Pono Music Portable Music Player, Black

Well, after months of deliberation I bought my own pono player right here in amazon.com. I have done my home work and have been reading and watching anything I could find on this player. I am an audiophile for the last 30 years of my life so bells and whistles were NOT my goal. I just wanted a portable music player that gave me the best possible quality in music playback without breaking the bank. The price of the Pono player is not low but I believe it is fair for what it offers: A first class high res. file player, including a great DAC and a solid headphone amp. I just wanted to have something that could drive my headphones (Etymotic ER4S for travel and Audeze LCD-XC at home or hotel listening). As I mentioned earlier my single main qualifier for a music player is audio quality and I am happy to say that the Pono DELIVERS the goods and more!As soon as I received the player I left it charging or a few hours and then anxiously sat down and listened to the only track the player came with, Neil Young's "There's a world" using my Etymotics first. The sound was really impressive compared to my Samsung S5 or my daughter's iPhone 5S (I have Neil's Harvest album in Flac). The differences are NOT subtle as many self made critics and Pseudo audio experts claim. They are actually HUGE! Of course this needs a good pair of headphones just like a good stereo needs a pair of great speakers.With the Etymotics the player sounded, smooth, extended and really musical. I missed a little extra volume but I could live with this... The real surprise and shock came when I connected my Audeze LCD XCs to the player. I had to lower the volume to a little more than half in order notto hurt my ears and the sound was...nothing less than sublime! No, it can not be compared to my big stereo and my Audeze's connected to my Shiit Lyr amp but it was so close it is scary..Excited I decided to download some of my own FLAC files (made from my own CDs) to the player and things got really interesting: When playing really high quality recordings of music I love (eg. Daft Punk RAM, Diana Kralls' Live in Paris etc) the sound was nothing less than amazing. This time even with my Etymotics I had to lower the volume a few notches (to about 65%) in order to avoid hurting my hearing. I could really live with this combo for the rest of my life if I had to...I will not go into details about the player itself because they are covered extensively in various sites and by other reviewers at amazon. My goal here was to let you know that the pono is one heck of a little player that gives you way more than its size and cost would let you believe.A comment regarding some of the "testimonials" in the Pono Site by various celebrities. YES they are way OVER THE TOP (really, none of those celebrities ever listened to a real Hi End system in their lives?) and I guess this has disturbed many people to the point that they have come to dislike the player even without ever listening to it. Too bad about that because the player IS incredible for a portable player. My advice to everyone is: Forget the hype and the hoopla and give it a try. Amazon is great taking items back if you are not satisfied. My guess is that once you hear what this player has to offer you will be keeping it.And one Lie: When I wrote this review I mentioned I could live happily with my Etymotic ER4S....I guess I lied even to my self. After hearing the incredible sound of my Audeze LCD XCs I decided to get something better for travel and I just bought a pair of custom made ACS headphones. I was using ACS ear pieces with my Etymotics and they have my ear canal impressions plus they have a program that gives a 20% discount to customers so I bought a pair of ACS Evolve Studios. I will report my findings when I receive these headphones...Final thoughts: I actually like the toblerone shape of the player. I would have preferred a better quality screen and a bit better HMI but for 400 bucks I am happy for what I am getting: Audio Nirvana on the Go!Very Highly recommended.UPDATE July 6, 2015: I have had the Pono for close to three weeks now and in two of my business trips. It is simply great! No hitch so far WITH ONE EXCEPTION, the Battery Life. It really stinks. I get about 5-6 hrs if I use the screen a lot. A bit more if I just listen to music. Come On Pono-People come up with a battery that I can easily replace and get some more serious time between charges...And now the story behind my new ACS Custom IEMs. I have been using my Pono with my Etymotic ER-4S. The combo (Pono/ER4S) sounds great but I was still NOT all that satisfied with the bass and most of all the max volume I could attain. Also I needed a pair of new custom made ear plugs by ACS Custom. Originally I was thinking to buy the new Etymotic ER-4Pt which is more efficient and supposedly has more bass than the ERs although from what I have read they do not sound as smooth as the ER4S. Etymotic is actually including an adaptor that can turn the ER4Pt to an ER4S... Anyway, still skeptical about this I called ACS Custom in New York to order a new pair of ear plugs and Adam talked to me about their totally custom Headphones ( In Ear Monitors, IEMs). They have 3 models from $400 with ONE driver, to about $1400 with Five drivers. I opted for the mid line "Evolves" which comes with Three Drivers, one for the Highs, one for the Mids and one for the Bass with a crossover for each. I was very nervous about this purchase because I had never heard of ACS Custom IEMs before and I also bought them "sight unseen"...as they say based on Adam's recommendation. Boy am I glad I did that! To make a long story short once the IEMs were properly broken in (for me 2-3 days of heavy playing w/o much listening) and, even more important, once I learned how to put them in my ears I ended up literally BLOWN AWAY by a sound that rivals (NO EXAGGERATION) my $80,000+ system! I mean, this time I have it all. The highs are sublime, smooth and extended, the mids are life like, smooth and amazing and the bass...well, the bass is one of the deepest, most high end absolutely out of this world bass I have ever heard from a headphone set or, dare I say, speakers, period. They almost equal my Audeze LCD XC in every way and they fit in the palm of my hand...The Pono/ACS combo is seriously our of this world and brings me sound I only dreamt about before, let alone sound I can have on my trips. By the way, YES I did compare again the sound of the Pono, my Samsung S5, my Ipod Clasic, my daughter's iPhone and my lap top computer and the differences among them are now totally easy (really trivial) to tell with the Pono proving its hi-end origins with ANY file I have in it (mainly FLAC but also some MP3 320bps).Please forgive my enthusiasm and over the top mini review but I really cannot put in lesser words what I hear from this amazing combo...it is really incredible.If you are interested in having your Hi End stereo sound in your trips give the Pono a chance and also ACS a call, talk to either Adam or AJ and pay very careful attention to what they say! It will change your on the go life! Talking about Audio Nirvana on the go...I am finally there!

Let’s start w/ the strengths of the pono. It really sounds fabulous. I don’t think there is any better sounding digital music player at this price point. The sound is detailed, natural, and smooth; without being too analytical. With a good pair of headphones this thing is great. From here my experience hit some limits. I am not a big fan of the form factor. The shape isn’t as big an inconvenience as some people say, though a byproduct of the shape is a very small screen, and there are real issues with a touch screen that is that small. The player is however small enough and light enough to be really portable. My real problems were with the Music Vault Beta software (current in December 2016). Unfortunately the online data bases for classical CD metadata are a mess, and the pono software was not robust enough or flexible enough to practically manage a classical music library. The metadata imported was mostly incorrect (which is not the fault of pono), and in some cases the software was not capable of overwriting it to create playlists. Additionally, playlists would not always move from the computer to the player, or at least would not appear in the menu on the player. They did seem to be lurking somewhere in the memory of the player. I think the satisfaction of most users will depend on their musical interests & listening habits. If you listen to popular music (where the data basses are more reliable), and you mostly play albums or just shuffle a library, you will love this thing. If you want to manage your library in a more specific way, you will find lots of frustration. Hopefully the next generation of the software will be better. At this time I would rate the pono five stars for sound, but only between 1 & 4 stars for user experience, depending on how you listen to music. I can imagine enjoying the pono, but didn’t work for me.

I don't have a special headset and except the music given with the Pono, I don't have high quality music and I don't hear the super beautiful sound of Pono