General Asylum

Posted by Charles Hansen (M) on September 08, 2014 at 12:43:53

Hello All -

I am hopeful that there is a lot of interest in the PonoPlayer. Well, there is also a chance to hear one in Denver this Friday, September 12th. This will be the ONLY chance to hear it before the first KickStarter shipments go out in a month or two.

I know that a lot of people will jump all over me saying "conflict of interest". Well, don't go then. This is just "bait" to raise interest in a classical musical benefit concert to raise money for Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) research.

This research actually allows regeneration of the human adult nervous system. So not only does this impact SCI but also things like traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer's, dementia, cerebral palsy, Parkinson's, strok... the list is nearly endless.

I am sure that everybody here knows someone whose life has been impacted by one of these terrible diseases or injuries.

Those of us who have been here a long time still use the "Classic" view, whereby things fall off of the edge of the (flat!) world after a week or so. So I am linking to Glenn W's post which you won't see if you are using the Classic view.

You can see a video on the PonoMusic website about the reaction of 50 people who had a chance to hear to PonoPlayer in two different settings:

a) With Sennheiser Momentum headphones ($300) or their own headphones.

b) In a home music system.

http://www.ponomusic.com/#testimonials

What they did was of the 15,000 people that pre-ordered PonoPlayers on KickStarter, they set up a "Sneak Preview" where the first 50 people to sign up were able to attend a listening party in San Francisco.

There were two rooms. One had a PonoPlayer connected for a very high quality home stereo system to show that a $400 player was capable of producing incredible sound even with a system costing several tens of thousands of dollars. The other room  had twenty PonoPlayers with headphones, and the attendees were invited to bring their own headphones also.

After everybody had a chance to listen to both rooms, they had three sessions where groups of 16 or 17 people could comment on what they just heard. This is the heart of the video. Use the slider bar to scroll to:

Group One -- 15:20
Group Two -- 25:18
Group Three -- 30:40

Please don't jump all over me saying that I am trying to sell PonoPlayers. I think it is a great product, and Ayre will make a few bucks in royalties for each one that is sold. But I don't give a shit about that.

What I am really trying to sell is tickets to benefit research into cures for both SCI's and other diseases of the central nervous system.

Thanks for your understanding,
Charles Hansen

• Classical Concert to Benefit for SCI   (Open in New Window)