Remanufactured Rio Karma 20 GB MP3 Player
By: Rio Average Rating: 3.5 Total Reviews: 25
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 On: 2007-11-29
Biggest $200+ money-wasting mistake I ever made.
I have a Rio Cali that works great. I thought the Karma would too. It had nice features. I bought it to use for break music for band gigs.
First time using it, it froze up, and never recovered. It is discontinued, there is no support for it, but I knew this when making the purchase.
Just trying to make sure nobody else wastes their money.
On: 2006-12-13
If there were zero stars...I would rate this pile of garbage with a 0. On the surface it appears to have many positive attributes. In fact, I bought this form my son thinking he would enjoy it and I would save a bit of money as compared to purchasing an iPod. The player broke just outside of the warranty period. I contacted the company and after 4 months of chasing them, they actually replaced the player. Initially I was very impressed. Then the player brake again. Like I said...Junk. I bought an iPod for my son. It has not broken down. He is happy and I am wiser.
 On: 2006-05-02
20gig! Small than you think. Large LCD screen. Easy use of scroll and browsing the menu. Docking station w/ RCA output!!! If you dont care for videos or pictures and want to have this on your work desk or in your car, its AWESOME for the price!
On: 2006-02-17
Bought this unit at the end of nov. scroll wheel broke middle of jan.it just flops around, unit was never dropped. cheaply made wheel support. sent back for warranty exchange. still no replacement . called rio ,was told its on backorder and they will ship me one when it comes in,who knows how long that might be, im not happy. dont buy rio. go with an ipod or another brand.customer service is no help at all.
On: 2006-02-01
great deal excellent sound have not seen any problems with this player, others complain about bad hard drive but i have not had any problems, have only used it about a month, chose rio for the tone controls that no other player that i know of has, already had a chiba, but this is a hard drive player and as such should not be used while active,it just stays home or while travelling, the way i see it if the hd fails ill just replace it with a 40g, easily replaceable on these units.for about $100
 On: 2006-01-31
It took a while to figure out how to download music using itunes. Once we established the proper software it was ok, you have to do a lot of typing in of the song and ablum titles. I love the way it sounds and plays the music but I wish it were a little smaller.
On: 2005-12-21
First: Be aware that the Rio Karma is no longer being manufactured, no support or warranty.
This will make my second Rio Karma. The 1st one made it 3 years with alot of abuse. Then the wife dropped it hard. What I like the most about the Karma is the playback quality and features. Navigation is a breeze. I will be using my new Karma strictly for home use on its included dock and hooked up to my home systems. I would only recommend this player if it were going to stay in one location. Not a very good portable unit. As far as Karma vs. iPod, hands down Karma wins. Less expensive, more features and most of all it sounds just as good, if not better and isnt that what a Mp3 player boils down too, the sound.
On: 2005-12-16
The "remanufactured" Rio Karma represents an incredible bargain for a product that in many ways remains unique among digital audio music players. Potential buyers should realize, however, that Rio is no longer making DAPs, having succumbed to the stiff competition represented by Apples iPod devices. Consequently, if you purchase a Karma today you should be prepared for a virtual lack of product support from Rio.
First, the good news. The Karma has considerable storage capacity, excellent sound quality (including a customizable EQ function, something that iPods lack), and a clear, intuitive navigation system that is easy to learn. It also is (almost) unique among digital audio players in that it will play gaplessly, meaning that if your music is formatted in separate tracks but is meant to play continuously between these tracks (such as in the medley sequence in the Beatles "Abbey Road" or in Pink FLoyds "Dark Side of the Moon"), the music will be reproduced as the musicians intended. By contrast, with the iPods or practically any other digital player, there will invariably be a small (or large!) gap between tracks, something that to some of us is quite annoying. For me, this function is extremely important, as some of my favorite music is delivered in the form of nonstop dj mixes. Gaps between tracks are simply a "no-no" for me. As long as the music is ripped and encoded using a high-quality program (I use Exact Audio Copy coupled with the LAME Mp3 encoder), these mixes play gaplessly. Fabulous!
