PonoMusic - Digital Music Ecosystem
On March 11, 2014, the Kickstarter campaign was launched by the PonoMusic team and the famous musician Neil'a Young'a - Pono Music . The 11-minute video is little filled with the technical details of the project and is rife with impressions from listening to extremely famous music artists: Sting, Jack White, Tom Petty, Mumford and Sons, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters and many others. The campaign has already raised the necessary $ 800k and has already exceeded $ 1.1kk in less than a day.
Actually, a little about the technical essence and what the project is about. He has 2 key points - this is the PonoPlayer audio player and the website www.PonoMusic.com . The goal is to take high-quality digital audio to a new level, both in terms of accessibility and in terms of the tool with which you can enjoy it.
PonoPlayer will be able to play the following formats:
Parameters:
Memory capacity: 64GB of internal memory with the ability to add additional 64GB
Weight: 128g
Dimensions: 5x2x1 inches
Battery: Li-ion for 8 hours of work
Unfortunately, I did not find any information about the features of Digital-to-analog converter inside and the question will be whether the device reproduces the familiar 44.1k / 16 FLAC with the same quality as well-known audio players remains open.
www.PonoMusic.com will be the place where, in fact, it will be possible to purchase that very high-quality audio. This is not only a cloud, files can be downloaded. The estimated cost of one album is $ 15-25.
The campaign offers many types of financial assistance (pledge), for some ($ 400) you can get PonoPlayer limited series signed by famous musicians (already partially disassembled). The usual version of PonoPlayer can be obtained for $ 300. The promised date is October 2014.
Free translation of What is so special about the PonoPlayer technology? :
PS In the comments it is proposed to arrange a polemic about 44.1kHz / 16bit vs 96kHz / 24bit, the limits of human hearing, etc.
Actually, a little about the technical essence and what the project is about. He has 2 key points - this is the PonoPlayer audio player and the website www.PonoMusic.com . The goal is to take high-quality digital audio to a new level, both in terms of accessibility and in terms of the tool with which you can enjoy it.
PonoPlayer will be able to play the following formats:
- CD lossless quality recordings: 1411 kbps (44.1 kHz / 16 bit) FLAC files
- High-resolution recordings: 2304 kbps (48 kHz / 24 bit) FLAC files
- Higher-resolution recordings: 4608 kbps (96 kHz / 24 bit) FLAC files
- Ultra-high resolution recordings: 9216 kbps (192 kHz / 24 bit) FLAC files
Parameters:
Memory capacity: 64GB of internal memory with the ability to add additional 64GB
Weight: 128g
Dimensions: 5x2x1 inches
Battery: Li-ion for 8 hours of work
Unfortunately, I did not find any information about the features of Digital-to-analog converter inside and the question will be whether the device reproduces the familiar 44.1k / 16 FLAC with the same quality as well-known audio players remains open.
www.PonoMusic.com will be the place where, in fact, it will be possible to purchase that very high-quality audio. This is not only a cloud, files can be downloaded. The estimated cost of one album is $ 15-25.
The campaign offers many types of financial assistance (pledge), for some ($ 400) you can get PonoPlayer limited series signed by famous musicians (already partially disassembled). The usual version of PonoPlayer can be obtained for $ 300. The promised date is October 2014.
Free translation of What is so special about the PonoPlayer technology? :
PonoPlayer was developed with an uncompromising approach to sound quality. We collaborated with a team of engineers from Ayre ( www.ayre.com ) to incorporate some of their world-class audio technology into our PonoPlayer. The Ayre team describes its contribution to the development of PonoPlayer as follows:
- The digital filter used in PonoPlayer has a minimal phase and the absence of an unnatural (digital) lead. All sounds produced (and the music itself) always have reverberation and / or echo after the main sound. There is no such sound in nature that has an echo or reverberation before the sound that conventional linear-phase digital filters make. This is one of the reasons why digital sound has a reputation for unnatural and rough sound.
- All schemes are zero feedback schemes. Feedback (feedback) can only correct errors after they happen, which means that it cannot correct all of them. Using a patented ultra-linear circuit with wide bandwidth and low output impedance, artificially sounding feedback is no longer necessary.
- The DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter) chip used is recognized by the audio and engineering community as one of the best sounding chips available today.
- The outgoing buffer used for headphones is completely discrete, which allows you to optimize all individual parameters and settings for perfect sound quality. The total output impedance is very low, so PonoPlayer provides a perfectly flat frequency response and a wide volume range when using almost any headphone.
Original
The PonoPlayer was designed with a “no compromises” approach to sound quality. We partnered with the engineering team at Ayre (www.ayre.com) to include some of their world-class audio technology in our PonoPlayer. The Ayre team describes their contribution to the PonoPlayer design as follows:
- The digital filter used in the PonoPlayer has minimal phase, and no unnatural (digital sounding) pre-ringing. All sounds made (including music) always have reflections and/or echoes after the initial sound. There is no sound in nature that has any echo or reflection before the sound, which is what conventional linear-phase digital filters do. This is one reason that digital sound has a reputation for sounding «unnatural» and harsh.
- All circuitry is zero-feedback. Feedback can only correct an error after it has occurred, which means that it can never correct for all errors. By using proprietary ultra-linear circuitry with wide bandwidth and low output impedance, there is no need for unnatural sounding feedback.
- The DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter) chip being used is widely recognized in the audio and engineering community as one of the best sounding DAC chips available today.
- The output buffer used to drive the headphones is fully discrete so that all individual parameters and circuit values and parts quality can be fully optimized for the absolute finest sound quality. The output impedance is very low so that the PonoPlayer delivers perfectly flat frequency response and wide volume range using virtually any set of headphones.
PS In the comments it is proposed to arrange a polemic about 44.1kHz / 16bit vs 96kHz / 24bit, the limits of human hearing, etc.