Customer Reviews

Rio Karma 20 GB MP3 Player

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(40)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(37)
1 star:		(82)

 

 

I have a Rio Nitrus but I got the opportunity to play with one of the Karma's when my boss picked one up for himself. Here is a comparison between the two:

Size (Physical)
Nitrus: Very small.
Karma: Small. Wider and thicker than the Nitrus (but a little shorter).
Alternatives: Other than the Nitrus, this is smaller than anything else out there, including IPod and Creative's Zen.

Size (Hard Drive)
Nitrus: 1.5GB
Karma: 20GB. This makes the physical size to hard drive size ratio much better than the Nitrus and anything else out there.
Alternatives: Some go as high as 60GB. If you need more than 20GB then the Karma is not for you.

Carrying Case
Nitrus: None
Karma: None. Come on, folks!!! I'm disappointed that Rio doesn't even make one we can buy. The Nitrus fits in my jean pockets with no problem. The Karma fit with a little bit of difficulty. I run with my Nitrus all the time and have not had any problems with it. If you are planning on doing physical activities with a large mp3 player than consider the Nitrus first.
Alternatives: Most have a carrying case included. This is my largest gripe about Rio's large capacity mp3 players.

Battery Life
Nitrus: 16 hours
Karma: 15 hours. Other than a hiccup on the Nitrus when I first got it, this number has proven to be quite accurate. Both perform for hours on end. I've only ran out of batteries once because I really wanted to see how long it would go.
Alternatives: Creative and Dell last about 14-16 hours. IPod is only 8 hours (yuck).

Screen:
Nitrus: Good
Karma: Great!!! The screen is larger than the Nitrus. While the navigation menu is the same as the Nitrus, I do like the larger screen and the ability to scroll through the songs with the scroll button. Unlike the Nitrus, the scroll button is actually useful. My son, who can barely read, handles both menuing systems quite easily while listening to the music he likes (his own little playlist of songs).

Alternatives: Karma is better, or just as good, as anything out there except for the IPod. The menus are intuitive and easy to navigate.

Volume Buttons:
Nitrus: Flimsy, I'm afraid these will fall off.
Karma: Much better positioned and they feel a lot more stable, as well as the power button. I very much approve of this improvement.

File Transfer:
Nitrus and Karma: Very fast. At USB 1.1 (laptop) I get about 1 track per 8 seconds. At USB 2 (desktop) I get that speed down to less than a second. I wish this had a Firewire option so I could have the blazing speeds on my laptop.
Alternatives: Some have Firewire but you can't out-pace the USB 2 speeds. I can't attest on the Ethernet transfers.

In the end, I am very happy with both the Nitrus and Karma. For me, the Nitrus wins because of its small size. Because of the blazingly high transfer rates, loading it up with my desires of the day is no problem (yet, anyways) and I haven't even come close to filling it up anyways. The Karma is excellent for storing EVERYTHING and not having to worry too much about unloading and loading music. I still with they had a case with these. The Karma comes highly recommended for those with high capacity appetites.

