[antonyfirst]

I own a Rio Karma and I'm quite satisfied with it. Seeking the Wikipedia, I discovered that the Karma uses a particular version of a PortalPlayer chipset. I wondered what else dap uses Portalplayer (from now on PP for friends) and I discovered that the last version of this chip is for Sansa e2x0 players only. This thing caught my eye because I would rather having a flash player over a fragile hd player, but I'd like to have a good amount of space to store my songs. The 8GiB provided for the e20 are probably the maximum amount available for a flash player. I'd like to know if this series of Sansa has a sound similar (or maybe better) to that of Rio Karma, and how is the e280 overall. I'm not interested in videos and all the other similar stuff: just sound quality, flash drive space and a good navigation interface. Thank'ee

 

[nismo96]

The Sandisk Sansa players have a lot of potential, and they sound ok, but have some glaring flaws. The firmware is the players biggest liability. Due to this buggy firmware, the player has some scratchiness to it's sound (think: static). It also has issues with the sound cutting out of one channel or the other when listening at low volumes. My most annoying gripe about these units is that screen blanks out at times and can't be brought back up by anything other than by cycling the power on the unit. I'm looking forward to the Rockbox team getting Rockbox up and running on the E200 series models. They'll improve this player exponentially.

FWIW, I have the E250 and am running the absolute latest firmware release.

 

[EyeAmEye]

I haven't had any problems with the E280. I think it's pretty easy to transfer songs, and navigate on the player itself. Soundwise, it's not bad, but the Karma is noticeable better. I'd say the major difference is dynamics. Compared to the Karma, the E280 sounds a bit dull. I still think it sounds pretty good, though, I just happen to be in the "Karma sounds the best" camp, and find the E280 a bit lacking in direct comparison. I am very happy with the E280 for it use (around the neck on a gym bike with IEM's).

 

[antonyfirst]

I'm interested in one thing: as I wrote in the Kenwood's topic, I just use Sennheiser CX300, that are good canalphones but obviously aren't 400 bucks worthy IEMs. The result is that when I switched from Creative MuVo V200 to Rio Karma I didn't hear a noticeable SQ improvement (however I didn't a proper test). What I'm wondering is if using the Senn CX300, or other "below 100$ iems", I could notice so many differences between Rio Karma and Sansa players. Maybe I've to change canalphones, or more likely it's just my ears.

edit: just forgetting to thank you both

 

[EyeAmEye]

Quote:

Originally Posted by antonyfirst /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm interested in one thing: as I wrote in the Kenwood's topic, I just use Sennheiser CX300, that are good canalphones but obviously aren't 400 bucks worthy IEMs. The result is that when I switched from Creative MuVo V200 to Rio Karma I didn't hear a noticeable SQ improvement (however I didn't a proper test). What I'm wondering is if using the Senn CX300, or other "below 100$ iems", I could notice so many differences between Rio Karma and Sansa players. Maybe I've to change canalphones, or more likely it's just my ears. edit: just forgetting to thank you both

You're welcome.

If you can spring for $100, I suggest purchasing the V-Moda Vibe IEM. I've had the CX300, and they aren't even close. The Vibe's quality was good enough that I sold off my Shure E500 (the E500 is technically better, but the Vibe is alot more fun).

I didn't want you to get the impression that the jump from the Sansa to Karma is a major leap. It isn't, but the higher you go in headphone quality, the more noticeable the difference is. The Sansa is very capable in it's own right, but the Karma has a little extra that makes it sound more lively.

 

[breez]

Every iPod except 2nd gen Nano uses a PP chip. Doesn't have much or anything to do with sound quality though as it is mostly only used as a CPU. Sansa E200, however, uses a model which has DAC and headphone output built-in (2x40mW @ 16Ohm).

My main gripe with Sansa is the low level noise/interference that is present when the song is changing and the player transfers data around. Also the custom EQ sometimes cuts off the other channel. This happens maybe once in 10 hours of listening for me so it is not a great bother. There have been several firmware updates so there is hope for some of the quirks getting fixed.

Also Rockbox is coming along nicely although I don't have too much hope for fixing the noise issue. Depending on how much control there is for the data transfers, maybe it can be minimized.