I had a Karma
Ok now,
Here's an answer from somehow who first bought the KArma because of the "added values" that I had read about in STUFF Magazine. Here are the reasons why I changed to a 4G ipod two weeks after:
The negative side:
-From the Riovolution forum I read that Rio does not support it's products very well and literaly abandons support for fairly recent products such as the Rio Riot. This made me think like "what's gonna happen when Karma 2 comes"...There will be no firmware revisions and such and such....
-The scroll weel and rio "nip" are mechanical therefore after a while, they are bound to fail or break. I also noticed they left huge gaps in the Karma shell and lint was already starting to slip in and began to appear under the screen !!! after two weeks.... unnacceptable.
-Reports of HDD failure are abondant and frequent if you read posts in the forums
-There are NO third party accessories other than a few that look homemade such as the horrible MindKnob case.
-The Karma form factor is rather fat. I tought I could get over the fact that it was more than twice the thickness of the Ipod cause it was smaller but the truth is that in a shirt pocket, thickness counts not size.
-The front screen is made of clear plastic with an integrated screen, just like the Ipod, however, the plastic is black therefore scratches were far more visible than the one I have now on my Ipod.
-Rio Music Manager software in my opinion was a POS. No features, bland interface etc...
-Karma DOES NOT charge with USB2, only with the provided charger, period.
-3 month warranty, not that says a lot about the confidence level Rio has in its top of the line player... I mean 3 months for a 450$ CDN player, that is outrageous.
-Lack of cool factor in the design. While I liked the Karma design, I think th eIpod 4G is sooo much sexier with it's white/steel glossy body, gee I can't stop touching it... Help !!!
Now for the positive features:
-Navigation is indeed easier on the Karma with either the wheel or the nip
-Gapless playback and cross fade is really cool but I hear this could be an added feature in future firmware releases on the 4G ipod
-Equalizer is indeed user programmable. While the idea is great, I don't see much differences between the one I programmed and the ones that are pre=programmed in my 4G
-Came with USB2 connection and a charger. Now that was the main reason I went for the KArma when I bought it. At the time, the 4G wasn't out and the 3G 15Gb I had my eyes on didn't come with a charger!!, I had to buy a 40$ firewire to USB converter to connect it etc... but now with the 4G this is not a problem anymore.
-Screen resolution is a BIG plus. The font size ajusts depending on the text that needs to appear on the screen. Now that may be the only feature I miss a lot from my Karma experience.
-Ethernet connectivity is an OK feature, that's if you want to stream music from lets say your home PC and listen to it on your office PC miles away. All you need to do is use a small JAVA program that accesses the Karma remotly.
-Sound quality. Now that's one thing that can be debated. While I havent used both players side by side playing the same song file to compare, claims are that the Karma should sound better. My experience is that it is the contrary, now is this because people compare it to the 3G, I don't know but I think the my Ipod sounds soooo much better.
-Blue "glow" craddle. Some people love the craddle, I felt it looked tacky. Also, I really don't need one more craddle sitting on my desk (I have, ipaq, cell phone, digital camera already... ENOUGH!!!)
Anywho, I feel Rio has a god machine if they stand by it for a while, however the coming of the Karma 2 may disappoint a lot of new Karma 1 owners very soon, I feel I wont have the same disapointment with the Ipod. Its just like cars, some car makers stand by a design (volvo, VW, Saab) so wether you own a 98 or a 2004, there is no design obsolescence, while other car makers (ie Honda, Ford, GM) experiment with new designs all the time leaving the 98 owner sad to see his car look like a relic 2 years after.
That's my two cents...