10 years ago a gift was given to me and it was the 5th generation iPod Video 30GB. This music player stayed with me for around 4-5 years of use prior to getting an iPod Touch. Conversely the iPod touch only got around 2 years of use prior to smart phones replacing music players at large.
The iPod 5.5G is widely used by people today as the components are quality and the device can provide functionality to audio enthusiasts (Audiophiles) around the world. Unfortunately the market at large has taken the functionality that comes in a dedicated music players and placed it inside of all modern cell phones, in doing this many manufacturers have discontinued their dedicated music player lines. One of the music players I had previously, the Sansa Clip+, only makes newer versions of this devices that simply aren’t as elegant as the previously made ones. The audio enthusiast community still has some music players available today mainly the FiiO X lineup which are more than capable.
The idea of having a dedicated music player might sound silly to some but for individuals who have high fidelity files, privacy concerns, and/or battery limitations the idea of a dedicated music player is very enticing.
This brings me to the question many could have, why even bother rebuilding a 10-year-old iPod?
To which, only a smile can be returned with the retort of “why not?”
People sell these iPods on Ebay with 1tb of flash storage for between $600 – $999 dollars. The cost to refurbish the iPod that I have held onto should only be around $100 which wouldn’t even buy me a Clip+ that I mentioned earlier! The other great piece of this is that the free (as in speech as well as beer) software Rockbox is available on the iPod for a great combination of hardware and software to create the ideal experience. (From here on was added around the time of publication)
I already have MY iPod 5.5g but here is the parts list, I already had a 120gb SSD that I was going to put into it so the below was likely around ~$80USD.
- Replacement front and rear case
- Adapter for 120gb SSD mSATA PCI-E to 40pin ZIF CE
- Replacement click wheel assembly
- Replacement Battery
The idea ultimately to have a bit of nostalgia and save a device that gave me a lot of joy from the landfill was more of a motivation than the fiscal cost of the parts and pieces.
Ultimately, it was a great project, and I learned a fair bit but the additional notes on this project are below
I wrote most of the above 6 years ago
In Practice
Ultimately, the flash storage and the processor present on the iPod 5.5G is good at indexing, playing and searching the total sum of music it was built to support which was between 30-80GB. Soft modding them to support what you hardware modded is ultimately, fun! I will give them that, but far more advanced processing power is capable in newer digital audio players (DAPs).
I had fun with this project and saw it to completion but ultimately my use case was inside of my 2017 Honda Civic for playing music. This car unfortunately, like most new cars didn’t and still doesn’t have a 3.5mm jack input. This meant that all processing and commands going to the mp3 player happened over USB, USB that was only accessible if it was running the stock firmware. Additionally, as a “feature” the GUI on the device is completely inaccessible while playing and requires either navigation through the infotainment system or to be unplugged, controlled and then plugged back in (after you would select a song). This firmware was a real pain to use on a modern PC and required regular “Syncs” in order to match up with the media in your library. The UI was clunky at best and non-responsive at its worst. Some people went so far as to give these iPods Bluetooth capability, which is really neat, but it is not something that I was willing to do after re-assembling the case for the 5th time.
For my purposes, I bought a HiBy R3 Pro Saber, a 400gb microSD card, a pair of in ear monitors and a case for the player for $163.54 in July of 2022. This device supports USB-C based file transfer, the memory is removable from the side instead of taking apart an aluminum and plastic case that was made almost 20 years ago. The 30 pin USB 2.0 standard looks archaic in juxtaposition with that of the USB-C present on my daily driver unit.
The speed is amazing, the battery life is phenomenal and overall, I would recommend most people look into a portable digital audio player of some kind instead of relying on a smart phone with no headphone jack and no removable storage.
I’d like to cover this in an additional article that I have partially drafted and will back link it here should I go on to publish it.
In Summary
I still have my iPod but it is more of something to play with than something that I would use day to day. Instead? I would like to look back fondly on when I received it as a gift from my parents for Christmas in 2006. I wouldn’t refute any of my points originally, but something like this is more of something that is for fun and nostalgia than it is based in utilitarian use – and that’s okay! I would be much happier if I lost my HiBy R3 somewhere than if I were to never see my iPod again.