God, I sure hope so. While I still enjoy Neil's music, I have lost all respect for his opinion after Pono. Gizmodo, which in general isn't a particularly good news source, had
a surprisingly good article on Pono yesterday and accused Neil of "peddling junk science, and supporting expensive gear and music files you don't need." Their description of peddling bad science so eloquently captures my thoughts on Pono ever since I learned of it several years ago.
edit: looks like 404 beat me to linking that article!
There has been a push for hi-res audio for years (SACD and DVD-A) and it hasn't taken off because, unquestionably, it just doesn't make enough difference. If these formats were truly better, it would be supported by science and the consumers would buy it, but the reality is that the science just isn't there and only a few 'golden ears' claim to hear a meaningful difference. Consumers aren't fooled and given the high-price point of these formats and perpetual decline of record sales, there's simply no demand for this junk science, myself included.
In my opinion, the fidelity problems with most commercial audio has nothing to do with file formats or resolutions. It all starts with bad production techniques (i.e. the loudness wars) - as the saying goes, "garbage in garbage out." But even assuming good production quality, the next issue is the the increasing use of low quality of playback devices (earbuds, iphones, etc.) and popularity of mp3 and streaming music services. It's no longer possible to sell the general consumer on the benefits of CD quality audio vs. the convenience of mp3 streaming, so it's crazy to think that an higher resolution would catch on.
Had Neil thrown his support behind nothing more than better hardware, I would have absolutely supported him. It's so obvious how bad the headphone outputs are on modern smartphones and mp3 players and how the proliferation of low-quality headphones and speakers, everything from $5 earbuds and Beats to the creative labs speakers attached to our computers, have diluted our preferences for high fidelity audio. I'm all about the hardware and would love to personally hear the Pono at some point, but at 16/44.1 CD quality. If it's a better sounding playback device and operating system is worthwhile, my interests are perked, but don't bother peddling 24/192 on me because I'm simply not interested.
I also think it would have been more effective to throw his support behind ending the loudness wars and bringing back lost production techniques. Maybe this simply isn't possible anymore, which is a very sad event, but it would actually make a difference. There are so many bad commercial CD releases to the point where the waveforms are visibly clipped, having been compressed so much that the actual audio is distorted and until we can flush this garbage from the listening pool, we'll never be better off supporting the snake-oil that Neil is trying to sell.
And can Neil even hear anymore? Should we really be trusting someone who almost undoubtedly has suffered from hearing loss over the course of decades of rock concerts? I think he should start by submitting to the public results of a hearing test that proves he can even hear a tone above 15k, and that might be generous.