Any Pono player owners out there?


Has anyone purchased Neil Young's Pono music player? Share your thoughts and experience so far. The player is now on back order. Thanks.
128x128bander
I've been (mostly) enjoying Neil's career since Buffalo Springfield, and sympathize with his physical issues and family drama...but...DSD and other nice sounding formats came first, and you have to wonder about Neil's ranting about analog vs. digital and then having a strange triangular un pocket friendly little player made for whatever the hell Pono is supposed to be...it's a strange movie...making a scratchy recording in (self described "bluesman") Jack White's restored "phone booth" crappy antique recording system...dumping his long suffering wife for Daryl Hannah...refusing to make nice with Crosby et al, Neil...Neil...sometimes edgy becomes creepy, and irrelevant. Perhaps it's time to fill the Lincoln with french fry oil and drive away...
I will not be buying one simply because I do not care for the man behind it. My Astell & Kern does everything I want it to do.
I bought a Fiio X3, which plays 192/24 and DSD with firmware upgrade 3.2. It has 128 gig micro card storage. It has a digital out, line out and headphone out. It is relatively compact, compared to Pono, and it cost $159.00. Adding two 64 gig cards the cost was $210.00. I order it on Monday of last week and received it on Wednesday. I have loaded it up with high rez master files and have been using it in the car, work and in bed.

The headphone out is so-so. Not bad, but nothing special. Going from the line out to my portable headphone amp is a totally different story.....it is very enjoyable!

It will play any type of file available and it a simple drag and paste. Oh, and it also functions as a asynchronous DAC, for use with computer or other USB run devices.

Again, I'm not sure what Pono offers that hasn't already been available, and in some cases, much more flexible and user friendly.

Niel's unit is about two years behind the curve. However, I do hope his down load music continues to be available, so that I can grab stuff not available otherwise.
I have one. It works fine. I use it for headphone audio and on my Honda GL1800 as portable audio