Portable Flac - Rio Karma?

[captain_tinker]

Folks,
I was trying a while back to see if my Sansa mp3 player would recognize WMA lossless tracks a while back, since it claimed to be able to play WMA, but I guess it doesn't like it. Since then I have heard a lot about FLAC, on this forum and others, and so I wondered if any portable players could play it. I looked and found this page:

http://flac.sourceforge.net/links.html

It shows some, maybe all, I don't know if the players that play FLAC. I found that the Rio Karma was a really neat option, it has a dock, with Analog stereo outs, USB, and even Ethernet! So I figured I would look and see how much one cost. I can't seem to find it anywhere for sale at all. I guess maybe they don't make them anymore? In any case, do any of you own a Rio Karma, or have you ever heard one or used one? If so, what are your impressions? What about any other FLAC portables that may exist out there, are they worth it?

-capT

 

[IWalker]

I owned one...It's bulky...like a little bit smaller klondike bar...but if you're comparing it to any 20GB device, it's fairly similar... Sound quality was exceptional with FLAC, and got plenty loud with reasonably efficient headphones. Also had pretty great battery life compared to Ipods. I used mine a lot, and beat the heck out of it, eventually breaking the scroll wheel (by dropping it) They have stopped making it, though, to the best of my knowledge. It's gotten bad ratings for reliabilty, though, which is why I think they pulled it.

If you have all your music encoded in FLAC it could be worth it...but you're taking a risk on the reliability...You can get a used one for $160 on ebay right now...

What do you think about the Cowon? Haven't heard anything about it, but it looks neat.

 

[captain_tinker]

What do you think about the Cowon? Haven't heard anything about it, but it looks neat.

I looked at that. For $339.99, I figure it's not worth it. But the functionality, wow, it seems to have a lot of potential.

I just finished looking up some ipod mini hacks, and it seems that there are different firmwares, rockbox being just one of many, that will allow it to play FLAC. I also found that it is pretty easy to remove the microdrive from the player, and replace it with a Compact Flash card! It has been tested up to 16 gb so far. I can't seem to find any CF cards larger than that yet either. That's almost the 20 gb of the Rio. I don't know if I will ever buy it, but with the family road trip coming up in a few weeks, that may be a nice thing to have. I have a Sansa right now, 4 gb, but the best I can do is 320kbps. I guess in a car though, who cares?

-capT

 

[Audiophiliac]

If I were buying a portable for my FLAC (thats what I use exclusively as well), I would probably do a Rockbox modded iPod. The Cowon is a great looking piece, but the iPod is nicer I think.

But I am not in need of a portable. My car system has a head unit made by a Russian company, Ural. They have released a hard drive enclosure that mounts in the car. You put your own 2.5" notebook drive in it, take it and plug it into your PC with USB, load whatever you want onto it (even .AIFF videos if you want), and dock it in the car and you have a ton of storage for music....mp3, WMA, FLAC, Ogg, etc... Awesome! I am still trying to find a way to get the hard drive box, but the head unit itself is great (although I had the display burn out, and had to go through a few people to get a new one from Russia....all warrantied though so not too bad. A processor controlled, firmware upgradeable, unit with a ton of features....crossovers, EQs, time alignment, etc....its very cool.

 

[bober]

That sounds interesting audiophiliac. Over the past couple of weeks I've started a pretty decent flac collection and was wondering how i could get them to play in my car (I have an older Clarion head unit right now) and how I could get them to play in my 2ch stereo system at home that is yet to be put together.

Also, do any of you know if I am degrading the sound quality of a flac file if I change it to wav to get it to play on a regular cd player?

 

[Audiophiliac]

You can go from FLAC to WAV to FLAC to WAV as many times as you want without changing a single bit of the file. Its lossless. I transcode all mine to WAV for burning discs for the car now. Which is why I want a hard drive....changing discs while driving isnt bad....but searching through 200+ CDs to find what I want to listen to is.

 

[Beat_Dominator]

Ipods can play FLAC with the RockBox mod. It's not the easiest thing to install but it works well

 

[FatJ]

You can go from FLAC to WAV to FLAC to WAV as many times as you want without changing a single bit of the file. Its lossless.

You guys obviously know WAY more about the PC side of this than I do. So if one were to store all of their music on an Escient Fireball in the FLAC format and use a good DAC you're saying they're pretty much set? I thought that with the FLAC format you still lost a little???

 

[Beat_Dominator]

You should really be set, by all accounts Lossless files are copies of the information on the CD. I believe the only compression there is happens on silence in the beginning and end of a track.

 

[captain_tinker]

You guys obviously know WAY more about the PC side of this than I do. So if one were to store all of their music on an Escient Fireball in the FLAC format and use a good DAC you're saying they're pretty much set? I thought that with the FLAC format you still lost a little???

FatJ,
I am pretty sure that

FLAC = Free LOSSLESS Audio Codec

See this:

http://flac.sourceforge.net/

I am still rather new to it, I only have a file or two in FLAC so far, and nothing to play it with except my PC. Looking for ways to use it.

-capT

 

[Craig]

A Slimdevices (now owned by Logitech) is an excellent way to playback FLAC files. For $300 I don't think there is anything out there that comes close. It does require a PC to use it with ripped files. Although, you can use internet radio without a PC as long as it's connected to a network.

http://www.slimdevices.com/

 

[FatJ]

Good to know Thanks for the info!

I think I'll go back to my tunes now :music: