[TWIFOSP]

I think I'm ready to take the plunge and throw down on a new DAP.

I've narrowed my choices to the Ipod or the Karma. I think...

I want to spend around 300 dollars, but maybe I'll go crazy and get the 40g 4gen. Probably not.

Anyway, is the Karma quality that bad? Kind of ironic that a product named Karma would be plauged by quality issues.

I like the price of the Karma, and I definetly like the equilizer option. But I don't want to end up with a bad product.

My list of wants in the product ordered by priority:
Size 30gb+
Sound Quality
Price
Line out (I'm an amp type of guy)
Options (equilizer ect)
Ease of library use ect. I skip around in my music a lot.

So part 1. Is the Karma that bad? And part 2: Based on my priorities, am I on the right track for choosing a DAP?

Thanks guys!

 

[gsferrari]

Close to a year now...


Maybe I lucked out...not once but three times. I bought a karma for me, my brother and my cousin (along with 3 Grado SR-60's) and none of them are giving any pain.

Yes - I have also read the horror stories but you have to remember that the people with good experiences will not come back to write about it

fwiw - I have no issues with the Karma and will buy another one or the next chroma model when it comes out. The sound quality and features more than justify my belief in the brand and in the model.

Cheers!

 

[Orestes]

had mine for 3 months already. so far so good. a lot of people complain about breaking the wheel or crashing the drive after they "dropped" it. come on. if you drop a tv and it breaks, do you blame the manufacturer? electronic devices aren't meant to be dropped. if you don't take good care of them, they're gonna give you a lot of headache.

 

[TWIFOSP]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsferrari Close to a year now... Maybe I lucked out...not once but three times. I bought a karma for me, my brother and my cousin (along with 3 Grado SR-60's) and none of them are giving any pain. Yes - I have also read the horror stories but you have to remember that the people with good experiences will not come back to write about it fwiw - I have no issues with the Karma and will buy another one or the next chroma model when it comes out. The sound quality and features more than justify my belief in the brand and in the model. Cheers!

Thanks for the input.

When is the Chroma model coming out? Should I wait?

 

[wolfen68]

Karma's only come in 20 gig...that takes that off your list.

 

[Reck45]

Don't forget the batteries only last a little over 2 years, regardless of how much it's used. Karmas don't have the option of replacement batteries either....

 

[Sledge]

About half a year with my Karma. No issues. Runs fine.

No one has any idea when the Chroma is supposed to appear.

 

[gsferrari]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reck45 Don't forget the batteries only last a little over 2 years, regardless of how much it's used. Karmas don't have the option of replacement batteries either....

Batteries will be replaced by Rio and the price is a lot less than apples asking price. Besides - the batteries, when good, last for as much as 15 hours no problem.

Thats the main reason I didnt go apple.

 

[RHMMMM]

I had mine for 6 months, never a problem

 

[Edvard_Grieg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reck45 Don't forget the batteries only last a little over 2 years, regardless of how much it's used. Karmas don't have the option of replacement batteries either....

That's a pessimistic estimate at best. Keep in mind the Li-Ion batteries are based on the number of charges done. Since the Karma has a longer battery life, it stands to reason that you wouldn't need to charge it as much and therefore the battery lasts longer.

Anyway though, I've had mine for almost a year now, I've taken it snowboarding, throw it in my backpack, in essence general abuse, and I have had no problems with it.

The suggestions I would make is that you get a screen protector for the screen as it is prone to scratching, a case just to be safe, finally an extended warranty is wise idea with any portable electronics, but given the Karma's lackluster 3 mos warranty, an even better idea.

Screen Protectors: www.protectyourkarma.us
Case: www.mindknob.com or www.vajacases.com

Also, if you need more space, you can 'hack' your Karma to 40GB
www.mindknob.com/hack

 

[austonia]

no problem with my Karma, or my friends'.

 

[kyrie]

Keep in mind that even if only one out of 20, or even 100, Karmas result in a HD failure at some point, that is still quite a huge percentage. A chance that you'll lose all your investment after several months (provided you don't get an extended warranty!) Personally, I wouldn't mind getting an extended warranty, but first of all it's a bit of a hassle, and more importantly, I don't want to support a product that has so many complaints about failures. I don't care if the failure rate is 5% or 1% or even lower; for an expensive product such as a DAP, it should not be any significant factor to worry about at all! Do you hear people complaining about HD failure on an Ipod? Iriver? Undoubtedly the Karma is a good product, but one with a critical failure in reliability. That doesn't mean that you, or any individual consumer may necessarily suffer from it, but nevertheless it does signify a low standard of production. The failure rate being "low" (and I don't even know if it's low) is no excuse. It should be negligible.

 

[gsferrari]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kyrie Do you hear people complaining about HD failure on an Ipod? Iriver?

I wonder if you really know what problems they have down at iRiver and Apple with their products

austonia - you want to handle this ?

iRiver is easy enough - just do a search on this forums...and then you can worry about searching the www for problems. Same for apple.

Nobody has a perfect product. Every product has an achilles heel which will strike at some point of time or the other.

Cheers!

 

[linuxjunkie]

For me, the Karma has been an excellent choice. I haven't experienced any of the reported quality problems (HD,scroll wheel, etc.) during the time I've owned it.

I bought the unit for my birthday gift to me last year at the end of October, and the only problems I had were firmware-related early on. Those were fixed with later releases.

The one feature that pushed me to the Karma over any other DAP is the parametric EQ. It allows me to reasonably compensate for the imperfect listening environment in my car. With my best headphones (Etymotic ER4P/S), the sound quality is sheer bliss!

Appreciation of audio quality is a sickness, though- I've just purchased a Xin Superdual amp from a private party, in search of improvement...

Can the lust for the 'next step' in audio nirvana ever end???

Sorry about my wallet...

 

[Oddball]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kyrie Do you hear people complaining about HD failure on an Ipod? Iriver?

[points to avatar]
iPod hard drive failures do exist, enough for there to be a market for replacing the hard drive. My iPod hard drive failed after a bit over one year randomly while I was transferring music. I'd love to have some glamorous story about how it flew out of a car, but I'm serious when all I was doing was transferring music to it. It just broke. Really weird.