No digital player provides for every single encoding system, or "codec," but the Karma is more versatile than most. It plays the standard Mp3 files, and also files prepared in the public domain, high quality Ogg Vorbis format. Furthermore, it will play Microsofts WMA files, and if highest quality is desired, it provides for an excellent uncompressed format, FLAC. The Karma does NOT play the AAC files that are favored within the iPod system, however, so if users plan to rip music for use on both a Karma and an iPod, its best to stick to Mp3.
The Karma comes with a very useful docking device that not only enables the unit to be recharged, it connects to ones computer for "synchronizing," i.e., transferring and managing music files. The dock also includes white and red outlets for standard stereo RCA jacks, making it simple to connect the Karma to a larger home stereo system.
Overall, the Karma, while perhaps a bit squarish and squat-looking, is highly functional and easy to use. At the prices offered on these refurb units, its a veritable steal.
So whats the bad news? First of all, the Karma has always been plagued by problems of build quality. The units are fairly delicate, so its a good idea to keep the Karma in a case of some kind for protection. Second, because the Karma is now a defunct product that never reached popularity even close to that of the iPods, there are far fewer accessories and add-ons than are available for the Apple units, and those that were made are becoming scarcer by the day. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this offer is clearly a case of *caveat emptor*, as even with a scant 30-day warranty its virtually impossible at this point to receive any support from Rio. I had a problem with my own refurb Karma not long ago when the unit was consistently not recognized by the computer, i.e., the included Rio Music Manager software. I thought my Karma might be defective, so I contacted Rio. I got no response whatsover. Only by sleuthing through the remaining material still posted on the Rio web site, including some useful "FAQs" was I able to learn that the Karma usually needs to be connected directly to a computer USB port, rather than even a powered USB hub. I made this adjustment and Ive had no problems since then. But the point here is that for product support buyers are largely on their own. There remain a few online user forums where intrepid Karma loyalists share information, but as time goes on the rate of participation in these discussions will continue to wane.
Finally: some potential buyers might be wary of purchasing any kind of "refurbished" machine, whether it be a music player, a digital camera, or an inkjet printer. The fact is, however, that usually (not always!) these are reliable units not particularly prone to breakdowns. With most companies, refurbs represent units that have been returned to sellers *for any reason*. Usually its just that the purchaser changed his or her mind about wanting the product. In those cases where there was something wrong, the manufacturer is pledged to fix the problem. All refurbs are checked over and tested before they are resold. Consequently, some people actually claim that there is LESS chance of getting a lemon with a refurbished unit than with a new one. I dont know about this, but my own experience with refurbished machines has been good. There might be a small cosmetic blemish on the Karma, but you can be pretty certain (notice I didnt say "totally") that it will function properly out-of-the-box.
I like my Karma. I like the gapless playback, I like the sound quality (which is, to my ears, superior to that of my iPod), and I like the layout of the controls. The Rio software is not quite as elegant as Apples iTunes, but its certainly adequate. I consider my refurbished Karma to have been a bargain, and I might buy another one for the inevitable day when my trusty Karma gives up the proverbial ghost. If I go to a second Karma, I still will have paid no more than I would have paid for a single iPod. Not a bad deal at all.
On: 2005-12-13
This is a fantastic player for the price. $160 for a 20GB player beats any iPod you are likely to find.
Being a remanufactured player, there were a few surface scratches, but nothing anywhere near the level that would affect performance or make you want to send it back. All the accessories included were new. The included docking cradle is superb. Not only does it let you charge and connect to your PC, the RCA out jacks provide great sound to a stereo system.
The player interface is both stream-lined and feature-packed. Using the id3 tags in your mp3 files, the player lets you choose and play a single track, an album, all tracks by an artist, etc. You can browse by track title, artist, album, genre, or year and the scroll wheel makes navigation a breeze! Also included is the Rio DJ feature. Rio DJ adds some unique and interesting ways to queue your music such as:
Entertain Me!: this makes a playlist of your most played music lasting the length you choose.
New Music: plays the tracks downloaded to the player during the time period you choose.
Memory Lane: plays tracks that have not been played in the past specified time period.
Sounds of: plays songs from a decade you choose.
Forgotten Gems: similar to memory lane, but gives songs that were played the most higher priority.
