I agree with a lot of what Milo has said with regards to Karma instability. Oh wait, I already said that a while back. Granted, a lot of firmware fixes have come out since I returned mine, but as we saw with v3a5 of the player software, not all firmware upgrades are truly upgrades.

I'll also say that he's spot on with his suggestions that there is a lot of Rio apologia to be found on this BBS, which is only natural, since a lot of people got in on the ground floor, and feel a special connection with the Cambridge team and their products. Some of the members have been given special favors (alpha status, software development opportunities, etc.) and don't hide these facts at all -- their potential bias is quite evident, and though I think they do an admirable job of keeping out most of it, a portion of it is going to seep through.

But I do think there is definitely merit in Tony's suggestion that a lot of people come to BBS forums (especially the tech support areas) to complain, and rarely do products get heralded when they "just work." If they're truly amazing products, maybe someone's geekbone will stiffen enough for them to write a long post extolling the product's greatness. For us empeg people, that's not all that uncommon. But I would say that the "product greatness" required to generate 100 positive posts on a BBS is a lot higher than the "product crappiness" required to generate 100 negative posts. It's not a zero-sum game, and I think most people who have enough perspective on the issue would conclude that the Karma was definitely rushed out the door, but no more rushed than any other products are these days.

As far as comparing the Karma to the empeg, that's unfair, since the empeg has had several years to develop into what it is now. Do a forum search and you'll find problems from Mark I owners, I'd say about as many problems as we're seeing in Karma's now. Give the Karma platform some time to grow, and it's likely to be as reliable as the empeg. (woohoo, a circular post dependency!)