Quote:
Originally Posted by Thaddy
I always hate saying this, but if you stretch your budget a bit more, you can score a 20gb iAudio M5 off of Newegg for $210 plus $4-$5 for shipping. These are great players, and have near gapless playback (a plus of the Karma). I just sold my Karma to get the X5, and I don't regret it one single bit.
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Near gapless playback? "one single bit"? A joke there, I know not everyone will get it though.
I know about the iAudio models but, I just don't like 'em, that's all. I like iPods, as most people
seem to according to the fact that in my area you couldn't find
one of 'em, not one anywhere before Christmas whereas you could buy iRiver, Samsung, Sony, etc. like they were infected with the plague or something. I owned a 1st generation iPod mini in the past and was quite pleased with it.
But I won't buy another iPod, ever. The price to performance ratio is just too damned high, and the Karma offers so much more, especially with the Ogg and FLAC support. It's noted that the product info on the M5 does say "we're only the second player to support FLAC in the entire world!" Guess who did it first?
That too doesn't matter since I have over 25GB of my own hand-ripped and hand-tagged (?!?!) mp3 files done with EAC + LAME from my own CD collection to listen to. If it sounded fine when I first ripped 'em, I certainly ain't about to re-rip 1200 CDs again just to go to Ogg or FLAC. It's nice to know if I acquire music in those formats, like stuff from Archive.org and all the live shows they put up for download, all I have to do is load them onto the Karma and hit Play.
The Karma has everything I need and everything I want and the size I'm interested in having. I've toyed with one in the past and I just don't want the "cigarette pack" style player at this point.
I'm a purist, if that actually means anything anymore. Basically it means I want the audio as unprocessed as it can be, as uncolored as it can be, etc. That means all those funky technologies the M5 has: the BBE, the Mach3Bass, the MP Enhance, the 3D Surround - it's all so much gobbledeegook to me and would never be used. Sure I can simply not use it, but the fact that it's there just annoys the hell out of me.
I know the Karma has that wicked evil cool 5 band parametric EQ that all the Karma lovers talk about all the time, but I listen to stuff flat - seriously. No EQ, no processing, just the headphones and the tunes. That's all I need.
Reading the specs on the M5 the only benefit I can see (for me, that is) over the Karma would be the line in direct recording - but only if you spend
more money and get the accessory pack that includes the cradle. But since I really have no use for that, everything else the M5 has sorta pales even now so long after the Karma was released and isn't even made anymore.
And the mic for voice recordings. I've seen too many devices like that claim "hi fidelity voice recording" possibility only to be severely disappointed by the quality as expected. If I want that sort of thing I'll go get an Olympus digital voice recorder.
The battery life is shorter for the M5, also.
Yeah, I think the Karma fits the bill perfectly. Just wish I had realized all this a year ago.
But thanks for the tip about the M5 just the same.
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