Neil Young Finally Launches His Pono Player in Canada
With more of the big manufacturers getting into Hi-Res Audio (Sony, Technics), Neil’s Pono player has a fight ahead of it. While it’s been available in the US for more than year, it’s only now that Canadians can buy the thing without crossing the border.
We also have access to PonoMusic, the online store where we can buy the necessary Hi-Res Audio files (FLAC lossless, of course).
How much? It ain’t cheap, especially for a dedicated music player with a Toblerone shape that doesn’t fit well into a pocket. The price has been set at $500 CAD, which doesn’t include any custom headphones or speakers.
Still, it’s a gadget that some might want, especially if you want to dig into the growing (I hope) trend of bringing back proper fidelity to a world whose ears have been deadened by MP3s and over-compressed CDs.
The PonoPlayer should be on sale at Amazon.ca, Bay Bloor Radio in Toronto and the eighty or so London Drugs stores across the country by the time you read this. More info at the CBC.
Had one (bought one of the special editions from the Kickstarter), sold it. Sound quality is great with proper headphones, build quality is average, which is unacceptable to me for $500, and the touch screen is a colossal PITA. It’s too small for the size of the font, so scrolling is annoying AF, making it next to useless in a car (which is where I was hoping to use it). The software is also crap.
/soapbox