Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

There are a few things you need to know about this player. It is NOT wireless. It does have a 2.0 USB port, not a 3.0 USB port. It does NOT play music through the USB port. It ONLY plays music. That's all it does. If you listen to all of your music wireless, this device is NOT for you. If you only listen to streaming services, this device is NOT for you. ***If you have an Apple computer, the music from the Pono Store is sold in FLAC format, so your computer might not be able to play it***. Get the picture yet? So why does it deserve 5 stars? Well for starters, I want a little more from my music than streaming and wireless quality sound. I'm not an audiophile. I just know sound can be better quality than a MP3, or M4A file. Since Apple in their infinite wisdom decided to abandon their only standalone music player, I was looking for a new portable music player. So then I start hearing about this KickStarter campaign by Neil Young. I know a little bit about Mr. Young, his career, music in general, and I ask myself, "Why would Mr. Young stick himself out there like this?" It's not his usual bag, to push something tech. He must really believe in this service. Then I listened to Mr. Young's speech at SXSW in 2014. He made an obvious observation. "The quality of films, video games have gone up in the past 30 years, but music went down." "Music went to the bottom." He's right. Why did all of sudden music lose its value? Mostly because the stuff people were getting for free off the internet was bad quality. So people just thought, that's how music sounds. The torrents, the streaming have under valued production and songwriting. That's a big reason why a lot of people today think "music sucks". Enter the Pono Player. The Pono experience is really a two part process. First is the digital file. If you're like me and grew up in the 1990s, you bought CDs. Because that was the most convenient way to get your music. I still held on to all of my CDs, even after iTunes started up, and Amazon had there MP3 store. Mostly because the CD just sounded better. I found if I ripped my CD at full uncompressed WAV format, it sounded as close to the source as possible on my computer. It was impractical in the early 00's to rip at this quality, because memory was an issue. If you ripped your CDs at WAV resolution, you would be looking at 350-500MB per album. With a computer that only has 80GB of memory, and CD collection that was in the thousands, I had to be real picky about what I would rip, or compress it to WMA, MP3, or AAC (apple). Now with the price of a 2 TB external hard drive being right around $100.00, memory is kind of a dead issue. The other thing that got me interested was Mr. Young saying "Pono gives you exactly what the artist did." I know that with all our advances in technology, audio hasn't just gotten more convenient, but better. However, we were led to believe that convenience IS better. In order to get high resolution audio you will have to buy it from the Ponomusic.com site, or other high resolution music vendors. The difference IS worth it. Especially when played through this player. It even makes your iTunes and Mp3's sound a little bit better. Even though it is meant to push those higher resolution files. I enjoy listening to my music on a traditional stereo system. Amplifier, two speakers, that's it. The iPod and iPhone, suffered, because of the file size. The louder you played it, the worse it sounded. The Pono Player is the opposite. The louder you play it, the better it sounds. The bigger the speaker, the better it sounds. The bigger the headphones, the better it sounds. You get the picture yet? You might be asking your self, "Besides the player, am I going to have to break the bank on high end audio equipment to really enjoy this thing?" The answer is NO. I still have my traditional stereo, which I paid only $70 for speakers, and $350.00 for the amplifier. That was over 12 years ago. I did pick up a better pair of headphones in the anticipation of getting the player. I picked up the Audio Technica ATH-M50x headphones here at Amazon for around $149.00. They more than do the job for this little player. If you are able to afford XLR balanced amplifiers, or headphones, you are in for a REAL treat. That is the top of the line as far as this little player can go. Since I've never owned a high resolution player, I unfortunately don't have anything else to compare it to. I can tell you that my music collection has never sounded better. The separation of the instruments is so clear, and crisp. Depending on the mastering or production the artist used, it sounds as if they are right in the room with you. The highs and lows are dynamic and warm. It's like having a record player in your pocket. That's why this player gets five stars. I will be listening to my Pono Player for as long as I can. Viva la Pono!