New Audio Format from Neil Young

[aculous]

I really hope this catches on. It seems like its basically taking the lossless audio format and remastering the tracks as well. So instead of putting compressors on it or limiting it, you get a fuller spectrum, from the stuido to the listener. Very cool stuff.

http://www.ponomusic.com/

a little more info:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/neil-young-trademarks-new-audio-format-20120403

[PortSideAudio]

I have been following this for a while. And I was originally super pumped for it. But after reading reviews from a lot of recording studios it actually looks like if you do it right (tracks with very low compression) you can get the same sound quality on your phone as long as you bypass the phones DAC. I mean this is just what I've read, I've never actually heard the pono in real life. In all honesty though I still believe the Pono would sound better.

Question, are you getting one?

[aculous]

well the player is not the important part. You can get lossless audio on your phone now, FLAC/Lossless AAC/APE (I think) theres a TON of formats that are lossless. Also there are really good quality formats that when used properly make music sound great! like WAV for example, has more to do with the encoder. I think the difference is with the way in which its compressed/encoded and the amount of information you are getting to the listener.

If you listen to the blue man group on blu-ray its AMAZING! why? (IMHO) is that they have the room on a bluray to put a TON of information so what you are getting is exactly what the recording artist wants you to hear and in most time in surround sound.

The way its setup now is they record in an amazing studio with good gear. Then they limit it to 20hz-20Khz, then you sample it, at a rate of 128 bit rate to 192 bit rate at a sampling frequency of 44.1KHz. This compresses the music down and they can use constant bit rate or variable bit rate and they usually do something with Gain too to make it louder. All this chops up the song/music and screws it up.

So to me pono seems to take it back to the studio so you are hearing more of what the artist intended. Since I haven't demo'ed it yet and haven't used the device yet I can't actually talk intelligently on it but I like where the thought process is, it seems like they are trying to get back to really good quality music without the limiting factors and the compressing/gating/gain bullshit that has taken recorded music and made it sound like shit for NO good reason.

And on a side note itunes and apple have a HUGE responsibility in fucking up audio quality for the last 10-15 years. I hate apple products for a lot of reasons but itunes and the adoption of AAC is what I think started and landfall decline in audio quality in music.

Also you should never let a computer programmer or computer scientist tell you what music should sound like. Engineers usually are not a good translator for something like music.

[aculous]

I have been following this for a while. And I was originally super pumped for it. But after reading reviews from a lot of recording studios it actually looks like if you do it right (tracks with very low compression) you can get the same sound quality on your phone as long as you bypass the phones DAC. I mean this is just what I've read, I've never actually heard the pono in real life. In all honesty though I still believe the Pono would sound better.

Question, are you getting one?

hah! .....so yes I want to but I want to make sure there is a catalog that I can get my music from. If its only like 5 artists its going to be a hard sell for me.

[Krakin]

The DAC is the ultimate link in the quality of the audio.

If the DAC doesn't have the quality needed then it doesn't matter what you send through it, it will all sound the same. Bad.

[aculous]

The DAC is the ultimate link in the quality of the audio.

If the DAC doesn't have the quality needed then it doesn't matter what you send through it, it will all sound the same. Bad.

I agree, but if you start out with a bad product the DAC isn't going to help that.

[Skullz]

I think what pono is doing is to mimic what analog sounds like in a digital format.

[aculous]

I mean I think he is trying to make lossless audio more mainstream. And start a music service like itunes but with good quality tracks instead of 128bit AAC.

vinyl sounds better because you are getting more information, you don't have a sample, you have the whole thing. With a mp3 you are getting a sample....and the higher the sampling rate and the higher the bit rate the better it sounds. If Pono or Neil Youngs lossless audio format does nothing else but force the mainstream to put up better quality tracks thats awesome!

I am hoping though that Pono and his format catch on. Would be nice to have high quality music at the touch of your fingers. I don't want to have to digitize every vinyl I buy or cd just because I know I can't get something quality digitally. (itunes/amazon/most mp3s)