
Neil Young launches new music player - davidgerard
http://rocknerd.co.uk/2014/03/10/neil-young-launches-new-music-player-based-on-magic-beans-and-unicorn-poop/
======
stevejohnson
This video helped me understand the actual issues around digital audio
encoding. It's nice to use brain space for facts instead of woo. If you're
convinced that digital anything is inherently inferior to analog, it should
clear some things up.

[https://www.xiph.org/video/vid2.shtml](https://www.xiph.org/video/vid2.shtml)

Here's a post on the same site that addresses Pono more directly. Also very
helpful for developing your understanding.

[http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-
young.html](http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html)

------
Fomite
"passionate consumers, who hunger to hear music the way its creators intended"
\- Unless this device teleports me to Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado, it
fails at this goal.

Feel free to substitute your concert venue of choice here.

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zacinbusiness
I would think that the headphones/speakers would be as important, if not more
so, than the device. If you crank out high fidelity music through ear gummies
that you get for 10$ at the drug store then you're not going to get great
sound. But if you take your standard iTunes MP3 and push it through some
decent cans, or even better a proper stereo like a set of B&O speakers, then
you will get sound that's great and clear. 100% of my music listening is
carried out via extreme-quality streaming through Spotify via a set of Bowers
and Wilkins P3 headphones, and I'm always happy with the results, regardless
of whether it's from my laptop, iPhone, or iPad.

~~~
davidgerard
I'm 47, and I know damn well I can't tell a 320kbps MP3 from the CD unless
it's a shitty encode. My arse Neil Young can.

------
VikingCoder
"If Neil Young, age 68, who’s played feedback-drenched noise on stage for the
past forty-odd years, can reliably tell a Pomo file from a FLAC prepared from
said Pomo file in A/B/X testing, I will give you a lollipop. Two lollipops."

You're cheating. The real challenge is a Pono file, encoded to CD, then
FLAC'ed, versus the Pono file. CDs are not that impressive, and there is more
advanced technology: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-
Audio](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-Audio)

I'm not endorsing the Pono, but I'll also bet you a lollipop that 95% or more
of your music collection came from data that was on a CD.

~~~
davidgerard
>encoded to CD, then FLAC'ed

You realise that's a no-op, right?

I also give you this marvellous study on "golden ears" and "high-resolution
audio" versus _science_ : "Audibility of a CD-Standard A/D/A Loop Inserted
Into High-Resolution Audio Playback."

[http://mixonline.com/recording/mixing/audio_emperors_new_sam...](http://mixonline.com/recording/mixing/audio_emperors_new_sampling/)

~~~
SideburnsOfDoom
> > A PONO file, encoded to CD, then FLAC'ed

> You realise that's a no-op, right?

Given that the PONO file will have more bits per sample than the CD encoded
version, from a digital point of view, no, it is absolutely not a no-op. It
has different data in it, even when the reversible compression has been
reversed.

If a person with good ears can tell the difference, that's a different
question. And even if someone somewhere can tell the difference sometimes, do
enough people who pay for music care?

~~~
davidgerard
The CD to FLAC bit is a no-op. To say that suggests not paying attention when
writing.

If a person with good ears can tell the difference, I'll give them _three_
lollipops. The record of actual A/B/X testing of such is a pretty consistent
"no better than chance".

------
arh68
What a headline. iPods got a lot of praise for including Wolfson DACs. The
hardware was better than most and they sounded better. The ES9018 in this
might indeed sound great, too.

Wouldn't it be nice for this to catch on? A chance to move all audio from
v0/16/44 to lossless/24/192\. With DMCA, maybe a good player to jailbreak and
put linux on. If anything, it'll give Apple a reason to update the iPods.

~~~
davidgerard
As an ardent opponent of audio woo, I will admit that "high-resolution" audio
does have one advantage: it never has a LOUDNESS WARS mix.

------
mathieuh
Apparently the 128GiB storage will allow 1000-2000 "high resolution" albums to
be stored at once.

I have 96 FLAC albums on my Mac, and they take up 42GiB.

I wonder what then "high resolution" is supposed to mean.

~~~
fragmer
Actually, the press release claims only "about 100 to 500" albums for 128 GiB
model: [http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f8-general-forum/neil-
youn...](http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f8-general-forum/neil-young-
announces-launch-ponomusic-19703/)

~~~
mathieuh
[http://neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org/2014/03/press-
releas...](http://neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org/2014/03/press-release-pono-
launch-sxsw-by-neil.html)

It appears they made a mistake in the press release originally and have now
corrected it.

It used to say 1000 albums, they meant to write 1000 songs.

------
RexRollman
Those little devices are filled with snake oil. Buyer beware.

~~~
atwebb
It's audiophile, snake oil has been the main consumer good for a while.

~~~
davidgerard
As far as I can tell, Machina Dynamica actually started off as a _parody_ of
audiophiles ... then a tidal wave of _idiots_ bashed down their metaphorical
door, screaming "TAKE MY MONEY!!" As woo-hostile as I am, I can't quite bring
myself to completely condemn them for just taking such resolutely stupid
people's money. I must write up the story for RationalWiki.

