Review of the Pono player

[ripNdeb]

Who cares, really? 5%, 2%, of folks who actually 'listen' to music?

[escapemcp]

There is a new method out (the name of which escapes me) that apparently preserves some of the dynamics yet helps control volume levels.

R 128 from the EBU.


Awful logo... how long did it take them on mspaint to design that thing?? Engineers≠artists.
I suppose it's better than blowing the whole budget on the logo though

[Rich4349]

I've "wow'd" several people in the last couple of years with a Sansa Clip+, playing FLAC files of well-mastered music over an old pair of 1st gen Sony MDR-E828LP ear buds. From old farts to the kiddies.

For under $100, the sound of this combination simply runs circles around most anything priced an order of magnitude higher.


shown with the even better sounding MDR-AS40EX in-ears

I had an old school Sansa (matchbook size, don't remember the model, got it on woot about 5 years ago) and was pretty pleased with it. Other than the fact that the Clip+ plays FLAC files, is there something special about that model?

And: just picked up a pair of your recommended ear buds; we'll see how they stack up against my plain old pair of $25 Sonys. (that seem to play flatly enough for me)

[SimonD]

Now, what else started getting big in the late 80's/early 90's...
And became an easy scapegoat for bad-sounding music...

Ever tried using one of these? "?"

[Ryan Sober]

Now, what else started getting big in the late 80's/early 90's...
And became an easy scapegoat for bad-sounding music...

Ever tried using one of these? "?"

I call those "leading ellipses."
I use them because I'm not asking for an answer; I'm trying to lead you into figuring out the answer on your own.
Because if you think about it for more than .2 seconds, the answer should make itself clear.

[byacey]

And the reason the kiddies don't care is that the music they are listening to is so compressed from a dynamics standpoint that it really doesn't sound any worse on MP3 than CD.

Every now and then I turn on one of the local county stations......geez, it really starts to bug the crap out of me after just a minute or two - from the compression in recording to the compression at mastering - then the compression that the station squashes it with......everything just comes at you like a 2x4. There's no life at all - it's just a wall of sound (and not the Phil Spector kind).

Maybe it's just our society now.....everybody gets a participation award so they don't get their feelings hurt. So, on the recording, everybody has to be equal and be at the same volume to keep everybody's self esteem intact. Wouldn't want that lead vocal to be louder than the tambourine player....now would we?

I must be leftover from the stone age. When I master, I shoot for an RMS level of -16dbfs averaged over a 15 second excerpt. This gives me a reasonably punchy average level with some headroom left for dynamics.

[Radian]

Other than the fact that the Clip+ plays FLAC files, is there something special about that model?

That, and the addition of the SD card lot. The unit shown in that pic is sporting a 128 GB card...just under half my music library in butter-smooth FLAC quality, on tap.

And: just picked up a pair of your recommended ear buds; we'll see how they stack up against my plain old pair of $25 Sonys.

[escapemcp]

And: just picked up a pair of your recommended ear buds; we'll see how they stack up against my plain old pair of $25 Sonys.

I never said that!!
For the record, my recommended buds are SoundMagic E10s. They are another little gem I discovered coming from China.

I love finding the cheap (but good) stuff

[Radian]

Woops! Sorry about that. Fixed.