Brian How are you enjoying music more without a Pono music player? Do you have a different brand or are you listening to vinyl now?? just wondering but yeah that's great. Me too after CD's came out I stopped enjoying music and am so glad I kept all my albums.
Sorry for the thread hijack. This shouldn't be too long.
I was never into vinyl. I'm too young for that; CDs were always a wonderful format for me. Lifestyle entertainment changes led me to listen to less and less music for a while. Then I got an ipod and started converting my CD collection to AAC based digital at 128kpbs. A rather low resolution that Apple used to recommend (it was the default). It sounded fine on casual listening. But it really wasn't.
I found myself only listening to music in my car and then mostly from my ipod. ...and I wasn't enjoying it at all. I would put it on shuffle and just hit "next" over and over and over again. Not really enjoying it all that much, except for the occasional favorite album. Music had lost it's luster and sparkle and seemed dull and uninteresting.
Listening at my computer via small speakers or headphones was more of the same. It was fine for short sessions and alcohol helped! But it wasn't really involving and had no "magic" like I was used to. For the next 10 years or so, I listened to almost no music and nothing at my computer at all. I was out of love with music.
Then I got interested again when Pono came out and I started doing research. I ripped a few albums to lossless FLAC and I liked what I heard. A lot. I decided to re-rip some of my CDs. Then I decided I wanted better headphones. After getting a new pair, the magic was back. I was hooked on my "old" music collection. I upgraded to an external DAC and headphone amplifier and things got even better with higher resolution, less fatigue, and more enjoyment.
As I was ripping my CD collection and listening on headphones, I started really listening a lot. Since I spend quite a bit of time in front of my computer, this was actually a wonderful way to listen to music. I didn't have to be "doing nothing" sitting on a couch between two speakers in the exact center to have great sound. I could browse the web with headphones on and have a (relatively) world class music presentation! I ended up listening for double digit hours per week for quite a while.
Now I'm splitting time between headphones and relatively low performance desktop speakers, but still really enjoying the music. My music collection is bigger than it ever was, as I've been buying CDs like crazy, mostly at ridiculously low prices. I got 5 CDs and a book for $10 at the flea market Sunday. 3 of the 5 CDs were Eagles albums I didn't have yet.
I also have a music player that I take in the car with me, or hook up to a stereo around the house for more casual listening. It's no where near a Pono. It's a re-purposed Android device. But it plays FLAC and has a pretty darned nice interface.
So it's really a combination of where I listen, the lossless files, and the incredible sound of good headphones coupled with good outboard gear.
Again, sorry for the hijack. This was just a really special thing for me, to "rediscover" music again.
Brian.