More time with the Pono player

I have quite a handful of hi-res audio files, which I have been sampling on the Pono.  Some observations:

There's quite a bit of debate online among audiophiles about the degrees of quality about this-or-that hi-res master, for example.  I haven't spent enough time obsessing over this to have a fully formed opinion, except to say: the critics are right in many cases. Some hi-res files are indistinguishable from the CD version... One example that I noticed: Talking Heads "Fear Of Music."  I'll keep my iPod rip of it. The Pono cannot redeem a poor remaster.  But, so far, these have been in the minority. Currently I'm listening to Steely Dan's "Two Against Nature" (provenance unknown, though it's supposed to be a rip of a SACD two-fer with the underrated "Alive In America" as a bonus).  The audio is clearly superior to CD.  The linked site above says that the then-circulating copy is a rip of a DVDS-audio.  I can't find any reference to a "Two Against Nature" SACD (though I didn't go past page one of Google search).

There was some debate among the early Pono bidders about whether the Pono music store would offer truly new hi-res masters, or simply recycle the stuff already on HDTracks. It's too early to say, except--the Pono version of "Rust Never Sleeps" is *clearly* superior to any other master that I've heard. To me, that's the acid test: when I hear a well-worn album that I've lived with for decades as if it's brand new--like I'm hearing it for the first time--then the Pono is worth the price of admission.

I think that this is where the media critics have gotten lost. Most casual music consumers won't notice, and won't care about (much less hear) the difference between a perfectly adequate 256 K MP3, and a 192khz, 24bit master. But if you have lived with this music and it has become part of the fabric of your life, you *will* hear the difference, because you have internalized every nook and cranny of the sound.

This is of course a niche market, but one that I've been a part of for quite a while.

Some small issues with the Pono that I've noticed: file transfers are very slow, even over USB 3. Not sure what is causing this. And a highly annoying issue: album art. The JRiver media center does not tag every album file with the "official" album art, only the first song.