Any good alternatives to the Pono?

bootlegger10

Being content is a good alternative.

RVM1978

The only cables I have currently are a $6.00 3.5mm stereo cable for my car stereo, a 3.5mm Y-Cable for home stereo at $6.00, and the cables that came with my headphones. They all sound just great.
For when I get the balanced mode, I'll do my homework, and shop smart. Either that or a buddy of mine is a sound guy, and we might make some of our own.

RVM1978

Also, in case you were unaware, the Pono plays ALL major digital formats. ALAC, FLAC, WAV, M4A, WMA, AAC (Unprotected), MP3, AIFF, and now with a new firmware update, DSD files. So you're not locked into one or two formats like iTunes. They're taking good measured steps to appeal to as many passionate audio fans as possible.

BHealy

The space issue is a big one when all you have is a 16gb iphone!!! LOL! I got a FLAC player installed on my phone for 10 bucks, and then I realized I can't even load one HD-FLAC bootleg on my phone unless I delete most of my apps and photos. That being said, the detail of the HD-FLAC files seems noticeable to me when I play the files on my computer. This is great discussion guys, its really helped me.

BHealy

Finally pulled the trigger on this one! http://store.sony.com/64-gb-hi-res-walkman-digital-music-player-zid27-NWZA17SLV/cat-27-catid-All-MP3-Players

Sony NWZA17. I'll let you know how it sounds. Psyched.

BIGDaddyWil

BHealy said:

Finally pulled the trigger on this one! http://store.sony.com/64-gb-hi-res-walkman-digital-music-player-zid27-NWZA17SLV/cat-27-catid-All-MP3-Players

Sony NWZA17. I'll let you know how it sounds. Psyched.

Please, let us know what you think!

derbydave

Looking forward to hearing your review of the Sony Digital Walkman!!!!
:plus_one:

BHealy

It should be here Monday!

Natashapearljamfan

BHealy said:

It should be here Monday!

Thanks I'm looking forward to hearing about it. I love my older Sony mp3 player but it recently died (I had it for 5 years with frequent use) and this is what I'm thinking of getting.

BHealy

It will definitely be a "non-technical" review, but I'll definitely share my thoughts. I'm pretty excited about it- I'll finally be able to play those FLAC bootlegs without converting them!!

derbydave

BHealy said:

It will definitely be a "non-technical" review, but I'll definitely share my thoughts. I'm pretty excited about it- I'll finally be able to play those FLAC bootlegs without converting them!!

Even better for me...
Techy reviews can be boring & I can check out the specs myself!!
I'm more interested in hearing about how it sounds, if you have any storage issues and how easy it is to load your files on the device!!
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts :plus_one:

Zod

I still don't see an iphone as it's main competitor. It's a niche product targeted at the audiophile market. Compare it to other high end players. Fiio's X3/X5, The new Sony players, Cowon etc...

All these format's can do Flac (and Flac HD). Use the same files on each and then test. The only drawback being that different headphones/iem's sound better with different players. When my Cowon s9 broker I bought a fiio x3. The headphones I were using sounded decent on the cowon but not to so good on the fiio. I went through my pile of IEM's I didn't like, and it turned out my Monster Turbine's sound pretty good on the fiio (But they sounded way to bassy on the s9).

BHealy

Zod said:

I still don't see an iphone as it's main competitor. It's a niche product targeted at the audiophile market. Compare it to other high end players. Fiio's X3/X5, The new Sony players, Cowon etc...

All these format's can do Flac (and Flac HD). Use the same files on each and then test. The only drawback being that different headphones/iem's sound better with different players. When my Cowon s9 broker I bought a fiio x3. The headphones I were using sounded decent on the cowon but not to so good on the fiio. I went through my pile of IEM's I didn't like, and it turned out my Monster Turbine's sound pretty good on the fiio (But they sounded way to bassy on the s9).

I agree- it is definitely for a niche market.

BHealy

Alright- I received Sony NWZ-A17 in the mail on Monday and haven't had a ton of time to use it, but here are my first impressions.

I was surprised how small it was, and as some reviewers mentioned, it doesn't seem like it would be that durable, but I'm not too worried about it. I just put it in my shirt pocket, and I store it in an old glasses case.

