Any good alternatives to the Pono?

BHealy

Hi All-
I know there are other FLAC players out there- like the Fiio? I just bought a new tube guitar amp, and I can't shell out $400 for a Pono. Does anyone out there have a good/cheaper alternative? If so, how do you like your Fiio, or whatever you have?

Thanks!

cp3iverson

The Sony one is supposed to be really good. There's a few others that are up there or better than Pono as well but i can't think of their names.

Pono is genius tho for making people think that they invented the whole thing. LOL

Jason P

Yeah, Sony has a real nice one. But it also cost $1200. In terms of design style, it blows pono away for an extra $800.

edit: They also have a $300 one. As for the comparison to the PONO, someone smarter then me will have to fill you in.

vaggar99

you might already own the alternative, a smart phone or iPod.
gizmodo.com/dont-buy-what-neil-young-is-selling-1678446860

Jason P

vaggar99 wrote: »

you might already own the alternative, a smart phone or iPod.
gizmodo.com/dont-buy-what-neil-young-is-selling-1678446860

If you want higher quality (CD quality), you will need to buy something other then smart phone or ipod according to the article. They are just calling B.S. on anything higher the CD quality is any better because that is the human threshold on audio quality.

vaggar99

Jason P wrote: »

vaggar99 wrote: »

you might already own the alternative, a smart phone or iPod.
gizmodo.com/dont-buy-what-neil-young-is-selling-1678446860

If you want higher quality (CD quality), you will need to buy something other then smart phone or ipod according to the article. They are just calling B.S. on anything higher the CD quality is any better because that is the human threshold on audio quality.

sort of......you can still use and iPod or smartphone, you just need to rip or download files at a higher bitrate than those you would get from a standard mp3 seller like iTunes or Amazon. Considering, you can get iPhones with 128 gigs of storage, the extra space shouldn't be a big problem for most people.

Jason P

vaggar99 wrote: »

Jason P wrote: »

vaggar99 wrote: »

you might already own the alternative, a smart phone or iPod.
gizmodo.com/dont-buy-what-neil-young-is-selling-1678446860

If you want higher quality (CD quality), you will need to buy something other then smart phone or ipod according to the article. They are just calling B.S. on anything higher the CD quality is any better because that is the human threshold on audio quality.

sort of......you can still use and iPod or smartphone, you just need to rip or download files at a higher bitrate than those you would get from a standard mp3 seller like iTunes or Amazon. Considering, you can get iPhones with 128 gigs of storage, the extra space shouldn't be a big problem for most people.

Interesting. I thought mp3 was the only option.

Bummer for me is I only have 16 gb phone ... But my company pays the bill so who am I to complain!

2-feign-reluctance

Porno?

BHealy

vaggar99 wrote: »

Jason P wrote: »

vaggar99 wrote: »

you might already own the alternative, a smart phone or iPod.
gizmodo.com/dont-buy-what-neil-young-is-selling-1678446860

If you want higher quality (CD quality), you will need to buy something other then smart phone or ipod according to the article. They are just calling B.S. on anything higher the CD quality is any better because that is the human threshold on audio quality.

sort of......you can still use and iPod or smartphone, you just need to rip or download files at a higher bitrate than those you would get from a standard mp3 seller like iTunes or Amazon. Considering, you can get iPhones with 128 gigs of storage, the extra space shouldn't be a big problem for most people.

I can't get the higher bit rate files to work consistently on my iphone. I'm super frustrated with itunes. How much does an iphone cost with 128 gigs of storage? I do like my iphone, but not for playing music. In fact I hate it for that. I did download a FLAC player to my phone (Onkyo player), which works well, once you get the music onto it, but its pretty awkward, and I only have 16 gb of storage.

BHealy

Thanks for the feedback all!

unforgiven

I use a Cowon x7, it has some advantages and some disadvantages. I was looking for a player with large storage. At the time the Cowon was the really only alternative to the ipod classic. The x7 disadvantages are that its big and the touch screen isn't the best, but it plays flacs, has bluetooth and the sound quality is amazing through a decent set of cans.

darthvedder

vaggar99 wrote: »

Jason P wrote: »

vaggar99 wrote: »

you might already own the alternative, a smart phone or iPod.
gizmodo.com/dont-buy-what-neil-young-is-selling-1678446860

If you want higher quality (CD quality), you will need to buy something other then smart phone or ipod according to the article. They are just calling B.S. on anything higher the CD quality is any better because that is the human threshold on audio quality.

sort of......you can still use and iPod or smartphone, you just need to rip or download files at a higher bitrate than those you would get from a standard mp3 seller like iTunes or Amazon. Considering, you can get iPhones with 128 gigs of storage, the extra space shouldn't be a big problem for most people.

That's what it ultimately comes down to...are you willing to share your music files with the rest of the phone's memory(apps, msgs, emails, photos, etc.), which will, over time, get smaller and smaller? In other words, do you want a multitasker or a unitasker? Plus, if you rip from CD to ALAC in iTunes, that memory will start to disappear a lot quicker.

