I'll throw in one completely illogical money-management reason:

Because of loyality to a brand..

Granted, it's now a (third?) company, but the most of same guys that worked on Empeg are working on the Karma. Empeg's been EOL'd for 2 years now? (3?? I can't remember..) And despite the fact it's EOL, we just got a 'preview' to 3.00, which included OGG support.

You won't and don't get that from 99% of the companies out there today. (Now, granted, they're not doing it on company time, but the end result is the same.)

TO me, that means a hell of a lot. (maybe because of the way I was brought up, I dunno.) So, I'm willing to give the Karma a try. If it don't work out, THEN I'll look at other options..

(Also, granted, the whole 40Gb thing was a tease. To me, a consumer that IS basing it offa 'brand loyality', that wasn't a good move.. Still waiting for a 40, but may crack after the holidays..)

Me.