Hey so I'm buying an iPod through Kijiji after placing an ad for one. A person replied and said he has one with an upgraded 128GB SSD inside. He is asking $200. Is that a good deal and is an iPod still a good choice in 2017?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPod Buying an iPod Classic upgraded to flash storage.
- Thread starter bigpoppamac31
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Yeah that seems to be the going rate for one these days. You're looking at £250-270 for a 256GB one off ebay so I'd say £200 for a 128GB one is reasonable.
I think an ipod is still a great choice. No reliance on the internet, great sound, great battery life. What's not to like?
I think an ipod is still a great choice. No reliance on the internet, great sound, great battery life. What's not to like?
Okay. I just fear that if it were to break than I'd have to find another one cause Apple wouldn't fix it. Especially one with an upgraded SSD. I'm also curious of how the software is transferred from the HDD to the SSD in the upgrade. That doesn't seem to be mentioned in any tutorial.
Most of the ones I've seen on ebay offer a 30 day warranty. I know it's not much but you've got to bear in mind that an SSD drive should actually make the ipod more reliable than the standard model due to the lack of moving parts.
Well I went ahead with the splurge. You can definitely see that it's been taken apart but it does work. It's pretty snappy so we'll see how it goes with music. The guy told me he gets iPod parts and pieces together an iPod. So it's the black 6th/7th gen but with a silver centre button on the scroll wheel. I'll see how it goes once I put on some music. It's a 128GB model as this one doesn't recognize anything over 160GB. However the SD card adapter can hold two SD cards.
If you haven't already tried to sync it yet, when I set up my 4th gen iPod Classic with an SD card fitted inside, iTunes just recognized it and it asked to restore it as new, I believe. I might have had to format it as a Mac drive first with Disk Utility, but either way, it was straightforward.
That's a shame, most of the ones I've seen on ebay have had replacement batteries and new backs but on them so they look brand new.
Mine has a new back on it and new battery but you can still see that it's been taken apart. The serial on the back of the iPod doesn't match the serial in the OS.
[doublepost=1491513938][/doublepost]
I have synced it and even loaded music on it. However I keep getting an error message (see pics below) if i quit iTunes and relaunch it with the iPod plugged in. Once I restore it I'm okay. If I eject the iPod and unplug it then plug it back in it shows up just fine.
Sounds like a good deal to me. I've no need to carry that amount of media around with me but you can't beat that clickwheel.
What player do you use? I've also been looking into the Fiio players also but I'm not sure how I would load music onto them. Otherwise they seem pretty easy to use.
I'm still using a 16GB iPod Touch but to be honest could do without it. About the only thing stopping me fleebaying it is that it's smaller than my 6S Plus. Never heard of the Fiio but not being able to load music via iTunes would annoy me. It sadly seems like the space has kind of died off as of late really.
My main use for my ipod is in my car. For me the most cost effective solution is a large capacity memory stick, sure my car (Kia Optima) recognises all my playlists, but if I put the files into genre folders it would recognise those too. I can pick up a 128GB Sandisk stick now for less than £25, a tenth of the cost of the ipod. Luckily I don't use my ipod for anything other than in my car.
Well I sold the iPod and am now looking into the Fiio players. Has anyone used them and if so how was your experience?
It wasn't working right for me. I kept having to restore it when connecting to iTunes. I didn't want to fuss with it every time.
possibly. Anyways I just bought a 5th gen iPod 30GB in really great shape. The front still had the original plastic cover over it so it's mint and the back has very few scratches. Maybe I'll mod it with an SD reader down the road.
I have the X1 1st gen and the X3 2nd gen. Soundwise, both are noticeably much better than any iPod. Crisper, more detailed sound and better separation of instruments and voices. Only downside is a shorter battery life compared with Apple's Classic iPod. My Classic is now gathering dust.
There isn't a huge difference between the sound on both Fiios but the X3 can be used as an external DAC, has a sleep and resume function missing on the X1, which resets on waking and has a slightly better finish and better graduated volume control. If funds allow, the X3 2nd gen is the budget player to get imho.
Fiios come with no internal storage - only microSD slots. The X1 and X3 have one slot each, the more spendy X5 has two. I run mine with 64GB and 128GB cards. 256GB cards work equally well. They support all the common file formats including AAC and ALAC, so no need to convert your iTunes library unless you have some early encrypted 128kbs purchases.
Head over to head-fi.org for very detailed discussions on all of the Fiio range. The newest X Fiios are slowly moving onto becoming Android powered touch devices. I prefer old school myself. Easier to operate by touch in your pocket without having to look at a screen.
Thanks for the reply. I know the latest X5 is a full touch screen which I don't care for. I was looking at the X3 2nd gen or the X1 2nd gen but am leaning towards the X3 because of the DAC. But how easy is it to load music onto the player? I'm sure it doesn't sync with iTunes like the iPod does. Are the Fiio players noticeably heavier than an iPod classic?
Drag and drop, basically. Either using the player as a USB device or dropping the files onto the microSD via computer before inserting into the player. You need to update the library (takes a few seconds) after adding/deleting files on the card so that changes are recognised. The card reader on the Fiio is not the fastest, so if you want to add a lot of stuff probably best to do that externally. By the same token, no point in buying superfast microSD cards as you are paying for boosted sequential read/write speeds, which this device cannot really take advantage of.
The Fiio X3ii weighs about 5g less than the Classic but is smaller and thicker.
[doublepost=1492418144][/doublepost]A couple of comparison pics. The X3ii is the middle device.
Thanks for that. I thought there was an App for the Mac which would make it easier to add songs to the Fiio players. But maybe not. it would suck to have to go into the Finder to drag and drop songs.
???? What is easier than d&d? At least you aren't dependent upon a bloated lump of a once decent app like iTunes.
For what it is worth, you can drag and drop from iTunes if you really want to. Just select the songs you want by highlighting them and drag from the iTunes window to any folder (e.g. your microSD card) on your Mac. You might have to redo the tags on your files. I use xACT to do mine.
Hmm I've never used that but I'll look into it. If I can drag and drop from iTunes that's easier for me. If I can drag a playlist that's even better.