[ian]

I have an opportunity to provide developers of a future product with feature requests. Looking at the Rio Karma, what are feature requests that you'd want to see?

Some of the obvious that I can come up with:
Real line out on player
Digital out on player and/or dock
AM/FM
Recording capabilities

 

[D-EJ915]

A good, reliable, battery that lasts...and is removeable (Zen NX)
high-impedence headphone out (5mW*32Ohms...)
...I'll think of more later

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Maximum decibel level of only 85 dB(A) with 108 dB/mW 16-ohm earbuds (which means a maximum power output of only 0.005 mW @ 16 ohms)

Okay, I was just kidding. Realistically, there is still some improvement to be made in terms of battery life. Today's 16-hour maximum battery life of the most battery-efficient HD-based player just pales in comparison to the 40-plus-hour battery life (with just the internal batteries) of most other current portable music players. But I think they've stretched the 40-hour life a bit too far. There is enough overhead in that 20mW HD-player amp to stretch the battery life to something like 25 hours with current battery technology - while sacrificing very little in terms of sound quality.

 

[blessingx]

Comes with great earbuds/headphones.
Looseless compression (like Karma).
Crossfeed.

 

[waffenschmidt]

Assuming repeats are OK if you're trying to judge the level of interest:

1. Crossfeed
2. Real line out (on the player, not the dock)
3. 60GB would be nice (if you're going to support Flac, you need to up the ante when it comes to HD space)

Actually, I believe I read something that was written when word of the Karma was just coming out that it would include crossfeed. Either the information was erroneous or crossfeed didn't make it into the final version. I suppose there is always hope that it might be part of a future firmware upgrade.

 

[SpoonMan]

As a 3G iPod user, the big one I can think of is better battery life, this is the one gripe I have about my iPod...though I've never actually ran out of juice, I don't like the feeling of having 20mins left to drive and the battery meter being empty.

 

[blessingx]

Quote:

Originally posted by waffenschmidt Actually, I believe I read something that was written when word of the Karma was just coming out that it would include crossfeed. Either the information was erroneous or crossfeed didn't make it into the final version. I suppose there is always hope that it might be part of a future firmware upgrade.

Are you thinking of crossfade? That is suppose to be an option in the Karma (and I believe supported in all formats).

Crossfeed and crossfade would both be great on a portable. I'm still surprised crossfeed isn't an option on any of them since they're used by headphones 90%+ of the time. Course I know many here don't use crossfeed with their home units, so maybe it's not that surprising.

 

[Bonkura]

If we are looking at features beyond what the karma has, then it should have an iriver style remote, ie with lcd, or at least a remote.

A nice carrying case that covers it like the iriver... mm... and the form factor of the iriver.

I am under the impression that if u cross the iriver and karma u would get the ultimate player

 

[austonia]

1. removable battery (Zen NX)

2. modular hard drive (Toshiba Gigabeat)

3. no software required for loading/unloading music & data (iRiver iHP-100)

4. browse by file directories OR id3 tag database (iRiver iHP-100)

5. mic-input (preamped) - like MD recorders

6. composite video output and TV menu - so using a remote, you can run it from a TV, like a normal piece of stereo equipment.

7. Player - to - player file transfers. (Nomad Jukebox 3)

8. digital output

9. headhpone output at least 50mw/ch (Creative NJB3/Zen}

10. read .txt files (Xclef HD500)

 

[waffenschmidt]

Nice list, austonia. I second the motion, other than the fact that I don't care about recording (although I know others do).

Blessingx, no, I'm sure it was crossfeed, not crossfade, unless the writer was confused. I haven't been able to find what I read again, so it's possible the writer was referring to one of the other up-and-coming players. I know I didn't dream it.

I've been considering a new player, but if I'm going to buy something I want to be able to use it sans amp. For me, that means it needs crossfeed, or I need to re-mix half my ripped CDs using foobar's crossfeed DSP

 

[Canman]

1. Line out.
2. excellent D/A conversion
3. Good headphone amplification
4. Recording abilities through line in and decent A/D converter
5. no software--ability to drag / drop files to device

 

[ian]

Thank you for your great ideas!

As far as crossfeed goes, the Karma kinda has something like it (but far from perfect). You can set Stereo Seperation to Off or All Tracks. The user guide says this about it:

Many albums recorded in stereo during the early days of studio production seperated all instruments to one side and all vocals to another....The Stereo Seperation option merges the left and right stereo channels together to compensate for stereo effects that may sound trange with played on headphones....

And it does have crossfading as well

 

[waffenschmidt]

Well, it looks like they're giving crossfeed a shot, anyway. That's great! Plus, you've confirmed that I'm not going crazy remembering things that I never read.

My primary use of crossfeed is for (mostly) old "extreme separation stereo" recordings anyway. Maybe what they're doing works well enough for that, and there's always the possibility of a future firmware upgrade. I can live without crossfeed with most newer stuff; my guess is that with the rise in use of portable players, producers are starting to take headphones into consideration when they mix.

The Karma is looking more and more promising . . . My wallet's starting to cringe

 

[elnero]

I've recently become interested in purchasing a HD based player and have been doing quite a bit of research into the different features. I would have to second all of Austonia's list. It pretty much covers the whole range in my view.