PonoPlayer to offer superior sound quality to Apple's downlaodable files
Aims to recreate the sound quality of vinyl in a digital download
Will require users to buy their music again in new format
By Mark Prigg
PUBLISHED: 23:05 GMT, 10 March 2014
Legendary musician Neil Young has revealed plans for a high end digital music player and download service to take on Apple.
Called Pono Music, it will use a $399 player, and will raise money via Kickstarter.
It will offer 'lossless' downloads at a quality far higher than those offered by Apple or most other music services.
'It's about the music, real music,' said said Neil Young, founder and chairman of PonoMusic.
'We want to move digital music into the 21st century and PonoMusic does exactly that.
'We couldn't be more excited about bringing PonoMusic to the market.'
The gadget, announced at the SXSW festival in Austin, is described as a 'revolutionary movement'.
Young has previously hit out at the quality of music downloads.
Because files are compressed to make them smaller, information is removed - leading to a lower quality.
'The simplest way to describe what we’ve accomplished is that we’ve liberated the music of the artist from the digital file and restored it to its original artistic quality – as it was in the studio,' he said in a previous post on his Facebook page.
'Hearing Pono for the first time is like that first blast of daylight when you leave a movie theatre on a sun-filled day.'
wish to experience music the way the artists intended, with emotion, detail and power intact,' the firm says.
'Our goal was to offer the highest quality digital music available from all the major labels with the world's greatest sounding, user-friendly portable music player.
'We've achieved our goal and we are excited to launch our Kickstarter campaign next week to invite music lovers everywhere to join the PonoMusic community and reserve a PonoPlayer for their own enjoyment,' said John Hamm, CEO of PonoMusic.
The PonoPlayer has an LCD touch screen interface, and 128GB of memory allowing it to store 100 to 500 high-resolution digital-music albums.
Memory cards can be used to store and play different playlists and additional collections of music.
PonoPlayer works in much the same way as most other portable music devices. The PonoMusic App (for Mac or Windows PC) provides you access to the PonoMusic.com Store, where you can browse, search, purchase and download high-resolution music to your computer. You then simply connect your PonoPlayer mini-USB cable to your computer's USB port in order to sync your favorite music and playlists. Then you can enjoy your music on your PonoPlayer at the same quality level as the original recording. The touchscreen LCD allows for easy “swipe” navigation between songs, albums, artists, genres, and playlists. It also allows you to change the settings in the player to suit your personal taste.
The PonoPlayer has two output jacks. The first is a normal mini-stereo output specially designed for headphones and is meant for personal listening. The second is a stereo mini-plug analog output specifically designed for listening on your home audio system, in your car, or with your Sonos Connect – so you can share the PonoMusic experience with your friends and family.
The PonoPlayer will be sold at PonoMusic.com for $399 MSRP and is available for pre-order at a discounted price on Kickstarter.com as of March 15th.
PonoMusic recommended earbud and headphone products will also be available for purchase on PonoMusic.com.
PonoMusic worked with Colorado firm Ayre to create the service.
'We are absolutely thrilled to be a part of this project. We will always be grateful to Neil Young for changing the landscape of recorded music,' said Charlie Hansen, CEO of Ayre Acoustics.
The Kickstarter fundraiser page is here. A 400$ donation will not only get you the player but you can choose from limited editions from a variety of artists, including Pearl Jam. Described as "ARTIST SIGNATURE SERIES: PEARL JAM – Limited Edition Artist PonoPlayer in Chrome. Laser engraved with artist's signature. Comes pre-loaded with artist's top two favorite albums. Handmade leather case with presentation box. "
The PonoPlayer is designed to play PonoMusic with stunning clarity. However, the player can play almost any kind of music track including FLAC, ALAC, mp3, WAV, AIFF, AAC (unprotected).
