We love em because an aussie guy reminded us on how great these are

0:46 Seeing my Rockbox theme from 10 years ago on your iPod Classic (Googley-Classic-Storm) got me jumping out of my seat 😊 Glad you like it! I must confess, I haven't used my iPod classic in years. P.S. Be careful with using the Classic with IEMs. If the latter have an impedance that is lower than 8 times the iPod's output impedance (which is about 5 ohms, IIRC) then the frequency response may be altered.

I still love my 160GB Classic. It is the jukebox in my old car.

can you please make video on how to install Rockbox OS.

I love my iPods back then. Had a couple of "Classics" and a Nano. Those along with several early portable Fiio amps via the line out were golden for me then.

I have 3 of them, but only use one -- in my alarm clock with the old-school iPod dock. Which was such a neat idea, i miss things like that. But for personal carry, I converted my old phone into a DAP by removing and disabling everything but a single music app. Suddenly it had a surprising battery life left in it.

Many thanks, that was really good. I've got the last generation Classic and you have motivated me to use my IE600s on it as well. I love the design. I've got A&K SP3000 with HiRes music and a walk around SR35 but the Classic is a beautiful standalone.

Still run my 5.5 gen iPod with CF card conversion and custom housing. I keep 2 solid state converted models spare. They live in my cars lol. I also still keep my green iPod shuffle for bike riding.

I love my Classic because it's a musical snapshot for me from when I got my 3rd gen in 2003 my junior year at college to 2017, the last year I had loaded anything new on it. I started really using it again last year after a couple year hiatus and it's still great even in stock form.

Extremely delighted to see Everything Everything as the artist being played on the iPod

Honestly, I'm super happy with using Tidal or just shoving a load of my own files on my phone and playing stuff over a BTR5 - feels like the most convenient option for my use case really. After digging out my old ipod touch a few weeks ago, I'm not sure I get why everyone is raving about using these old devices. If anything, the main enjoyment I've had out of digging out my old ipod has been listening to some old songs I had on there which I hadn't heard for the best part of a decade in some cases and definitely not on nicer gear. Between my desktop DAC and my little dongle playing high res files and the stuff on my ipod played out of that, I much prefer the former so that's what I'll be sticking with. My goal for the future is to build an offline library on a home server which I can either access online through something like Roon or by copying files across onto different devices. I suppose a dedicated music player could slot in somewhere in the future but it feels much easier just to spend a bit more on a phone with a tonne of storage for my music when I'm on the go.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the iPod classic sixth gen because I still have mine with a laptop drive in it, and I’ve been thinking about either going towards the 5.5 general or just getting an SSD to install into this. Your video has helped sway my decision towards just getting an SSD for my current iPod. Even for what it is, with just the bare bones mid tier JBL headphones I have from 2016, it still sounds so wonderful. My favorite artists to listen to on it are the Beastie Boys, Bob Dylan, and The Aquabats! and mostly because the Beastie Boys have a song that is listed with sound testing in universities. I always tell people if you can’t hear both the bumpin bass and the high keyboard note at the same time in Beastie Boys “Brass Monkey”, then your setup needs help .

I got the FiiO KA13, their highest end USB dongle because I thought I needed that extra power. Later I didn't end up needing that much power and regretted my purchase an dwish I had the FiiO BTR 15 (wasn't a thing when I got the KA13) or a DAP. But since then I've been more and more satisfied with the KA13 and am happy with just that.

I didn't know this was a thing. Some advice on what guide and hardware to use for modding an iPod would have been helpful.

The only thing that's stopping me from using an iPod again is getting my Spotify library to an iPod

Am I seriously about to dig out my old iPod classic from “that bin” and do this right now?

I've been using a DAP of some form or other for around four years. Had I got an iPod classic back when they were still prevalent, it'd still be using it today. I see they have a lot of merits, like repairability and recycling and price, something that is somewhat of a grey topic with modern DAPs, not many guides as of yet on the repair side due to the niche area. Software wise, that all depends on what your library is mainly comprised of, rockbox is great if you can set it up right (personal experience hasn't been the best) to make it a stand alone device. The main draw backs I've seen is the dated connection port and I can see people would like having bluetooth connection ability. There has been a project called Moonlit which has a new case back that circumvents both problems that I'm hoping to personally test at some point. If that proves to be a good deal, a modded iPod will become my travel DAP, better to lose something that can be kit bashed together than a modern device worth a few hundred more.