The Sony Walkman NWZ-A17 player ($300) sounds really good to these ears (both FLAC and FLAC HD), but I might be suffering from confirmation bias. I have noticed that I'm listening closely to the music to see if there's a difference. There is really good instrument separation, and the drums really stand out. Of course, I have a pretty good set of headphones, too.

The one thing that is phenomenal about the NWZ-A17 is its battery life. People have been getting 40-50 hours of playback on a single charge. Of course, there's no wi-fi (have to load tracks by USB), which probably helps with the battery life. The unit is also tiny and doesn't weigh very much at all. Overall, I'm impressed at the sound quality from such a small player. The fact that it's expandable to 192 GB via microSD card (like the Pono) is nice, too. Being able to swap cards with different music files on them is something I'm looking forward to checking out.

I have no idea what the Pono sounds like, so I cannot give any comparison information.

unforgiven

That sounds like a good player, especially being expandable to 192 gig. Access to all my music at once is very important to me. I like to turn on shuffle and use my player as my own personal jukebox.

BHealy

darthvedder wrote: »

vaggar99 wrote: »

Jason P wrote: »

vaggar99 wrote: »

you might already own the alternative, a smart phone or iPod.
gizmodo.com/dont-buy-what-neil-young-is-selling-1678446860

If you want higher quality (CD quality), you will need to buy something other then smart phone or ipod according to the article. They are just calling B.S. on anything higher the CD quality is any better because that is the human threshold on audio quality.

sort of......you can still use and iPod or smartphone, you just need to rip or download files at a higher bitrate than those you would get from a standard mp3 seller like iTunes or Amazon. Considering, you can get iPhones with 128 gigs of storage, the extra space shouldn't be a big problem for most people.

That's what it ultimately comes down to...are you willing to share your music files with the rest of the phone's memory(apps, msgs, emails, photos, etc.), which will, over time, get smaller and smaller? In other words, do you want a multitasker or a unitasker? Plus, if you rip from CD to ALAC in iTunes, that memory will start to disappear a lot quicker.

The Sony Walkman NWZ-A17 player ($300) sounds really good to these ears (both FLAC and FLAC HD), but I might be suffering from confirmation bias. I have noticed that I'm listening closely to the music to see if there's a difference. There is really good instrument separation, and the drums really stand out. Of course, I have a pretty good set of headphones, too.

The one thing that is phenomenal about the NWZ-A17 is its battery life. People have been getting 40-50 hours of playback on a single charge. Of course, there's no wi-fi (have to load tracks by USB), which probably helps with the battery life. The unit is also tiny and doesn't weigh very much at all. Overall, I'm impressed at the sound quality from such a small player. The fact that it's expandable to 192 GB via microSD card (like the Pono) is nice, too. Being able to swap cards with different music files on them is something I'm looking forward to checking out.

I have no idea what the Pono sounds like, so I cannot give any comparison information.

Great points/questions.

I'm ready to switch to a "unitasker" for music. I listen to music most of my day (through a bluetooth headset - p.s., also looking for headphones), and it drains my iphones battery pretty fast. Plus I can't listen to much of my music. For example, I bought Denver 2014 (I was at the show) in HD-Flac and even after converting it to an itunes compatible format, it never actually fully loaded into itunes. I also noticed that when I converted another show (Memphis?) from FLAC to itunes format (AAC?) the sound was horrible through itunes. I thought it was the recording but the FLAC sounds pretty good (that's another forum topic).

Anyway, the Sony seems ideal! The Cowon and others sound like good alternatives too. Its nice to know there are alternatives to the PONO!

Zod

My Cowon S3 died a few months ago and I bought a FiiO X3 for about $200. The sound quality is pretty good and it can do High Res files (allthough I'm more interested in the highquality DAC than HD Flac). My only gripe with the X3 is that the menu is a bit clunky. I suppose I miss the touch screen abilities of my Cowon. I'm getting used to the X3, no need to replace it.

darthvedder

Zod wrote: »

My Cowon S3 died a few months ago and I bought a FiiO X3 for about $200. The sound quality is pretty good and it can do High Res files (allthough I'm more interested in the highquality DAC than HD Flac). My only gripe with the X3 is that the menu is a bit clunky. I suppose I miss the touch screen abilities of my Cowon. I'm getting used to the X3, no need to replace it.

That's what I hear most about the FiiO players, is that the user interface needs a lot of improvement. However, I also hear the FiiO players have the best sound quality.

Bob Mayo on the keyboards Bob

I have an x3 too and love it. You can usually find a new one for less than $150 on eBay. Say what you will about hires audio, but I got pretty excited when the guitars kicked in on Once... Ten never sounded better.

BHealy

I think I got the go-ahead from the boss (my wife) to get a designated hi-res music player. Pretty psyched- I can't download a full PJ bootleg to my iphone from the cloud without it hanging up repeatedly, or never downloading some songs. Still can't play Denver either....

The Fiio x3 looks like a good option. Thanks guys for the feedback!