Deja Vu: plays all the tracks you listened to during the past specified time period.
Random Mix: shuffle, lasting the amount of time you specify.
The player also allows you to create playlists and to save and list (generated by Rio DJ) as a playlist.
Battery life is terrific. It only takes about four hours to charge and I can use it all week and still not be out of power.
Finally, the Rio Taxi feature allows you to use the free space on your player as storage space to tote around your large files.
I only encountered three minor problems with this player:
1. When I installed the latest software, the Rio Taxi client was not installed even though it said it had been. I eventually installed the previous version and simply upgraded the music manager.
2. When editing a playlist on your PC rather than on the device, it can erase the playlist from the player. A way around this is to use a third party PC client rather than the included one. Software is available from riovolution.com, along with other helpful information.
3. One time during the three months I have been using this player, it froze up. I pushed the reset button next to the docking port with a pin and have had no further problems. Resetting the device does not cause any data loss.
All of these problems were minor and easily correctable. Overall, I am VERY pleased with this player and recommend it.
On: 2005-11-26
First of all i got this even before the estimated date of arrival,Amazon is great.Now the player came in ok condition:Scratches on the player and the front thing is kind of popped out but not terribly.But aside from that this player is exactly what i wanted,very easy to use and good size, kind of bulky but not to bad.I have read the other reviews and some people have had many problems with theirs but so far mine is perfect.I love it.I only gave 4 stars because of the scratches.
On: 2005-11-25
My Rio Karma worked fine for a couple of months. Then, without any apparent reason, it stopped working. It would freeze and prompt a message "Bar Karma" or bad hard drive. This was after the very short 3 months warranty. I called customer service several times and they were not helpful at all. I am not buying another product from Rio ever again.
On: 2005-11-23
i bought a refurbished one 6 months ago, now it has an hdd (hitachi travelstar c4k40) porblem. i searched the forums and lots of people has same hdd problem, i think rio is more useful (especially crossfader option is so nice) than ipod but ipod hdds has better operation system so if it damages or has bad sectors, ipod ignores that parts and you can use the non-bad sector parts. but in rio when its hdd damages or has bad sector you cannot use the rest of the free space. i was able to use only 600mb of free space until yesterday, and now it is totally gone :(
On: 2005-11-04
This is my second Karma (the first one is still chugging along without problems). I picked up a spare since the Karma has been discontinued and we are now left without an mp3 player that will play back files without adding gaps or ticks between tracks. I am a live music enthusiast, and I hate that just about every mp3 player cannot play back files gapless. The Karma is the only player that I am aware of that plays with seemless transitions. Add to that its ability to play flac files, and you cant get a better player for listening to concerts. The software Rio used could be better, but it gets the job done without much hassle. And this unit is definitely feature laden even when measured against todays players. There are plenty of reviews, websites and forums to guide any Karma newbie.
The reconditioned unit I received about a week ago is near perfect cosmetically. And after playing it for a few days, it seems to be mechanically sound as well. I would encourage anyone with concerns to buy an extended warranty on the player. It would run $20 or so from a third party vendor.
A great product at a great price!
 On: 2005-10-22
Ive read about these players... and how good they are. Ive also read about how bad the hard drives in them are. I recently decided to buy a remanufactured unit from Amazon, hoping for a good unit for half the price. It had a defective hard drive when I got it. Its also very worn out. I think, according to the serial code, its just about 2 years old.
I thought about trying to return it, but I also read about how extremely bad RMA service Rio USA had when they were still in business. Now theyve gone out of business, so I wont even try taking my chances with them. But all hope is not out, because you can swap out the hard drives yourself, and even put bigger ones (up to 60GB) in there instead. Its just too bad that the new 30 and 60GB drives are pretty hard to find.
So I really dont reccommend this remanufactured deal, unless youre willing to take the chance of having to disassemble the unit and putting a new drive into it.
