Well, I have a Korg M3, which has the second generation karma features and I love it. The disclaimer of course is that there is no way to add user arps or in Karmaspeak GEs on my version ( yet ), but there is a software made by Stephen Kay for the original Karma that is supposed to do the trick. That said, on the M3 there are enough useful phrases and variations that I could not ever possibly use them all up.

As far as I remember from demoing the original Karma, the synth sounds were very good, and I remember comparing it vs the Roland and Yamaha offerings at the time and thinking that I liked the Karma best...by far, for these sounds. The karma acoustic sounds for me fell well short vs the other two.

I'm never owned one, so I am only going by what I remember. Your best bet might be to have a look at the forums at http://www.korgforums.com/ and see what the owners actually say. BTW, The M3 is my favorite board that I've ever had, but it is a leap forward from what I remember about the Karma.

Zoot