I've been previewing the Karma for a couple of months and thought I'd post my thoughts. Note: I am not an employee of Rio. First off, if you want really good unofficial tech support from other users, be sure to check out these two sites: rioworld.org and riovolution.com. Other users will be able to respond and help with any of your questions. As well, Help Section in desktop software and Karma UG makes it very easy to get the info you need in an easy-to-understand way. ***BATTERY*** 15 hours. ***CAPACITY*** 5000 MP3 128bit songs on 20GB model ***SOUND*** Rio is now owned by Denon Marantz, a high-end audio company. Dound quality is the highest priority and absolutely great. Ogg, FLAC, WMA and MP3 support!!! 30 mW/channel means that you can't turn the player to full volume without splitting your eardrums. 96 dB s/n from headphones, 98 dB s/n through docking station via dual line RCA lines out! Very crisp, clear, warm sound with low distortion and great bass response. The included Sennheiser earbuds are good, but I use my Koss KSC55 headphones. 5-band parametric EQ is customizable, enriching the sound, plus lots of presets. Con: a hip hop preset would be nice. ***DESIGN*** Buttons are easy to press/use, Riostick and Scroll wheel works very nicely. Rubber padding on one side, where player curves in, makes for a nice grip. Screen is big, sharp and clear. . ***KARMA FEATURES*** There's a crossfade. Con: max crossfade is 3 secs, but most people are happy with that. There's a neat VU Meter option. You can append/remove/insert songs to your playlist while music plays. My favourite feature: Re-order your current batch of selections, on-the-fly, as music plays!! Even save it as a new playlist, right on the player! The RioDJ on the player has countless options, allowing sophisticated random play. Menu button is swappable and customizable! You can set it to directly link to artist/track/album/etc menus. This makes getting to your music very fast. Scroll and Riostick can both be used (your choice) to then quickly scroll to your selection. Move through 1000's of songs and find the album or track you want in seconds. I'm not kidding. You can see six songs at once in your playlist and when you scroll the song menus. My iPodhead freak friend admits Karma navigates through music better than iPod and also sounds better than 3rd Gen iPods. If you want to pull up all the track info, one click will bring up all the ID3 tag info. There's a bookmark feature if you want to save your place in an audiobook or playlist. There's also a little stopwatch/lap timer that works well. Main Screen can show count down/up of track/total playlist. Con: nice if you could toggle through all of these options, rather than select one. There's an Autostandby feature that automatically turns the player off after your music playlist/selection of songs ends. Great for using Karma to go to sleep to. Con: No wake up alarm. There's a setting that will automatically re-start from the same song or same place within a song when you power back up. If you're a lefty, you can flip the screen 180 degrees!! Con: I'm a lefty and don't use it, as 90 degrees would have been preferred. ***FIRMWARE/SOFTWARE UPGRADE*** The great thing about Rio is they are constantly releasing upgrades with feature enhancements. Con: Customer Support is a toll line. ***ETHERNET DOCK*** Karma comes with an Ethernet dock that is amazing. The cool thing is that it lights up when you dock Karma, but this dock has meaty features. You can charge your player, transfer music via Ethernet, plug in your usb and it also has dual-line RCA lines out, which I have set up piggy-backed, to go to my computer and stereo! Rio did a nice job with this dock. ***TRANSFERRING FILES*** Transfer music via USB 1.1, Ethernet and USB 2.0, which is very fast (think one song per second). Con: Not a Universal Mass Storage Device, but the included software allows the player to run off a database far more complex than any mass storage tool could handle. You can transfer any type of file through Rio Taxi and you can upload the music from your Karma and save it to your computer, too. Con: Rio Taxi doesn't support hierarchal folders, but that isn't an issue for me. ***DESKTOP SOFTWARE*** Rio Music Manager (RMM) makes transferring music as easy as you can imagine. You can create playlists on your desktop, along with creating them on the player. You can listen to music through RMM and there's a RioDJ on RMM, too, that creates playlists based on presets. You can rip music in WMA, Ogg and FLAC and MP3 with incl. software. **WINDOWS EXPLORER INTEGRATION*** You can add the XP Powertoy and integrate Karma with My Computer and Explorer File Manager, allowing you to drag n' drop from your file manager. RMM allows full music auto-synch each time you connect, or customize many other types of synch profiles. RMM comes with Gracenote CDDB, so all your CD's will have all the info automatically added when you rip your CDs. RMM constantly scans your selected music folder new music to add on the next update. The second you plug in or dock your player, RMM automatically opens and auto-synch immediately starts, if you've chosen that setting, updating your player will all new music. So, it does everything for you. RMM is very solid and isn't crash happy, by the way. ***CONCLUSION*** I'm really happy with this player, minus the cons, listed above. It sounds just wonderful, has tonnes of great audiophile features and I really like the design. If you're an audiophile, this is your player! You won't be disappointed!!

