrate MP3s and 16/44, then stick with those and save even more hard drive space. The important point is that you have the files that sound best to you and additionally, that the Pono player will make all of those files sound pretty darned great.

So why only four stars? Well, the player sounds great, but for everything other than sound, the player could use some improvements. First, the prism shape of the player itself may be vexing to people who have tight pockets and are used to the thin slab of a smartphone. This is indeed an odd design decision and the utility is debatable, but given the components inside the player, this thing was going to be thick regardless of its shape. So the shape is a love it/hate it sort of thing, and I tend to fall on the side of the fence that thinks the shape could have been better thought out. Second, the touch screen is not up to par with the latest offerings from major smartphone manufacturers, or even recent budget Android offerings. I cannot tell you how many times the player has registered a scroll as a press, or a press as a double tap, and navigating the UI is simply not pleasant, certainly not compared to an iPod or smartphone. Once you're listening to music, it's great, but be prepared for frustration along the way. Due to the quality components used, the player generates a decent amount of heat (especially in balanced mode) and the battery life is fairly short for an offline device that only plays music, with anywhere between 5-8 hours on a single charge. Now, granted, 5-8 hours of continuous listening is a lot, and your ears might get tired before the battery runs dry, but if you're taking the Pono out of your house for an extended period, you may need to worry about carrying a charger along with it.

Ultimately, I feel that the people behind Pono (not just Neil Young, the entire team) really love great music and want it reproduced in the best quality possible. The Pono feels like a labor of love and the audio playback really is audiophile grade. If you separate the player from the hype about hi-res music, and take it just as a really high quality PMP, you won't be disappointed with the audio. If you want a player that can play almost anything you throw at it in the best possible quality, the Pono cannot be beat for the price. If you're more concerned about the entire player experience, including portability, pocketability, and UI, then the Pono may not be your best bet. It's a question of what inconveniences you're willing to put up with for excellent sound quality.

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