[Biggy]

oops... 2x

 

[Bolt San]

Biggy, I've had the karma for six months, have dropped it at least 20 times and it's never even locked up, let alone had its hard drive die.

You have to remember that the people that are pleased with their karma usually don't rave about it online, but the people that throw it at a wall or something and have it break bitch for an awfully long time.

The DJ uses the same drive as the Karma, by the way.

 

[Biggy]

Thanx, you just made the decision even harder

well. I just found out the Iriver makes a 10 GB version, I was looking around for it thinking it would be at the most $250, because the 20 gb version is $300. Well it's over $300 apparently, and their arent many people selling it

Anyone know where I can get the 10 gb version for a better price?

 

[jerry303]

There are a lot of Karma's out there, and a few have problems...I for one have had some problems but everytime I have gotten a new unit and I am still happy with the product. My vote goes for Karma, or alternatively the Dell DJ.

 

[chazas]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Biggy I'm willing to spend a bit more on reliability, how long have you guys had the dell? That seems like a really good value for the price. Only real negative thing i've heard is that if you play a playlist, it will stop with the song you select and wait till you tell it to play another one. Is that true?

I've had a DJ for a couple of months. The first one quickly developed a heaphone jack problem. The second has worked fine, other than exactly one hard drive lockup when I was running to an appointment on concrete and had my DJ jostling in the case on my hip - quickly fixed with a reset.

If you look at the Dell DJ support forums and delldjsite.com, you'll notice 3 main types of reliability problems: (1) hd crashes, (2) headphone jack problems, and (3) software difficulties.

As for (1) and (2), I get the sense the DJ doesn't have the rabid Internet fan following of some of the other players, so it's hard to tell how pervasive these issues are, or whether they're part of the normal, par for the course issues that all of these players have. Regardless, Dell has a secret weapon - its warranty. First, the basic warranty is a full year. Second, if something goes wrong, they ship you a new one immediately in an "advanced exchange." You return the defective one in the box the new one came in. No RMAs, waiting for repairs, waiting for replacement stock, or arguments (usually - you may have to to email the service rep in India back and forth a couple of times while they satisfy themselves you can't fix it with something on their script). You can buy a second year of the warranty, or "accidental breakage" coverage, for a small price. (Or rely on your credit card coverage to double the warranty.)

As for the software issues, I think those are more consumer confusion over options than anything else. Dell gives you MusicMatch, which you can use for all of the usual functions as well as transferring tracks to the DJ, and DJ Explorer, which you also can use for transferring tracks to the DJ and editing the tag database on the DJ. You can also buy Dudebox for $25 to transfer, edit, synch, and stream music over your home network. For someone on this forum, they probably won't be very confused about what functions they want to use which piece of software for. I actually like MM for ripping and tagging, but its transfer features are clunky. I bought Dudebox, which I like, but if I had it to do over again I'd probably try out DJ Explorer first.

I've never heard about the playlist bug you mention - I just set up an on the fly playlist and it didn't behave that way. Most folks are using the previous version of the player firmware - a new version just came out that's needed to support the new FM remote, but for some people it has caused random problems. There is at least one other minor firmware bug I know of - if you are set to random play mode, then play all tracks, and you have any albums whose name begins with a symbol rather than a letter, the first "random" track will always come from one of those albums. I know that Dell monitors the firmware complaints - in the last major upgrade they addressed the most prominent issues, and I can only assume they'll do so again.

I hope this helps. Good luck in your choice.

 

[Biggy]

Thanx, very helpful.
The dell would be a very good choice. How is the sound quality of it though?
I heard the iRiver and one of the creative ones have the best sound quality.

Here's my current list:
1. iRiver IHP-120, if found for around $250
2. Dell DJ 15GB
3. Ipod mini or 15GB
4. Creative nomad (places model)

I don't have too much information on any creative ones, other than that the prices should come down when the touch comes out. I've left the Rio Karma off the list because apparently it doesnt please many people, getting bad reviews on Amazon.com and pricegrabber. That and the fact that it looks like a chunky stop watch.

 

[y0da]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Biggy Thanx, you just made the decision even harder well. I just found out the Iriver makes a 10 GB version, I was looking around for it thinking it would be at the most $250, because the 20 gb version is $300. Well it's over $300 apparently, and their arent many people selling it Anyone know where I can get the 10 gb version for a better price?

i belive the IHP-120 can be had now for around $287 at compuplus.com

there will most likely be a further price drop within the next month when the H300 series players come out

as for the 10 gig players...you won't find any deals on those most likely...try ebay to alot of pple seem to sell there daps barely used to try another dap...

i would say if you are looking for the feature set that the iriver has then it would be a good choice ...but alot of people seem to never use things like an fm radio, recording, ect...i only got mine because of the feature set ..and i tend to use most of the features it has quite often...but again thats just me

also i belive ( i may be mistaken) that the reliabilty issues on the Rio Karma have been worked out...

check out riovolution
for the karma

and www.misticriver.ws for more info on the IHP

 

[jet_fighter00]

The Karmas quality is excellent, and if you don't believe me look at austin I believe is looking for a broken right now at riovolution.com where all of the hard drive failures are suppose to come from, and he can't get his hands on one. Like he said on his website, maybe the bad build quality and ahrd drive failures ahs been exaggerted?

So look at the Karma, its an awesome player with advance playback features. I love it so much that I created this website:
www.protectyourkarma.us

Have fun in your search.

 

[Biggy]

doesn't change the fact that it looks like a chunky stop watch

 

[crunchyfrog]

+1 for the Karma. Mine has personally proven to be quite durable. Most recently, I accidentally sent it skidding face-down across a wet sidewalk and into a puddle Saturday, and it's still doing just fine (don't try this at home, boys and girls).

I'm sure a few people have legitimate HD failure issues, but as a mod over at the Riovolution forums, I've noticed that many people who initially post about a "mysterious" HD failure eventually fess up to dropping or otherwise abusing it.

And some of us prefer a "chunky stop watch" over a kitchen appliance.