[aaroncort]

i currently own a nomad jukebox 3 and love its sound quality for a compressed audio format player. Its getting a little old and I was thinking about picking up one of these Karma's since they are so cheap. I'll risk the chance of its harddrive failing at these prices. I'm going to be using HD650 with it so I'll need to amp it out of its headphone jack. Is this going to be a bad choice. Sould I just bite the bullet and spend the extra 200 bucks for an ipod video and a pocket dock? How do these two players stack up? Is there a pocket dock type thing for the karma? tell me all that you know, I'd like to hear it, Aaron.

 

[The_X]

*slightly off topic*

How are the NJB3's sound-wise anyways? Would they be as good as an iPod w/Pocketdock?? Because they seem to be selling for VERY cheap on eBay these days and they look kind of interesting. I've always heard really good things about its sound quality but I'm not sure how it stacks up against today's players.

 

[aaroncort]

If you'd like I'll give you a small review of my nomad Jukebox 3. Of all the MP3 players i've heard over the years including, M:robe, Ipod/pocket dock, zen extra, ipod mini/dock, and archos jukebox Fm recorder the NJB3 was at the top of the heap along with the archos running neck and neck (albeit different sounding) and the Ipod/pocket dock a close second. The problem people have with the NJB3 is that it sounds a little flat and lifeless out of the headphone jack. This makes it an excelent product to amp IMO becuase it takes on the sig. of whatever amp you're using. With my new SR-71 It sounds awsome for a portable MP3 player. The bass is well controled and can even be punchy when it needs to be. It is a great joy to hear a stand up bass being plucked on this player. The mids however still are uninteresting and a little lifeless but hay its and MP3 player. the high end is where I have my bigest complaint. Cymbal crashes sound etched unrealistic. The high notes in piano works fall under the same spell and if you're using grado's with it, watch out. I can't use my Sr-325's with this guy for some piano works and older jazz recordings. Billy Holiday's voice at times is brutal.

BTW are you sure you're seeing NJB3 for cheap on EBAY? Its rare that I see one in the U.S. that still works go for under 176 to 190 and thats used too! The ones for 150 are from the UK and won't ship over seas. I'd love to pick another one of these guys up just in case my new one bites the dust( I'm on my third one in the past 4 and a half years). The first broke after about 2 years of use and many many pavment drops. Finaly half of the screen went out and then 6 months later the whole screen died. The second one died on its second drop to the curb with a harddrive failure so I put the first ones harddrive in it and it worked fine for another year. Am mysteriously stopped working one day. My new one's scroll wheel was skipping from day one but some contact cleaner took care of that.

Jeez I've had too much coffee. I think I'll cut my jabber jawing here. Hope all this helps, aaron.

 

[no1likesme]

i own a karma
they sound great out of the headphone out (cant compare with rca out on dock because i dont have a dock) i dont have an amp either,
however the karma sounds better than any of the other DAP's that i have heard
ipod mini, ipod 20gig 4g, ipod shuffle, creative muvo flash player, creative zen flash player, and zen micro
plus it plays flac and ogg

there is a big trade off tho, they are pieces of crap. they are very fragile and i have to take mine apart at least once every two weeks to do some surgury.
i have
formated the hdd
built a new headphone jack (out of zip ties and electrical tape)

broke the hold button
have no scroll wheel

i feel that the quality and price are worth the extra effort but you may not
i would definatly recomend getting a refurb off ebay so you know that it is in good shape, and then get a case (mindknob, technohm, or vaja) technohm is what i use

sorry if you cant read that post and good luck

 

[RedLeader]

My karma is a warrior, the thing takes ridiculous abuse and keeps working like a charm. I use er6i amped with a cmoy from the headphone out, and I love the sound. I'll be upgrading to a Xenos soon enough, and I did an a/b with my er6i/Xenos with an ipod/karma at the last meet, and IMO the karma kicked arse. It might be placebo because I love mine so much, but at least to me it clearly beat the one that was there.

