Rio Carbon vs. Rio Karma

[sabishii]

Hello Sirs:

I've seen some relatively good deals on the Karma lately, and the Carbon really captures my attention. However, I'm unable to decide which one to order.

I have three points of conflict:

1. Gapless playback. How significant is gapless playback, really? I've listened to my friends' Ipods, and gaps haven't bothered me yet; on the other hand, I haven't listened to gapless playback, so I don't know how much of an improvement it is.

2. Features. The Karma's Auto-DJ sounds like a very useful feature, but is it leaps and bounds better than the Carbon's on-the-fly playlist creation or is the difference just subtle? Are there any other features that make the Karma much better than the Carbon?

3. Portability. How burdensome is the Karma compared to the Carbon? Is the 1" thickness frustrating or is its clumsiness just exaggerated? I'd like to take my MP3 player with me almost everywhere in my pocket (and I go to school every day).

Are there any other MP3 players comparable in both quality AND price? I've ruled out the Ipod in this comparison because pre-4G isn't that great and 4G costs more than the Karma/Carbon (which I can get for $200).


Thanks for your opinions
- Dan

 

[karma]

1. I think gapless playback is great feature that many people can learn to live without. It'd be best appreciated for those who listen to trance/dance albums, or any album where the songs crossover into each other. For me, the interruption between tracks when listening to some trance albums can be really annoying, but it's something I've learned to live with now.

2. The Carbon does not have on-the-fly playlist creation.

3. When the Karma first came out, I saw the feature list and immediately wanted one. Then I saw its dimensions and realized that it was far too chunky of a player. It is not pocketable IMO, which is what I wanted. The carbon, OTOH, is incredibly slim and its sloping design makes it easy to slide into your pocket.

Other players you may want to consider are the Zen Micro and the Dell Pocket DJ. However, neither of those players are available for purchase as of yet.

 

[Vashin]

gapless playback is really important to me... so I'm hoping very hard that iriver will actually make a working gapless playback firmware for the h320. It makes some great albums much less satisfying to listen to.

 

[Sledge]

I'm into classical. Many times a work will be 30-45 minutes long, but it will be broken into several tracks on a CD. Could I live without gapless? Probably. But since I can get gapless in a Karma, then that's what I want. Gapless sounds like a minor feature, but it turned out to be pretty important for me.

 

[KenW]

Gapless isn't a big issue for me at all. That said, I'm in the same boat. I'm holding out until they release the Chroma and M5. Some of these wealthy folk will surely do a comparison for the rest of us unwashed masses. The Chroma likely will have a 20GB HD and that's big for me since I want to go lossless. I'd wait for a month or so as I'm thinking it won't be much longer til the new releases come.

 

[Sledge]

I also want to go to lossless eventually, so I hope there will be a 40GB Chroma too

 

[Ch0mp]

1. if you wanna see what gapless playback is like, i'm pretty sure almost all CD players have it.

2.the features on the karma are many and i love them. the dj, crossover, on the fly playlists, the thing just works really well. edit: the karma also comes with a dock, which is pretty sweet

3. the karma is pretty thick, but the buttons are all placed well and its very comfortable to hold and operate. its not frustrating or clumsy, unless you want to take it in and out of your pocket frequently. for me, i wear cargo shorts and its not too big a problem. but i dont think you could pocket the karma with jeans.

i think for the price the karma is a good player. you might want to check out the dell dj at 15g for $200 which seems like a pretty solid player. where are you getting a karma for $200?

 

[austonia]

get both

good for different situations.


the Carbon having MSC functionality makes it handy as a data shuttle as well.

but Karma is far more advanced.

 

[lee0539]

i only have a few live albums that i wish i had gapless for on my ihp. Not really that important thou... i actually like having the delete function... with my extensive list of music that i got from my roommate i need to delete some music i dont like so the on the fly delete on the new firmware was a nice treat.

 

[Achtunghoy]

Having both is very nice. I come home from school, with my E3's and my Carbon, and then I turn on my reciever and Karma, and I have instant music. All gapless, all good, all the time. No clunky pockets, just a slim Carbon.

The Karma is not at all pocketable IMO. You said you would take it to school everyday in a pocket, so I would get the Carbon. But wait a month for Rio to release the updated version.

 

[Luke]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sabishii I have three points of conflict: 1. Gapless playback. How significant is gapless playback, really? I've listened to my friends' Ipods, and gaps haven't bothered me yet; on the other hand, I haven't listened to gapless playback, so I don't know how much of an improvement it is. - Dan

I think this depends a lot on how you listen to your music -- and also how organized you are. In other words, do you mostly encode full albums, or only part albums? Do you insist on tagging everything completely before you transfer to your player? Do you listen mostly to misc. or genre or even artist *random* play, or full album *normal* play?

Unfortunately for me, all my stuff is tagged to the max, even with album art, many with reviews and lyrics too, and nearly all albums are complete. I listen to complete albums very frequently, and I'm tired of hearing gaps. It's not just on live albums, it's on a LOT of albums. Tracks merge into one another all the friggin' time. And the fact that I don't have gapless playback yet bugs me. Gapless playback gives the Karma an awful lot of weight.

 

[sabishii]

Thanks for the info about gapless playback. It doesn't seem to be a big factor for me. I can learn to live without it (or perhaps I already do), so that's one less advantage from the Karma.

Quote:

The Karma is not at all pocketable IMO. You said you would take it to school everyday in a pocket, so I would get the Carbon. But wait a month for Rio to release the updated version.

What's the updated version going to be like? From what I've read, the only problems are the static and the risk of bad hard drives, but I can handle the static (either getting non-metal based headphones or using tape) and the hard disk is a risk for any MP3 player buy, it seems. I've been waiting to get a new MP3 player for a while, as I haven't had one since I returned a malfunctioning Nitrus back in June - will the updated version fix any significant problems?

Quote:

Other players you may want to consider are the Zen Micro and the Dell Pocket DJ. However, neither of those players are available for purchase as of yet.

Do you know when they are going to be available? Zen Micro actually sounds like it's going to be smaller than the Carbon! Are there any comparison photos?

 

[sabishii]

Any more opinions?

 

[Oddball]

I have a Carbon and had thought of buying the Karma, but my rationale is this: I'm buying the Carbon because it's new technology. I'm buying it for its small size and battery life which makes it one of the most portable DAPs. If I wanted to buy the Karma, I would probably be waiting for the Chroma/Karma 2 to compare the two. Once the next generation Rio HD player comes out, the Karma price will also drop.

Besides, I wanted a player NOW and the Carbon's available now. It's helping me wait for my dream large HD DAP too.