The operations seem pretty simple and straight-forward, although I haven't spent too much time with it yet. It does have an option to customize the EQ, or use a couple of presets, which is pretty cool (I don't think Pono has this).

It comes with its one version of software, similar to iTunes. It seemed to automatically locate most of my music, but I figured out how "point it" to some music I store on an external harddrive as well. Most meta data transferred, but it interpreted some songs inaccurately-it references "GraceNote" database for music. I've spent a ton of time fixing the metadata on some vinyl rips and older PJ bootlegs, which has been super tedious. It seems like most studio albums came through just fine. I can't figure out how to edit an entire album at once, but maybe there is a way? Its song-by-song...ugh.

The first 2 albums I put on it were a hi-res rip of Yield and HD-FLAC for the Denver show from this past fall. They sound GREAT! On "No Way" I noticed Stone singing backing vocals in a couple of parts that I hadn't noticed before, for example. The Denver boot sounded awesome too, but here is the super annoying part, that I'm still trying to figure out: Release played (gave me chills), and then the next song that played was Leash, which actually wasn't played until the end of the show. I checked the metadata, and although most of it seemed filled out, and was transferred when the music was uploaded, the disk number and total number of songs (e.g., 2 of ____) was not there. I filled in the rest, and I'm trying to re-upload the album again.

I'm going to do some comparisons between mp3s and vinyl rips (at hi-res) and other hi-def files I have, but so far I love the sound of it- sorry this is non-technical.

Morale of the story:
-Annoying/cumbersome software for handling our bootleg collections
-Awesome sound!!
-Easy use
-Battery life is supposed to be 20-30 hours, but I haven't had it long enough to comment.

BIGDaddyWil

Awesome! Thank you! Keep us posted.

derbydave

Good to hear your first impression, THANKS for sharing :plus_one:
Bummer about losing all the metadata info...
THAT would piss me off too!!!
Looking forward to hearing what you think once you figure out the BUGS!!!

darthvedder

BHealy said:

Alright- I received Sony NWZ-A17 in the mail on Monday and haven't had a ton of time to use it, but here are my first impressions.

I was surprised how small it was, and as some reviewers mentioned, it doesn't seem like it would be that durable, but I'm not too worried about it. I just put it in my shirt pocket, and I store it in an old glasses case.

The operations seem pretty simple and straight-forward, although I haven't spent too much time with it yet. It does have an option to customize the EQ, or use a couple of presets, which is pretty cool (I don't think Pono has this).

It comes with its one version of software, similar to iTunes. It seemed to automatically locate most of my music, but I figured out how "point it" to some music I store on an external harddrive as well. Most meta data transferred, but it interpreted some songs inaccurately-it references "GraceNote" database for music. I've spent a ton of time fixing the metadata on some vinyl rips and older PJ bootlegs, which has been super tedious. It seems like most studio albums came through just fine. I can't figure out how to edit an entire album at once, but maybe there is a way? Its song-by-song...ugh.

The first 2 albums I put on it were a hi-res rip of Yield and HD-FLAC for the Denver show from this past fall. They sound GREAT! On "No Way" I noticed Stone singing backing vocals in a couple of parts that I hadn't noticed before, for example. The Denver boot sounded awesome too, but here is the super annoying part, that I'm still trying to figure out: Release played (gave me chills), and then the next song that played was Leash, which actually wasn't played until the end of the show. I checked the metadata, and although most of it seemed filled out, and was transferred when the music was uploaded, the disk number and total number of songs (e.g., 2 of ____) was not there. I filled in the rest, and I'm trying to re-upload the album again.

I'm going to do some comparisons between mp3s and vinyl rips (at hi-res) and other hi-def files I have, but so far I love the sound of it- sorry this is non-technical.

Morale of the story:
-Annoying/cumbersome software for handling our bootleg collections
-Awesome sound!!
-Easy use
-Battery life is supposed to be 20-30 hours, but I haven't had it long enough to comment.

I haven't even tried the Sony software to manage my collection, I've just been using Windows File Explorer to transfer files to it. You are right that it can be very tedious and cumbersome doing it on your own.

One thing I found out that may help you is that the player won't sort by disc number, regardless of whether that field is filled out or not. It just sorts by track number within folders. So, if two files have the same track number but different disc numbers, it will play them alphabetically one after the other. I've had to go in and renumber them sequentially so that they play in order. A real pain in the ass.

