As far as navigation, this thing is in a class of its own. All files transferred to the Karma need to have tidy ID3 tags, because that’s how everything’s organized. The onboard database allows for browsing and selection by Artist, Genre, Year, and Album, and there’s a neat feature called ‘Rio DJ’, which allows the user to specify certain paramaters, such as most-frequently played tracks or oldest tracks, then creates a dynamic playlist from them. Playlists can be created and edited on the fly, and files can be deleted directly from the player. It’s a credit to the efficiency of the programming that all this can be done while a song is playing, and the player won’t hitch for a second.
In fact, everything from the software perspective is seamless. Once you get used to using the joystick and scrollwheel, they become second nature. The controls are solid, and they respond more quickly than any player I’ve ever used.
Playback options include repeat and full shuffle capabilities, as well as a crossfade, which can be set for up to 3 seconds. For an interesting experience, set Rio Dj to queue all tracks not played in the last day, then set it to shuffle with a 2-second crossfade. Depending on how eclectic your collection is, it certainly makes for some interesting juxtapositions.
While I’m flattering Rio’s engineering department, I want to bring up something that you rarely see in reviews for this device. The Karma has real gapless playback.
No. Really. You can pick up your jaw now. If you don’t know what I’m babbling about, check here for an explanation.
The Ogg Vorbis format supports gapless playback, but the Karma is the first player to implement it. I decided to try it on a Sasha’s Northern Exposure, and sure enough, there’s absolutely no gap, pause or click across track changes. I’m in love.
But wait! Don’t order now, because Rio’s throwing in gapless mp3 playback as well. Yes, I know that gapless mp3 is impossible, but as of the 1.41 firmware, the Karma has implemented a filter that detects silent buffer-frames and cuts them from the signal. Combine this with some really efficient hard-drive buffering, and sure enough, it works.
I tested this on a copy of the Black Dog’s Spanners, which was not encoded using any –nogap options in Lame, and the output was still seamless. By that, I mean, even though all the songs run together and the track-marks are laid arbitrarily, I had to look at the display to tell when tracks had changed.
I’m not sure which surprises me the most: the fact that the Karma does gapless, the fact that they don’t use it as an advertising point, or the fact that it came about as a response to customer requests. I certainly hope other companies are listening, because this is unparalleled.
There’s a great user forum called Riovolution, where several of Rio’s engineers post regularly. These guys aren’t phone jockeys, they’re the actual engineers, they’re extremely open and responsive, and they have the ear of the company. The gapless playback upgrade is just one example of this, but I really doubt I need a better one. Compare this with the complete silence that iRiver has given their customers regarding the ihp firmware, and it’s night and day.
At the moment, a new firmware is in the works, and is expected out within the next few days. At some point, the engineers have also intimated that they are working on Linux USB connectivity as well as MSC capability. Given the track record I’ve seen so far, it looks like these things will really happen, and in the near future. Something else I’d like to stress: I’m not holding my breath for the next firmware, because whatever’s included, it’ll be nice, but at the moment, there are no bugs or deficiencies that I’ve seen that need to be addressed. While other vendors are pushing out patches and bug-fixes, Rio’s working on refinements.
When I was first shopping for an mp3 player, none of these things seemed significant, nor did they seem like issues that would influence my decision, but after using the iRiver and the Karma, I can see that alot of seemingly inconsequential things really matter.
One last thing: though I’ve not had any issues yet, I still suggest buying the Karma through a retail store and getting the extended warranty, even though every fiber of my being detests those things. There have been some hard-drive failures reported, and it’s just easier to take a dead unit back to the store for replacement than deal with RMAs and shipping.