[DobsOnly]

Just curious if your experience has been similar to mine?

In a search for a 2nd or replacement DAP for my Rio Karma, nothing satisfies me. While each of the flash type DAPs I've tried are probably OK, at best. The shortcomings in Sound Quality to my ears are huge and very unsatisfying. My PDA, Palm T3, sounds as good as some of these flash units.

At the same time the current stock of HD based units don’t seem to be much better unless you want to watch a few South Park episodes on them. I've only been able to audition the Apple and Creative offerings since I can't find an X5 anywhere.

I'm just not willing to settle for anything short of Rio Karma level of sound quality and don't think we should have to. For me that might mean going back to a good portable CD player.

Are you having the same issues as the life of your Karma nears its end?

If you’ve already moved on do you feel like you had to settle for an inferior product?

Thanks
Suffering from PSQ (Poor Sound Quality) syndrome

 

[ath]

I thought so until I got an Iriver H140 Rockboxed. I am a happy camper now. Sure I miss some of the nifty features of karma but rockbox comes pretty close.

 

[blessingx]

Trekstor Vibez?

 

[DobsOnly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blessingx /img/forum/go_quote.gif Trekstor Vibez?

One can only hope

 

[austonia]

IMO there hasn't been a suitable replacement for the Karma yet, although any company that buys the appropriate Sigmatel chipset has access the next-gen Karma OS/GUI (aka, Carbon C)... so it's kind of annoying that we haven't seen one yet. Trekstor's Vibez will be the first (and only?) implementation that we know of. i really don't understand why there aren't more companies that would take advantage of it.

 

[John Reeves]

Hi Austonia,

Fully agree with you. My Karma died and I'm now using a 60gb Ipod Video with FLAC, obviously Rockboxed. Apart from the shortened battery life, no problems. Battery bigger on 60gb anyway.

My son's friend has a Karma and the hard disk has just packed up, so he bought an IRiver. I've promised to sell it for him and should get it next week. It even has a Vaja Case. Sorry i'm in the UK so it's probably not practical for you to get this one.

Off topic, what sort of price do you think I should ask for it?? anyone.

Cheers

John

 

[gorman]

Spoiled on both sound quality and features. To date I've yet to understand why, for example, iPod adds gapless playback but still misses out on crossfade. I mean, these things should be fairly trivial for good programmers. Why denying them to their customers...?

 

[gloco]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ath /img/forum/go_quote.gif I thought so until I got an Iriver H140 Rockboxed. I am a happy camper now. Sure I miss some of the nifty features of karma but rockbox comes pretty close.

Yep, my H140+rockbox comes really close to my karma.

 

[milamber]

My karma's wheel broke and the screen did too. I was gutted! Nothing has come close in my opinion to the karma SQ/Feature wise. I need gapless and dynamic playlisting. Only thing that i have settled for now is 5G 60gig ipod... rockboxed of course... wheres that sigmatel chip when we need it!

 

[bonethugz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blessingx /img/forum/go_quote.gif Trekstor Vibez?

i don't know about this karma mp3 player you guys are talking about(only into this mp3s for a little over a year). sounds like this is one heck of a player. anyway, i never really satify with my amped ipod. if this vibez thing is so good. i'll willing to wait. i was going to get an i-audio now i'm going to wait

 

[Fallingwater]

I'm not much of an audiophile, in the sense that I'm not sure I even could tell the difference in a proper blind test between the same file played by my Karma and by my old Creative Zen USB2.0.
Nevertheless, I love my Karma for its multitude of useful features, size, compactness and ergonomics (since it fits so snugly in my palm, I'm not going to drop it if someone bumps me while I'm operating it. Ipod owners can't say the same).
And I agree: there's nothing like it.
My first Karma was my little baby, lovingly upgraded with a 30gb drive and cared for like it was alive. It got stolen. I almost cried.
Went back to my old Zen while I looked for something to replace the Karma.
I thought about the old Cowon iAudio M3 for a while, but in the end I decided against it because of its lack of database browsing and its jog dials (I hate jog dials).
New IRivers I didn't even consider, because I hate the touchstrip thing. Older models lacked scroll wheel controls, which are imperative for me.
Most current budget models don't support Ogg, and those that do always have some other critical problem.
I hate iPods, and even if a rockboxed one would read Ogg, the lack of power optimization in rockbox means they are very energy inefficient, and I hate inefficiency.

After some more thinking I just came to the conclusion that the Karma didn't yet have a worthy successor. And I got another Karma.

The Vibez might be the Karma's rightful heir, but it's still only a microdrive player. 15gb in a tiny package is good, but 60gb in a slightly larger one is better. Let's hope Trekstor eventually release a "fat" version of the Vibez with a 1.8" hard drive...

If you want a Karma (why settle for something else?), there's a guy on eBay called "rdvm777" who sells refurbished ones. I got my 2nd one from him and it's perfect. I heartily suggest buying from him (and no, I don't get paid if he sells more players).

 

[Naris]

It is the reason why I haven't yet bought a new DAP. I am looking at a 60GB ZVM though... I don't use gapless as much as I use crossfade... and I think I MIGHT be able to live with that. Bah... why don't companies get some sense and use the functionality of the Sigmatel chips? It's not like it makes their job HARDER...

 

[DobsOnly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fallingwater /img/forum/go_quote.gif If you want a Karma (why settle for something else?), there's a guy on eBay called "rdvm777" who sells refurbished ones. I got my 2nd one from him and it's perfect. I heartily suggest buying from him (and no, I don't get paid if he sells more players).

If the Trekstor turns out to be inferior, in terms of sound quality I might just buy another Karma refurb unit or if I can find a replacement Battery I believe I can keep mine going for another year or 2. It suffers from the swelling L-Ion battery.

With that said I've got my fingers crossed and think the Trekstor spec's look promising. 8 or 12 GB, Karma like interface, 20 hr listening time and the

replaceable battery

is a huge plus.

I mentioned earlier that I have been very disappointed with the current flash based units. I received my refurbed 1st gen iPod Shuffle 1GB and listened to it today. IMHO it has the best sound of the flash players I've heard lately (2nd Gen Nano and Zen V+). Very, very powerful little unit compared to others in its class. The iM716's are a very good match for it. While far short of the Karma SQ wise, it will be a great addition for on the go, outdoor use, etc.

 

[Fallingwater]

The maximum for the Vibez should be 15 gigs, not 12.

I think you could replace your Karma's battery with a lithium-polymer one meant for RC models.
A 800mah, 2-series pack, to be precise.
First desolder the LiIon cells in the Karma from the protection circuitry.
Desolder the two lithium polymer cells and rewire them in parallel.
Solder the rewired LiPo cells to the original protection circuitry.

Voila, a 3.7v 1600mah battery for your Karma, and the protection circuitry will make sure no smoke or fire comes out of the new battery.

 

[Wolfsbane68]

It appears that only German amazon is shipping Trekstor Vibez atm. Any German or Austrian headfiers (the only countries eligible for amazon.de) who got one and willing to do a writeup? I am really curious about this DAP (read "will plunk down the cash if the headfi response is even halfway enthusiastic").