Over the past six weeks we’ve built over 100 PonoPlayers in the US and in China that incorporate the Ayre audio design. This design uses discrete components rather than off the shelf Integrated Circuits for the amplification stage after the DAC (Digital-to-Analog Convertor). Charles Hansen, founder of Ayre, likes to compare the use of discrete components to baking a cake from scratch versus using a Betty Crocker cake mix.
The use of more than 100 additional components has provided a challenge to fit everything on the circuit board, but with a monumental effort from our Semaphore engineers, we managed to do just that in record time. We are using these units to run a gamut of testing including physical and audio.
One physical requirement we wanted is for the PonoPlayer to survive a 1-meter drop onto a wood floor on all five sides and 6 corners. Unfortunately we didn't quite achieve this in the first set of tests. We went back to our mechanical engineers at Lime Lab, who have made some changes to the mechanical enclosure. In tests just conducted we now survive the 1-meter drop. We don’t believe any of you will ever drop your PonoPlayer from 3 feet on to a hard surface, but we are engineering the case that way regardless! Testing PonoPlayers for extreme temperatures Part of a comprehensive suite of over 40 tests
We have conducted our preliminary EMI (electromagnetic interference) and ESD (electronic static discharge) tests that need to satisfy the regulatory authorities including FCC and CE. With a few changes that we will implement, we expect our design to pass when we test with production-level models.
Audio experts that include Charles Hansen, Neil Young, Bruce Botnick and others have analyzed the audio quality through listening tests. Based on theirs and our extensive listening testing, we have achieved a level of performance that is everything we have hoped for.
In my mixing studio, I listen to the best sound every day from Analog to the highest Digital sampling and highest bit rates.
My tests were to take a 30 ips NAB Analog 2 track stereo master and transfer it from a ATR-104 Analog tape recorder with Aria Class A electronics to Digital at 192k/24 bit ProTools XI • HDX, using Ayre and Black Lion professional A/D and D/A convertors.
The first process is to convert the 192k/24 bit WAV music files to 192k/24 bit FLAC and then convert the FLAC music files back to WAV and back into the Pro Tools session.
The second test is to stack the WAV and FLAC music files in Pro Tools, with one format out of phase and see if there is full bit for bit cancelation and the round trip is 100% accurate. There was full bit- for-bit cancellation.
The third step is to play both the WAV and FLAC music program against the original 30 ips NAB Analog 2 track stereo master and do a blind listen for differences in the sonic landscape between formats. That test was superb in that the listeners couldn’t tell which format they were listening to. For the final process we did the previous test, this time against the PONO player. The blind tests were amazing, as again the folks listening couldn’t tell which was which.
Charles Hansen’s no compromise analog circuitry for the PonoPlayer is open with beautifully accurate musical reproduction, excellent imagery with accurate room tone and reverb, true HiFi reproduction without compromise.
Charles Hanson has listened to ten players and he found the performance to be comparable to his own products that cost thousands of dollars.
Charles Hansen will be offering some of his comments in these updates to help explain more about the player’s technology. This month he discusses negative feedback, something unique to a portable device and something being used in our player.
99.999% of all amplifiers made in the last 70 years use negative feedback. There is only one thing you have to remember about negative feedback: Negative feedback is a very easy way to improve the measured performance of an amplifier. The problem is that it makes it sound worse....
Specifically, adding negative feedback will lower the steady-state distortion (test equipment measures steady-state signals, but music is anything but steady-state). It will also extend the bandwidth (frequency response). Finally, it will lower the output impedance. All of these things seem like good things, and they are very easy to measure, so everybody uses it.
The problem is that negative feedback makes the circuit sound worse. Nobody really knows why. My best guess is that it messes up the time response, but nobody has been able to measure it, and there are all kinds of mathematical "proofs" that say this is not the case. Negative feedback compares a scaled-down version of the output signal to the input signal. Since no amplifier is perfect, there will be differences. The negative feedback pre-distorts the input signal opposite to the distortion that the amplifier creates so that the final output signal is closer to the input signal.
It is very clever. The problem is that feedback can only attempt to correct a problem after the damage has been done. One cannot go back in time and fix the signal before it is distorted by the imperfect circuit.
Here is the best proof that negative feedback does not work:
IF NEGATIVE FEEDBACK ACTUALLY WORKED, THEN ALL AMPLIFIERS WOULD BE PERFECT, AND ALL AMPLIFIERS WOULD SOUND EXACTLY THE SAME.
Anybody that has ever listened to amplifiers knows that no two amplifiers sound the same. Therefore anybody that has ever listened to amplifiers knows that negative feedback does not work as advertised.
With feedback, it is trivially easy to build an amplifier with any arbitrarily low output impedance that you want. It won't sound very good, but it will have very low output impedance.
That is why no Ayre product ever made has ever used negative feedback. When we started Ayre, there were a few companies that made zero-feedback tube preamplifiers and that was about it.
For more information on this subject and others check out ayre.com.
A Message from John
As the team leader for PonoMusic I just want to say a couple of things – First, thank you again, to our Kickstarter backers for your support, your engagement, and your faith in us, and our mission. As we work diligently to build the PonoPlayer and the Ponomusic.com site and store, we never lose sight of the fact that you made all of this possible. As the name says so perfectly, you “kickstarted” us over the hump to get this product and this whole idea into action so that we could give thousands of people the experience of hearing music as it was created so brilliantly by the artists we all love.
Secondly, as noted in the update above, we are working very hard to make all of this happen, and although we are still a very small team, scrambling a bit to keep everything on track – there are more moving parts to this than we could hope to explain, and we know that consumer expectations are high. We gave ourselves a tall order when we committed to ship the first Players in October and open the store.
So far, (knock on wood), so good… but we have a ton of work to do in a short period of time, and our team is running flat out on all fronts.
