Replacing my iPod Classic

Warning Track Speed

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My iPod Classic (150 GB) appears to be dead with hard drive issues. So, I need something new and portable for my music. And it appears Apple doesn't make/support the Classic anymore, though you can still find a handful of new ones at Amazon or eBay.

I'm a creature of habit and liked the Classic, but I'm willing to entertain other mp3 ideas. I listen largely to live music recordings (downloaded from archive.org, or copied from old CDs if they are older shows) and podcasts. The iPod Touch, which appears to be the biggest hard drive currently available, has a bunch of junk (camera, etc) I don't need from my music player. Big hard drive is important though-- I like to put a lot of live shows on there.

So, buy a new Classic? Or something totally different like a Sony walkman? What kind of non-itunes interface do non-apple products use? Will my regular daily/weekly podcasts still be easily accessible?

Thanks everyone.
 

B H Kim

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Do you use a smartphone? Are you planning to buy a new one anytime soon? Because, for example, the price difference between a 32 GB and a 256 GB iPhone 7 is a lot less than the price of a new iPod Classic. It’s also far more convenient. If you have to physically sync podcasts with your computer on a regular basis, I’d argue that they aren’t “easily accessible.”
 
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JGray38

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Or you can just rebuild the harddrive and upgrade it to an SSD. The zif card and new battery cost almost nothing, but the HD can run you a few dollars. I have a 500GB classic and am working on a 1TB, for no other reason than "because I can"
 

wilked

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Or you can just rebuild the harddrive and upgrade it to an SSD. The zif card and new battery cost almost nothing, but the HD can run you a few dollars. I have a 500GB classic and am working on a 1TB, for no other reason than "because I can"
Agreed

Those older units pretty easy to work on as well
 

JGray38

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And you will want the new battery. The good news is you can really upgrade- beyond what the SSD will consume- really cheaply. I got a 3000 mAh battery (up from 550) for $12. Thing lasts forever.
 

Warning Track Speed

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I like this idea, being as I am, hesitant about change. Two questions: will the ipod look/function exactly as before? And I found a place that will put in a 256GB drive for $250. Is that reasonable? I don't really trust myself to do it without breaking something.
 

JGray38

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It will look exactly the same. What model?

There is a limit to how many songs you can store before you need to use something other than iTunes/Apple OS to manage your songs on the device. It's variable depending on your song metadata, and somewhere around 50K songs. The software has a built in limit. If you are under that (Let's say 45K to be safe), it will function exactly the same. If not, you need something like RockBox to play songs on the device. A little different, and it takes a little reading up to install correctly, but not the end of the world.

As for cost, 256 GB drive is $65-$110 or so right now, depending on brand, etc. 3000 mah battery is about $10-12, adapter card $5-$10. So you're looking at a range of $80-$125 for parts. Up to you if that is worth it. It's not that difficult- lots of youtube videos if you want to take a look at that first. If you do get someone to do it, make sure there's a battery upgrade included. The SSD consumes too much power at peak for the standard iPod battery, but less overall. Without a larger battery, the iPod will turn itself off during peak usage.

Edit- if you have someone else do it, make sure you are clear if they should leave iTunes on it, or install RockBox/some other player software as well.
 

JGray38

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Take a look around about battery size for a 7. You may need a 2000 mah due to size constraints. Other than that, it's not that hard.
 

Marceline

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An iPod classic with a 512gb ssd running rockbox sounds pretty amazing. I might have to give this a shot.
 

JGray38

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I'd recommend finding an old 5.5 model on eBay if you're doing this from scratch. They're thicker, which buys you space for the 3000 mah battery, and the DAC chip on them is supposed to be the best version Apple produced.
 

Scott Cooper's Grand Slam

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Most of my favorite music is live shows, either personally recorded or from archive.org or other places. I use Amazon Music. It costs $25/year (about the cost of 3 CDs, no?). It allows me to upload 250,000 songs to a cloud library that I can download to any device at any time that has an Amazon Music app. I like this setup because it allows me to have multiple backups of my music library:

1) The actual files on my computer hard drive
2) Uploaded copies of everything (many converted from FLAC to .mp3, which can be done in one-click nowadays) in the cloud.

