I dunno if y'all remember last year's hype over this thing, the Pono—a new digital music player that is supposed to deliver major sound improvement over all the other current music/sound delivery devices/services. Celeb musician involvement notwithstanding (Neil Young is the "founder and CEO" of Pono), its promise of fidelity WAS encouraging. However, after waiting patiently for a year, The Stranger did NOT get a Pono demo unit to test, even though Megan "Ding Dong" Seling wrote about the thing last March. GAH!! I collected, like, hella WAV files in anticipation.

NOW that Pono is available* for retail purchase, has anyone taken a Pono punt? And if so, DOES IT DELIVER? Does it sound as amazing as Mr. Young had hoped? Or were you bummed your headphones couldn't handle the expanse of uncompressed sound?!

* The Pono website is currently only taking pre-orders, but I've found them for sale otherwise on eBay and Fry's."