On: 2005-10-10
I researched and waited and waited. I asked a neighbor how she liked her ipod and she said it wasnt pocket friendly on her power walks. So I bought this refurbished Rio Karma and my husband loves traveling with it. He will be travelling 14 hours by plane and couple of weeks and so far I have downloaded 20 plus albums for him and still have over 17 gb of space. incredible value for the price. I bought this thru Amazon. Logged onto Rio website and registered the product by its s/n. Rios site redirected me to download page and told me what downloads I needed. The Rio music manager is straight forward and very simiar to Windows media player. As long as I copy the cd to my computer hard drive and then download it via usb to the Karma I have had no problems. Why Rio stopped manufacturing it is disappointing. I am currently thinking of the Rio Nitrus for my son who now wants an mp3 like Dads. The only thing that would make this player better is being able to scroll music a to z and z to a. It is a little cumberson to always start at a and have to scroll to z consecutively. However for the price difference to Ipod I will adjust. I just hope this lasts forever so I dont have to replace it. Sounds great on the home stereo system via RCA cables from the docking station. I imagine next party we have we wont even load up the multi cd changer just plug this in and play whatever for hours. It also can connect via ethernet cable thru the docking station but I havent used that yet. I dont think I will be disappointed though.
 On: 2005-10-05
It worked great for about 4 weeks, then continually freezing, and at the present time will not work at all. i would recomend spending a extra 50- 75$ on something reliable, also the support from rio is VERY VERY slow and a hassle. The Rio Karma frustrates me.
On: 2005-10-03
This player is the only player I have found that can play back Ogg Vorbis files. Ive used that codec to store my entire CD collection, so I really had no choice. It has a vast number of playback modes, good sound, and okay battery life - about six hours or so before recharging.
The downside is that as far as I have found, it cannot play legally downloaded song files from iTunes (which uses ATRAC) or Napster (which uses WMA). So unless you only want to listen to MP3s or tracks ripped from your CD collection, getting new tunes (legally) could be a problem. For a few hundred dollars more, you could get an iPod that lets you do both that, and connect to iTunes.
Still, I like the Rio Karma, and it works well for how I use it.
On: 2005-09-29
My family has wanted an MP3 player for a long time. I thought about an Ipod but a neighbor complained its not pocket friendly. So I did my research and went with the Rio Karma. Why Rio stopped manufacturing this product is beyond me. If you read and follow the directions I was copying music from my computer to the player in 10 minutes after registering the product and doing updates. It is scary to read about locking up but so far I am looking for another one for my son already. If you have downloaded music and burned a cd with the music it really is no harder than that. Glad I bought this player!!!
On: 2005-09-24
the rio itself works great, battery in it lasts a long time. the software has minor catches and sometimes i have to reboot the computer for the karma to be reconized in the rio software. sent a email to rio support few weeks ago, no reply yet. I can live with it, the karma was a perfect replacement for an older rio 500 I had.
On: 2005-09-24
It pains me to write this review as I was one of the biggest RIO Karma fans. I purchased my 1st RIO about 18 months ago and loved it. Featurewise it is the best player out there and I have yet to find a player that is as easy to use or hook up to your stereo via the convienent docking station. However, like any product, quality (or lack of it) will define if a product is 1 or 5 stars. I read the warnings about hard drive failures and cheap design, but I bought my RIO anyways. It functioned flawlessly and exceeded my expectations for a player until it died last week. I looked and looked, but I could not find another player that I thought could compare to the RIO, so I purchased the remanufactured one. I expected a player with some scuffs, but functional and I did receive a player that was somewhat warn (exceptable), but my screen would only display lines (like a UPC code) after less than a few hours use. Now I could play the return game and hope that the next one or one after that would be a "good" unit, but history (mine and others) is starting to show that the quality just isnt there. This may be why they discontinued making 20G hard drives and why RIOs parent company has recently sold them. I work in manufacturing and have delt with referbs and when you realize that referbs can be a good thing (during its life cycle) where products are still built with pride and returns can be made to almost new status. However, when referbs are done after the product has been killed off and all that is left are the bottom of the barrel rejects/parts it should come as no suprise that you will receive a unit that is worn and the life is suspect. At this point Im not sure what else I would recommend (again RIO had all the features I wanted, except long life) to buy, but I would stay clear of this refurb item.