I have been purchasing mp3 players since they first came out. From the first Nomads and Archos HD players, to the latest 1.5 gb mini jukeboxes. Alot of them have some good features (Nomad), great design (Ipod), compact size (Rio Nitrus), however none seem to have put it all together until now. The Pros - Nice compact design, fits comfortably in one hand with user friendly controls. Fantastic firmware. Unlike the Rio Nitrus, It is very easy to locate quickly any of the thousands of songs on its 20 gb hard drive. You can create Playlists from the unit itself. You can use the RIO DJ funtion to make a quick list of your favorite songs. It would take up too much space to list the rest of the functionality, but it all works very well. The battery life is a major plus. I am sure the Ipod would last 8 hours if you let it run and never touch it. However the Karma has lasted me at least 15 hours, and that is with me making playlists and playing with the settings. The sound is top notch and the ear buds they include are better than most. The Cons - I can't really list any, but have read that some people have had problems with the Karma crashing or not funtioning properly. I can't comment on that because mine has worked fine for about a month. I am more satisfied with the Karma than any other mp3 player and can recomend it strongly.

As an MP3 player/jukebox, this player performs very well, almost reaching the spot of ipod replacement. It supports MP3, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, and FLAC. Ogg Vorbis is another lossy codec, performing quite a bit better than MP3 and WMA. FLAC is a lossless codec, about 1/2 the size of a WAV file.

It does not include an FM radio, voice recorder, or remote. The first two may or may not be absolutely essential to you; they weren't at all for me. A remote *might* be in a future release, but don't buy this product expecting one.

Sound quality is superb, as it has a powerful headphone amp and also comes across clearly (check out head-fi.org's portables forum if you don't believe me). Besides the usual EQ presets, the Karma also includes a 5-band parametric EQ, which I'm told is quite special for a portable audio player.

The stated battery life is 15 hours I believe. It comes quite close to that, though I haven't been making accurate measurements at all (I just let it play and forget about the battery).
The included dock is quite unique, featuring both RCA lineouts and an Ethernet port for connecting to your network and transferring files. I don't think any other player includes an ethernet port or network connections at all yet.

The included Rio Music Manager isn't quite like iTunes, but it does have a really easy interface and is more than acceptable for transferring your music tracks. You should use something else to listen and rip your tracks though, as separate encoders will give you much more flexbility anyway.

One innovative feature is the included Rio DJ, which autogenerates playlists with a certain set of requirements. No other player has anything quite like it, as far as I know.
The menu interface is clean and concise, and is quite easily navigable with the Riostick and scroll wheel.

One thing of importance with this product: you absolutely *must* get the latest firmware (1.68 at time of writing) to prevent from having the reliability issues some other people mentioned here. The latest firmwares are supposed to have fixed on the hard drive issues some people have been having. I would highly recommend purchasing an extended warranty (as I did) to preserve peace of mind. Rio's 90day warranty is woefully short for such a pricey object.

I don't know anything about Rio customer support, but their *engineers* consistently hang out on the Riovolution.com forums, which ends up making it a wonderful site for any Rio owner. They listen and respond to constructive feedback/questions occasionally.
One such example is that the rio engineers have recently confirmed that USB mass storage support (the drive shows up as a removable drive in Windows/Mac) is forthcoming in a future firmware release.

Overall, I would highly recommend this player to anyone looking for a great, dedicated MP3 player that almost equals the iPod in functionality and ease of use.

If you read reviews for the 4 main contenders in this market - the iPod, Creative Zen, Rio Karma and iRiver iHP - you'll notice that each has their pros and cons; none are perfect and you should decide whether you want to take to take the plunge now or later.

If your view in life is that you are going to pay $x00 to get a device then it must be near ideal - ruggedly constructed, fault proof, good product support, easy to use software - then do yourself a favor and don't buy yet. All the products have drawbacks and are not mature yet; if you expect value and reliability then wait a while. If you are OK paying $x00 for something that can be used now, but is likely to both get better and cost less in the future then try to determine which device is the lesser of evils for you.

iPod clearly has the most buzz. Great design and looks cool. Most people love the appearance and praise the touch sensitive buttons. It has a hold button to deactivate the buttons to avoid accidents; however, enough reviewers have complained that the hold button is easily broken and then the device can't be used. Some of the more geeky (non-Apple type) reviewers complain that the scrollwheel is annoying after a while and they resent being forced into this Apple-like interface. Everyone complains about the non-replaceable battery, yet this is the price of sturdy construction. iPod can be used as an external disk, and apparently stores files without problem. However, the music and data are apparently not separated; iPod reviewers complain about "white noise" in random feedback mode that comes from appointments / contacts created on the iPod during synchronization. Synchronizing music among computers, if you have more than one, seems to be an issue; research this before buying if you have multiple computers you want to be synchronized. Reviews for sound quality are generally (but not universally) positive. Reviews of Apple's support are generally poor; they seem to address issues in warranty, which covers a short time after delivery / pickup of item. After that it seems like you're on your own. iPod has no stop button; when new users mention this iPod veterans call it "unnecessary" and "so 20th century".

