Just came across this article as I’m writing about some of my earlier mp3 players. I “graduated” to the Rio Karma from my Creative Nomad Jukebox, after previously having owned the second gen flash-based Rio 500. The Karma was the best little mp3 player I ever owned even though I did eventually cave and get an iPod. Thanks for the walk down memory lane!
Glad you enjoyed it Mark! I had a few Creative players myself. After my Rio Karma finally died, I picked up a Creative ZEN Vision: M (the name is a bit clunky). It was more fragile than the Karma and didn't last as long, but being able to watch video on the move with such a small device was pretty groundbreaking at the time. It was nice to have so much competition in the space back then!
Nice article, I still have my Rio Karma hooked on to my music equipment, using the dock. The battery has gone bad, otherwise I would still use it on my bike trips. Fantastic device, excellent sound, and definitely ahead of its time.
Hey Ron, thanks for reading. Amazing that your Rio Karma is still kicking! That dock was such a nice accessory to have. It really separated it from the other audio devices at the time. I know that most of us just stream audio on our phones these days, but there was something magical about that form factor and the tangible controls. I wonder if we'll ever get a similar product. Hang onto yours for as long as you can!
Just came across this article as I’m writing about some of my earlier mp3 players. I “graduated” to the Rio Karma from my Creative Nomad Jukebox, after previously having owned the second gen flash-based Rio 500. The Karma was the best little mp3 player I ever owned even though I did eventually cave and get an iPod. Thanks for the walk down memory lane!
Glad you enjoyed it Mark! I had a few Creative players myself. After my Rio Karma finally died, I picked up a Creative ZEN Vision: M (the name is a bit clunky). It was more fragile than the Karma and didn't last as long, but being able to watch video on the move with such a small device was pretty groundbreaking at the time. It was nice to have so much competition in the space back then!
I “graduated” to something similar but it was an Archos media player. Hard to believe how things have progressed in the last 20 years!
I had the Archos 20GB Jukebox right before I got the Rio Karma! We're living in a retro mp3 player parallel universe! haha
Nice article, I still have my Rio Karma hooked on to my music equipment, using the dock. The battery has gone bad, otherwise I would still use it on my bike trips. Fantastic device, excellent sound, and definitely ahead of its time.
Hey Ron, thanks for reading. Amazing that your Rio Karma is still kicking! That dock was such a nice accessory to have. It really separated it from the other audio devices at the time. I know that most of us just stream audio on our phones these days, but there was something magical about that form factor and the tangible controls. I wonder if we'll ever get a similar product. Hang onto yours for as long as you can!