Getting cover art to display can be tricky sometimes, too. Sony even released a firmware update on its website that says it fixes some problems with the display of cover art.

Other than that, I love how the player sounds, its battery life, how easy it is to navigate, how small it is, and its expandability through microSD cards.

Ando

I just skimmed this quick and didnt see anyone talking about Tidal. Its definitely expensive at $25 a month but i was very impressed at the "lossless" quality. It kills your data plan so its really only usable at home or over wifi. I use Sol Republic headphones and a 5.1 vizio surround sound and its noticeably better than anything else ive used. You get a free 30 day trial so i would at least check it out.

BHealy

darthvedder said:

BHealy said:

Alright- I received Sony NWZ-A17 in the mail on Monday and haven't had a ton of time to use it, but here are my first impressions.

I was surprised how small it was, and as some reviewers mentioned, it doesn't seem like it would be that durable, but I'm not too worried about it. I just put it in my shirt pocket, and I store it in an old glasses case.

The operations seem pretty simple and straight-forward, although I haven't spent too much time with it yet. It does have an option to customize the EQ, or use a couple of presets, which is pretty cool (I don't think Pono has this).

It comes with its one version of software, similar to iTunes. It seemed to automatically locate most of my music, but I figured out how "point it" to some music I store on an external harddrive as well. Most meta data transferred, but it interpreted some songs inaccurately-it references "GraceNote" database for music. I've spent a ton of time fixing the metadata on some vinyl rips and older PJ bootlegs, which has been super tedious. It seems like most studio albums came through just fine. I can't figure out how to edit an entire album at once, but maybe there is a way? Its song-by-song...ugh.

The first 2 albums I put on it were a hi-res rip of Yield and HD-FLAC for the Denver show from this past fall. They sound GREAT! On "No Way" I noticed Stone singing backing vocals in a couple of parts that I hadn't noticed before, for example. The Denver boot sounded awesome too, but here is the super annoying part, that I'm still trying to figure out: Release played (gave me chills), and then the next song that played was Leash, which actually wasn't played until the end of the show. I checked the metadata, and although most of it seemed filled out, and was transferred when the music was uploaded, the disk number and total number of songs (e.g., 2 of ____) was not there. I filled in the rest, and I'm trying to re-upload the album again.

I'm going to do some comparisons between mp3s and vinyl rips (at hi-res) and other hi-def files I have, but so far I love the sound of it- sorry this is non-technical.

Morale of the story:
-Annoying/cumbersome software for handling our bootleg collections
-Awesome sound!!
-Easy use
-Battery life is supposed to be 20-30 hours, but I haven't had it long enough to comment.

I haven't even tried the Sony software to manage my collection, I've just been using Windows File Explorer to transfer files to it. You are right that it can be very tedious and cumbersome doing it on your own.

One thing I found out that may help you is that the player won't sort by disc number, regardless of whether that field is filled out or not. It just sorts by track number within folders. So, if two files have the same track number but different disc numbers, it will play them alphabetically one after the other. I've had to go in and renumber them sequentially so that they play in order. A real pain in the ass.

Getting cover art to display can be tricky sometimes, too. Sony even released a firmware update on its website that says it fixes some problems with the display of cover art.

Other than that, I love how the player sounds, its battery life, how easy it is to navigate, how small it is, and its expandability through microSD cards.

Great tip!! Thank you!! That would fix it. I noticed today (after I tried numbering the disk number o n every song) that it does indeed play each song number 1, then number two, etc.... I don't mind going in and renumbering them all if that's the fix! Its better than not knowing what the fix is and trying and failing over and over.

darthvedder

BHealy said:

Great tip!! Thank you!! That would fix it. I noticed today (after I tried numbering the disk number o n every song) that it does indeed play each song number 1, then number two, etc.... I don't mind going in and renumbering them all if that's the fix! Its better than not knowing what the fix is and trying and failing over and over.

You're welcome! It was a real trial and error process for me. I even tried putting each disc in its own folder, but if all the tracks still had the same album name, it still played them by track number. So, it was a choice of keeping all the tracks in one folder and renumbering them 1 through the end or putting them in separate folders but changing the album names to "Album Disc 1" and "Album Disc 2", etc. I thought that it was better to treat the tracks as one big album in the same folder.