In the age of ubiquitous iPods and smartphones with embedded music players, can hi resolution, high bitrate personal audio really cut it? Rocker Neil Young certainly thinks so, and also that there is a demand for cutting edge music players like his Pono.
Available from Monday across 80 locations in the US, the Pono will retail for $400, a whopping price for a player that does nothing else. The triangular shaped digital music player provides “studio master-quality digital music at the highest audio fidelity possible” according to PonoMusic, which gives listeners the ability to “experience music the way the artists intended.” The music player has 128GB of memory and can “store from about 100 to 500 high-resolution digital-music albums,” though you’ll be able to expand that with a memory card. It also has both a touchscreen LCD and some physical buttons, too.
Whether your ears can hear the difference between an iPod or a Pono, your wallet certainly will be feeling it.