How many are still using their PonoPlayer?

Hey guys I found that even faster than “fast enough” cards improved the performance even more.  This card I experience no issues and snappy performance:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09X7C2GBC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

I have a slower card that still works fine but is noticeably less performance in 2 of my ponos.  This is the card I find merely “good enough”:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08GXXKY6P/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 

What are your experiences with cards?  Does it get even better with even faster cards?

that's a fast chip at a good price

This is was the Pono's internal memory looks like (first image).  It will have a directory name of PonoPlayer.
Inside the directory will look something like the second image.
If you loaded music files in the Pono's main memory, you will find them here also.
Suggest that in the future you use the removable microSD card for music files, as it that memory is faster, replaceable, and now quite inexpensive.

@alh22 I was afraid you would say that.  I am using a Mac to access the pono and it will not show the internal memory as a drive so I cannot access it.  I will be able to access the removable micro sd as soon as I get an adapter.  I guess I need to find a pc so I can get at the internal memory.  Thanks so much for all your patience and help.  

@pinecone I have been using the 1TB SanDisk Ultra cards in 2 of my PONOs.....  They are both at least 2/3 full of music so it does take a while to complete the initial library scan on both.  Can you tell me what you have observed regarding the faster performance of the SanDisk Extreme 1TB cards? Specs say 190MB/sec as opposed to 120MB/sec...  but I am guessing the PONO cpu internals may not support the higher speed? What exactly have you noticed to be faster with the newer cards?  Thanks for that tip also...   (FYI I am sideloading the cards and not loading them in the PONO....)

TRH, using the appropriate cables I can get at the Pono Directory and that of the SD card on my iPad.  So if on your Mac it looks like this, you should be able to load files, etc.

1 hour ago, LDF said:

@pinecone Can you tell me what you have observed regarding the faster performance of the SanDisk Extreme 1TB cards? Specs say 190MB/sec as opposed to 120MB/sec...  but I am guessing the PONO cpu internals may not support the higher speed?

The loading of the library on a rescan (like if you add tracks or change something) is noticeably faster, maybe even twice as fast although I haven’t measured it.   When scrolling through artists, with the slower cards if I scroll too quickly the UI will glitch and (hard to describe what it does…almost like it snags dead and then suddenly accelerates).  This rarely happens with the faster card. My conclusion is the faster card is worth it, although the other ones are still usable.  

@alh22I have an Anker hub that lets me read the sd cards from my camera and has usb, usbc, hdmi, etc plugs so I should be able to plug devices in and access them on my iPad.  I have used it in the past but it isn’t working with the pono.  But the device will read the micro sd.  There were subdirectories on the micro and no .pono folder.  I wasn’t able to make a new .pono folder so I created a pono folder and moved the music into it without subdirectories.  That worked!  I do wish I could get the music off the internal drive but I think the dot is causing the problem on the Mac.  When I first plugged the pono into the big Mac, it said something about not being able to access files starting with dot.   
 

At least I can add back the missing music by using the micro sd now!  Again, thank you so very much for your patient and most helpful replies!

4 hours ago, pinecone said:

The loading of the library on a rescan (like if you add tracks or change something) is noticeably faster, maybe even twice as fast although I haven’t measured it.   When scrolling through artists, with the slower cards if I scroll too quickly the UI will glitch and (hard to describe what it does…almost like it snags dead and then suddenly accelerates).  This rarely happens with the faster card. My conclusion is the faster card is worth it, although the other ones are still usable.  

When using the 1TB Ultra card in my black PONO I have seen the screen snag/lurch also... but not on my yellow PONO even though they both have 1TB ultra cards.  Thanks for responding....  Might be time to spend another $100 on the 1TB Extreme card.... The initial scan time is pretty long with the 1TB Ultra card, but I don't re-load often... 

TRH, if you're still looking, the Mac firmware update instructions were included in the attached doc posted back in 2017

Pono Firmware Update Info.docx