Zen Micro vs Rio Karma

[jthm]

I know these are two completely different mediums in respects to DAP. However I think I've decided to get one of the two. Some points they both share are they are well known for sound quality, decent battery life and not an ipod. The Rio obviously has size and gapless going for it while the Micro is new sexy, still being updated and has a lot of gadgets. Anyways if someone could lay out the pro's and con's I'd be much obliged.

 

[Thisp]

Rio Karma pros: Plays FLAC, plays Vorbis, plays gaplessly, Rio DJ, parametric EQ, 7 dB more SNR(zen micro is tested at 88 dB SNR), better op amp in the player, 15 GB more space, can be used over ethernet in any OS.

Cons: Fat.

Zen Micro Pros: Smaller

Cons: Refer to Karma pros, it doesn't have any of those.

You're right - you're comparing completely diffrrent players.

 

[crazychimp132]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thisp , 7 dB more SNR(zen micro is tested at 88 dB SNR),

can you point me to the source of that information please? I was really considering getting a micro, but i do want it to sound good...

 

[Thisp]

The Micro will probably sound good, I was pointing that out as a pro for the Karma, although that's to be expected from a 'full size' DAP vs a miniature one. The Zen Xtra beats the Micro, the Karma beats the Carbon, etc..Here's the page..

 

[jthm]

Heh well I did my research today and opted for the Karma if I get either since I can get it for less money than the Micro but it provides all those pro's and significantly more space.

 

[crazychimp132]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thisp The Micro will probably sound good, I was pointing that out as a pro for the Karma, although that's to be expected from a 'full size' DAP vs a miniature one. The Zen Xtra beats the Micro, the Karma beats the Carbon, etc..Here's the page..

I realized that this was done before the dec. 8 firmware release, which says that it "Removes extraneous sound occuring during playback of .WAV files". so it looks like, since this test used wave, it would yield a higher snr now...

 

[fr4c]

definitely the rio karma. couple the karma with an amp and you'll have portable bliss.

 

[karmypolitics]

karma has reliability issues. I've had to RMA 2 of them isofar...

 

[Jam_Master_J]

Quote:

definitely the rio karma. couple the karma with an amp and you'll have portable bliss.

You'll need the dock to do this though, unless you plug into the headphone output, which probably wouldn't help much IMO. However, the Karma sounds great without an amp with my KSC-75s and SR-325s.

I wonder if there are any plans to release a line-out adaptor for the Karma though(plugged into the data port on the bottom).

 

[Thisp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by karmypolitics karma has reliability issues. I've had to RMA 2 of them isofar...

So do many hard drive based players. Many people have had their players for a long time, without a problem. I'm one of them.