 

[no1likesme]

sry about my privious post:
i think i made it seem like they are worse than they actually are

the hard drive lockups can usually be fixed by a reset and at worst the good old hit it on a table method

my headphone jack problems are a result of the previous owner cracking the plastic around the jack, if you take care of it you will most likely never have this happen

again my scroll wheel was broken by the previos owner(probably dropped it on the corner) and if you get a case (technohm is great) then you will be pretty safe from a low drop,

even though i have to work on it a lot i wouldnt trade my karma for a 60gig 5g ipod or other new player (except maybie neuros yay gapless!)

once you go gapless you can never go back

 

[Jackson99]

I've had my Karma for 2 years now, and I've been very happy with it. I think the sound quality is excellent, and I love the gapless ogg & FLAC support. I know some others have had issues with hard drives crashing, freezes, etc., but I've had absolutely no problems with mine.

 

[brauhaus1]

With an amp, using the headphone out of the Karma you'll get noise. I tried using the headphone amp of my karma on a pa2v2, and started getting noise at a very early stage of volume, based on the pa2v2 volume knob with the volume on the Karma turned up to 29/30. So I tried turning the volume down on the Karma and turning the volume up on the PA2V2, then got noise from the amp because I had to turn it up too high to get decent volume. Even if the amp itself made no noise and I could turn it up endlessly, the signal from the headphone output is not clean enough for it to be worthwhile to use the headphone output.

FWIW, on every pair of headphones I have, which are all relatively low impedance headphones, the difference in sound the amp made with the Karma even with the lineout was maybe just the slightest nitch cleaner in sound but not even close to worth it for me to carry around another device. The only clear difference I noticed was the increase in volume I could achieve with the PA2V2, but I'd never listen at those volumes and it didn't sound particularly good. At max volume the Karma heaphone out is still very clean, but also too loud to be listenable. So far, in my experience this has only been true for the Karma. I've tried my other devices with the PA2V2 I had and it made a big difference.

For those HD650's even if the Karma had a line out built in, if you're using them for portable purposes, you'd need one hell of a portable amp. I doubt most portable amps out there now would do justice to those headphones. Why not get some quality lower impedance headphones for when you can't sit or stand still and listen. If you're listening to compressed files on the go, do you need the HD650's? Plus amplifying compressed files through excellent headphones will really make them sound like crap.

 

[aaroncort]

I do use my hd650's as portables strangly enough. I also don't use compressed formates with well recorded albums. With the Karma I'd use ogg vorbis and with my NJB3 I use WAV. My amp is an sr-71 and does a great job. I know DAP's are a lame source anyway but its a consession I'm willing to make for having a large library of music with out having to swap cd's on the go. I walk about a 20 minutes to work each way and its indispensible. I also really don't like isolating cans for two reasons. I don't like to be isolated from my environment and I am a baker by trade and if I had those foamies in my ears for too long yeast will start to grow in my ears. Topical yeast infections are a sad reality for many bakers. For a nice mental image, think of me squirting a tube of monostat-7 into an already subtly vaginal ear.....

Thanks for the warning however! I think I'll just get another nomadjukebox 3 when I see a working one on ebay. I just love those little fatties!

 

[brauhaus1]

Just to clear some things up, the only reason why the use of the PA2V2 made such a big difference with other devices I have and not with the Karma is because the headphone output of the Karma to a set of heaphones is really good, while everything else I own really pales in comparison.

Maybe that was already clear to you, but I had to make sure, cuz I love my Karma.

 

[dcrane]

I had a karma and it was awesome...until it died. Sound quality is great.
It's been almost a year and I still have not found a replacement that rivals it.
I might get an X5. If you don't have any fear of it dying and 20GB is enough, go for it. I considered getting another one but couldn't bring myself to do it. Headphone jack has lots of power too. If they only made it more durable with a real warranty and a larger drive, I would buy another.