Gadgetory

ever since the success of CD numerous companies have tried to popularize new formats they hope will sell by the truckload two of these led to a format war DVD audio versus sa CD while neither were particularly successful it did lead to a thirst for better than CD quality music or high res audio as it's called today neil young's pono was seen as leading the charge of high-quality digital music and two and a half years after d booing the player on david letterman it's finally here the pono player is a 64 gigabyte high res player which will play almost any format you throw at it including sony's DSD which funnily enough the bird with the SACD as you can see it's kind of an awkward shape but it does fit nicely in your hand and the touchscreen and multifunction button are easily accessible the reason for the weird shape a large battery but on our tests it's only good for six to eight hours use and takes four hours to charge navigation is pretty straightforward even if it's easy to accidentally select things rather than swipe but it's a select button that causes the most trouble this all-in-one s-- which acts as a play select power and track skip which can get confusing the lack of a whole switch and a convoluted hold system means the buttons are easy to trigger in the bag or pocket which can lead to a rundown battery or ear-splitting volume it's not going to change the world unfortunately high res audio isn't as exciting as new young might make out and people will balk at many things including their 399 dollar price tag but despite its many issues I really like this device it's fun it sounds good and its distinctive sound quality is a cut above your smartphone as you'd expect and having another high resolution store to choose from in the form of pono music is also a good thing this is ty Pendlebury from cnet.com