Should I Go For The Karma?

[waffenschmidt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mech_e The people who say the karma has issues (it *used* to) . . .

Is there any real evidence that the hard drive issues have been corrected? The low price really has me tempted, but there are so many reports of hard drive failures that it seems like a pretty big risk. What really got to me was a thread on Riovolution where you'd have some die-hard Karma fan saying how he had absolutely no problems with his Karma, and then a dozen posts later he'd say it bit the dust.

Has anyone from Rio said they worked out the problems with Hitachi?

I realize I could buy a Karma cheap and get a third-party warranty, but I'm not sure I want to go through that hassle. Viking apparently can't sell their warranty in my state (Wisconsin), and I've read that Mack takes a long time to turn repairs around, leaving you without your DAP for 6 weeks or more. If the thing fails during warranty, Rio sends you a refurb, and who knows what kind of life that will have left.

Still, I might be willing to take the chance if there is some hard evidence that the hard drive problems have been corrected.

 

[Jmmmmm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RockCity Thanks for the input people. I'm going to wait a month and see if the new players hit the market. It's scary to imagine going without music for a while.

Or you can buy it, use it til the new players come out, and then see if you want to keep your karma, or if it 'breaks' and you have to return it....best buy has a great return policy if you get their warranty

note: I am not suggesting people be dishonest. Only return the player if your problem with it falls within the limits of the warranty
note2: i think I heard the chroma is not supposed to be released until mid may. I wouldn't rely on that, but realize it could be that long before it's released.



[size=xx-small]buy one!

[/size]

 

[hugz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TURBO Noooo. Those suffer of hard drive failure and the worst customer service (based in India). Get something else.

I dunno if that was sarcasm or not..

but the only thing that usually turns people away from the karma is the fear of hard drive failure.

with a 3 year warranty that need not apply. it's great

only other real down falls to me is it's ugly and has no remote. The lack of remote has become a total non issue to me because of it's ease of use (can easily skip tracks, pause, etc in my pocket).

 

[TURBO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hugz I dunno if that was sarcasm or not.. but the only thing that usually turns people away from the karma is the fear of hard drive failure. with a 3 year warranty that need not apply. it's great only other real down falls to me is it's ugly and has no remote. The lack of remote has become a total non issue to me because of it's ease of use (can easily skip tracks, pause, etc in my pocket).

It was not sarcasm. When you call them for customer support, you are actually talking with a guy in India. I read that in another forum. They were complaining about that and the hard disk failure.

 

[mushu]

To start off, rio customer service (for me anyway) has been excellent.

The karma has good build quality, the hitachi HDD can be a bit up the creak though. Best way to get around this is a viking warrenty for about $40 for 3 years or so, which will sort everything out

 

[eeerie1]

Is the Viking warranty better than the Best Buy warranty?

 

[apnk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by eeerie1 Is the Viking warranty better than the Best Buy warranty?

Well i dont know about best buy, but the Viking warranty lets you fix the unit localy, but the bad thing is if its unfixable you get a replacement and the warranty is terminated.

 

[RockCity]

Hi, I'm also considering the Zen Touch 40gig, which can be fetched for $290. But is it powerful enough to drive ER4S and how is the sound quality compared to the iPod/Karma? Btw, I'm not planning to use an amp with any of these MP3 players.

 

[Helter Skelter]

I've had my Karma for about a week now. I love it. Absolutely love it. I also have the Mindknob case, and that's really cool too. Totally worth every single penny. Gapless playback is a lot cooler than most people give it credit for.

The sound quality is fantastic. Every now and then, if it's really quiet,
I can sometimes hear a bit of noise when the HD spins up on my ER-6i. Usually only just after I turn the player on or very occasionally during quiet parts of the music with FLAC files (larger filesize = more disk access needed). Hardly what I'd call annoying. The features are great, the interface is great, Rio Music Manager is far from horrible and 10 times better than using something like iTunes, and you should just buy one now because they're awesome and if you buy one you can be awesome too. Plus they're cheaper than just about any other 20 gig player out there, especially when you factor in all the features. They also do a much better job driving more power hungry amps than a lot of portable players. My K271S is relatively hard to drive out of most portables, but the Karma does extremely well with them. Don't know about the ER-4S, but I imagine it'd sound better with the Karma than with most of the competition. I understand that those REALLY like having an amp, though.

I thought that 20 gigs might not be enough music for me, especially factoring in the fact that my library is hovering near 60 gigs (and growing) at this point and I like to listen to FLAC files a lot, but it really hasn't been an issue. If I run out of space, I'll just drop an album or three off that I'm not listening to very much, or convert some of the lossless stuff to ogg or mp3.

 

[DJ_ZUKO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Helter Skelter you should just buy one now because they're awesome and if you buy one you can be awesome too.

i like that. awesome!!!!!

 

[imported_Matt_Carter]

LOL

ya I gota kick outa that aswell.

 

[John Reeves]

Hi,

I've had mine for 8 months now, completely reliable. I bought it purely for the sound quality, but then found that the interface etc. was ideal for me personaly.
Love it, even bought a Vaja case for it. Used ER4's and HFI 650's originaly, now use UE10's.

To put it into context I think so much of this player that the Vaja case cost more than my wife's Xmas present. (LOL)

Cheers

John

 

[RockCity]

Ok, I bought the Rio Karma online with a 30 day return policy. I'm going to try my luck with the hard drive. It still feels a bit risky, but I like to live dangerously. Btw, the website I bought from was Comp-U-Plus. Has anyone had any experience with them?

 

[Imyourzero]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RockCity Ok, I bought the Rio Karma online with a 30 day return policy. I'm going to try my luck with the hard drive. It still feels a bit risky, but I like to live dangerously. Btw, the website I bought from was Comp-U-Plus. Has anyone had any experience with them?

I've ordered with CompUPlus in the past and would definitely recommend them.

 

[callanish]

Didn't buy my Karma from there, but bought my Zen NX from there and have nothing but positive things to say. I did take out the mack three year warranty, but fortunately haven't had to use it. Haven't heard the greatest input about the mack warranty, so I'd think about other options if buying the Karma from there; maybe viking.