PONO - Where Music Lives

I've only heard the first three, but yeah, they totally are.

xps Sony Music was kind of notorious in the early cd era for taking whatever the first tape they could find off the shelf (usually a safety tape or production master) and putting it out. It wasn't 'til the early '90s that they started righting wrongs, a process that is still going on today (Springsteen box set).

xpost
totally...meet me in the parking lot after class *makes joint rolling finger gesture*

(half-lidded slow knowing nod)

xps Sony Music was kind of notorious in the early cd era for taking whatever the first tape they could find off the shelf (usually a safety tape or production master) and putting it out. It wasn't 'til the early '90s that they started righting wrongs

Yeah, the first CD of Miles Ahead was all alternate takes. I think something similar happened with the first CD of Sly's Fresh.

I remember the first Clash (US) CD sounding pretty good, but they cut off a few opening bars of the drum intro to "I Fought The Law."

As for the muffling, which I assume was overzealous noise reduction, it obscured (among other things) much of the ride-cymbal and brushwork on Kind of Blue. I think it took Sony at least 3-4 tries until they got that one right.

significant progress in digital music and playback coud have occured between the mid 80s and today

sampling theorem has been around since the 30s and there's been nothing *but* progress since then!

shouldn't conflate technical advances with high-def though, no amount of tech can make that extra data audible...

apologies for linking fox news but contains an hilarious quote from Neil re this issue: "Science says it doesn't matter, but who cares about science?"

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2015/01/12/neil-young-wants-reawakening-to-hi-res-audio-and-pono-is-just-start/

haha

yeah i'm not stumping for 24/192 that much but man some of the recent years CD reiussues of stuff really sound great, like i don't know what happened in the last decade but the beatles, zeppelin, bunch of jazz stuff all those rudy van gelders etc, like man those cds sound great compared to older versions imo

tbf no one on Fox News cares about science

CD issues of pre-CD albums are really hit or miss in general, although yeah seems like early 80s is the best bet for certain things (+japan and german issues), although it seems like maybe the late 90s were a good time as well, per the excellent sounding byrds and rolling stones reissues. the stevehoffman board site is a nice resource for figuring out the best version(s).
A lot of albums STILL lack a decent sounding or complete CD version. Like the first Duran Duran album, there's a song that only appeared on the og LP until the brick-walled deluxe master came out. And a bunch of Blue Note albums, I don't know if decent CDs even exist.. maybe some OOP Japanese editions. The mobile fidelity Nevermind sounds loads better than the original geffen CD, I'm assuming the new issues are brick walled to death.

And yeah the Zeppelin reissues are the absolute bomb, really dynamic sounding. They don't sound all mushy when you crank them up. Zep have strange powers, tho, they defy physical laws

"Science says it doesn't matter, but who cares about science?"
lol we have reached peak pono

tbf no one on Fox News cares about science

Exactly, I'm sure they printed that quote b/c they found it provocative and delicious

A lot of albums STILL lack a decent sounding or complete CD version.

The CD history of the Who's A Quick One is an insane maze of botched remixes, lost multitracks, sub-par 2-track masters, and vinyl needle-drops. I think you have to buy seven or eight different discs (some imports, some out of print, some not even A Quick One) to get decent stereo versions of all the songs. I haven't tried/can't be bothered, and I love that record.

>backed up by every single double-blind listening test ever.

you are right to call out superstition, and I didn't want to get too into the details: what I was hearing almost certainly had as much, or more, to do with clock noise & filter error than any magic heterodyning down into the audible spectrum from the 96k bat, flute, and tuvan throat singing recordings I was comparing, both of which contained a lot of crazy upper-frequency information. you can call it 'air' or 'presence' when it's probably just bad filters hashing up the inaudible high end. but if that's what it was, I want more of it in my music, as long as I've got senken 100k mics to work with and an anechoic chamber to listen in. for a portable system, the converters are much more important than a big hard drive. my guess is that Sony $1200 thing has fairly good ones.

Zep have strange powers, tho, they defy physical laws

^also copyright laws

Hi Bill

i think Bowie's pre-Ryko CDs from the 80s are highly prized, other audiophile types will know more but they were considered the best sounding at least until recently iirc.

Theory: Neil Young is NwAvGuy. thinkaboutit.

i should try a double-blind, but the new "remastered for pono" version of "Everyone Knows This is Nowhere" sounds better my pristine vinyl.

i was just wondering earlier if anyone on ilm had gone and got all pono'd up.

guess that answers my question.

btw - i listened to the pono remaster on my pc, not on a pono

#nopono

It's likely the remaster, not the resolution. Knock it down to 192 kbps and see how it sounds....

I'd say the 16/44 Pono remaster of Time Fades Away is superior to any other digital version I've heard including the withdrawn HDCD mix, which has a little too much bass for these ears. No idea how this one might compare to the original vinyl and I ain't buying into that high res witchcraft either. But yeah, this is an excellent mix.

