The iPod was a jump forward in convenience and jump backward in sound quality, and they never righted that ship. Apple could have made a pono-like device but they didn’t see the market as mainstream enough. Steve Jobs listened to vinyl at home, so we know where his heart was.

Pono is a high-end file player, DAC, and amp in a compact, portable package for under $500. That is a valuable product, even if not mainstream. Musicians, DJ’s, sound guys, producers, performers, super fans — they all want the best quality they can afford, not the best quality that can also play angry birds and do facebook.

The 2nd part of the story is Pono Inc’s promise to sell the highest native resolution only in their store, and to upgrade any purchases if they eventually stock a higher resolution. To combat the lying/misleading on provenance (origin) Pono named legendary producer Bruce Botnick as VP of Content Acquisition, putting his name on the guarantee to not sell up-samples or otherwise.

Good article and I hope you put up some reviews of the pono player once it’s out in the wild. Music is emotion and naming a music player “righteous” is a bold move that appears to be panning out.