Neil Young will unveil his PonoPlayer on Tuesday at SXSW in Austin, TX but, if you want one, you’ll have to go through Kickstarter.
The PonoPlayer is supposed to be the highest quality music playback system available on the market, exceeding the quality of a CD and be marketed as the equivalent to HD (Blu-Ray) video vs. standard DVD quality.
Those that are interested in the new format will be able to go to a Kickstarter page, starting Wednesday, to preorder a player which will run $399. A music store, much like the one for iTunes, will be created where music for the player can be purchased.
Word is that the player will have 128GB of memory but, before you get too excited, the size of the music files are very large to accommodate the greater quality, so there will be room for between 100 and 500 albums depending on the title. One advantage to the PonoPlayer, there will be a slot where additional memory can be added.
The following is the promo piece on the PonoPlayer website:
Hi Friend,
There’s an awfully good chance you heard about a revolution we’re working on. Something that will significantly improve the way you get to hear and feel your favorite music.
Shocking you say? That perhaps the promise of “Perfect Sound Forever” propagated by the inventors of the Compact Disc was a bust? And that “CD Quality” promoted by the likes of iTunes and the creators of the MP3 was only an inkling of the flawed format they were hoping to emulate?
We’re here to say it’s incredibly true! Miraculously, there’s a wealth of music & soul (or if you must, “data”) trapped on millions of recordings made over the last half century, that we’re hoping to unleash for the very first time.
Can you imagine? Your own personal time machine, to take you back to the place and time of the original musical event, and let you feel music in ways you’ve only felt seeing it live? We here at Pono are listening to it now and assure you, IT’S AMAZING!!!!
We ask dear music lover that you root for Pono bringing this very real technology to the world. We’re still toiling away on making this happen (yes, there are record labels, artists, publishers and more to finalize with), but we wanted to share our excitement with you.
In the meantime, please follow us on Facebook or Twitter for updates.
Rescuing an art form,
The Pono Team
Read more at VVN Music
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