Finally, we will ask you, in advance, to remember why we did this – to give you a new experience for the enjoyment of music – that spine-tingling feeling of a fantastic album recorded and mastered as the artist hoped - that feeling that only music at this level of fidelity can produce. We hope that you will focus on the feeling you get when you listen to your Player for a few hours, or a few days at a time. As Norah Jones says in our video, “That music made me feel good, better than I’ve felt in a long time”. We are also hoping that you’ll share the experience with all your friends – we are counting on our Kickstarter backers to be our first sales force – because we know that it is easy to sell something you believe in, and we think you’ll believe in music as you never have before, when you hear the PonoPlayer.
We hope you are all enjoying your summer and we’ll be back to you with another update in late August or early September.
I accidentally wore my mom's jeans to work one day and was shocked at how small chick pockets are. I got almost nothing done that day with those pants on. I don't think most men appreciate this.
Project Update #38: San Francisco Listening Party on August 1 for the first 50 backers that RSVP! Backer white For backers only Posted by the PonoMusic Team Black heart (cards) Like
Greetings Righteous Pono People!
We cordially invite you to a special Pono listening party here in our San Francisco offices on Friday August 1st, 2014. We are very excited to share the Pono experience as we get closer to the production release of our PonoPlayers, as well as our soon-to-be-released online community (more info to come)!
At our SF listening party, you’ll have the opportunity to listen to the PonoPlayer first hand and then share your thoughts with the rest of our community. We’ll have a Pono set up in a home audio system and a number of players with headphones to allow you to experience Pono in its full glory. Please feel free to bring your own favorite headphones too if you’d like!
This event will be limited to the first 50 Kickstarter backers who RSVP here. (So RSVP NOW!)
It will not open to the press, and in order to attend you must be a Kickstarter backer. We will be taking photos and shooting video of the event for promo purposes. By RSVP’ing to the event, you are giving us your consent to use these images or video recordings.
proceed with care, I took a look, realised it was way over my head and retreated feeling slightly dumb
It is a little tricky getting around the website. For those of us who scored a player via Kickstarter few months back, we have to add our mobile phones on this website, or they won't update / sent our Pono Players. There's a step by step on how to update it via the email we received from them last night.
.. Welcome to the Pono Community
We have created the Pono Community as a place for all the Pono & music fans to hang out and discuss music. The PonoPeople.org moderators have carried the torch for us thus far and they have been kind enough to accept moderator responsibilities on the Pono Community. They will also help supporters transition from the Kickstarter forums and PonoPeople.org sites to the Pono Community. We would love for you to come join the Pono movement by following these steps:
1. Once logged in to the Pono Store, click on PONO COMMUNITY menu item in the Store's top navigation bar. 2. When in the community, click on Profile tab next to My Home. 3. Please add a photo of yourself by hovering over the happy face and clicking [Add Photo]. Only do this for your primary Pono account (see section about Multiple Pono Accounts at the bottom). 4. Click on the pencil icon to edit your Contact info.
>> NOTE: Any Contact field with ‘Employees’ setting above it is only visible to Pono staff and hidden from the rest of the community members. Make sure to set your sensitive info to Employees visibility.
>> KICKSTARTER BACKERS: See the section below for explanation on how to populate your Profile in order to get your PonoPlayer reward.
5. When all your info is accurate, click on [Save All]. You are all set to use the community! 6. Review the Community Code of Conduct at: https://ponomusic.force.com/articles/FAQ/Pono-Forum-Code-Of-Conduct 7. Check out the Community Rankings tab. Join the discussion and earn points by getting involved. The more active you are, the more points you earn, and the higher level badges you obtain. 8. Check out the Groups that your PonoPeople moderators have set up for us. Check out the Knowledge base and the Pono Community Q&A. 9. Have fun!
Once the PonoMusic Download Store launches in October, expect to see more music centric discussions added to the community.
---------------------------------------------------- | Pono Support - Have Questions?
If you have difficulty logging into Pono Community by following the instructions above, please email us at: support@ponomusic.com.
Once you have successfully logged into the Pono Community and have any other questions, please type them on the Q&A tab. If the system does not find you a good answer from the Knowledge base, feel free to post your questions for us or other community members to answer.
If you find a helpful answer especially from other community members, please ‘Like’ the answer so both you and the other member earn points towards your next badge. If you find an article that is helpful, please mark it as 1-5 stars depending on how helpful it was. Again, the more active you are within the community, the more points you earn and the closer you get to your next badge.
---------------------------------------------------- | KICKSTARTER BACKERS ONLY
In order for us to ship your PonoPlayer reward by the estimated delivery time, we need you to update your Community Profile’s Contact info. If you have already provided us your shipping info, it should be pre-populated here. In either case, please review the info and make sure it is all accurate.
1. Once logged into the community, go to Profile tab and click on the pencil icon to edit your Contact info. 2. On the About tab provide your First Name and Last Name. 3. On the Contact tab provide a Mobile Phone to be used by PCH for shipping your PonoPlayer. 4. On the Contact tab also provide a valid shipping address in English alphabet: - Street Address, City, State/Province, Zip/Postal Code, Country. 5. Click [Save All]. You are all set!
Should your Mailing Address be determined as NOT deliverable or if any information is missing, you will receive an email asking you to log back in and correct the problem. Otherwise, within a week the system will automatically generate an order for your PonoPlayer reward. Once this process is complete, you will be able to view this order in the Pono Preorder Store by clicking on MY ACCOUNT | My Orders. As soon as you see your order listed under My Orders, you can feel secure in getting your PonoPlayer shipped to you by the estimated delivery date provided on Kickstarter.
——————— | Multiple Pono Accounts from Kickstarter
If you pledged for more than one reward on Kickstarter, you will likely end up with multiple Pono accounts, one associated with each reward. If this is the case:
- Please login to each account associated with a PonoPlayer and provide your Phone and Shipping Address for each. - From the Pono Community perspective, please select one account (normally one associated with a PonoPlayer reward) as your primary Pono Community account. To designate your primary account, only add a photo to that account so the rest of the community can easily distinguish it as your primary and communicate with you using this account.