The jack on my dragonfly DAC is f'd up... No sound in the right channel. I'm sending it in for the warranty but dammit why must all this stuff be so fragile

If you can play these files on a computer, what does the Pono player do exactly?

get Neil Young real paid.

btw - i listened to the pono remaster on my pc, not on a pono

oooh.
apologies.
clearly i've not followed the story that closely, as i thought pono files were only playable on a pono device.
did not realise that they can be played on a pc.

re dragonfly : thought about getting one, but was concerned about the constant weight on one of my laptops usb ports with a audio cable attached as well. especially as i've had issues with using my audio out plug on the laptop as after a while the output jack becomes very sensitive to movement.

hence why i decided to not go for dragonfly, and go nas/sonos - i.e. nothing connected to any of my laptop connectors.

Whiney, Pono is just a digital music player with a really high quality headphone amp and DAC. The DAC is a good one used in Oppos and some other products,

If you can play these files on a computer, what does the Pono player do exactly?

― (extremely quan voice) My Lifestyle (Whiney G. Weingarten)

Pono remasters are comprised of flac files. My copy of "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere" is in the 5k-5.5k bitrate range. Also, my PC has a 24-bit soundcard.

Wu-Tang Clannad is correct in that pono is little more than a souped-up MP3 player.

If this pono-project only succeeds in getting well-done remasters of previous muddy releases, i fail to see how to monetize the platforms viability. Even a 320kbps MP3 of this superior remaster may win a double-blind over the previous shitty releases.

I would bet that a good 192kbps remaster would trump a crappy 96/24 file without breaking a sweat. Better sound, or a more accurate depiction of inferior sound.... Especially if the remaster had been done with the lower bitrate in mind.

http://www.laweekly.com/music/why-cds-may-actually-sound-better-than-vinyl-5352162

important article IMO, if for no other reason that it reminds us of the some of the historical (and actual) deficiencies of vinyl and why audiophiles welcomed CDs in the first place -- that's a history that's gotten lost in all the "vinyl revival" hype

also neil young is, well, neil young and nothing will take that away, but absolutely nobody should take his opinion on anything involving audio formats

btw it's really worth reading the whole article, which isn't really summarized by the headline

good article, you're right about the headline not reflecting the content ... I like the way it puts technology changes into historical/industry context

POGUE SPEAKS

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/it-was-one-of-kickstarters-most-successful-109496883039.html?soc_src=mags&soc_trk=tw

The subjects would not know which player was A and which was B. In fact, after each song I disconnected both players and reattached them to the A/B box, sometimes the same way and sometimes the opposite way, so that the subject could never get lazy and keep proclaiming, for example, that B sounded better.
During playback, the subjects were free to compare the two playback sources with as much scrutiny as they wished. After each listen, the subject announced a sound preference: A, B, or neither.
The results surprised even me. Whether wearing earbuds or expensive headphones, my test subjects usually thought that the iPhone playback sounded better than the Pono Player.

You may remember that 14 of my test subjects said they didn’t hear enough difference to justify buying a Pono. The 15th guy, however, said, “I would and I did!”
That is, he was already the owner of a Pono.
I pointed out to him that in my test, even he had preferred the sound of the iPhone. His reply: The Pono may not actually sound better, but it delivers more emotion.
This, I think, is what this controversy boils down to. “OK, OK, you can’t hear any difference. But you can feel it,” the high-res-audio fans say. This, too, is what Neil Young says about the Pono — that it restores the music’s “soul.”
Well, OK. But now we’re getting into squishy territory. It’s like saying that wearing a crystal or a magnet makes you healthier: There’s no scientific or measurable basis to the statement, but then again, if it works for you, nobody can argue with you.

The Pono may not actually sound better, but it delivers more emotion.

that must be down to the special "affective micro-transformer" they've included in every Pono

Don't ask about the squirming, living biochip inside your Pono

http://38.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7blchk70p1rpuizno1_500.gif

I'm forecasting a Her-like future with owners falling in love with their Ponos.

"Science says it doesn't matter, but who cares about science?"

i wonder if neil young vaccinated his kids...

he seems to trust scientists re. global warming FWIW

...and Electric Cars...and hearing aids apparently (Neil's recommended special models to Stills and Pete Townshend).

lol at Eraserhead gif.

"Science says it doesn't matter, but who cares about science?"
i wonder if neil young vaccinated his kids...

― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, January 30, 2015 2:38 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

given how profoundly disabled his son is and the lenths neil has gone to care for him, i'd guess "yes"

not surprised at all by that study but still, lol

also, kinda scummy of Neil to do all these studies based off "low-resolution MP3s", which haven't been widespread since like, the Napster days

Hey everyone do you guys know Neil Young?

hey everyone do you guys know neil young can i get his email why because he look intersting

heard he was sonned by a wite ponytail in a NAMM beef