Creative Zen feedback suffers from construction quality, poor product support, difficulty of using the scroll wheel and reasonably consistent feedback about problems with the headphone jack. Construction quality is a difficult item. The Zen has a detachable face plate that allows the battery to be replaced. What is added in functionality (battery replacement) detracts in build quality as the face plate is prone to popping off. Drop if just a few inches on a hard surface and the faceplate pops off (but not if it's in its case). Many reviewers say the faceplate simply didn't fit well so they returned the Zen. Feedback on Creative's product support is universally poor; this is not limited to the Zen, it applies to all the company's products. The scroll wheel is finicky; it works most of the time but there is a learning curve for pressing it just right; new users say they have 50% - 75% success rate; some find it so frustrating that they just return the device. The Creative software is awkward / difficult to use and just plain doesn't load on some computers. Enough people have reported that their headphone jack doesn't work after a month of using the device to believe that Creative has some inbuilt manufacturing or quality control problem. The Zen doesn't support folders so it is not really a storage device; even with third party software that "creates" folders, documents and programs can't be launched from the Zen, so it is not a hard disk, it's a storage device at best. Reviews for sound quality are generally (but not universally) positive. The Zen has no stop button. Veteran Zen users have explained how to stop if that's what you want.

The Rio Karma feedback suffers from sensitivity in the hard disk. It seems like movement, even small movement, causes skipping in playback and even the device freezing. If you plan to carry the device around (it is a mobile device, right?) then this is something you might want to think about. Karma gets consistently good reviews for sound quality and connectivity from its docking device, which has RCA output jacks and Ethernet jacks for connectivity. Usability (button usage, feature selection, menu structure, display size and quality) also has good feedback. Repair seems to be an issue; some say the repair don't exist - you just have to buy a new player. Perhaps because of its smaller user base there is also a lack of accessories. Like the Zen, the Karma does not support folders and is not designed to be a data storage device. It only comes in 20Gb; enough for most people, not for those with large collections ripped at high sampling rates. The Karma does have a stop button.

There aren't many reviews for the iRiver iHP. Those that have it like it. The only complaint seems to be that the disk rotation is slow, leading to longer delays in some functions (playback and even a slow display of the menu?). Otherwise feedback seems to be good. No comments on reliability, warranty, repairs, accessories. No-one mentions whether there is a stop button, but the photos don't show one.

None of these are perfect. If you have the appetite choose the one that you think has the least deficiencies or is best suited to you. Accept that there will be better devices (or new generations of these ones) in a year or two that will cost less. If that is for you then pay the money, learn from the experience and you'll be a more informed buyer when you buy device #2. If you aren't into paying $x00 to learn and experiment, or the cons outweigh the pros, then wait a year or so.

I've had my Karma for 10 days and have been very pleased. It's small (fits easy inside the Bose QuietComfort 2 headphone case, making one less thing to carry). Sound quality is excellent, the docking station with Ethernet and stereo jacks is wonderful. The on-board software is very solid - create and edit playlists on the fly, change just about anything.

The Rio Music Manager seems to have a few more stability problems, particularly with USB 1.1 connection, but the Ethernet is fine. Wish RMM would allow remote control of the player when it's docked and hooked to the stereo. Also be forewarned that the "case" is just a little drawstring pouch - pretty chintzy for an expensive player, but I'm sure the aftermarket people will have something shortly.

Unlike iPod, the Karma accepts WMA files and doesn't impose a world of copy-protection schemes on moving music files.

