Another month of Spotify premium (and the fact that despite paying for the service they’re now advertising shows and albums to me in the app) has made me consider going back to MP3s, and I’ve been reading about modded iPods and MP3 players which seems like a fun project (and would let me keep my precious headphones jack when my current phone dies).
Has anyone dabbled in this, or knows of a decent how-to? I’d prefer to avoid iTunes if possible but I’m very open to suggestions.
Modded iPods and MP3 players
2 Likes
not sure what you mean by “modded” I used an old phone with vlc installed to play music for a long time worked fine. Old phones used to be smaller though.
I used a sony mp3 for a while This one I think.
From experience though pre touch screen is more frustrating than I remember
1 Like
After my squeezebox touch died, I made a thing using a raspberry pi. It would rip any cd which was put in its drive and had a web gui so I could play the library of mp3s using my phone. So not quite what you asked about, but a fun project.
1 Like
There’s a bit of a low-key movement online to take old iPods and swap out the hard drives for flash memory, add usb-C ports and Bluetooth connections, and beef up the batteries with modern equivalents. Sometimes they swap out the firmware for Rockbox, which I think is open source. At £60 for parts (including busted iPod) I think it’s worth a go!
1 Like
That’s extremely fun! Putting it on the list after I figured out the iPod…
I restored and modded some iPods, there are plenty of mods out there, bluetooth, solid state, custom cases, bigger batteries, you can get lost into how much there is.
To be honest, I don’t advice the ipod as listening device, the quality of the DAC wasn’t the best compared to other devices, it all depends what you want to do, if you a dedicated device to listen to audio, maybe vintage, you have plenty of choice, with creative and sony as alternatives
1 Like
The Gen 5.5 iPod, with its Wolfson DAC, is much sought-after by 'self-styled audiophiles’ and often reckoned to be a lot better than many other devices that came later (e.g. the particularly unloved Gen 6 iPod, smartphones and many non-Apple products).
However, what constitutes “better” is subject to different analyses and opinions…
Yes, well, self-styled audiophiles will tell you that analog audio cables have a polarity and they will buy golden plated optical cables, gen 5.5 it’s better, yes, but audio rendering it’s not black magic and short of bottom of the barrel electronic design it’s rare to find a device that will not reproduce MP3 basically perfectly.
I played with that idea for a while but the what put me off was a limited storage they could be modded to due to their OS not able to manage big drives. I ended up buying a smartphone with the extra microSD card slot I use only for my mp3 collection. I have a 1TB card, so plenty of space still. Using Musicolet or Poweramp ad app of choice.
All in all was cheaper than a modded iPod.
1 Like
This is the way.
I think for my purposes (and that I’m hoping to get a couple more years out of my current phone) 256GB would cover what I need. @emuboy 's point about the DAC is perfectly valid too, although I’m no audiophile, so I’ll probably end up with something like your phone set up in the long run. Thanks for the advice!
2 Likes
Being an “audiophile” and listening to mp3s is an oxymoron.
Proud owner of an ipod ‘video’ which is the one with the Wolfson DAC. And yes I had it from new and only became aware of the reputation later. Always liked it, only apple product I’ve ever owned.
I can vouch for the audio quality, it’s not hocus pocus. The ultra low distortion gives a really good sound, even with mp3s.
If you’ve ever worked with audio at the discrete component level you will know the engineering compromises that go into squeezing something onto 1mm of silicon - current, noise, cross-coupling, emf, monotonicity, decimation filters, jitter, etc, etc.
I agree ‘audiophiles’ often have a questionable relationship to reality, however ‘good sound’ does exist and doesn’t even need to cost that much.
I never modded mine, just repaired it by re-seating the screen zif connector. I did install rockbox though which was straightforward. There is a theme available which mimics the orginal UI too. Smaller and better than a smartphone. Plenty of space for hundreds of wavs, flacs and mp3s. Drag and drop.
Now, resume the flame war 
2 Likes
I am very interested in Rockbox! First round of parts arrived this week, I’m going to open it up and take a quick look at the battery before ordering my flash drive. Might hit you up for Rockbox advice if I run into problems?
1 Like
Good luck!
I’m rarely active on this forum, but the documentation online is good from what I remember. Be careful, slow and methodical and you should be fine 
You could take it to an electronics evening if you have problems, but you’ll probably face the same helpful ‘advice’ and whingeing as above in this thread 
main reason I stopped going to them was all the negativity!
1 Like
Rockbox bring me back memories.
I used to be very active when the first gen nano came out.
That was checks notes 20 years ago.
Yeah, I’ve been at it for a long time 
1 Like
This thread seems to have touched a nerve……some things sound better than others….you don’t have to be an audiophile to know that. You just need ears. I’m suspecting there might be secret level of sound enthusiasts lurking in SLMS ?