Rating: 
Summary: Feature rich and solidly built
Review: I've had this player for a few months now and I cannot believe how complete this feature set is. I guess the advantage of Rio concentrating on being only a music player is that it doesn't get distracted by unecessary fluff.Of all of the features a few come to mind as only being available on the Karma: 1. Gapless playback - If you have albums where the song play one into another, then the Karma can pull that off. Did you know that no other player on the market can do that yet? 2. Parametric EQ - The equalizer function knows no limits. Regardless of the headphones you use you will achieve great sound. 3. Rio DJ - It is simply amazing the ways that Rio has come up with to create playlists that are interesting to listen to. 4. Ethernet port - OK, not of much use to most peolpe, but if you are on Unix (or other fringe OS) you can still get all the goodness of carrying all your music around with you. 5. FLAC and OGG support - Again this is the only player that supports these higher quality file formats.
Rating:
Summary: Karma is simply different
Review: I recently got a Rio Karma.
I was surprised by the footprint - it perfectly fits in my hand! It's easy to use, it has an extremely intuitive, and very creative, interface that can be operated with just one hand (and the display flips, if you happen to be a lefty!).
The Karma has gapless playback (it's amazing, never seen anything like it on a DAP), it has very nice crossfading, and nobody can argue against the usability of the ethernet port on the dock - no drivers needed, connects to any Java-compatible system!
Oh, and the port glows!
I recommend it - mine has been my trusted musical partner for about a month, and I prefer it to the iPod 3G that I used to have.
PLUS, for all you audiophiles out there, it supports MP3, WMA, Ogg-Vorbis and FLAC.
If you are worried about the lack of an official Rio case for the Karma, worry no more - there are many cases that fit it perfectly. Finally, you can find out a lot of helpful information in the Rio Karma forums on the web.
Rating:
Summary: Best of the Hard Drive players
Review: The Karma is by far the best choice when it comes to portable hard-drive based MP3 players. It skips songs with no delay, has amazing battery life, is built like a rock, and has firmware that only adds features. They have no bugs to fix.
Rating: 
Summary: Lasted just past the 90 day warranty
Review: I purchased this as a Christmas present. It stopped working the first week of March which meant it was several days past the ninety day warranty. RIO says "past warranty - too bad". So $300 down the drain.
Rating: 
Summary: Great design, poor reliability and customer service
Review: When it's working, the Rio Karma is a real joy. Other reviews have noted its many superb features: long battery life, excellent ergonomics and navigation (it might take you a few hours to get used to the navigation, but then it seems completely intuitive), and superior sound quality, which is best appreciated with high quality headphones or earphones. The bookmarking features are particularly nice if you listen to long recorded books; you can keep multiple bookmarks and update them frequently. These features, and the support for multiple encoding formats, including WMA, Ogg Vorbis, and FLAC, made this the most appealing digital audio player for me. Believe it or not, I bought this primarily as a way to carry large data files around. Even though this doesn't mount as a USB drive, the included software and 3rd party software like Riorad Explorer make it feasible to use as an external hard drive. Doubts about the reliability of this player, compounded by an inadequate guarantee and poor customer service, are the reasons for my poor rating for the Karma. The hard drive failed on my first Karma a week or two after it arrived. Fortunately, Amazon sent a replacement immediately so I wasn't really inconvenienced. After about 2 1/2 months, though, the replacement player also failed. This was near the end of the 90-day warranty, and Rio authorized a return. It's five weeks later and I'm still waiting for my replacement, which will be a refurbished model. I've gotten the runaround during my multiple calls to Rio customer service, which is polite but unhelpful. The forums at Riovolution.com make it sound as though this is not a unique experience. Much as I liked the device, I regret having purchased it. You'd think that if the manufacturer was confident of the reliability of the Karma, the warranty would last longer than 90 days. Based on the 2 failed Karma's I've already owned, I'll be pleasantly surprised if the promised replacement lasts a lot longer than the 30 day warranty. Customer service gives the impression that they've had more returns than they can handle, and I am sure that the long delay in replacing the units is understandable. But it's a good reason to avoid this product.
Rating:
Summary: wRiting It Off ("RIO") - Listen to the negative reviews!!
Review: All these negative reviews are correct - read them!! The player is attractive but faulty, full of unfixable bugs and the company offers no worthy support. The problems just got worse after I downloaded the new firmware. Here's another $400 and countless hours of uploading down the toilet. USB problems, device recognition problems, file rejection, freeze ups, unhelpful support . . . all of these other critical reviews and their device problems are exactly like my problems with this defective product. Notice that none of the positive reviews appear to have owned the product more than a few weeks or have used it very much - - that should tell you something. Sure, the product is exciting to buy - it looks cool, but you'll be sorry. The only Karma I have now is bad karma with the Rio units. I don't know what else to buy -- perhaps MP3 players are just not technologically sound as other electronics we buy. It can be really depressing for a music lover to throw money away on delusions of what I thought would have been a great device.
