Ok, mike et al. I pulled the trigger on this thing, as popeye would say " I've heard alls I can stands and I can't stands no more". After hearing your comments on the pono and now auditioning my friends unit, with some sennheiser ie80 reference ear buds I just ordered one, and a set of those buds too. (Shhh don't tell the old lady, she already thinks I'm insane enough) ( and when the hell did earbuds become IEM's? ( in ear monitors?) I missed the memo on that one...
I upgraded the speakers in my car so I could hear Pono better. Got some JL Audio rears and fronts and installed them on Friday. It sounds great. Added a stereo cable to the back of my auxiliary input on the JVC and play the Pono out of the balanced out port. It sounds great. The DVD-Audios also sound so much better now.
I also saw last night on I believe Steve Hoffman's forum that someone contacted Pono about the Beatles rumor and they confirmed it. Now it's just a question of when and what mastering the files come from. Some believe it might be the remasters used to make the latest Stereo records or possibly the full sized files that were ported down to the Apple USB drive back in 2009.
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/report-beatles-tracks-coming-to-pono.406067/page-7