Thanks again for your support. Your PonoMusic team
Demetrios, did you fill it all out? And everything went ok? I looked t it quickly, realized that I would take a long time, and then decided to fill it out later. Also, I was kind of sketched as it came from a different email address than the ones we were previously getting.
1992-07-21 Vancouver
1993-9-4 Vancouver
1996-9-16 Seattle
1998-7-19 Vancouver, 7-21 Seattle, Memorial Stadium
2000-11-6 Seattle
2001-10-22 Seattle
2002 -12-09 Seattle
2009-8-17 Manchester, 9-25 Vancouver
2011-6-16 Seattle (EV), 9-3/4 PJ20, 9-25 Vancouver
2012-6-27 Amsterdam (#2!)
2013-11-29 Portland, 12-4 Vancouver, 12-6 Seattle
2014-AUS - 1-26 Sydney, 1-31 Adelaide, 2-11/12 EV Sydney State Theatre, 2-13 EV Opera House
2014 - USA - Memphis, Detroit, MOLINE, St. Paul, MILWAUKEE, Denver, 25/26 Bridge School
2016 - Lexington, Philly x 2, MSG x 2, Quebec City, Ottawa, Toronto x 2, Pemberton, Fenway x 2, Wrigley x 2 2018 - Seattle x 2, Missoula, Fenway x 2
got mine set up. now just waiting for my PJ Pono order to show up in the order history. also joined the PJ group in the community as well as some other groups. Anyone else joined up?
2000- Atlanta, GA: New Orleans, LA: Memphis, TN: Nashville, TN
2003- Raleigh, NC: Charlotte, NC: Atlanta, GA
2004- Asheville, NC (hometown show)
2006- Cincinnati, OH
2008- Columbia, SC
2009- Chicago, IL x 2 / Ed Vedder- Atlanta, GA x 2
2010- Bristow, VA
2011- Alpine Valley, WI (PJ20) x 2 / Ed Vedder- Chicago, IL
2012- Atlanta, GA
2013- Charlotte, NC
2014- Cincinnati, OH
2015- New York, NY
2016- Greenville, SC: Hampton, VA:: Columbia, SC: Raleigh, NC : Lexington, KY: Philly, PA 2: (Wrigley) Chicago, IL x 2 (holy shit): Temple of the Dog- Philly, PA
Demetrios, did you fill it all out? And everything went ok? I looked t it quickly, realized that I would take a long time, and then decided to fill it out later. Also, I was kind of sketched as it came from a different email address than the ones we were previously getting.
And a picture to set up an internet based account.
You guys might want to give pause when they start asking for the password to you on-line banking account. :P
Mobile phone, I'm ok to give them for shipping purposes.
The changing our profile photo, yeah, I don't think that's a big deal. We don't really have to change it. Not like they are gonna kick us out of the site cause we haven't changed our avatars.
Not me but I'm hopeful it'll be soon. I'm guessing they'll stick the PONO t-shirt in the tube as well. Did you see the video link I posted on July 24 showing Neil signing the posters? He was in the U.K. on tour with Crazy Horse so they shipped a huge box of the posters to his hotel so they could get things rolling. In the video Neil accidently signs a poster twice - once on the back and again on the front. I bet they keep that one for themselves but I sure wouldn't mind getting that one!
Project Update #40: Announcing the Launch of the PonoMusic Preorder Store & Pono Community
Hello!
We are thrilled to announce the launch of the PonoMusic Preorder Store and Pono Community at https://ponomusic.force.com.
We have already created a Pono account for all of our Kickstarter backers. You should have received an email invite to login to the Pono Community and Store. Please follow the instructions in the email.
We have created the Pono Community as a place for all the Pono and music fans to hang out and discuss music. You do not have to purchase anything to become a member of the community!
We would like to thank the PonoPeople.org moderators who have carried the torch for us thus far. They have been kind enough to accept moderator responsibilities on the Pono Community. They will also help supporters transition from the Kickstarter forums and PonoPeople.org sites to the Pono Community. The PonoPeople.org site is shut down and we will be shutting down the Kickstarter discussion board shortly so that the Pono Community can move to its new home.
Privacy Concerns
If you are concerned about your name appearing in the Pono Community, you have the option of changing your first name to an initial or even changing your last name to an alias. But please be aware that your PonoPlayer reward will be shipped with the first name and last name you provide on the community. This normally should not cause any problems with the actual delivery.
NOTE: This limitation only applies to Kickstarter reward accounts. If you place another order with Pono, you will be able to specify your full name and address at the time of check out - one that’s distinct from your community contact info.
Furthermore, your phone and address are by default set to ‘Employees’ visibility, which means that only Pono staff can see them and they are hidden from the rest of the community. Unfortunately, this hidden visibility option is not available for your name hence the option to switch to using an initial or alias.
To change and update your profile information, go to your profile tab and then click on the small arrow on the top right, then click on edit profile. You can edit your information there.
T-shirt and Poster Rewards Status
We apologize for the late delivery of these rewards. The good news is that those t-shirts and posters going to US shipping addresses are already shipped and you should receive them within the next 10 days. The rewards going to international shipping addresses are being processed now and we expect them to be delivered by end of August at the latest.
Kickstarter PonoPlayer Rewards
IMPORTANT ACTION REQUIRED
In order for us to ship your PonoPlayer rewards by the estimated delivery time, we need you login and go to the Pono Community and follow the steps in your email invite.
It is essential that you update your Community Profile’s Contact info with your correct shipping address and phone number (required by UPS). If you have already provided us your shipping info, it should be pre-populated here but please review it for accuracy.
You also need to add a phone number to the Mobile Phone field. This does not have to be a mobile number, just a phone number that UPS can call in case they have trouble delivering your shipment.
