Alternative to ipod classic?

What happened? Did you drop the iPod?

 

No. I stripped one of the screws holding the "Hold" switch so that's nicely stuck in place. I also broke the bond/welds that hold the retention brackets to the back panel when I used the tool to initially open it up. Spares of the backpanel and replacement screws abound on Ebay so I should be able to salvage it. I also broke the flip tab on the main board that the headphone jack ribbon slides into. THAT could be disaster but on my tests with the new jack I was able to get sound through my headphones but only with a decent amount of pressure on the ribbon connector. Hoping when everything is closed up it won't be an issue. Otherwise we're talking a new board.

 

I broke the tab on one of my old iPods too. PITA. I was thinking if hiding it down with a toothpick and putting a glob hot glue on it.

 

You guys have me all nervous now. I'm going to buy a SD hard drive, but I'm afraid of screwing it up. Looks pretty straight forward though.

 

Ya gotta be like Stephen Boyd in Fantastic Voyage to successfully repair one of those things. I tried to replace the headphone jack in one and the hard drive in another and screwed up both of them. I've been waiting for and expecting my 5th or so (and final) iPod Classic to conk out (this one has lasted way longer than the others), in which case I plan to get the FiiO X5 (or newer) with plenty of storage.

 

LOL. I've replaced the HDD & battery before with no issue. Not sure what the heck happened here. The back panel is not the original issue and is the deeper one that was added when I upgraded to the 240gb HDD. So I have no idea about the pedigree of it, and maybe just got stuck with a junk panel.

It is pretty straight forward. Do your research beforehand and watch a few of the online vids and hi-res images that are available. The plastic tools that they sell are good but you need them in combination with some sort of thin metal spudger/putty knife. Take your time too. Just because some video shows some dude knocking it open in 20 seconds doesn't mean that should be your goal.

 

As @superstar19 wrote, taking your time is critical - I know by experience (unfortunately) the stupid things that occur when you do a rush job.

That, and having the right tools.

 

I'm near-sited, but my eyes are maturing. When I work on electronics and other detailed items, I wear a pair of "cheater" glasses with a +2 correction. My current pair even has a small LED light in the frame near each of the arms. Found them at the local surplus store.

Just passing this along - YMMV.

 

Alternative to iPod? Anything!

Seriously, try something by Creative.

 

The only MP3 player I have ever owned is the Creative Zen Xtra, a 60GB player the size of a deck of cards I bought back in 2003. I only dusted it off earlier this year and started using it again over my (almost) daily walk. Unfortunately, the original Korean-made Lithium battery (size of a flat piece of mint chocolate) went bad and I had to look for replacement. The Chinese-made replacement battery is of questionable quality as it does not fit in the player as good as the original battery (the contacts are not tight) and I am still trying to get it fully charged up. Most of these Chinese-made electronic parts are bad news since Japanese and Korean parts makers do not care to be in this ultra-thin margin business!

 

Are you now using one of these new toys for your on-the-go music? It records and plays FLAC files with built-in DAC, miles ahead of any iPods ...

 

What is that?

 

Astell&Kern AK120 II Portable High Definition Sound System (Silver)
B&H # ASAK120II MFR # 3AK2208C-CMSIN1

• Bit-to-Bit Mastering Quality Sound (MQS)
• Cirrus Logic CS4398 x 2 (Dual DAC)
• 5.6 MHz DSD Support
• MQS Wireless Streaming
• 3.3" WVGA AMOLED Full Touchscreen
• 128GB Internal Flash Memory
• 128GB microSD Card Slot
• 10-Band EQ
• Integrated Volume Wheel
• Brushed Aluminum Body

A high quality sound system for your pocket.

 

The biggest problem with switching over to a much better music player is the re-ripping of all the music into the FLAC format, which is a bit more laborious than doing the MP3 or WMA IMO ...

 

No I’m still using an iPod Classic. None of the fancy new players do shuffle by album which is a deal killer for me. Not updating play counts is another deal killer

 

I have never owned an iPod or any Apple products. I have rarely used the shuffle feature on my Sony ES CD changer back in the day either ...

I suspect the future generation of these lossless music players may incorporate shuffle play capability and prices will come down somewhat as well.

 

About $729 retail.

 

I much prefer to have a standalone music player. Many of the smartphones already have short battery lives after a full charge and I see no reasons for playing music on mine to make frequent recharging necessary. These lithium batteries have an average lifespan of a few hundred recharges and are expensive to replace. My brother-in-law has to get a new lithium battery for his Galaxy 6 Note every year and it is $100+ every time and his Note 6 has to be recharged everyday as well. What a hassle?

 

Agreed.

 

I was happily using my iPhone via an Oppo HA2 DAC as a source playing FLAC or DSD using Onkyo HF Player, but versions of iOS from 10.3 onwards all seem to have issues with external DACs, resulting in random glitches in playback which are very annoying. Fortunately, the reappearance of the dedicated DAP could be the long term (non Apple) solution. Lots of competition; Sony, Pioneer, Onkyo, A&K, Fiio, Cowon. For now, my iPod 5th gen with a 128GB SD card and 160G iPod Classic are still working well, but as Apple have lost interest in this part of the market i'm glad other manufacturers are continuing to develop the DAP.

 

Sony has some models priced over $3000 USD ...

 

True, and the top end of the A&K range is eye wateringly expensive. There's an increasing number of very capable sub $1K players coming through, though.

 

Some household audio names like JVC and Yamaha? Apple is exiting this game ...

 

XDP-300R | Pioneer

Pioneer? £350 in the UK; looks to be pretty capable. Sony's cheaper offerings also look quite versatile. For me, as long as I can expand the storage and play FLAC (and DSD ideally, though I only have a few albums in DSD ripped from SACD) i'm happy.

 

I think a factor in the short battery life is that the device is trying to do so many things. A related example is my first Sony e-book reader. As an e-book reader (with an e-ink screen) it had great battery life, allowing me to go for days on a single charge unless...

I used it as a music player. As a music player, using it for 30 minutes ate half of the battery's charge. I think the reason was that the screen only consumed power when it changed the screen. When playing music, it was changing the screen every second (to update the playing time for the song). That was the last time I used it as a music player.