Whilst I didn’t own an iPod classic in its heyday, I have a fondness for them due to how simple and easy it is to use and modify. I own a 5th Gen that got Frankensteined with a 7th gen front and hard-drive whilst getting a new screen and battery, but I haven’t touched it since iPods blew up again (thanks to the dankpocalypse (no shade, I was happy they got the recognition they deserved)) but seeing this video makes me want to dabble in the missing stuff again. Like putting flash storage in, or shove a Taptic Engine in for a little umph in my music choosing experience. Loved the vid man! Thank you for showing off your cool iPod too 💪

Rockbox? Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time. Glad to see they’re still going ❤

Recently picked up an early 2000 Sony MiniDisc Player. I love it. It forces you to be discerning with what music you'll take out.

I have a collection of ipods and other old music players that i've modded myself. I started because i wanted something to listen to while writing but without any possibility for distractions. And then i decided that one was not enough and that I should definitely have a bunch all with different types of music on them. Last one i got (and probably one of my favorites) is my Zune Halo edition. Either that one or my second gen iPod. Big bricks of music.

Really cool that you can dual boot to either the standard Apple OS or Rockbox. I see from previous comments below that Rockbox supports FLAC instead of only ALAC like the Apple system. Nice. And love that you can drag and drop files instead of having to go through iTunes which was always a pain. How hard is it to load Rockbox on an older iPod? Is there a link to how to do that you could provide? I'm pretty sure the DAC chip and implementation in an iPOD can't compare to a "real" DAP but for casual listening when out and about on IEMs or easy to drive headphones, they were always a nice, easy to carry device. Thanks. I might have to dig mine out of the drawer now.

I've purchased a couple of Ipod Classics ever since they were first launched in the early 2000's but sold them all except for one, they were neat for the time but there was no proper 10 band EQ setting, just the terrible built in EQ presets, I still have fond memories of me enjoying so many songs on one tiny device which for the time was cutting edge in the early 2000's, but now is pretty standard.

This was a BRILLIANT video, please do more like this!

I still have two iPod Classic, both with battery and storage updated. Rockbox has some limits (the battery estimation you mentioned is very annoying), but it is well worth being iTunes independent.

"love" is in the title. That's how you know it isn't an Andrew video

Two of my iPods are newer iPod Touch models. There is a photo adapter (dongle) that lets you connect to a USB cable and bypass the headphone jack. I connect the USB to an external dac and then to a headphone amp. It sounds great using high-end headphones. I'm not sure if the internal dac is bypassed (I think it is).

My question still remains for DMS. You recommend DCA E3 for portable headphones. What pocket friendly DAP can you drive for DCA E3 for best sound quality?

iPods, umm have 2 of them. A 20G Gen3 B&W and a 60G Gen3 Colour. The 60G is still in the car glovebox and only recently stopped serving as CarPod duties, attached to a BMW OEM head unit, in an ‘03 Coupe. Since Roon ARC was released this has been my go-to source, running on a iPhone Mini 12, I have access to my entire local library in whatever format & version I have stored it in, plus all of Tidal, at either CD, MQA or now FLAC HiRes. Dongle is a Ztella Pro MQA and IEMs are MP145 for mobile listening, and the iPod integration in the car, gives upto 24/48. Local library is circa 9Tbytes of music, 110k albums but over 63% in 24-bit. Don’t see the need for the older tech here, unless you want to be nostalgic.

Great video, even better hoodie!

I have an ipod 5.5 video. The H/P out D/A converter isn't very good, and the built in EQ presets were terrible except for "Latin" & "Rock" (which were both close to what I like). Any modern music, mastered loud, would digitally clip with the EQ presets. I had to make copy of all my audio files, and gain them down 4-6db, so I could use the EQ presets. However, I loved the Sony MP3 Walkman's that came out in the late 2000's. I then got a Fiio X3 which was nice, but pain to use, and then finally just started using my smartphones.

If you've done a battery mod I think rockbox lets you set the amount of mah it has, might help with the estimation

I've had my mother's old iPod for years now, never used it, finally started and was loving it till the hard drive gave out. Didn't back up my music but i made sure to redownload everything again onto some usb drives and i have a modded iPod coming back to me in a few days, i can't wait to get back on it

I have loads of iPods, mainly Nanos, and 3 Classics (5th gen and 2 6th gen). Love them all and use them all.

Fantastic! I dug out my old iPhone and it works perfectly. It has come back to life. Thanks!

I still use two ipod classics with wadia170 transport..only changes the batteries works great, very convenient

I have 3 ipods still in use! Including one in my car. Yes, Love them! They are still wonderful

I noticed on my iPod, classic, if I turn the volume down to like 15% I can still hear it. If I did at all my phone, I couldn’t hear anything.

My iriver H120 was flash with rockbox , man the memory , it's cool to see that because the hardware on the apple is pretty good , the OS was the biggest no go.