NOTE: Even though the Preorder Store also its own account and address book, the Kickstarter backers must update the Pono Community Profile’s Contact info to get their rewards.
We CANNOT SHIP YOUR REWARD without a correct shipping address and phone number.
Once you have updated your information, our system will use an address verification service to make sure your address is deliverable. Should your mailing address be flagged as NOT deliverable or if your phone number is missing, you will receive an email asking you to log back in and correct the problem.
If everything is in ship shape, within a week or two the system will automatically generate an order for your PonoPlayer reward. Once this process is complete, you will be able to view this order in the Pono Preorder Store by clicking on MY ACCOUNT | My Orders. As soon as you see your order listed under My Orders, you can rest assured that you will be getting your PonoPlayer shipped to you by the estimated delivery date provided on Kickstarter.
Multiple Rewards on Kickstarter
If you pledged for more than one reward on Kickstarter then you have multiple Pono accounts, one associated with each reward. If this is the case:
- Please login to each account (particularly the ones associated with a PonoPlayer) and provide your phone and shipping address for each.
- From the Pono Community perspective, please select one account (normally one associated with a PonoPlayer reward) as your primary Pono Community account. To designate this as your primary account, add a photo to this account only so the rest of the community can easily distinguish it as your primary community account.
Pono Support
If you have not received your invitation email yet then please check your junk mail first. If you do not find an invite or you have trouble logging into the Pono Community, please email us at: support@ponomusic.com.
Once you have successfully logged into the Pono Community, it will be your primary source of support. You can type your questions into the Q&A tab and the system will search our knowledge base for an answer. If it does not find you a good answer, feel free to post your question so that either the Pono team or a knowledgable member of the community can answer it for you.
If you do find a helpful answer especially from other community members, please ‘Like’ the answer so both you and the other member earn points towards your next badge.
If you find an article that is helpful, please mark it with 1 to 5 stars depending on how helpful it was. Again, the more active you are within the community, the more points you earn and the closer you get to your next badge.
You also need to add a phone number to the Mobile Phone field. This does not have to be a mobile number, just a phone number that UPS can call in case they have trouble delivering your shipment.
Project Update #41: More Clear Steps for Updating Your Community Profile to Receive Your PonoPlayer Reward
Dear Kickstarter backers,
It appears that the instructions from update 40 confused many people who attempted to update their information in the Preorder Store rather than on the Pono Community. The Preorder Store is only for new Preorders and only available on the US. The Kickstarter backers are from dozens of different countries. You need to update your shipping information on the Pono Community side. Follow these steps:
1. Login to Pono Store and click on PONO COMMUNITY.
2. Once in Pono Community, switch to Profile tab and click on the pencil icon shown below:
3. On the About tab, check your First Name and Last Name. If you're concerned about your privacy either use a first initial for your first name or an alias for your last name. Keep in mind that your reward will be shipped with this info as the recipient.
4. Switch to the Contact tab and enter your shipping phone and address. These fields are freeform so please enter your information correctly. Use the Employees setting for any field that you do not want exposed to the general community. Only Pono employees will have visibility to these values.
5. The system will verify that your address is deliverable and if there are any problems you will receive an email in the next couple of days. Otherwise, the system will automatically generate an order for you will be able to access and track your reward on the Preorder store's MY ACCOUNT | My Orders. Please allow a week or two for your order to appear here.
YES! My posters arrived today with t-shirt and PONO sticker inside. They used USPS Priority Mail triangular "tube" boxes which worked pretty well. I ordered two posters and one of the boxes got a bit smashed but the poster survived intact. The best part is, one poster is signed in gold marker and the other is signed in black marker. The gold signature looks just like the ones you see Neil signing in the video I linked here on 7/24. So it looks like I got one Neil signed in his hotel while on tour in the UK with Crazy Horse and one signed here in S.F. Crojam, you should get yours any day now! P.S. The poster is a huge 24" x 36" on super thick paper - almost card stock - and is going to take some patience to unroll and flatten.
YES! My posters arrived today with t-shirt and PONO sticker inside. They used USPS Priority Mail triangular "tube" boxes which worked pretty well. I ordered two posters and one of the boxes got a bit smashed but the poster survived intact. The best part is, one poster is signed in gold marker and the other is signed in black marker. The gold signature looks just like the ones you see Neil signing in the video I linked here on 7/24. So it looks like I got one Neil signed in his hotel while on tour in the UK with Crazy Horse and one signed here in S.F. Crojam, you should get yours any day now! P.S. The poster is a huge 24" x 36" on super thick paper - almost card stock - and is going to take some patience to unroll and flatten.
Haha got mine today as well in Gold ink....I have a few dings in it ( would it have killed them to ship in a tube ? ).... Got a shirt and 2 stickers. I attended the 2nd Carnegie show and passed at the time for a poster, so it worked out good....nice print, the dings should frame out.
The players arrival will be a great day.... Hope it comes in beginning of October so I can mess around with it before tour time
Also got my Queens of the Stone Age emek slip mat today.....a good day for the working man , especially on a Monday
Man, you did have a great Monday crojam - should make for an awesome week! My gold signed poster also has some handling damage but considering it's been to England and back and handled by Neil himself, I can live with it just fine. It's cool to think that when we watch the video we might be seeing Neil sign our actual poster.
Man, you did have a great Monday crojam - should make for an awesome week! My gold signed poster also has some handling damage but considering it's been to England and back and handled by Neil himself, I can live with it just fine. It's cool to think that when we watch the video we might be seeing Neil sign our actual poster.
1st thing I did was look at the back, wasn't the lucky one to get the twice signed one
1st thing I did was look at the back, wasn't the lucky one to get the twice signed one
I did the same thing!
I received a nice gold signed poster today. It was rolled pretty tight and had a few minor creases. I've got it in the portfolio and think that they will flatten out without much visible damage.