Service from D&M (Denon, Marantz and Macintosh, the new owners of Rio) has been good and I have confidence they'll stand behind the product. Overall I'm very impressed. The price is coming down - hard-drive-based systems are coming onto the market quickly - but the Karama is a great competitor if you value small size, flexibility and the ability to dock the unit to make it part of your home network and stereo system.

I travel so taking my tunes on the road is the priority #1. The Karma is great at this. Built in Ethernet, ability to sync tunes with more then one PC, and USB2.0 make the Karma way more useful then my ipod was for traveling.

Problem:
I sync 7Gig of music to my ipod from my PC at home and get on a plane for the week. About Tuesday I buy a new CD. In order to sync my ipod to my laptop (to get new CD loaded) I have to wipe out any tunes on the ipod that are not on my laptop. Don't even get me started about not being able to share tunes already on the ipod down to the laptop because the ipod converts my MP3's to some other format....

Solution:
The Rio Karma. This little guy is so friendly. He'll take tunes from any old place and talks USB and Ethernet.

Plus the interface is very mature. I believe the development team behind this Karma are responsible for the RioCar (Empeg Mark II) Car players - that was a device that was years ahead of it's time also.

I think the old style ipods look better then the Karma but with the new ones it's a draw.

I reccomend the Karma to anyone looking to buy an HD MP3 player.

I've owned TWO iPod's so unlike those who have never owned anything else and claim iPod's to be the greatest thing out there, think again! Both iPod's, as pretty as they are, have been nothing but trouble. The first one had battery issues, and problems with the headphone plug. Eventually, it would not even work anymore. The 2nd, only 4 months old, had problems with the buttons... you could press them continuously and nothing would happen, the battery again was screwed up... it would just be charged and the meter would show full, then 1 bar, then two, then NONE. Finally, the other day, it started making noises and as I expected, the drive went bad. So, I'm off on vacation in a couple weeks and cannot wait for Apple to repair it. At the time, it WAS the best around. That is just not the case anymore for the overpriced, over-praised iPod. So far, the Rio has been terrific. Sound tends to be a personal thing so it's hard to say that this one sounds better than that one, etc. But the iPod limits you to their pre-programmed sound settings, 95% of which are ....junk. The Rio let's you choose... pre-programmed settings, regular Bass and Treble, or, a 5-band EQ. The results are really great and you can get the sound just the way you like it. It's not shy on Bass like the iPod is, and has the adequate power to really sound awesome. Features seem to be endless! OGG and FLAC support, 20GB, battery works great and lasts...see Apple, it CAN be done! Ethernet is really cool... just connect to your network, it grabs an IP address, you can use your browser to connect! It has a line out jack, USB 2.0, great screen with some neat display visualizations and numerous configurable settings. Numerous ways to play your music back, cross-fade between tunes is nice. Every cable is provided... Ethernet, USB, power, line out, etc. The cradle is quite cool... deep blue LED's glow when the unit is connected to the PC.

Ok, a few quirks... 90-day warranty is inadequate. There is no provided case, or in-line remote. The device is so compact that it fits in just about anything. I found a little neoprene belt-clip case at Comp-USA that's perfect, but the controls are hidden away. The in-line remote would have been great given there is no custom case for it....yet. Downloading to the player worked but did hick-up a few times with an error. iTunes is still the better PC program. The unit is very solid in build, but the controls are a bit on the flimsy side. You need to be careful...but, unlike the iPods, at least the controls have worked perfectly every time.

Also, for those that complain of all kinds of re-boot and crash issues, etc., UPDATE your firmware! The support site is excellent with numerous updates and fixes. Updating is really easy.

Beyond that, the player has been great. If anything will give iPod a run, this may be it. I've wasted considerable money on two iPod's and there will NOT be a third! The price I paid was $20 less than the 10GB iPod.

Produced by Digital Networks North America (DNNA) (sister company to Marantz Audio), the Rio Karma, although aging, has still not lost its edge on the competition. While other companies are trying to cram as many new features into their MP3 players such as tuner recorders, diaries, calendars and games, the Rio Karma sticks to the basics and does them extremely well.

In the tidy package you get the player obviously, a substantial pair of Sennheiser MX300 ear buds, the drivers CD and a rather nifty dock.

