Media Server Reviews

Manufacturers' Comment

Editor: Hello to all Stereophile readers. I'd like to personally thank John Atkinson and the Stereophile crew for your appreciation of the PonoPlayer and what it delivers.

I first realized that Pono had to happen when it became clear to me that we had lost the connection with music with the dominance of MP3, downloading, and streaming. The goal for Pono was simple: bring the music back, for all of us. Realizing it, making it happen, was a bit more tricky.

As the community around Pono has grown—it currently approaches 43,000 people—we have learned more and more about how music is at the heart of what it means to be human. Latest ideas show that music probably came before language, which in turn led to our culture. In many ways, music is what being human is all about. We have a primordial need to make, receive, and share music. Without it, we are incomplete.

For me, the ability of early digital music systems to make music was not satisfactory, and so they could not satisfy that basic need we have for music. They just weren't good enough. They made sound, but not music that touches our soul like it should.

The PonoPlayer incorporates the core innovations of Ayre Acoustics, developed over more than two decades. To have these ideas made real in a player of this price is a gift. Anyone who knows Charlie Hansen, of Ayre, knows he is obstinate, single-minded, and determined to produce only the best; for him, second best is not good enough. It shows. Would you want me to demand or settle for second best? Would you settle for less? Why should any of us?

Until now, products that implement true balanced mode and zero feedback have been the province of high-end audio, and not affordable for the vast majority of us. Well, not any more. These two features, and things like the unique no-loss volume control and the custom digital filters, are part of Pono's efforts to deliver the faithful reproduction of music. For everyone. With a PonoPlayer, you get these things as standard.

While our player is great with high-resolution recordings, it plays CD-quality material in a way that still makes real music. Many PonoPlayer owners report that they hear their CD material as if for the very first time.

Via our music store, Pono is committed to providing music files of proven provenance. This is about integrity and authenticity—Pono's integrity and authenticity, as well as the files themselves. We want all of us to have the same quality that is on the studio master files or tapes: not compressed, or upsampled, or remastered, or processed, but just the same as the master tape.

Industry legend Bruce Botnick is behind our provenance efforts at Pono. Proven file provenance and the PonoPlayer is a combination that delivers what I wanted from day one of Pono and before. A good example of this is the telling by Bruce, on our Pono Community, about Bob Dylan's new album and about how Bob chose the version to release. We try always to deliver what the artist intended. You can find the full story in the Provenance Group on Pono Community. I don't think it has been told anywhere else.

Many other musicians have joined me in this effort. We just want to connect to our audience honestly, with nothing in between, nothing added, and nothing taken away. We are artist led. We want the music we make to be heard as we hear it. Music is our life—why would we want less for anyone else?

Pono is a journey, an unfolding story. It is just beginning; we are on Chapter One. It won't be finished this month or this year, but along the way, we have the opportunity to work together to bring the music back for all of us. Like you, John, many people report that they spontaneously dance when they hear music through a PonoPlayer. That is what music does when it is real. That is why we need it. It makes us move. Music is universal; it belongs to all of us, it connects all of us. It transcends us and joins us. We are one.

This is what motivates and drives everyone at Pono. We just want the music back. That makes us human.

Mahalo.—Neil Young, President, Pono Music