Project Update #42: You Backed Us, Now You Can Invest
Dear music lovers,
You backed PonoMusic via Kickstarter, and now we’d like to give you the opportunity to actually own a piece of the company if you want to through equity crowdfunding.
From now through August 30, 2014, you can invest as little as $5,000 and receive equity ownership in PonoMusic alongside Neil and other music industry legends. We realize that this may not be of interest to many, but just wanted to tell those of you who might be interested about the opportunity that exists.
With your help, we broke new ground with our hugely successful Kickstarter campaign. As a result, you will soon be able to hear and feel music the way the artists did when they created it.
Now, we’re breaking new ground again by working exclusively with Crowdfunder.com to give interested members of our community the opportunity to invest and become owners of PonoMusic.
If you are an accredited investor* and are interested in learning more, check out our Fundraising Campaign at crowdfunder.com.
Comments
Player Progress
Over the past six weeks we’ve built over 100 PonoPlayers in the US and in China that incorporate the Ayre audio design. This design uses discrete components rather than off the shelf Integrated Circuits for the amplification stage after the DAC (Digital-to-Analog Convertor). Charles Hansen, founder of Ayre, likes to compare the use of discrete components to baking a cake from scratch versus using a Betty Crocker cake mix.
The use of more than 100 additional components has provided a challenge to fit everything on the circuit board, but with a monumental effort from our Semaphore engineers, we managed to do just that in record time. We are using these units to run a gamut of testing including physical and audio.
One physical requirement we wanted is for the PonoPlayer to survive a 1-meter drop onto a wood floor on all five sides and 6 corners. Unfortunately we didn't quite achieve this in the first set of tests. We went back to our mechanical engineers at Lime Lab, who have made some changes to the mechanical enclosure. In tests just conducted we now survive the 1-meter drop. We don’t believe any of you will ever drop your PonoPlayer from 3 feet on to a hard surface, but we are engineering the case that way regardless!
Testing PonoPlayers for extreme temperatures Part of a comprehensive suite of over 40 tests
We have conducted our preliminary EMI (electromagnetic interference) and ESD (electronic static discharge) tests that need to satisfy the regulatory authorities including FCC and CE. With a few changes that we will implement, we expect our design to pass when we test with production-level models.
Audio experts that include Charles Hansen, Neil Young, Bruce Botnick and others have analyzed the audio quality through listening tests. Based on theirs and our extensive listening testing, we have achieved a level of performance that is everything we have hoped for.
Bruce (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Botnick) conducted his own tests and reported the following:
In my mixing studio, I listen to the best sound every day from Analog to the highest Digital sampling and highest bit rates.
My tests were to take a 30 ips NAB Analog 2 track stereo master and transfer it from a ATR-104 Analog tape recorder with Aria Class A electronics to Digital at 192k/24 bit ProTools XI • HDX, using Ayre and Black Lion professional A/D and D/A convertors.
The first process is to convert the 192k/24 bit WAV music files to 192k/24 bit FLAC and then convert the FLAC music files back to WAV and back into the Pro Tools session.
The second test is to stack the WAV and FLAC music files in Pro Tools, with one format out of phase and see if there is full bit for bit cancelation and the round trip is 100% accurate. There was full bit- for-bit cancellation.
The third step is to play both the WAV and FLAC music program against the original 30 ips NAB Analog 2 track stereo master and do a blind listen for differences in the sonic landscape between formats. That test was superb in that the listeners couldn’t tell which format they were listening to. For the final process we did the previous test, this time against the PONO player. The blind tests were amazing, as again the folks listening couldn’t tell which was which.
Charles Hansen’s no compromise analog circuitry for the PonoPlayer is open with beautifully accurate musical reproduction, excellent imagery with accurate room tone and reverb, true HiFi reproduction without compromise.
Charles Hanson has listened to ten players and he found the performance to be comparable to his own products that cost thousands of dollars.
Charles Hansen will be offering some of his comments in these updates to help explain more about the player’s technology. This month he discusses negative feedback, something unique to a portable device and something being used in our player.
99.999% of all amplifiers made in the last 70 years use negative feedback. There is only one thing you have to remember about negative feedback: Negative feedback is a very easy way to improve the measured performance of an amplifier. The problem is that it makes it sound worse....
Specifically, adding negative feedback will lower the steady-state distortion (test equipment measures steady-state signals, but music is anything but steady-state). It will also extend the bandwidth (frequency response). Finally, it will lower the output impedance. All of these things seem like good things, and they are very easy to measure, so everybody uses it.
The problem is that negative feedback makes the circuit sound worse. Nobody really knows why. My best guess is that it messes up the time response, but nobody has been able to measure it, and there are all kinds of mathematical "proofs" that say this is not the case. Negative feedback compares a scaled-down version of the output signal to the input signal. Since no amplifier is perfect, there will be differences. The negative feedback pre-distorts the input signal opposite to the distortion that the amplifier creates so that the final output signal is closer to the input signal.
It is very clever. The problem is that feedback can only attempt to correct a problem after the damage has been done. One cannot go back in time and fix the signal before it is distorted by the imperfect circuit.
Here is the best proof that negative feedback does not work:
IF NEGATIVE FEEDBACK ACTUALLY WORKED, THEN ALL AMPLIFIERS WOULD BE PERFECT, AND ALL AMPLIFIERS WOULD SOUND EXACTLY THE SAME.
Anybody that has ever listened to amplifiers knows that no two amplifiers sound the same. Therefore anybody that has ever listened to amplifiers knows that negative feedback does not work as advertised.
With feedback, it is trivially easy to build an amplifier with any arbitrarily low output impedance that you want. It won't sound very good, but it will have very low output impedance.
That is why no Ayre product ever made has ever used negative feedback. When we started Ayre, there were a few companies that made zero-feedback tube preamplifiers and that was about it.
For more information on this subject and others check out ayre.com.