The Rio Karma itself is shaped rather oddly. It's short and rather squat, featuring none of the aluminum or acrylic that is so often found in its competitors. Reminiscent of the old style minidisk players that used AA batteries, the Rio Karma is an all plastic and rubber handle affair, featuring a large clear plastic front plate that is prone to being scratched. Although not the most attractive MP3 player on the market at the moment, this is not a big detraction from the overall package; it's unlikely you will be framing any MP3 player as a work of art.

Build wise, although it feels sturdy, durability is in fact a drawback with the Rio Karma. The plastic casing, possesses very little to hold it together apart from tabs (which you can see if you pry it open, although it's not recommended) and tends to fall apart from time to time after the inevitable dropping of it occurs. However, it has been noted that the Rio Karma is prone to hard-drive failures, don't panic too much, this often doesn't corrupt files, all you need to do is hard reset it, this is more of an annoyance.

The Rio Karma despite its bulky appearance fits snugly into the hand with a rubber handle to grip onto. The combination of the brightly colored red joystick control, jog wheel and dedicated menu button is within easy reach of the thumb and the power, volume and hold buttons are also within easy reach of all other fingers. One concern, however, is the ease of which the joystick and jog wheel are moved so that during play, if it is not on hold it often switches tracks of skips forwards or backwards. This design was mainly built for a right handed user but, there is a left-handed mode for those who are inclined that way, however, it ends up being horribly useless with the controls in awkward positions.

The connectors on the body include a mini USB 2.0 connector, obviously to connect to the PC for music transference, a proprietary connector for the dock (included), a DC power connector that recharges the non-replaceable Li-Ion battery and a headphone jack which has the option of an inline remote. Strangely enough, DNNA never released an inline remote to compliment the Rio Karma and, seeing how long it has been on the market for, probably never will.

The dock that has been included is surprisingly handy as well as being rather "funky", allowing users to easily plug the Rio Karma in for simultaneous charging and transferal without the need for constantly connecting via wires. It features RCA line-out connectors (yes, you can connect them to an amp), a power connector, another mini-USB 2.0 connector and strangely enough, an Ethernet port. This was a stroke of genius on DNNA's part as it allowed the Rio Karma to connect to any TCP/IP based network, enabling sharing of the music to many users (much like Sony's current 20GB network MP3 Player). The funky thing with the dock is that, during charging the dock emits an eerie blue glow, which, while playing music can pulse to the beat.

Getting to the software, unlike most MP3 players nowadays, the Rio Karma doesn't allow use as a mass storage device as its file structure isn't compatible with the normal FAT file structures. Instead, it uses a file format that allows the storage of music identification tags (ID3 tags) and speedy retrieval of them.

The software included is the Rio Music Manager and Rio Taxi, both of which are downloadable free from the DNNA website (no particularly spectacular software inclusions here).

The Rio Music Manager is a simplistic music transferal program that scans the Rio Karma for music and scans your hard-drive for music. Although Music Manager does not possess the wiz bang functions of other programs it is easy to understand and is designed for users to transfer music straight away without the hassles of setting up. Transferal is a simple click and off you go. It's not particularly zippy at 10MB per second but it does the job. Also, some users have found it difficult to transfer music onto the Rio Karma because it can repeatedly not identify itself, simply a problem with the drivers.

Turning the Rio Karma on, the menu was obviously designed with extremely fool proof use in mind. It's practically god's gift to frustrated MP3 audiophiles. It's self-explanatory, it's intuitive, it's quick, it does everything for you and combined with a joystick, you can use a single thumb to scan through 5000 songs which are categorized in several possible ways, and find the exact one in seconds.

During playback the Rio stick is used for pausing or skipping tracks, the scroll wheel to fast forward or rewind. Tapping the menu button will bring up the full menu system or holding it briefly will jump straight to the Play Music option, which allows you to browse by artist, genre, year, etc. Picking Artists will provide a view with letters down the left hand side, with the artists under that letter on the right. You scroll through to pick a letter, and then pick an artist from that letter - for example, L then Led Zeppelin. You'll be given an offer of different albums to play, or the default "Play all tracks" option. Selecting an album will give you the individual tracks or "Play all". If only one album is found, then the player won't waste your time with a choice of one.