Interesting review. I have one with a more robust battery, but the unit itself was now way too light for me. Felt like a feather. So the tech guy added lead to give it a more satisfying weight.

Oh man, iPods we're like a status symbol when I was in high school (back around 2004-2008). I had an iPod nano 2nd gen. After digging it out after so many years, I found the screen to be completely broken. However, my wife's iPod nano 4th gen still works like a charm and is almost in brand new condition, so I'm starting to use that. I hope this thing lasts me a life time lol.

You sold me on the DSP/EQ features in Rockbox.

I have collected a 4th gen mono and photo, a 5th gen, a 3rd gen nano, and I already had a 4th gen nano. I have spent a decent chunk of change trying to get good audio out of my phone over the years. I find the BTR3 is pretty good for me, but the iPod classic 4 and 5 especially sound better still.

Love the hoodie!

I've been needing to fix my ipod classic or maybe try to get it upgraded. I have an ipod classic 7th gen, 1 of the 2 that my best buy store had left in stock. Last year it randomly stopped working, I think the hard drive is broken. It will power on but just wont work, tried resetting and restoring but, no luck. Even though it's easy to stream on my phone, I really like having a separate device just for music. Specially when traveling, I don't worry about using up all my phone's battery. It's also nice to disconnect for a while yet, still continue to listen to music.

I think phone manufacturers should include the 3.5mm jack in their phone designs

I was just listening to my iPod while walking through the neighborhood, sixth gen too. Very interested in this Rockbox OS, can't stand iTunes syncing. Hope hope to see a video about getting this modification.

Did you preorder a Tangara? I think it's a pretty cool project as it's all open. I've got a couple classics as well. One with microsd. Transfer could be quicker and I wish they had bluetooth transmission.

I have rockbox on mine... haven't switched out the hardware or anything, but it works well. I just wish Apple would bring back the Classic in a 1TB variant with no bluetooth nonsense. And I wish it can support 24/48 and higher as well. I have some really hi-res files that I've been purchasing from HDTracks and stuff, and call me crazy, but I do hear a slight difference from CDQ.

Cool you mentioned it briefly, but what IS the best sounding IPOD ?

Love my iPod, used it all the time (with my IEM,s)

I love my Questyle m15, what is the new dac called that questsyle is making?

Love this video! I've a 5.5Gen ipod Classic with the memory upgrade to take 4 micro sd cards. Sounds great with IEMs. Are there any other mods apart from battery? Think there were other upgrades which ended up with diodes hanging out of the iPod which I'm not interested in. Will have to research....

I have an iTouch 7th Gen. I have a lot of my own customized music on there that you can't find on streaming sites, so it works very well for me.

I used to own a couple of apple DAPs - the 2nd gen, Nano and Classic, then there was a Creative Zen. Really convenient to have your music collection stored and ready to go. Since Fii0 started releasing their players I just fell in love with portable audio all over again.

It’s not an iPod, but I use my Sony WM1Z all the time. It works great with my ADX -5000 headphones and my 64Audio N8 custom IEMs as well. I love having an all in one device that works anywhere

Nice hoodie and vid!

I got a 7th gen and modded it to hold 2TB and a 3000mAh battery, as well as swapping out body and face colors. I still use stock iPod OS, and it works great for me. I'm not an audiophile, but I absolutely hate having to charge everything these days so I insist on having wired earbuds and headphones and there are too many ads with streaming.

I have a Mini in a drawer somewhere, and at some point I'll get around to changing the battery, and replacing the HDD. But I am a bit scared to take it apart because I don't wanna mess up the lovely pink outsides.

I love it, back in the day, I owned a redwine modded iPod which the battery died, I would try this out.

Love my iPod and 64Audio u12t combo.

I wish you could provide more info on the mods. I’m trying to revive my old piece for 2 months now and I’m still completing the parts list so it’s a one time operation. What adapter/storage combo did you use? Do you have original battery or an upgraded capacity one?

Are you guys going to review the Bose QuiteComfort Ultra headphones?

Is there a stock style theme or a way to connect rockbox to your standard library? I want the oem experience without having to use itunes

Modfing 3 at momrnt one for my mother one for my dad in his camper van and one for my psrtner to use in car . I have a 7th and 5.5 at home the 300+ docks are now stupidly cheap to buy now so great sound for much lower cost too

What back is that you have on your ipod? looks aftermarket. I like it.