A Message from John
As the team leader for PonoMusic I just want to say a couple of things – First, thank you again, to our Kickstarter backers for your support, your engagement, and your faith in us, and our mission. As we work diligently to build the PonoPlayer and the Ponomusic.com site and store, we never lose sight of the fact that you made all of this possible. As the name says so perfectly, you “kickstarted” us over the hump to get this product and this whole idea into action so that we could give thousands of people the experience of hearing music as it was created so brilliantly by the artists we all love.
Secondly, as noted in the update above, we are working very hard to make all of this happen, and although we are still a very small team, scrambling a bit to keep everything on track – there are more moving parts to this than we could hope to explain, and we know that consumer expectations are high. We gave ourselves a tall order when we committed to ship the first Players in October and open the store.
So far, (knock on wood), so good… but we have a ton of work to do in a short period of time, and our team is running flat out on all fronts.
Finally, we will ask you, in advance, to remember why we did this – to give you a new experience for the enjoyment of music – that spine-tingling feeling of a fantastic album recorded and mastered as the artist hoped - that feeling that only music at this level of fidelity can produce. We hope that you will focus on the feeling you get when you listen to your Player for a few hours, or a few days at a time. As Norah Jones says in our video, “That music made me feel good, better than I’ve felt in a long time”. We are also hoping that you’ll share the experience with all your friends – we are counting on our Kickstarter backers to be our first sales force – because we know that it is easy to sell something you believe in, and we think you’ll believe in music as you never have before, when you hear the PonoPlayer.
We hope you are all enjoying your summer and we’ll be back to you with another update in late August or early September.
Thanks again,
John
Backer white For backers only Posted by the PonoMusic Team Black heart (cards) Like
Greetings Righteous Pono People!
We cordially invite you to a special Pono listening party here in our San Francisco offices on Friday August 1st, 2014. We are very excited to share the Pono experience as we get closer to the production release of our PonoPlayers, as well as our soon-to-be-released online community (more info to come)!
At our SF listening party, you’ll have the opportunity to listen to the PonoPlayer first hand and then share your thoughts with the rest of our community. We’ll have a Pono set up in a home audio system and a number of players with headphones to allow you to experience Pono in its full glory. Please feel free to bring your own favorite headphones too if you’d like!
This event will be limited to the first 50 Kickstarter backers who RSVP here. (So RSVP NOW!)
It will not open to the press, and in order to attend you must be a Kickstarter backer. We will be taking photos and shooting video of the event for promo purposes. By RSVP’ing to the event, you are giving us your consent to use these images or video recordings.
Here is the link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pono-listening-party-tickets-12386527437
Based on everyone’s feedback and success of this event, we may consider additional listening parties in the future.
Details:
Location: Pono Music Offices
San Francisco, CA
Time: 5-7pm PST
Again, don't forget to RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pono-listening-party-tickets-12386527437
Much love,
Team Pono
https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/assets/002/303/541/c157589a9929d89318f06d2a1d11e1b7_h264_high.mp4
https://ponomusic.force.com/
..
Welcome to the Pono Community
We have created the Pono Community as a place for all the Pono & music fans to hang out and discuss music. The PonoPeople.org moderators have carried the torch for us thus far and they have been kind enough to accept moderator responsibilities on the Pono Community. They will also help supporters transition from the Kickstarter forums and PonoPeople.org sites to the Pono Community. We would love for you to come join the Pono movement by following these steps:
1. Once logged in to the Pono Store, click on PONO COMMUNITY menu item in the Store's top navigation bar.
2. When in the community, click on Profile tab next to My Home.
3. Please add a photo of yourself by hovering over the happy face and clicking [Add Photo]. Only do this for your primary Pono account (see section about Multiple Pono Accounts at the bottom).
4. Click on the pencil icon to edit your Contact info.
>> NOTE: Any Contact field with ‘Employees’ setting above it is only visible to Pono staff and hidden from the rest of the community members. Make sure to set your sensitive info to Employees visibility.
>> KICKSTARTER BACKERS: See the section below for explanation on how to populate your Profile in order to get your PonoPlayer reward.
5. When all your info is accurate, click on [Save All]. You are all set to use the community!
6. Review the Community Code of Conduct at: https://ponomusic.force.com/articles/FAQ/Pono-Forum-Code-Of-Conduct
7. Check out the Community Rankings tab. Join the discussion and earn points by getting involved. The more active you are, the more points you earn, and the higher level badges you obtain.
8. Check out the Groups that your PonoPeople moderators have set up for us. Check out the Knowledge base and the Pono Community Q&A.
9. Have fun!
Once the PonoMusic Download Store launches in October, expect to see more music centric discussions added to the community.
----------------------------------------------------
| Pono Support - Have Questions?
If you have difficulty logging into Pono Community by following the instructions above, please email us at: support@ponomusic.com.
Once you have successfully logged into the Pono Community and have any other questions, please type them on the Q&A tab. If the system does not find you a good answer from the Knowledge base, feel free to post your questions for us or other community members to answer.
If you find a helpful answer especially from other community members, please ‘Like’ the answer so both you and the other member earn points towards your next badge. If you find an article that is helpful, please mark it as 1-5 stars depending on how helpful it was. Again, the more active you are within the community, the more points you earn and the closer you get to your next badge.
----------------------------------------------------
| KICKSTARTER BACKERS ONLY
In order for us to ship your PonoPlayer reward by the estimated delivery time, we need you to update your Community Profile’s Contact info. If you have already provided us your shipping info, it should be pre-populated here. In either case, please review the info and make sure it is all accurate.
1. Once logged into the community, go to Profile tab and click on the pencil icon to edit your Contact info.
2. On the About tab provide your First Name and Last Name.
3. On the Contact tab provide a Mobile Phone to be used by PCH for shipping your PonoPlayer.
4. On the Contact tab also provide a valid shipping address in English alphabet:
- Street Address, City, State/Province, Zip/Postal Code, Country.