Getting past the easy to use interface, the Rio caters for the audio geeks in several ways. Firstly, a full five band equalizer along with a multitude of presets for those who don't know how to use the equalizer, just get there. Secondly, the Rio Karma supports, probably the most file formats in any portable MP3 Player, including MP3, WAV, WMA and for the audiophiles, Ogg Vorbis and FLAC. For those that don't know, WMA support means it can play tracks ripped with Windows Media Player, or tracks bought on-line from every single music store that isn't iTunes. Ogg Vorbis is generally considered as having a higher quality output than MP3 at the same bit rates, and has a firm following in the Open Source community, since unlike MP3 it is unencumbered with patents. And for the high-quality obsessed, FLAC is totally lossless (no CD quality lost) while only taking up half the space that a normal WAV file would take.

Sound quality, although heavily reliant on the type of format being used, using lossless formats, the Rio Karma, while not being particularly bad, is at times unable to handle heavy music, clipping what is outside of its capabilities and creating crackling noises (it has 30 levels of volumes and believe me when I say you wouldn't want it to get any louder). Lighter music tends to be a bit too smooth with the intricacies of some songs such as jazz or orchestral works being glazed over; the difference between the bottom of the frequency range and the top in volume was remarkable. The Rio Karma has a slight bump up in the lower frequencies before leveling out mid range and then quickly falling off towards the higher frequencies. The result is a rather lopsided, bass heavy, slightly muffled sound.

One final feature is Rio DJ. Rio DJ provides some slightly more general playback settings than picking a specific year. For example, you can select all tracks from the 1970's, or for an hour of your top or worst tracks. You can ask for all the tracks transferred onto the player within the last week, or for a simple fifteen minutes of randomly chosen music. Rio DJ also tracks usage and is surprisingly accurate at picking your favorite bands and music.
Rio Music Managers Rio DJ allows you to create custom play lists, and then transfer them to the player as a play list.

Overall, it doesn't have some of the gimmicks of its competitors such as FM Radio or recording, but what you get is a masterful music device, designed specifically for its original use, playback of music. The irreplaceable battery is a cause for slight concern, but Rio HQ in Japan has begun a battery replacement scheme which, hopefully, will soon be available worldwide.

82/100

Pros: Lossless audio codec's, extremely easy to use, 5-band equalizer, intuitive music organization, small and well designed control layout, these are getting cheaper.

Cons: Lack of an inline remote, unattractive, not hugely durable, easy to accidentally press controls, occasional hard-drive failures (more than most), problems with some of the USB drivers, the Rio Music Manager is over simplistic, the sound quality is uneven.

Overall: The cons above are a bit picky (there isn't much to pick with this player) but, the aging Rio Karma manages to hold its flame high above the wind of many other competing MP3 jukeboxes. Very few other players have come to the level that the Rio Karma has reached of pure functionality.

Alternatives: (There are many alternatives in this category, however, the two most popular would be, in my opinion, the iPod and Creative Zen Touch)
iPod: iPod's popularity is warranted, being one of the easiest and most fun to use MP3 players on the market, the click wheel was an innovation on Apple's part, it is easy to see why they are so popular. With billions of accessories and huge support network, beginners to the MP3 world will enjoy this player. However, lacking the ability to support Windows Media Codec's and some other popular codec's as well as the strong protection against music sharing makes this a slight turn off for audio geeks.
Creative Zen Touch: Excellent playback capabilities, Creative who have had a monopoly on the computing audio for some time now, do not let their experience go to waste. The interface and software included may have a higher learning curve than the Rio Karma. This includes many of the gimmicks such as an FM recorder. Surprisingly supports few audio codec's (MP3, WMA) and no lossless codec's, since Creative have had such success in Hi-fidelity computer audio.

