Topic: Rio Karma

[shane]

Just bought one of these on Saturday and was wondering if anyone else has any experience with it.  I've been toying with the idea of buying a portable player for quite some time now but have just not been able to decide which one to buy.  Then someone recommended the Karma to me.  Its about $300.  I'm sure you could find it cheaper on EBAY but I really don't care.  It holds 20gb and plays FLAC filoes.  Which is what really drew to it.  I used to get all my shows and burn them to disc to listen and then burn the flac discs for archiving.  Now I can just dump the flacs to the Karma and listen to them through the stereo (dock included w/ unit) or in the car and burn my archive discs.  Its pretty sweet.

Shane

[Govt Mule]

Looks like you can get one for less if you shop around.

http://www.digital1234.com/product.jsp?x=KARMA20GB

[dnsacks]

I bought one and ended up returning it after being unable to determine how to instruct it to sort shows/directories by filename.  Some research strongly suggested that the karma ignores filenames and solely references "ID3" tags which are generally missing from live shows (etree).  

Thus, the only way I could find to have shows I'd recorded/downloaded playback on the karma in proper track order was to manually add an ID3 tag for every track on each show.  No thanks.

I admit that I wasn't exhaustive in my search for answers on the above issue as I also found the karma's interface with my pc and the karma's own song/show selection interface to be a bit "klunky," decided the Karma was not for me and ended up returning it a few days after I bought it.

I subsequently purchased and now use an iaudio m3 as my portable player (the iaudio m3 also supports flac playback) and am VERY happy with it.

The following is a cut and pasted writeup I'd posted in response to a previous thread --

Drawback -- inserts tiny gaps between tracks, these are sub-second long and are not objectionable to me (the ipod also inserts gaps between tracks -- it's my understanding the Rio Karma does not).  This COULD be fixed via a later firmware update (flac support was added via a firmware update)

"Feature" -- the lcd display is on a remote, the main unit lacks any display.  I personally like this a lot -- the remote is the size of a small book of matches and will clip onto a shirt, pants/bag/etc.  this allows the main unit to be stashed away in a bag/pocket/etc/ out of harm's way.  The remote is easy to use, it's interface is quite similar to that used by winamp.  Some may not like the remote's interface

the iaudio m3 is a usb2 device that's instantly recognized by any winxp/etc. computer as an external mass storage device (i.e. another hard drive) when plugged in (plugging it in allows it to charge too). Transferring music to it is simple too, simply highlight a directory, right click and "send to" the iaudio (or highlight the directory, copy it and paste it onto the iaudio's drive)  I'm now using the iaudio with the free dbpoweramp prorgam, which enables me to convert from virtually any format to virtually any format and save directly to the iaudio m3 (i.e. if a show I want to hear on the iaudio m3 is in shn format, I open the directory, select the files, right click and choose convert to and the dbpoweramp program opens and through dbpoweramp I can save the show as flac on the iaudio m3.  

  I'm going to start bringing the iaudio m3 to shows with its usb2 dongel and cable and use it to grab recordings off of fellow tapers' laptop rigs.  I also bring the player to my office, plug it into my office pc via usb and play its contents over my pc using winamp.

Sound quality is nice out of the box, it also has a nice assortment of digital "enhancements" with great control over their application (i.e. you can apply very minimal amounts of any of the dsp).



The iaudio m3 is smaller than the ipod too -- the main unit's about the size of a cassette tape case.

[shane]

Oh I was sure I could get one for cheaper but I also perfer to buy things as locally as I can.  I only like to use the web to shop to if its something I can't get around home.

In response to the ID3 tags i noticed that as well.  I discovered that yesterday when I loaded up the first disc of a Mule to show to listen to on the way to work.  I got in the car a selected it only to find out the files were loaded from track 10 to track 1 instead 1-10.  I played around with it this morning and found if I just created a playlist and right click each track in order and select add to playlist it works fine.  I realize you probably don't care about this since you returned yours but figured I'd share anyway.  Is kind of a pain but I really wanted this unit because it can play FLAC files.  I'll probably fill it it up with my favorite discs in MP3 format for genral listening and leave a few gbs open for adding new shows to listen to.

Shane

[pfife]

paging macdaddy   

[dnsacks]

Shane:

Cool -- only other thing to point out is that if possible, you should pick up an extended warranty on the karma as I've heard about earlier units having a lot of hard drive issues and the factory warranty only runs for 90 days (?)

[pfife]

Shane:

Cool -- only other thing to point out is that if possible, you should pick up an extended warranty on the karma as I've heard about earlier units having a lot of hard drive issues and the factory warranty only runs for 90 days (?)

I have also read this as well.

They have some refurb'd ones on Tigerdirect.com for $199- look for the thread in the retail space.

[macdaddy]

Thus, the only way I could find to have shows I'd recorded/downloaded playback on the karma in proper track order was to manually add an ID3 tag for every track on each show.  No thanks.

using rio music manager (the software that comes with the karma) make a playlist, drag and drop the files from explorer in to the (empty) playlist. as long as the files are named according to etree standards, they will by default be placed in order (the sets you get that are named "track 1" "track 10" etc. get screwed up, but bandyyyy-mm-ddd1t01 works every time)

using FLAC only, gapless playback works out of the box. you might have to update the firmware if you got a real old karma. i had to upgrade the firmware, but that was like 8 mos ago (i was an early adopter). i have the "gapless" feature turned off - you do not need crossfading, etc for flac, just for mp3s (which i never use)...

as for the gui - i never find it a problem. maybe not as smooth as an ipod, but it didnt take me very long to get used to it...

the software does kinda blow, but again, all i do is open it, create a playlist, and drag/drop the files (or open the software, and delete files from the unit), so i dont really care - it gets the job done easily enough...

i never use the rio dj features, or the eq settings...

oh yeah - you gotta love the fact that it can be hooked up via network cable (or usb)...

i am surprised you didnt like it, darrin - sorry if i gave you a bum steer. i love mine.

[shane]

Thanks for the tips macdaddy.  Much easier than what I was doing. 

Shane

[dnsacks]

macdaddy -- no worries -- the karma looked like a nice unit and had it not been so easy to return (to circuit city), and I not decided to take the risk by checking out the iaudio m3, I'd have definitely come back to you for follow-up/clarification.

My reason for trying the iaudio was remote-based -- I use the player as my primary audio source in my car and needed to retire my jb3 from this duty due to its headphone jack becoming "iffy" due to repeated thrashing around in my car.  I feared that the karma's similar headphone  jack would soon meet the same fate, while the iaudio m3's remote seems to solve this problem for me.

Still love the iaudio m3, but wish it was gapless on flac playback like the karma