5. Click [Save All]. You are all set!
Should your Mailing Address be determined as NOT deliverable or if any information is missing, you will receive an email asking you to log back in and correct the problem. Otherwise, within a week the system will automatically generate an order for your PonoPlayer reward. Once this process is complete, you will be able to view this order in the Pono Preorder Store by clicking on MY ACCOUNT | My Orders. As soon as you see your order listed under My Orders, you can feel secure in getting your PonoPlayer shipped to you by the estimated delivery date provided on Kickstarter.
———————
| Multiple Pono Accounts from Kickstarter
If you pledged for more than one reward on Kickstarter, you will likely end up with multiple Pono accounts, one associated with each reward. If this is the case:
- Please login to each account associated with a PonoPlayer and provide your Phone and Shipping Address for each.
- From the Pono Community perspective, please select one account (normally one associated with a PonoPlayer reward) as your primary Pono Community account. To designate your primary account, only add a photo to that account so the rest of the community can easily distinguish it as your primary and communicate with you using this account.
Thanks again for your support.
Your PonoMusic team
way way over my head.
I only bought this thing to look at longingly on my shelf.
ha ha
1993-9-4 Vancouver
1996-9-16 Seattle
1998-7-19 Vancouver, 7-21 Seattle, Memorial Stadium
2000-11-6 Seattle
2001-10-22 Seattle
2002 -12-09 Seattle
2009-8-17 Manchester, 9-25 Vancouver
2011-6-16 Seattle (EV), 9-3/4 PJ20, 9-25 Vancouver
2012-6-27 Amsterdam (#2!)
2013-11-29 Portland, 12-4 Vancouver, 12-6 Seattle
2014-AUS - 1-26 Sydney, 1-31 Adelaide, 2-11/12 EV Sydney State Theatre, 2-13 EV Opera House
2014 - USA - Memphis, Detroit, MOLINE, St. Paul, MILWAUKEE, Denver, 25/26 Bridge School
2016 - Lexington, Philly x 2, MSG x 2, Quebec City, Ottawa, Toronto x 2, Pemberton, Fenway x 2, Wrigley x 2
2018 - Seattle x 2, Missoula, Fenway x 2
now just waiting for my PJ Pono order to show up in the order history.
also joined the PJ group in the community as well as some other groups.
Anyone else joined up?
livefootsteps.org/user/?usr=446
1995- New Orleans, LA : New Orleans, LA
1996- Charleston, SC
1998- Atlanta, GA: Birmingham, AL: Greenville, SC: Knoxville, TN
2000- Atlanta, GA: New Orleans, LA: Memphis, TN: Nashville, TN
2003- Raleigh, NC: Charlotte, NC: Atlanta, GA
2004- Asheville, NC (hometown show)
2006- Cincinnati, OH
2008- Columbia, SC
2009- Chicago, IL x 2 / Ed Vedder- Atlanta, GA x 2
2010- Bristow, VA
2011- Alpine Valley, WI (PJ20) x 2 / Ed Vedder- Chicago, IL
2012- Atlanta, GA
2013- Charlotte, NC
2014- Cincinnati, OH
2015- New York, NY
2016- Greenville, SC: Hampton, VA:: Columbia, SC: Raleigh, NC : Lexington, KY: Philly, PA 2: (Wrigley) Chicago, IL x 2 (holy shit): Temple of the Dog- Philly, PA
2017- ED VED- Louisville, KY
2018- Chicago, IL x2, Boston, MA x2
2020- Nashville, TN
2022- Smashville
2023- Austin, TX x2
2024- Baltimore
You guys might want to give pause when they start asking for the password to you on-line banking account. :P
The changing our profile photo, yeah, I don't think that's a big deal. We don't really have to change it. Not like they are gonna kick us out of the site cause we haven't changed our avatars.
Did you see the video link I posted on July 24 showing Neil signing the posters? He was in the U.K. on tour with Crazy Horse so they shipped a huge box of the posters to his hotel so they could get things rolling. In the video Neil accidently signs a poster twice - once on the back and again on the front. I bet they keep that one for themselves but I sure wouldn't mind getting that one!
Hello!
We are thrilled to announce the launch of the PonoMusic Preorder Store and Pono Community at https://ponomusic.force.com.
We have already created a Pono account for all of our Kickstarter backers. You should have received an email invite to login to the Pono Community and Store. Please follow the instructions in the email.
We have created the Pono Community as a place for all the Pono and music fans to hang out and discuss music. You do not have to purchase anything to become a member of the community!
We would like to thank the PonoPeople.org moderators who have carried the torch for us thus far. They have been kind enough to accept moderator responsibilities on the Pono Community. They will also help supporters transition from the Kickstarter forums and PonoPeople.org sites to the Pono Community. The PonoPeople.org site is shut down and we will be shutting down the Kickstarter discussion board shortly so that the Pono Community can move to its new home.
Privacy Concerns
If you are concerned about your name appearing in the Pono Community, you have the option of changing your first name to an initial or even changing your last name to an alias. But please be aware that your PonoPlayer reward will be shipped with the first name and last name you provide on the community. This normally should not cause any problems with the actual delivery.
NOTE: This limitation only applies to Kickstarter reward accounts. If you place another order with Pono, you will be able to specify your full name and address at the time of check out - one that’s distinct from your community contact info.
Furthermore, your phone and address are by default set to ‘Employees’ visibility, which means that only Pono staff can see them and they are hidden from the rest of the community. Unfortunately, this hidden visibility option is not available for your name hence the option to switch to using an initial or alias.
To change and update your profile information, go to your profile tab and then click on the small arrow on the top right, then click on edit profile. You can edit your information there.
T-shirt and Poster Rewards Status
We apologize for the late delivery of these rewards. The good news is that those t-shirts and posters going to US shipping addresses are already shipped and you should receive them within the next 10 days. The rewards going to international shipping addresses are being processed now and we expect them to be delivered by end of August at the latest.