I KNOW it's NOT small, but... For a while I used an LG phone (I bought 2nd hand cheaply) that has the Quad DAC. I then installed 'PowerAmp' - my favourite music player (it IS a powerful app for listening to music with), and then loaded all my music (100Gb) onto it, and it was a great setup (WAY better sounding than my Motorola phone!!) 😏👌 😎🇬🇧

what are those pads on your 7506? they look nice

i still got mine, has been idle since 2 years of usage. i had it filled with Music Videos

The first gen Shuffle is still really good. Only problem is that the storage goes up to a measly 1GB.

I know I might be crazy but I was thinking about using a Dap more often but found my self looking into streaming services more when new music comes out. I wish I could use my iPod more but I tend to use my phone more and more as I find it harder to just get music on the Dap....

Do you think the qustyle m15 adds anything to iems like the ie600 over the ipod or other dongles ?

My allmost 20 year old ipod classic still sits in my desk. It hasn't worked in 10 years; something about a corrupted hard disk, and no one in India seems to be able to be helpful. But I still have hope it'll work.

I've recently swapped my Fiio M3K for used X3 mk. 3. Unfortunatelly, software isn't great and works kinda slow, but sound wise, the best sounding device I've ever used. It kinda is sad for me that I never had an opportunity to try an iPod. I love listening to music offline, without any distractions. Either way, I may look for something smaller, because X3 is kinda bulky.

My ipods run my mass drop 6xxx and my DT770 pro 80ohm so good enough but also use the lgv60 and have oppo HA2 for ipod if needed .

everything everything thumbnail LETS GOOOOOO

I'd get an OG iPod to add an SSD. That's the only reason for one of these. I often wonder how good the DAC in these were?

pretty off-topic question but does anyone know what microphone he's using? I was looking for a new one and I really love the tone and vibe of the one used here :))

Thanks for the info. Ill see what i can do with my classic. I also noticed you have an AGM glory pro. I had one too. The 5G wasnt working, i sent it in on warranty but it couldn't be repaired so they send me my $ back. Thanks again for audio info.

I love the idea of them, I just don’t have the music collection to justify an iPod (or any dap really). I mostly just listen to music on my phone with iems and a dongle dac.

Can you let me know the model of the headphones you were using with your ipod. I recently upgraded a few of my old ipods. So im looking to match them up with good quality headphones / ear pods

Great for places where no phone signal etc for streaming! Still have my classic 180gb rammed full of goodies 😊

Some people say the Sony Walkman is pretty good. Would like to see you guys try it.

I wish I could do this kind of treatment and upgrade to my iPod nano 2GB. I love that little device and being able to make it a 128Gb with a new battery would be amazing. But everyone online said it’s not possible. :(

Another good option for a cheap dap is a old LG G8. Runs Android 11. Has a quad DAC . 3.5mm jack. Takes micro sd cards. 1440p screeen. Flagship at the time Snapdragon 855 processor.

I still have an iPod and still using an iPod Nano although I have to leave the charging cable on. I can’t remember which generation is the iPod but the battery is not working so I just leave it in the car to play via the 3.5 Aux out. However, my car just connect to my iPhone via Bluetooth and still sounds good so the iPod is not in use now. Speaking of which, I am going to my rented storeroom to find my Sony MD Player.

Don't have one but ever since spotting the mods you can do to them, can't seem to forget them :) love the see-through cases too!

a decked out iPod goes into the houndreds too, right? which one has the best DAC you been mentioning btw?

Where do you get your music, do you use FLAC or waves

have you tried the new walkmans?

I have an iPod 3rd Gen which I love - however with Firewire being a think of the past its more of a showpiece now :(

I started listening to my 5th gen iPod again. I just bought another 5 gen off eBay to mod(which will be my first ever try)

I carry an iPhone and a Pixel, both with .5 TB storage so I always have my music with me, but seeing that iPod makes me feel like it would be cool to have one again

I grew up with an 80GB iPod that I saved up $250 USD for when I was 15, but nothing beats streaming today. My iPhone with Apple Airpods Pro 2 beat anything I had 20 years ago.

sick hoodie!

I know a lot of people are getting into iPod. I myself, along with a few others, are Zune users. Zune isn't actually half bad. I wish there were hardware mods like there are for the iPod, but I'm still glad to be listening to music on my Zune.

I have a 1.5 TB Rockboxed iPod and I love it. Very good player. I’ll never ever use all that memory either.

What's the difference between something like the Questyle M15 and the Fiio BTR5? I'm just curious bc coming from someone who owns a BTR5 it just seems more expensive for something with less features (that being Bluetooth) which if it's something portable that should be mandatory. I use both the USB input on my computer and the Bluetooth in my car.

Peace you too my friend !

What kind of files will it play? Obviously not DSD, but what can it do for resolution? If I remember correctly, there are things to like about the sound signature on those things..