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PonoPlayer, the music player for audiophiles, at CES 2015 (pictures)

From Neil Young's mind to your ears: the PonoPlayer is a high-end digital music player for people who are truly serious about their audio quality.

Nic Healey
Nic Healey is a Senior Editor with CNET, based in the Australia office. His passions include bourbon, video games and boring strangers with photos of his cat.
Nic Healey
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1 of 7 Sarah Tew / CNET

The PonoPlayer

Neil Young's Pono brand is all about high-end audio -- on one side is the PonoMusic Web store, where you can purchase high-resolution versions of albums, and on the other is the PonoPlayerhardware.

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2 of 7 Sarah Tew / CNET

Ready for mainstream

The PonoPlayer began life as a Kickstarter, but with all the original backers having had their players delivered, Pono is ready for mainstream retail -- you can pre-order from PonoMusic for $399 (AU$495/£265) for delivery in February.

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3 of 7 Sarah Tew / CNET

Pyramid player

That iconic design -- described as a Toblerone -- isn't just a strange quirk. According to Pono, it allows the player to use a 2,950mAh cylindrical battery that offers better energy efficiency and lifespan than a flat one.

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4 of 7 Sarah Tew / CNET

Memory matters

High-end music files can be massive so you'll need some space for those smooth-sounding tunes. The PonoPlayer has 64GB of onboard memory, but also ships with a 64GB microSD card. It can take up to 128GB of external memory however, so feel free to upgrade.

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5 of 7 Sarah Tew / CNET

Analog sounds

According to Pono the player features "fully balanced, totally discrete, zero-feedback analog circuitry." It's also got two 3.5mm output jacks and has the ESS Sabre ES9018 D/A converter -- which is the same thing used in the Oppo BDP-105 Blu-ray player.

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6 of 7 Sarah Tew / CNET

Simple controls

It's a very pared-back design overall, and while it's not small -- it's actually 5 inches tall -- at 4.6 ounces (130g) it's much lighter than you'd expect.

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7 of 7 Sarah Tew / CNET

Pono music

While it'll play any music file you might need, the PonoMusic store is where you'll find the stuff that's been special mastered for the best quality. Pono says it has 16-bit 44.1kHz as the minimum and goes right up to 24-bit 192kHz. When you're shopping for albums, the site will helpfully let you know the exact quality of what you're buying.

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