If you take digital audio quality as seriously as Neil Young does, then your time has finally come: His PonoMusic player will go on sale starting next week, and in the meantime you can peruse the songs and albums available for purchase via the PonoMusic online catalogue.
The actual player was available for preorder for a while, with an expected delivery during February, but new reports from The Verge and others indicate that the device will be available for retail sales at Fry's Electronics locations. If that name doesn't mean anything to you, don't be surprised: The chain is most popular in Young's current home state of California with a dozen or so other locations out West plus a handful in the Midwest. The New York City area for one doesn't have a location so East Coasters may have to wait until February.
Be prepared to shell out if you want to invest in the PonoMusic lifestyle. Like the first iPods before it, initial buy-in will seem costly, with an actual Pono player coming in at $399. The music itself will be higher priced due to the higher quality audio formatting used, with songs ranging from $1.99 to $2.99...if you can even buy songs by themselves. Several of the performers with music available for purchase, including Young himself, only allow for buying the full albums, which can run up to $27.49, as is the case for the deluxe edition of Led Zeppelin's "IV," which costs only $13.99 on iTunes.
Young isn't trying to generate billions of dollars Steve Jobs-style of course: PonoMusic exists primarily for music snobs such as himself and your correspondent. He has to hope it picks up steam much like the vinyl industry has, although the buy-in for that market is much cheaper (a record player can be bought for a relatively low sum) and Pono also lacks the collectible quality that vinyl possesses.
Stay tuned...we can't wait to try one out even if we can't afford it yet.