On: 2005-09-24
I purchased the Rio Karma because of the price and for a 20 gig MP3 it was a great deal, but thats where the great deal ended. The player itself is great! It is very user friendly, but it has one extremely bad design flaw, the power button location. It is located on the top of the player next to the headphone jack and it is so dam touchy. The player I purchased powered on and off by itself and when you hold the player in your left hand your thumb is right on top its extremely sensitive power button so you tend to turn it off very easily. I got so frustrated with the dam thing that I sent it back. The bottom line is this, if you want an inexpensive 20 gig MP3 player, this is your baby, just remember, you get what you paid for! No wonder Apple is putting these people out of business.
On: 2005-09-21
I couldnt believe how amazing the quatlity on this MP3 player was for how cheap i got it. The software barely takes up space, the only thing that takes up space is the music you download. The only problem i have had with this product so far is that the USB jack didnt work. no problem at all for paying as little as i did to pay only $5 to get a new USB. i would recommend this to anyone. The port is really cool and the player has many cool extras on it. Definitely get a Rio Karma over a I-Pod because of price and because of its cool extras! just dont expect games.
On: 2005-09-13
I bought a refurbished Karma because I didint want to spend $400 bucks on an Ipod to see if I really liked MP3 Players. It has been fantastic and I am glad I didnt spend the extra money on one or two different features. The only thing better about an Ipod is the ear plugs have a longer cord and the interface is cooler but I dont think its faster than the Karmas. I travel alot and the battery on the Karma lasts forever. 10-12 hours at least. The DJ feature is great and the ability to buy from anywhere and load the music is great. Having a 20G portable harddrive using the Rio Taxi feature is also great.
My Karma has hiccuped a few times. It locked once up after I selected about 10 different things to do at the same time it hit a bad track and it sat and sputtered for an hour until it shut off. When I turned it on the next morning it worked fine.
I reccommend it for the money. The sound, capacity, battery and size are all as convenient and powerful as an IPODS, a few less slick features for a few hundred dollars less. I hardly ever use my CD player an radio anymore. I plug the Karma into my home stereo with a $2 adaptor from Radio shack and I have thousands of songs. An old tape adaptor for a CD player works perfect on road trips in the car. The CD changer in the car is collecting dust too. Oh yeah, I often get asked "what is that." Its cool not having what everyone else has.
by: Anonymous On: 2005-09-03
Looks like I may have been lucky, but my remanufactured Rio Karma was in very good shape, not new, but very close. The plastic covering the LCD had a few minor marks, it had to be cleaned, but after cleaning there are no marks that interfere with the LCD!
After removing the player from the box, I downloaded and applied the latest firmware from Rio site, started loading files onto the device, never been happier with an MP3 player. With the custom 5-band equalizer, you can get the sound quality you want, dont have to accept packaged "Presets".
The user interface is very good, never had to read the manual or even the quickstart guide. I love the dedicated buttons, before this I bought a Creative Zen Micro, the touchpad drove me crazy! When holding the Zen in my hand, a thumb or other portion of my hand would touch the surface, my song would stop playing or it would jump to another menu, not a problem with the buttons on the Karma.
Another plus is the dock with built in RCA out jacks, now I can plug my Karma directly into my stereo, have a never ending string of songs.
I say buy it, if you are lucky like me and get a clean one, you will love it, if not, Amazon is easy about returning items.
I notice the other poster who got the badly scratched and marked up Karma made no mention of the sound quality or features, this is where the player really shines.
They no longer make the Rio Karma, I may buy another one for a backup, that is how much I love this player!
UPDATE: I bought another Karma from this site for a friend, it was in "Like-New" condition, no scratches, no marks, seems to play perfectly.
On: 2005-08-30
I just returned the remanufactured version of Rios Karma. When I purcahsed it, I understood that the term "remanufactured" means that the product wont be in the best of shape. However, when I opened the "well packaged box," I found something that I wouldnt have even payed ten dollars on EBay for.
The player was in such poor shape that the LCD was barely visible because of all the scratches. Furthermore, I found the last owners name still written on the battery cover!
The term "remanufactured" is such an understatement!!! The product was simply purchased from someone who had abused it and placed in a box and sold to someone else. I would think something that was remanufactured would at least have new plastic coverings to make it look presentable.
In short, please dont waste your time with this product, youll simply end up returning it as soon as you open the box!
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