Rio Karma

Information appliance| title =


manufacturer = Rio
type = Portable media player
connectivity = USB 2.0, Ethernet
lifespan = 2003-2005
storage = 20GB hard drive
input = 4-way directional pad, scroll wheel, three buttons
display = backlit monochrome displayThe Rio Karma is a digital audio player originally made by the now defunct Rio. It was released in August 2003. It measures 2.7 × 3 × 0.9 inches (6.9 × 7.6 × 2.3 cm) and weighs 5.5 ounces (160 grams). It has a 20 gigabyte (18.6 gibibyte) hard drive. The Karma is notable for its support of Ogg Vorbis and FLAC playback in addition to the usual MP3 and WMA formats, however it will not play MP2 format. It's one of the few digital audio players that is able to play MP3 tracks gaplessly (not inserting audible gaps between them [and it has been said that the Karma can remove silence at the beginning and ending of audio tracks to further its gapless capabilities] ) making it popular among audiophiles. It also bears the distinction of supporting file transfers via Ethernet through its docking station (as well as the standard USB 2.0). It is not supported as a plug & play removable drive (although the program Rio Taxi does allow any data to be stored). Like many Rio players, the Karma's firmware has an equalizer (notably a 5-band parametric one), cross-fader, animated menus, dynamic playlist generation, and visualizations.

Karma Settings

Playback Screen

The Karma has three options for what is displayed on the play screen
* Progress Indicator
* Profile Indicator
* VU Meter for left & right channels.

Language

Options include English (US), English (UK), German, French, Japanese,Chinese & Spanish.

Dock Settings

For docking, there are four options for the "cradle glow".
* Static, with glow level setting
* Pulse with timecode
* Pulse while charging
* Pulse to music

Orientation

The player can be configured for right handed or left handed use. For left handed use, the screen is inverted.

Modifications

The player uses a 20GB Hitachi Travelstar 1.8" hard drive. It is possible to install a higher data capacity hard drive, commonly 30 or 40GB, though these may be physically larger, requiring case modifications. It is also possible to swap the hard drive for compact flash-based storage as it shares the original IDE drive's signaling pinout.

Criticisms

There are two main criticisms of the Rio Karma, being poor quality hard drives and batteries made by Hitachi and Sanyo respectively.They can be fairly easily replaced with replacement parts (and guides) being available online.

ee also

* Trekstor Vibez

External links

* [http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/item_main_Rio.asp?model=261 Karma on Rio's site]
* [http://www.dapreview.net/p/content/content.php?content.193 1001 Geeky Details about the Rio Karma]
* [http://www.riovolution.org/forum/3/ Riovolution.org] a forum for Rio owners and fans, NEW Forum