iPod Retrofitted iPod With SSD from eBay or Repurpose Older iPhone of Same Capacity? As a Music Player?

[Sossity]

I like to have my music collection with me, and I have seen many iPods on eBay that have been retrofitted with SSD droves in various capacities.

For example, would an iPod with a 512 SSD be as good repurposing an older iPhone XS that is also 512 GB?

Would the iPhone XS be better in terms of technology? more stable?

 

[GMShadow]

What's your goal for this?

 

[philden]

What's your goal for this?

The

I like to have my music collection with me, and I have seen many iPods on eBay that have been retrofitted with SSD droves in various capacities.

For example, would an iPod with a 512 SSD be as good repurposing an older iPhone XS that is also 512 GB?

Would the iPhone XS be better in terms of technology? more stable?

The iPod will allow you to replace the battery and add to the storage, when necessary. One consideration might be whether you want Bluetooth, and whether you already have and cables, docks etc with the 30 pin connector. My choice would definitely be the iPod, for the above reasons and the user interface.

 

[Sossity]

What's your goal for this?

To carry my mp3 collection or flac files, and to use it as a standalone player.

 

[Sossity]

I recall buying a retrofitted iPod classic a while back on eBay, and it worked fine for a while, and then, it began to act weird, and in the end it was not usable, and I resold as a for parts not working, so I know there is a risk of compatibility issues. However, the ipod seller that I am looking at now; https://www.ebay.com/usr/xiaowan-88?_trksid=p2047675.m3561.l2559, seems to have a lot of them, and I would think they know what they are doing if they have so many of them, what does anybody think to them?

Also, I am looking at 256 GB or even better or preferably would be a 512 GB one.

I do not really need bluetooth, I have never found that very reliable.

I also do have 30 pin cables.

 

[philden]

The most cost effective way will be to buy the parts and do it yourself. The main risks are bad batteries and fake SD cards. It is a good idea to replace the hard drive cable as these don't always like being moved after being in the same place for many years. It will also be easier to replace the battery again in the future if you know exactly what is involved.

 

[Jack Neill]

I have a 7th gen classic with a SD card in it. I also have a 128 iPhone 7 that is repurposed for just music. OP question makes sense

 

[Grumpus]

Also, I am looking at 256 GB or even better or preferably would be a 512 GB one.

With the stock firmware there are limits on the number of songs on various iPods, and the 6th gen Classics can't see more than 128 GB. People report unreliable operation (songs skipping, failing to play, spontaneous reboots) when the limits are exceeded. More storage is not better if you can't use it. I've seen it written that the limits are related to the amount of memory a given iPod has. Apparently using RockBox will let you exceed the limits of the stock firmware.

 

[arw]

The seller you linked seems - let's say weird - as he states, from 512 GB you lose 31% to formatting and system files which is highly suspicious.
My iPod Classic 7G with 640 GB iFlash displays 596 GB in iTunes (7% "missing")
My iPod Classic 5G with 160 GB HDD displays 149 GB in iTunes (7% "missing")
He also states "Storage media is completely waterproof" which points more to SD memory cards instead of an SSD like he advertises.
Like @philden is saying, better do the upgrades yourself and actually know what is in there.
I got my stuff from eBay: thepartguru who sells genuine iFlash parts.

A little off-topic but my two cents as you mentioned flac:
You can losslessly convert them to alac (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) so you can manage them with iTunes and sync them to your iPod without RockBox.
Personally I prefer managing/syncing everything with iTunes as the smart playlists are so convenient (a.e. to get the most liked/played/recent tracks automatically synced on the iPod and disliked tracks removed).
The only downside I see of alac to flac is that they lack an MD5 checksum to verify their integrity in case of a disk failure.
But I found the "File Integrity Verifier" plugin for foobar2000 equally reliable (Windows only software).
I have no devices that would only play flac and not alac but that may differ for you.

 

[Sossity]

I found this seller; https://eoe.works/collections/apple-ipod-classic-6th-7th-generation, like that they are least based in the Us. I remember now, getting an ipod classic, it was a 6th or 7th gen, and it retrofitted with a 256 GB card, I tink it was a card, and in just about a few months, I had playback problems, skipping, just as described here.

If I go with just 128 GB, I might as well just repurpose my old 128 GB iphone 6s plus, but it was getting short on internal space.

Unless I see a good seller, I think I will ether do an iPod modification myself, or just go with using an old 256 or 512 iPhone instead.

 

[Grumpus]

I found this seller; https://eoe.works/collections/apple-ipod-classic-6th-7th-generation, like that they are least based in the Us. I remember now, getting an ipod classic, it was a 6th or 7th gen, and it retrofitted with a 256 GB card, I tink it was a card, and in just about a few months, I had playback problems, skipping, just as described here.

