PonoMusic - My Morning Jacket Artist Edition

[GO4IT]

For you audophiles and vinyl fans with the good sound systems (that's you Mr. GO4IT), how does it sound?  Are you using headphones?  The photos look cool.

I've only used earbuds so far since I don't have high-end headphones.

By Sat I should have the cable I need to hook it to my stereo and I will do a comparison vs vinyl for Circuital and Okonokos Sat night.  That's a tough test given how great my vinyl pressing of these two albums are.  You are welcome to join me for the test and some libations.

Great idea....that is a test I wouldn't mind taking!   I got high-end headphones about three years ago and don't know what took me so long to get them.  Good potential Christmas gift from Mrs. GO4IT.

Well bring your headphones over tomorrow night and we'll have a three-way comparison!

[buymycar]

I really wish I could hear 24-bit Okonokos. I hope Pono adds it to their store soon. Those who have had it for a few weeks now, how is it?

[buymycar]

Thanks for your thoughts, Mr. White. I can't believe there are only 94 of these MMJ Pono Players in existence! Makes me wish I had ponied up for one. I did ask for and receive the new Sony NWZ-A17 Hi-Rez digital audio player for Christmas (retails for $300), and it sounds amazing (with the few Hi-Rez files I have). I really wish I could put some Hi-Rez MMJ on there, though! I wonder how the sound of the Sony compares to the Pono sound.

[GO4IT]

I really wish I could hear 24-bit Okonokos. I hope Pono adds it to their store soon. Those who have had it for a few weeks now, how is it?

Yeah buymycar, I keep checking the Pono Store for more High-Resolution releases, but there are absolutely zero albums available on there right now from MMJ. (It is still in the Beta form and only available to those who pledged for a Player or donated some money to the original Kickstarter campaign, but it is really taking a long time.)

I have always been very impressed with the mix and production of Okonokos. I have never gotten the opportunity to listen to it on vinyl, but I can say the higher-resolution version does sound fantastic. The even higher-resolution of Circuital sounds really good too. I don't listen to the original album all that much (I much prefer the live versions of the Circuital songs), but I almost thought they had gone and re-mastered it for the Pono Store. However, I think it is really my new ears via my Pono Player paired with my Sennheiser Momentum On-Ear headphones making that jump. I hope GO4IT gets back to us with a report after his Okonokos vinyl vs. High-Resolution test he was going to conduct with the help of APR.

Hey, sorry for the delay in my review of Pono vs vinyl.  I have been diligently working on it, including the first weekend I mentioned when I had a couple of old friends over to help me with the review and I want to get it right.  Given that it was my absolute first time playing tracks with the Pono, there was some operator error, including plugging the lead into the headphone jack instead of the line out jack which made a big difference in a not so good way. Not sure why that is.  Hold the jokes about not being able to get it in the right hole

Based on listens so far after these first hiccups, I feel I need to go to side-by-side comparisons, that is switching back and forth between vinyl and Pono during the songs to really discriminate.  That should tell you something.

Family, work, and holidaze have slowed my evaluation but I will post it by the end of the long New Years weekend when guests have moved on and I can do some tests at the proper volume without waking them up

Stay tuned and I hope everyone is enjoying their holidays

[buymycar]

For those that have the MMJ LE Pono, does the Hi-Rez version of Circuital come with the different colored "eye" artwork for each song? I'm just curious because I had forgotten that we received a lossless copy (16/44.1 in ALAC) from the Circuital download if we preordered the album from the website. I always thought it was cool that each song had a different color for its artwork.

[buymycar]

For those that have the MMJ LE Pono, does the Hi-Rez version of Circuital come with the different colored "eye" artwork for each song? I'm just curious because I had forgotten that we received a lossless copy (16/44.1 in ALAC) from the Circuital download if we preordered the album from the website. I always thought it was cool that each song had a different color for its artwork.

No. They,re all green.

Thanks. It wouldn't be too hard to change the artwork, I suppose, so no big deal.

Still waiting on MMJ's additions to the Pono store. The split EP with Songs:Ohia is up there, but only in CD quality.

[buymycar]

Circuital is now in the Pono store, but only in 44.1kHz/16 bit? What is going on here?

[dontgetupset]

Pretty scary

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2015/02/ponoplayer_review_neil_young_s_new_streaming_device_sounds_no_better_than.2.html

[Derek713]

I saw the standard yellow Pono in a Fry's ad today for $399.00 with a free $50 gift card with purchase for anyone wanting one.

[buymycar]

Pono has put some remaining KickStarter Edition LE players with the signatures on sale for $499. It appears that there is one My Morning Jacket player left.

[highwaytothedangerzone]

Weird is the word of the day 

[frontwards]

Ugh. I purchased the tune last night as well as downloaded PonoMusic World 20, but I am unable to download the song because I cannot commute with the server for whatever reason.  I changed my firewall settings for Pono, but no dice.  Bummer town.  Have any of you good folks had a similar problem by chance?

[ChiefOKONO]

Hmm interesting.  Any idea how much it is?

[ChiefOKONO]

Bummer for sure.  They really shouldn't charge that much more for hi res but I suppose we can't control that....

[ranyart]

My Morning Jacket Limited Edition Pono Music Player - 16 of 94 with Etched Autographs of All 5 Current Members & Real Autographs from Current Members - Jim, Tom, Patrick, & Carl, & Former Members - Johnny Quaid & Danny Cash - (Missing Real Autographs from Bo Koster, J. Glenn, & Chris Guetig)

https://www.instagram.com/p/CZ3COWFs7sB/

That is some cool shit Mr. White.  Seriously... 

My biggest problem with Pono and anything else that is a locked ecosystem forcing hardware, software, and media into a straight jacket is simple.  It just doesn't work for me or most folks.  And the "cloud" ain't worth the cloud it's built on in the long run as Pono proves once again so no telling what will happen next.