Pono Quick Impressions

After a series of PITA and with friendly helps from zerodeefex, I finally got a hold to the Pono to give it a serious listen.

The Bad
1. There is no f'ing sleep&wake button. f**k you who designed this. It's a touch screen device. Oh and no home button. f**k you.
2. Judged by UERM the output impedance should be somewhere around 5 ohms. IEM users be aware. FWIW, Jupiter paired very well (albeit a departure from the "fun" intention of Jupiter). UERM paired bad.
3. Each step of sound changes too much with sensitive IEMs.
4. Big. It does take a lot of pocket space.
5. Battery will likely last a full day but the way how remaining battery is displayed is ridiculous. A tiny green bar, probably only 2 pixels width, on the very top of the screen.
6. Vocals might be shouty, regardless if HD650 or IEMs.


The Good
1. Light. Significantly lighter than AK100ii.
2. Plenty of power. At 75% of volume HD650 sounds sorta nice. Definitely drives HD650 with serious balls.
3. No FiiO plastic timbre.
4. Not sharp. Higher mids and treble are done tastefully so. Slightly laid back, very relaxed. Ayre house sound?
5. Bass when done right is solid and punchy. VERY punchy.
6. No grain throughtout.

No Comments
1. Not sure about balanced mode.
2. If it is a good value to drive full-sized cans depends on personal judgement.
3. Exchanging general resolving ability to a more or less artificially smoothened signature is debatable.

 

Two questions:
1. If the home button is not present, is there a trick to quickly get to the home screen? (Even my Sansa Fuze V1 has a home button, go figure.)
2. What do you mean by shouty vocals? Is there a built in midrange/vocal range emphasis? Can you equalise it out?

I detest the marketing B.S. around it but as a DAP I find the Pono fascinating.

 

I don't think there is a quick way around. On the bright side, there are only two menu layers so it's not THAT terrible, just enough to get me shout f**k.

There seem to be an emphasis on vocal. Apparantly Pono vocal is more upfront, liquid, in comparison vs AK. When the vocal is good, it reminds me of Amperex 7308. When the vocal is bad, it reminds me of TungSol 12AX7.