KV4053

Cowon J3 if you can get your hands on one. It wont play 24/192 like Pono, but it does play 24/96. Cowon is good great for its equalizer (BBE). Pono does not have an equalizer (yet?).

I had a Fiio X3, but hated it. I have one of their headphone amps and am not a big fan of it either.

There's a new Cowon (M2) out that may be worth checking out, but I havent read any reviews since I'm not in the market anymore.

IMO, nothing can beat the Pono's value (read: value!!!)

BHealy

KV4053 wrote: »

Cowon J3 if you can get your hands on one. It wont play 24/192 like Pono, but it does play 24/96. Cowon is good great for its equalizer (BBE). Pono does not have an equalizer (yet?).

I had a Fiio X3, but hated it. I have one of their headphone amps and am not a big fan of it either.

There's a new Cowon (M2) out that may be worth checking out, but I havent read any reviews since I'm not in the market anymore.

IMO, nothing can beat the Pono's value (read: value!!!)

Thanks! I was hoping to get more feedback and I appreciate it! It would be nice to be able to go to a store, and listen to a bunch of these....

KV4053

BHealy wrote: »

KV4053 wrote: »

Cowon J3 if you can get your hands on one. It wont play 24/192 like Pono, but it does play 24/96. Cowon is good great for its equalizer (BBE). Pono does not have an equalizer (yet?).

I had a Fiio X3, but hated it. I have one of their headphone amps and am not a big fan of it either.

There's a new Cowon (M2) out that may be worth checking out, but I havent read any reviews since I'm not in the market anymore.

IMO, nothing can beat the Pono's value (read: value!!!)

Thanks! I was hoping to get more feedback and I appreciate it! It would be nice to be able to go to a store, and listen to a bunch of these....

Not sure about Pono's return policy, but the Fiio and Cowons are on Amazon and can be returned if you don't like them. I'd bet Pono will eventually be available via mainstream retailers also. Check out head-fi.org for reviews of portable DAP's. There a wealth of info (and cr*p) there.

BHealy

Thanks! I'll check it out.

Mike D88

If you're a DIYer, you can grab an iRiver H100 series. Optical out! It's an old player, but one of the most frequently modified and I think still commonly seen in bootleg recording. Years back people were swapping the hard drive for CompactFlash cards, now they're putting huge solid state drives in there. With Rockbox and an SSD, it basically becomes a lossless portable jukebox with massive storage.

2-feign-reluctance

I use an optical audio cable on our BR player - and other devices for years. So good.

PJ_Soul

Okay, so now the Pono sounds worse than the iPhone? What is it, some kind of scam then? Or is that taste test some rigged bullshit? Like they didn't use high def audio files for the Pono when they did it?

Zod

PJ_Soul wrote: »

Okay, so now the Pono sounds worse than the iPhone? What is it, some kind of scam then? Or is that taste test some rigged bullshit? Like they didn't use high def audio files for the Pono when they did it?

I'd be more interested in lossless vs. lossless. Which is basically a comparison of the DAC's which to me is way more important than HD Flac. HD Flac is kind of pointless if you're playing it through an inferior DAC. A player with a great DAC should easily be able to outshine an iphone, no HD required.

BHealy

PJ_Soul wrote: »

Okay, so now the Pono sounds worse than the iPhone? What is it, some kind of scam then? Or is that taste test some rigged bullshit? Like they didn't use high def audio files for the Pono when they did it?

That's what they're saying now? I find that hard to believe with HD files.

PJ_Soul

They did a blind test with people, and almost all of them supposedly thought the iPhone sounded better.

BHealy

PJ_Soul wrote: »

They did a blind test with people, and almost all of them supposedly thought the iPhone sounded better.

Maybe I should read that....

Sorry for asking all these dumb questions, but would it make sense to spend a couple hundred dollars on better headphones, and get a cheaper player, like the Fiio X1? I probably have a fixed budget on the player and phones. Right now I'm using a bluetooth headset that sounds way better than the iphone ear-buds, but many of these players don't support bluetooth, and I would rather have some over-the-ear phones anyway.

I listened to a set of Marshall Studio Monitor headphones today at Best Buy that sounded amazing.

Thanks again!

rtwilli4

I have an iPhone 4s and keep all of my music on a WD MyCloud. I convert all my FLAC files to ALAC and then I can stream them through the MyCloud App. Doesn't take up any memory on my phone at all.

The files are huge so you need a really good connection and it runs the battery pretty fast, so I download stuff to the cache in the app when I'm at home with wireless and the phone plugged in. I have to delete the files often when I want to hear new stuff.

I also have iTunes Match and those files aren't that big so I have access to all of my music any time, even though the quality is only OK if playing in iTunes.

cp3iverson

The tests Neil did with artists and alike was a little sketchy. He compared like 128kb mp3s with HD audio. The problem is that itunes and amazon sell 256 and 320kb. So of course the sound was incredible when comparing Pono to something more than twice as bad as regular mp3 quality.

Pono will sound great but not noticeably better than CDs or regular purchased mp3s. Thats why its losing blind tests to iphones and ipods.