Digital Component of the Year
Pono PonoPlayer ($399; reviewed by John Atkinson & Michael Lavorgna, April, June & September 2015, Vol.38 Nos. 4, 6 & 9 Review)
For an audio reviewer to rail against the MP3 format is one thing; for Neil Young to do so is quite another. And as this well-loved musician proved in 1985, when his support was instrumental in launching the Farm Aid benefits, and again in 1986, when he and his then wife, Pegi Young, founded the Bridge School, a motivated Neil Young is a force to be reckoned with. Young's quest led him to Ayre Acoustics, the company that designed this year's digital winner, the PonoPlayer: a portable, high-resolution, Kickstarter-funded music-file player famously shaped like a Toblerone bar. The PonoPlayer handles PCM files up to 24-bit/192kHz as well as DSD files, and is equally at home with headphones—special cables allow the PonoPlayer to drive suitable headphones in balanced mode—or as a line-level source in a high-resolution home system. As JA observed in his review, the PonoPlayer is "a well-engineered, high-performance, portable player . . . at a fair, affordable price."
Notes on the Votes: Three of this year's top vote-getters are portables, the others being the Astell&Kern AK240 and Sony NW-ZX2. Even more interesting—but not, in my view, surprising—was the PonoPlayer's considerable margin of victory: This was the least close race in our 2015 Products of the Year voting.
Finalists (in alphabetical order
Antipodes DX music server ($6500–$7500; reviewed by John Atkinson, October 2015, Vol.38 No.10 Review)
Astell&Kern AK240 portable player ($2500; reviewed by Michael Lavorgna & John Atkinson, November 2014 & February 2015, Vol.37 No.11 & Vol.38 No.2 Review)
Auralic Aries network bridge ($1599; reviewed by Michael Lavorgna, January 2015, Vol.38 No.1 Review)
Bricasti Design M1 digital processor ($8595; reviewed by John Marks, December 2014, Vol.37 No.12 Review)
DEQX PreMate DAC-preamplifier-equalizer ($5995; reviewed by Kalman Rubinson, December 2014, Vol.37 No.12 Review)
PS Audio PerfectWave CD/DVD transport ($3999; reviewed by Robert Deutsch, February 2015, Vol.38 No.2 Review)
Simaudio Moon MiND network player ($990; reviewed by Michael Lavorgna, January 2015, Vol.38 No.1 Review)
Sony NW-ZX2 Hi-Rez Walkman ($1199.99; reviewed by Michael Lavorgna, May 2015, Vol.38 No.5 Review)
Notes on the Votes: Three of this year's top vote-getters are portables, the others being the Astell&Kern AK240 and Sony NW-ZX2. Even more interesting—but not, in my view, surprising—was the PonoPlayer's considerable margin of victory: This was the least close race in our 2015 Products of the Year voting.
Finalists (in alphabetical order
Antipodes DX music server ($6500–$7500; reviewed by John Atkinson, October 2015, Vol.38 No.10 Review)Astell&Kern AK240 portable player ($2500; reviewed by Michael Lavorgna & John Atkinson, November 2014 & February 2015, Vol.37 No.11 & Vol.38 No.2 Review)
Auralic Aries network bridge ($1599; reviewed by Michael Lavorgna, January 2015, Vol.38 No.1 Review)
Bricasti Design M1 digital processor ($8595; reviewed by John Marks, December 2014, Vol.37 No.12 Review)
DEQX PreMate DAC-preamplifier-equalizer ($5995; reviewed by Kalman Rubinson, December 2014, Vol.37 No.12 Review)
PS Audio PerfectWave CD/DVD transport ($3999; reviewed by Robert Deutsch, February 2015, Vol.38 No.2 Review)
Simaudio Moon MiND network player ($990; reviewed by Michael Lavorgna, January 2015, Vol.38 No.1 Review)
Sony NW-ZX2 Hi-Rez Walkman ($1199.99; reviewed by Michael Lavorgna, May 2015, Vol.38 No.5 Review)
