Should you buy an iPod Classic in 2024?

The iPod Classic was a staple of the 2000's and is still highly sought out today amongst tech enthusiasts and audiophiles. But is it worth refurbishing and modifying one?

Team Credits:

Ken Bolido - Host & Writer
@austinevans - Executive Producer
@LukePollack - Shooter & Editor

⚡️ Follow Us on Social Media ⚡️

Twitter | @denkichannel & @kenbolido

Denki is an Overclock Media production.

By using our Amazon affiliate links we may receive compensation for purchases through those links.

[DNKI]

After I took THE L on my PSX, figured we'd fix something a bit easier 😏

[luckclumonM]

I think you should, you actually own the music, no delay, no subscriptions, no ads. 10/10 choice in 2024

[NekoMichi]

1:53 - Models older than the 5.5th gen also had Wolfson DACs. When buying iPods, beware of listings where the seller goes out of the way to mention the DAC because it's become an easy way for them to unreasonably mark up prices. The music file and headphones you use play a much bigger part in the audio quality anyway.

[blacklistedXXX]

if Apple re-release the iPod classic, I will definitely buy it in a heartbeat!

[shinkuhs]

I thought I clicked on a dankpods notification

[Rohirin]

I finally got an iPod after watching a Dankpods video. I did the same internal mods that you did, but didn't replace the shell. That thing was a tank, and if it weren't for a bad cable ruining the 32 pin connector, it would still be my daily music device. Since then, I've modded Minis, 4th and 6th gen classics.

[xdorta]

The BEST VIDEO you’ve made Amazing presentation and script, perfectly spoken, little hints of comedy. Gorgeous b-roll and just a stellar reshell job! Flawless

[Aragon-pk]

This was such a cool device. I remember I had in 2007 the iPod Classic 5th generation and I listened for hours my favorite songs. Now we have Apple Music and Spotify but in that time we had to sync with iTunes and do some workarounds to play our favorite music. Thanks for this nostalgic video.

[javiercolon]

Since I have like 30 minutes without cellular signal on my way home I had to customize my iPod Classic recently. I changed the board to the iFlash one and now I have 4 sd cards installed and a 3000mah battery. The best decision I’ve made.

[jon]

I ditched spotify and went back to using an iPod, I couldn't be happier! Although I went with a 6th gen; because it supports my audible library. I currently have about 3500 songs, 40 audio books, a bunch of radio drama, and I haven't even filled half of my 128gb SD card. I modified a 4000 mAh smartphone battery to work with the iPod and it gets about 250 hours of playback between charges.

[bibasik]

I love my iPod Classics! I have a 1st, 3rd, 4th monochrome, 4th color, 5.5th, and 7th gen.

I put a large battery and 512GB flash storage in the 5.5th gen using an iFlash Quad.

[Paula_Deen_Guy_Fieri]

I WISH apple would release a standalone music player updated for today’s streaming services Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud etc

[robertwolfgan]

This guy makes yellow and black look extra fantastic on him, damn. Also never thought modding an iPod Classic was possible, thank you!

[nostalgiatrip]

I rock a iPod 5.5 I modded as well. What I do recommend for anyone wanting to try this is to try to find the 80GB versions of this model because it does have more RAM than the 30GB, it is also the "thicker" version that Denki ended up making which the shell replacement.

[michaelgully]

Great video... just found my old Ipod classic from my deployment. Bought a 3rd party cable and it still works. Listening to the music and watching the videos of my deployment brought back memories.

[Yaarmehearty]

I also had/have a 5.5, the main issue with using one of these in 2023 is that there is kind of a limit on how many songs you can have on it. Even if you beef up the storage you cant do anything about the RAM, when you have too many songs the low RAM causes it to crash and skip all the time. If you dont have many songs or dont need them all on the iPod all the time then they do still sound great.

[nalsai]

I've been waiting for this video. Also I just bought an iPod Classic 5th gen today. They are pretty expensive in Germany but in Japan you can actually get them for quite cheap.

[LyssieLysse]

I’m thinking about getting another iPod as I want a dedicated device for my music and podcasts. I like having my phone, but it gets to be overwhelming. I miss the early 2000s where each device was separated.

[patrickwirth]

Actually the old Rockbox version 3.15 you used in combination with the iFlash could be the root cause of the freezing issues and crashes you encountered.
I´d always recommend to use the daily builds.
There has been so much going on since 2019, also improving the compatibility with iFlash.
It´s still not perfect, as rockbox simply expects a native IDE hard drive, since this is what the driver was written for.
However, there is one kind of flash storage that will work flawlessly and that is a compact flash card.
It´s a native IDE device and while it doesn´t offer extreme sequential speeds like modern SSD´s, it´s still a heck of a lot faster and more responsive than any HDD and is also able to outperform many modern SD cards.
So if you ever want to revisit your iPod, from time to time a photographer tosses out a bunch of old compact flash cards for cheap.
You may grab a 128gb one for example.

[rickhendricks]

Heck yeah! I pulled my old 7th gen Space Grey 160gb out and charged it up… then went on ali express for a 256gb SATA ssd refurb kit. Aside from flash, I’ll be keeping it stock - here’s to giving this thing another decade of life!