Any actual use of Pono Player through balanced connection into home stereo?


Hey all.
I've been searching here on Audiogon and can't seem to find the answers I'm looking for regarding the "Pono Player."
Has anyone actually used this item with their home audio system? My desire would be to connect via a balanced cable into my pre-amp. I'm not sure how you get a true balanced connection via a 3.5 jack into an XLR, but I'll take their word for it if they say it's so.
Anyway, can anyone out there who has actual experience with this give me first hand advice? Is the output really any better than a Hi-Res FLAC or DSD file played through a typical player for such files say via a thumb drive or SACD? Obviously the Pono Player does not have a huge storage capacity even with a SD card and no remote is a big draw back. But these could be over looked if the sound the Pono produces is dramatically improved over a typical consumer level Hi-Res player.
I appreciate all responses in advance!
wcc10
wcc10

Showing 1 response by cerrot

I have a Pono (love it) and use it in balanced mode (surf cables) into my headphones.  I want to hook the pono up to my Cayin intergrated at work, which only has rca inputs (not balanced).  Cardas has a cable for the pono that has XLR out, which doesn't work for me.  There is a Chinese company that makes them into single ended.  Only $29 bucks so I may go for it. Why would you think hires from the pono would sound different than hires from one of your other devices?  I love my pono as a portable but I doubt its DAC compares to my Esoteric K03.  Pono uses Ayer and it is excellent but you need to compare it to your dac.  If, on the other hand, you are looking for a very affordable music server with built in dac, which sounds awesome, you may have found it