Rating:
Summary: another ugh
Review: Don't buy a rio karma. I had mine for about 30 days and loved it. The features were great, the sound was wonderful, everything I needed. Unfortunatly, one day when I went to turn it on, it wouldn't get past the start up screen. I tried resetting it, updating the firmware, and even hitting it. Nothing worked. The Rio customer support is horrible. No one knows what they are talking about. I sent mine back to Rio but I am not hopeful about recieving a new one any time soon.
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Rating:
Summary: When it worked, loved it, to bad that was for maybe a month
Review: I bought this for my girlfriend and she used it for a trip. It was skipping from the start but that might be to the transfer. She used it a couple times at the gym on the bike and the drive was toast. We contacted Rio and the service there was beyond horrible. Their support has to be the worst I have ever dealt with. First got an e-mail saying to fax over the recipt and they'll ship a replacement out right then. 3 weeks later nothing came we sent a few more e-mails, never got a response. Finally called and spent a good 30 minutes on the phone. Got disconnect 3 times and each time I got back on the line with the same guy, had to go thru all the info again. 20 minutes into the call he said it was broke...no really. I would suggest to look elsewhere for a MP3 player.
Rating:
Summary: A Big Fan of this Little Powerhouse
Review: I use powerhouse to describe this device because, simply put, that's what it is. HOW I USE THE RIO KARMA I use the Rio Karma as an auxiliary storage device, allowing me to unload precious HD space of about 15GB of mp3 files, as well as a car audio system. I also use it to transport music to my car for play during long car trips -- although the device is compact, it isn't worth it for me to take it along for a five-minute drive to work...others may disagree. I took the Karma on a long roadtrip and it lasted 4 hours one way and 8 hours back on the same charge...this was with about one or two accesses per hour that demanded use of the backlight. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CAR USE I have found the Belkin TuneCast II Mobile FM Transmitter to be an invaluable partner to the Karma in the car, but only if you use the car adapter that comes with the transmitter for power. The signal that it transmits to your car is too weak if you use its supplied AAA batteries. The device is so easy to use that you can memorize the keystrokes to get you to any Playlist without having to look down at the device. Searching for a particular artist or album is a bit more challenging, but still within grasp if driving isn't demanding all of your attention.
RESERVATIONS Mostly minor...for example, I wish there was a nice case for this device, a belt clip case ideally. Also I wish the device was perfectly square or perfectly round -- but that's an aesthetic detail...that's really about it!
Rating:
Summary: Great iPod Alternative!
Review: Hello, I have owned my Rio Karma for about 3 months now. I was going to write a review right when I first purchased my Karma. It was going to be a bad review because there were LOTS of bugs. However, one and a half months later, a firmware upgrade came and changed all of that. I am happy to announce that the Rio Karma is almost bug-free! Let me list some of the great features of the Rio Karma 20gb MP3 Player: First, and foremost, the Karma is a 20gb MP3 player, which can store around 3000 normal MP3 files. For the price you pay for this unit, it is a steal! Secondly, this unit is SMALL, and I MEAN SMALL! I put this up right next to an iPod and the Karma is about half the height of the iPod, but sacrifices a bit of width (the iPod is half the width of the Karma, but the Karma is half the height - your choice). I personally like the shorter option better because my pockets can always fit large items. Third, this player is unique in its design. The least amount of buttons, the better, I always say. This mp3 player has ONE button and ONE jog-dial. That is the least out of any player in the competing market! And on top of that good feature, the player responds INSTANTLY. The iPod responds fast, but there is litterally NO pause between switching songs, stoping/pausing as song, or etc.! You get instant results, whether you chose to use the jog dial or the button. Fourth, the sound quality is great - and the bundled earbuds are from Senheisser (a very respectable headphone company) are fantastic as well. Of course, you should change them to a more expensive pair to get the most out of your listening experience.Fifth, the player's docking unit charges the battery very fast and it holds over 8 hours of battery life! Also included on the Karma's docking unit is an ethernet jack (to network the player to your computer if you do not have a windows PC which is required for the drivers... I am a linux user and this ethernet jack saved me from going back to the hideous Microsoft Windows), and also included is RCA-outs to hook up your player directly to a stereo. This is a great feature, and I am happy they included it. So, to conclude, if you upgrade the unit's firmware when you buy it, this is ONE SLICK PLAYER! I highly recommend this player over the iPod because it simply beats it in battery life, quality, features, and size. It's also a LOT cheaper. Thanks to Rio for an outstanding product!
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