The limits are based on the number of "tracks" which can be audio files, or, with some models, photos or videos. If you have CD quality music files, or videos, you might be able to justify more storage without running over the track limit. RockBox will let you use more storage, but the user interface might take some getting used to. Since you can boot back-and-forth between the stock iPod firmware and RockBox, it doesn't take a big commitment to try it.

BTW, doing your own "flash mod" isn't necessarily a slam dunk. I've had a 60 GB iPod Photo since 2005 and the disk finally decided to die, so I bought an iFlash ATA-1 and a 128 GB SD card, along with a new battery. Unfortunately, so far I haven't been able to get it working. I'm now waiting on a replacement disk cable. If that doesn't work, well, 18 years is a pretty good run

EDIT: the new disk cable solved the problem.

 

[Sossity]

The seller you linked seems - let's say weird - as he states, from 512 GB you lose 31% to formatting and system files which is highly suspicious.
My iPod Classic 7G with 640 GB iFlash displays 596 GB in iTunes (7% "missing")
My iPod Classic 5G with 160 GB HDD displays 149 GB in iTunes (7% "missing")
He also states "Storage media is completely waterproof" which points more to SD memory cards instead of an SSD like he advertises.
Like @philden is saying, better do the upgrades yourself and actually know what is in there.
I got my stuff from eBay: thepartguru who sells genuine iFlash parts.

A little off-topic but my two cents as you mentioned flac:
You can losslessly convert them to alac (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) so you can manage them with iTunes and sync them to your iPod without RockBox.
Personally I prefer managing/syncing everything with iTunes as the smart playlists are so convenient (a.e. to get the most liked/played/recent tracks automatically synced on the iPod and disliked tracks removed).
The only downside I see of alac to flac is that they lack an MD5 checksum to verify their integrity in case of a disk failure.
But I found the "File Integrity Verifier" plugin for foobar2000 equally reliable (Windows only software).
I have no devices that would only play flac and not alac but that may differ for you.

OK, thanks this is informative, it looks like it is best to say away from this seller, I did not necessarily like them, it was one that seemed to have the most iPods selling on eBay right now, when I looked.

As to flac files, I might just stick with mp3 files, they seem to be the most compatible and take up less drive space; I have 320 quality mp3s that I used software to convert from my flac files for more universal compatibility.

So iPods with an ssd drive might be better than ones with an SD card? and it seems like the higher capacity sd cards have a song number limit and if one goes over this, that is when problems might begin?

What about this seller? https://eoe.works/collections/apple-ipod-classic-6th-7th-generation

It looks more like my best route would be to do one myself or just repurpose an older iPhone. It comes down to a matter of time, for me, right now I do not have a lot of time to mess around with the insides of an iPod, I do not know enough about them like this, and question for me if it is worth it, when there is newer tech out now to play music.

 

[Sossity]

The limits are based on the number of "tracks" which can be audio files, or, with some models, photos or videos. If you have CD quality music files, or videos, you might be able to justify more storage without running over the track limit. RockBox will let you use more storage, but the user interface might take some getting used to. Since you can boot back-and-forth between the stock iPod firmware and RockBox, it doesn't take a big commitment to try it.

BTW, doing your own "flash mod" isn't necessarily a slam dunk. I've had a 60 GB iPod Photo since 2005 and the disk finally decided to die, so I bought an iFlash ATA-1 and a 128 GB SD card, along with a new battery. Unfortunately, so far I haven't been able to get it working. I'm now waiting on a replacement disk cable. If that doesn't work, well, 18 years is a pretty good run

Ok, thanks for the input, maybe I will look for an iPod with rockbox on it? or it looks like in your case, it was and is time to move on to something else.

 

[stiligFox]

OK, thanks this is informative, it looks like it is best to say away from this seller, I did not necessarily like them, it was one that seemed to have the most iPods selling on eBay right now, when I looked.

As to flac files, I might just stick with mp3 files, they seem to be the most compatible and take up less drive space; I have 320 quality mp3s that I used software to convert from my flac files for more universal compatibility.

So iPods with an ssd drive might be better than ones with an SD card? and it seems like the higher capacity sd cards have a song number limit and if one goes over this, that is when problems might begin?

What about this seller? https://eoe.works/collections/apple-ipod-classic-6th-7th-generation

It looks more like my best route would be to do one myself or just repurpose an older iPhone. It comes down to a matter of time, for me, right now I do not have a lot of time to mess around with the insides of an iPod, I do not know enough about them like this, and question for me if it is worth it, when there is newer tech out now to play music.

EOE is a pretty good place - I mod my own iPods, and get all my parts from him.

 

[spyguy10709]

I've also ordered iPod parts from EOE before and would suggest his work over some random overseas seller if you're not quite interested in the hobby-project of doing it yourself.