14 DAY TRIAL // Following David Pogue’s test of the PonoPlayer - which resulted in the iPhone kicking its Toblerone-shaped butt - Slate’s Seth Stevenson decided to take a more professional swing at the gadget.
Also pitting it against the iPhone, Stevenson found that “not one person had any clue whether they were listening to the Pono or to the ‘inferior’ iTunes track. When forced to state a preference, six out of seven people actually picked the iPhone as the higher-quality experience.”
This doesn’t mean that the iPhone is suddenly a better music player. What it means is that the PonoPlayer was (seemingly) pushed onto consumers with false advertising. Also, the Pono store promises the highest-resolution music available.
The subjects were all in their 20s and 30s, all audiophiles. Two of them were actually professional music writers, and another person was a video producer. Safe to say they knew what they were looking for in terms of spectrum.
The PonoPlayer garnered massive success after rocker Neil Young managed to raise millions on Kickstarter, go into production with the gadget and ultimately sell it for $400 (€350) apiece. Its attractive design, as well as the dual-jack array undoubtedly contributed to the successful fundraising. However, it seems that regular people cannot pick up the extra quality in sound. Which is a shame, considering what Young promised to deliver in his Kickstarter campaign.