Well, after years of dreading the death of my Karma's hard drive, it's finally happened. Now goes the search for a replacement after I haven't looked at what's out there since I bought it.

What I'm looking for is excellent SQ, a line-out, good / easy navigation that allows you to browse by artist / album and at least a 20GB capacity. I've read about the iAudios and the iRivers, but from what I've read the iAudios don't allow you to browse via artist / album and frankly that makes them useless to me. I'm still looking at the iRivers. Also, I'd like to keep it somewhere close to the $300 price range, but less would be nice.

I've been browsing the forum, but am still looking for a good fit for my requirements.
Anyone have a suggestion?

jsg

Have a look at Archos Gmini.
I don't know how its sound quality compares with the others. Sounds ok to me.

/edit1: Oh, I just checked their homepage, it seems Gmini are discontinued and replaced with a new model of similar kind.

/Edit2:
The site www.dapreview.net used to be a good place.

Toshiba Gigabeat F40 (the 40 stands for 40 GB) cost me under $100 from eBay. I replaced its awful Toshiba firmware with Rockbox. Not exactly sure what you're looking for in browsing features, but Rockbox respects whatever file hierarchy you institute.

Iriver h120/h140

The latest iPods sound pretty good with decent in ear monitors. If you don't need FLAC support.

If you can hold off for a little while, it might be worth waiting to see if iaudio release the X7 (the successor to the X5). Rumors are going around that it will be announced in September.

I would suggest trekstor vibez that it has an updated version of the firmware of rio karma, if you can live with 12 gb.

Gigabeat + Rockbox = heaven lol

i use a h140 with rockbox, does everything i need, a little bulky though

be warned, if you use rockbox you will never look back and never buy a player that can't use it!

heard good things about the gigabeat + rockbox too

depends what features/size you want

Thanks guys.

You've helped out a lot.

jsg

Well guys, after doing some reading I went w/t the Gigabeat (+ rockbox ), and I must say that I don't miss my Karma at all now. I'm looking for a case for my new player and was wondering if the dimensions of the f40 are any larger than the f10 or 20, as the case I've found that I like is listed as only fitting them. From what I've read, they are the same, ( or pretty close, none of the numbers I've found match ) but I don't want to get surprised.

This is the case I was looking at.

Also, a more technical question, and I hope I don't come off looking completely stupid here, but I was wondering if there was a spot on the volume controls (note: rockbox) that equals the output of the line out on the base. I ask b/c if I get a case for the thing it would be a bit of a pain (especially for the one I linked above) to constantly swap the thing in and out just to hook up to my external speakers in my work-out room, and I'd like as clean of a signal as possible. Again, maybe a stupid / obvious question, but I figure I won't know if I don't ask.

Vir

Try setting volume to 0dB through Settings -> Sound Settings -> Volume.

Yep, I kinda figured that one out after messing w/it a bit. I was wondering why the volume levels were numbered like that. Cool, at least that was easy.

If you mean why is volume numbered positive and negative with "zero" being pretty loud, this is a standard convention with audio mixing, dating back way into the analog days. 0 dB is the highest volume level guaranteed without clipping; anything beyond may clip (but won't if the given waveform is quiet).

I played around with volume settings today with this topic in mind. 0 dB in Rockbox is designed to pump maximum volume with no clipping, but I think that's absent other factors. It doesn't seem guaranteed if you're in the +dB with EQ, tone controls, and/or ReplayGain (preamp or otherwise). Also, any gain outside of Rockbox (e.g. amped line-in) may clip waveforms.