[ian]

I figured this deserved its own thread. The Rio Karma is now shipping starting TODAY. Production began today with the firmware that beta testers and Rio execs approved over the weekend. Best Buy and Circuit City are the largest customers and will likely be the first to see them. Sounds like about a thousand shipped today, with many many more coming out of the factory.

 

[D-EJ915]

too bad it's so damned expensive...ugh, I need $400 MORE!!

 

[bangraman]

Great. I'm going to wait about 6 months

 

[gbeard]

Ian,

From what I can read from the technical literature, the Kharma does not read .wav files. Is that correct? Why would they do that? Do you think they will add .wav support in a firmware update?

I could overlook the price much more easily if the unit supports .wav. It looks like a great little unit...

Thanks, gb

 

[MadDog]

I want 40GB! Are they releasing the 40GB version as well soon?

 

[lan]

I have decided to stay with the Nitrus.

I may want to sample the Karma for the sound quality though. Is it better than the Nitrus? I better forget asking myself that question

 

[D-EJ915]

I think it has a more powerful headphone amp, but it shouldn't sound better, it might have more options though (like the right-left hand switchy-thing).

but the Nitrus is a slick unit, I was at best buy yesturday (while I had a fever...) and it is one slim beast, I did actually look at it before, but it was just a glimpse, from looking at the package, you'd have to think it's big (the package), but it's actually tiny...and I think all of the lesser units (Nitrus down) have the same plastic case, since the Karma isn't out yet.

 

[Sweet Spot]

Sec here...lemmie look at my wallet.............*sigh* "This is really going to hurt".

Quote:

From what I can read from the technical literature, the Kharma does not read .wav files. Is that correct? Why would they do that? Do you think they will add .wav support in a firmware update?

The question is answered simply with the support of FLAC. Why would YOU want .wav unless of course (and this I dont' know) FLAC was a more complex algorithym to process there by draining more battery life as opposed to .wav which might not ? That is of course theoretical, because it could be just the other way around.

In anycase, FLAC takes up half the space of a .wav file and is the same exact quality, not to mention that encoding a CD to FLAC takes even less time than it does to encode to .wav.

If there's anything I forgot to consider, please tell me.

So now. I wonder if there will be price variations or sales...if I could find the 40 gig for only a bit more than the 20, I'd surely go that route. Boy I'm so eeeexcited !!

 

[gbeard]

Originally by Sweet Spot

Quote:

In anycase, FLAC takes up half the space of a .wav file and is the same exact quality, not to mention that encoding a CD to FLAC takes even less time than it does to encode to .wav.

I am showing my ignorance with respect to these audio encoders. I am old and not in the loop...

I just want to put my CD's on at the highest quality, and apparently (according to you) "FLAC" is just as good. What is its bit rate?

If what you say is so, then not only do I have a lot more to learn, but it may cost me $400 + to find out!

gb

 

[Squibbles]

Is there software that will rip and encode to FLAC in one step? The only way I know of to encode to FLAC thus far is to rip the wav using EAC, then using the FLAC frontend to encode to FLAC.

 

[Sweet Spot]

One is never too old to learn something new. I should know, as I work as a coordinator in an Alzheimers center

In any case, yes it's true that FLAC is pretty much the same as .wav as is .APE. Flac and APE are both lossless formats, but at half the size of .wav's. They're compressed, it's not the same type of compression obviously, so you still have the music in its original form, bit for bit. It's a beautiful thing I tell ya !

What's $400 between you and your wallet ...after all, you're both old friends no?

 

[Sweet Spot]

Good question squibbles. I would like to know that as well. I guess what I was refering to before was the process of ripping and encoding to either Ogg or MP3, rather than just putting audio files on disc.

 

[Razlak]

Quote:

Originally posted by Squibbles Is there software that will rip and encode to FLAC in one step? The only way I know of to encode to FLAC thus far is to rip the wav using EAC, then using the FLAC frontend to encode to FLAC.

Its fairly easy to configure EAC to encode automatically to FLAC with the external "User Defined Encoder" option. Just point the encoder to flac.exe, set the .flac extension, and put "-o %d %s" in the command line options field. You can tinker more from there if you want more or less compression, etc.

 

[ian]

Yes, the Karma doesn't read WAV's because FLAC takes care of that.

I haven't heard the Nitrus, so I can't really comment on how the sound is compared to the Karma. I'll ask another tester who has them both and get back to you with a definite answer - I'd guess the Karma is better though.

The Rio Music Manager software will rip and encode FLAC in one step from a CD. Works wonderfully.

 

[D-EJ915]

Quote:

The Rio Music Manager software will rip and encode FLAC in one step from a CD. Works wonderfully.

thank God, finally bundled software that works (openMG)...that's a nice feature, I'm going to be ecstatic when I get mine (whenever and whichever I do...I'm leaning towards karma)