Kickstarter PonoPlayer Rewards
IMPORTANT ACTION REQUIRED
In order for us to ship your PonoPlayer rewards by the estimated delivery time, we need you login and go to the Pono Community and follow the steps in your email invite.
It is essential that you update your Community Profile’s Contact info with your correct shipping address and phone number (required by UPS). If you have already provided us your shipping info, it should be pre-populated here but please review it for accuracy.
You also need to add a phone number to the Mobile Phone field. This does not have to be a mobile number, just a phone number that UPS can call in case they have trouble delivering your shipment.
NOTE: Even though the Preorder Store also its own account and address book, the Kickstarter backers must update the Pono Community Profile’s Contact info to get their rewards.
We CANNOT SHIP YOUR REWARD without a correct shipping address and phone number.
Once you have updated your information, our system will use an address verification service to make sure your address is deliverable. Should your mailing address be flagged as NOT deliverable or if your phone number is missing, you will receive an email asking you to log back in and correct the problem.
If everything is in ship shape, within a week or two the system will automatically generate an order for your PonoPlayer reward. Once this process is complete, you will be able to view this order in the Pono Preorder Store by clicking on MY ACCOUNT | My Orders. As soon as you see your order listed under My Orders, you can rest assured that you will be getting your PonoPlayer shipped to you by the estimated delivery date provided on Kickstarter.
Multiple Rewards on Kickstarter
If you pledged for more than one reward on Kickstarter then you have multiple Pono accounts, one associated with each reward. If this is the case:
- Please login to each account (particularly the ones associated with a PonoPlayer) and provide your phone and shipping address for each.
- From the Pono Community perspective, please select one account (normally one associated with a PonoPlayer reward) as your primary Pono Community account. To designate this as your primary account, add a photo to this account only so the rest of the community can easily distinguish it as your primary community account.
Pono Support
If you have not received your invitation email yet then please check your junk mail first. If you do not find an invite or you have trouble logging into the Pono Community, please email us at: support@ponomusic.com.
Once you have successfully logged into the Pono Community, it will be your primary source of support. You can type your questions into the Q&A tab and the system will search our knowledge base for an answer. If it does not find you a good answer, feel free to post your question so that either the Pono team or a knowledgable member of the community can answer it for you.
If you do find a helpful answer especially from other community members, please ‘Like’ the answer so both you and the other member earn points towards your next badge.
If you find an article that is helpful, please mark it with 1 to 5 stars depending on how helpful it was. Again, the more active you are within the community, the more points you earn and the closer you get to your next badge.
Thanks again for your support!
Stay righteous,
Your PonoMusic team
Dear Kickstarter backers,
It appears that the instructions from update 40 confused many people who attempted to update their information in the Preorder Store rather than on the Pono Community. The Preorder Store is only for new Preorders and only available on the US. The Kickstarter backers are from dozens of different countries. You need to update your shipping information on the Pono Community side. Follow these steps:
1. Login to Pono Store and click on PONO COMMUNITY.
2. Once in Pono Community, switch to Profile tab and click on the pencil icon shown below:
3. On the About tab, check your First Name and Last Name. If you're concerned about your privacy either use a first initial for your first name or an alias for your last name. Keep in mind that your reward will be shipped with this info as the recipient.
4. Switch to the Contact tab and enter your shipping phone and address. These fields are freeform so please enter your information correctly. Use the Employees setting for any field that you do not want exposed to the general community. Only Pono employees will have visibility to these values.
5. The system will verify that your address is deliverable and if there are any problems you will receive an email in the next couple of days. Otherwise, the system will automatically generate an order for you will be able to access and track your reward on the Preorder store's MY ACCOUNT | My Orders. Please allow a week or two for your order to appear here.
Hope this clears up any confusion.
Thanks again for your patience,
Your Pono Music team
They used USPS Priority Mail triangular "tube" boxes which worked pretty well.
I ordered two posters and one of the boxes got a bit smashed but the poster survived intact.
The best part is, one poster is signed in gold marker and the other is signed in black marker.
The gold signature looks just like the ones you see Neil signing in the video I linked here on 7/24.
So it looks like I got one Neil signed in his hotel while on tour in the UK with Crazy Horse and one signed here in S.F.
Crojam, you should get yours any day now!
P.S. The poster is a huge 24" x 36" on super thick paper - almost card stock - and is going to take some patience to unroll and flatten.
The players arrival will be a great day.... Hope it comes in beginning of October so I can mess around with it before tour time
Also got my Queens of the Stone Age emek slip mat today.....a good day for the working man , especially on a Monday
My gold signed poster also has some handling damage but considering it's been to England and back and handled by Neil himself, I can live with it just fine.
It's cool to think that when we watch the video we might be seeing Neil sign our actual poster.
1st thing I did was look at the back, wasn't the lucky one to get the twice signed one
I received a nice gold signed poster today. It was rolled pretty tight and had a few minor creases. I've got it in the portfolio and think that they will flatten out without much visible damage.
Project Update #42: You Backed Us, Now You Can Invest
Dear music lovers,
You backed PonoMusic via Kickstarter, and now we’d like to give you the opportunity to actually own a piece of the company if you want to through equity crowdfunding.
From now through August 30, 2014, you can invest as little as $5,000 and receive equity ownership in PonoMusic alongside Neil and other music industry legends. We realize that this may not be of interest to many, but just wanted to tell those of you who might be interested about the opportunity that exists.
With your help, we broke new ground with our hugely successful Kickstarter campaign. As a result, you will soon be able to hear and feel music the way the artists did when they created it.
Now, we’re breaking new ground again by working exclusively with Crowdfunder.com to give interested members of our community the opportunity to invest and become owners of PonoMusic.
If you are an accredited investor* and are interested in learning more, check out our Fundraising Campaign at crowdfunder.com.
Thanks for listening,
-Neil Young and The PonoMusic Team
What’s an *accredited investor?
http://www.sec.gov/answers/accred.htm