Pono is a real shot in the arm for the music biz on so many levels! In the pre digital days when vinyl ruled, everyone got the same product, that is a vinyl album. To make it sound awesome, you'd get a high quality hifi system, the album would keep sounding better the better your system got. Nowadays, the fragmentation is unbelievable in comparison with so many different formats and bit rates is it any wonder audiophiles are confused! I hope Pono returns us to the old model of buying an album once and for that you get the highest available sound!
I also believe that Pono is more about the music store than the player. The player will always be fluid like all technology. It wont stop with the first gen player, it will keep evolving with upgrades and maybe a choice between different models at various price points, some even aimed solely for home use in your big system etc. This will happen if the music store succeeds!
They should market this along the lines of 'to get awesome sound, you need Pono Music Files for your chosen playback device (ie, it will work with anything). To get even better sound than that, the best available, you need Pono Music played back through our Pono Player'!
i wish everyone associated with this project the best of success and of course kudos must go to the one and only Mr Neil Young, long may he run!