I can listen to anything in the cloud at any time without using any storage, as long as I have an internet connection. If I'm going on a trip or whatever, I download a few shows and put them on my phone/iPad, and I can listen to them without an internet connection. I can also listen to them in the car via Bluetooth.

I get the appeal of an iPod Classic, but with cloud storage being cheap enough to let you store and listen to huge music libraries and listen to them whenever you want, maybe just get a smartphone. Keep your favorite shows on your phone, but you'll have access to everything else whenever you want it on a simple app.

The Amazon Music app is cross-platform, so it'll look the same whether you're on a PC or a phone or whatever.

The other advice in this thread is great if you want to keep everything in your pocket.
 

Warning Track Speed

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Another good idea. The appeal to me of having it all in my pocket is the internet access issue. I live in town but I do lots of stuff (hiking, biking, camping) where I'm not connected. But I can see the appeal of having it all in the cloud. I've still got hundreds of CDs from the old B&P days that never get a turn anymore. One of these days.
 

Marceline

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I'd recommend finding an old 5.5 model on eBay if you're doing this from scratch. They're thicker, which buys you space for the 3000 mah battery, and the DAC chip on them is supposed to be the best version Apple produced.
I hadn't seen your reply and came to pretty much the same conclusion after doing some research.

Only thing I am unsure of right now is making sure everything fits with the 3000mah battery. I found this listing on ebay which talks about needing a "thin" model ipod but then having to replace the headphone jack/flex cable and back cover with a "thick" version:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3000mAh-Battery-Upgrade-replacement-for-iPod-Classic-6-6-5-7-Video-5-5-5-Thin-/152581319646?hash=item23868e2bde:g:gWsAAOSwx6pYpC9w

Looks like it would cost roughly $80 for an ipod 5.5, $180 for a 500gb msata, $13 for the battery, $13 for an msata->usb so I can format it, so probably around $280-$300 all in for this.
 

JGray38

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The thicker 5.5 (80gb model) will fit the 3000 mah battery without you having to move stuff. It's a tight fit, the battery has about the same dimensions as the back of the case, and you'll stack that on top of the HD, making a tight fit height-wise, but it works.

What you are describing is exactly what I built. 3000 mah, 500gb msata.
Feel free to ask questions. It's a fun little project and one of my sons helped me with some of it.

You will need a zif card for the msata, but those are cheap and easy to plug into the iPod. And I forgot about the cable in my earlier post. You'll need to download some freeware to format it correctly, but that's easy enough.
 

Marceline

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Are the zif/msata adapters pretty much all the same?

I just won a 5.5 gen 80gb on ebay for $55, so I'm going to take the plunge here.
 

JGray38

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Are the zif/msata adapters pretty much all the same?

I just won a 5.5 gen 80gb on ebay for $55, so I'm going to take the plunge here.
You can get what looks like a higher quality one here: https://www.iflash.xyz/ The rest are pretty much all the same. That site has some good info for this kind of a project. They have other adapters as well, so you could do this with micro SD, etc.
 

Marceline

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I was hoping to get away with one of the ones that are $3.50 on ebay. I guess I'll try the cheap one first and if it doesn't work out, go for the $40 one there.
 

bohous

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Not a huge surprise but Apple is finally killing off the Nano and Shuffle. I would think there is still enough of a market for people who want a stand alone music player to at least keep a high capacity Nano around, although I'm sure Apple prefers everybody be on ios and/or sign up for iTunes Match. What I like about the Nano is for my kids to be able to have a music player in their room without the distraction of an ios device like the Touch.
 

McBride11

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Ya. This sucks. I like my nano and armband. I run lets say 5x weekly and sweat a fair amount. I dont care if my nano gets nasty but I dont want my phone getting screwed up.