I've owned a Rio Karma for about two months now, and I'm overwhelmingly happy with it. I thought I should write a review, since a lot of the reviews here on Amazon have some false information, and should be corrected.
First, I'll name the positives:
* 20 gigabytes of hard drive space.
* 15 hour battery life (that's almost twice the iPod's).
* A wide variety of audio formats: MP3, WMA, FLAC (an open source lossless format, basically a WAV file at half the size), and OGG Vorbis (an open source lossy format. Smaller file size than MP3, higher audio quality).
* Superior audio quality to most other players. In professional reviews, it's usually a battle for best sound quality with the Karma and Creative's players.
* The Sennheiser MX300 earbuds that come stock have suprisingly good sound.
* Highly customizable equalizer. 5 preset modes, along with 3 custom modes. It has a 5 band parametric equalizer, along with auto gain control (to keep songs dynamically similar).
* VERY quick button response time. You'll never find yourself waiting for a menu to load, and songs start IMMEDIATELY after you tell them to (It's a shame that most other players can't do that).
* On-the-fly playlist creating, editing, saving, and deleting. Very easy to do if you want to put a playlist together quickly.
* Rio DJ. The Karma keeps track of which songs you listen to and can create a playlists according to what you like. It can also, for instance play songs from a certain decade, or even songs that you haven't listen to for a long time.
* Bookmarking. If you listen to very long tracks, such as audiobooks, you can set a mark in it and come back later.
* Crossfade. The crossfade will allow songs to flow into each other very nicely.
* Gapless Playback. If you listen to live CDs or bands that have gapless albums (like Pink Floyd) you'll love this. This will get rid of gaps between songs. Follow this link to learn more about gapless and how well it works: http://www.pretentiousname.com/mp3players/
* USB 2.0 and Ethernet support. The Karma can be used on any operating system that supports networking. You can put the Karma on your network and access it from any other computer connected.
* Dock. The dock for the Karma has RCA output, so you can easily hook it up to your stereo system. The dock also can pulse with the music.
* The Karma comes with all the cables you need - Ethernet, USB 2.0, RCA, AC adapter.
* Auto-synchronization of music files. You can tell the Karma to update itself with new music every time it plugs in. Also, if you have a collection that is over 20 gigabytes, you can have it automatically swap files around, keeping songs you play a lot on the player.
* Ergonomic design fits comfortably in your hand, and the controls are all very easy to access with one hand. For some, the controls have a steeper learning curve than other players, but after a few hours you realize how easy it is to use. Your hands will thank you.
* Deatiled information about each track. Along with all the usual MP3 tags, the Karma will tell you the codec, bitrate, date loaded, times played, and last time played.
* Very active user-discussion forum at http://www.riovolution.com , where a handfull of Rio engineers come by and answer some questions. If you have any questions, there are plenty of people there that would be more than happy to answer them.
* Most importantly, the Karma gets somewhat-frequent firmware updates with bug fixes and new features. New firmware (1.68) was just released two days before I'm writing this, and it fixed pretty much every problem that people have been having.

Now, I have to point out that there ARE flaws that should be taken into consideration.

* There have been a slightly above average number of reports of hard drive failures. The Karma uses the same Hitachi drive as the Dell Jukebox, which is also having problems. I, personally have not had any problem, and neither have a lot of other people, but there is a risk. I would highly suggest buying a third party warranty to back you up in case of any problems. The Karma comes with a 90-day warranty, and the RMA process is a pain. A third party warranty is an excellent investment.
* The screen isn't scratch-proof. Look into getting a screen protector (there is someone on riovolution that is selling them for pretty cheap, or you can pick up a PDA screen protector at most electronics stores).
* Rio's customer service is terrible, but any answer you need can be found at riovolution.
* There is no remote or official playthrough case. There's only one playthough case available, created by a riovolution member, and can be found at http://mindknob.com . I, myself bought a Nintendo Gamecube disk case that the Karma fits perfectly in and protects very nicely.
* No "USB Mass Storage". When you plug the Karma into the computer, it's not seen as an external drive. On the other hand, it comes with some software than can transfer non-music files over. There is also a third-party company that develops some software available to do this.

Overall, I think the pros GREATLY outweigh the cons. The Karma is the perfect player for audiophiles or someone who is looking for an awesome music playing machine. Please look into a third party warranty when buying this, or any other expensive device. Feel free to ask questions at the user discussion forums.