A bit addicted to my phone recently - upwards of 6 hours staring at the screen some days! Drastic problems require drastic solutions, s the phone is stripped back to essentail apps only. That means no spotify - so lets dust off the old iPod Classic.
Here she is in all her glory, a whopping 30GB of storage on a minature fully functional HDD! Amazing for what it is - but not exactly suitable for the 2020s!
The plan
- iFlash Adaper to:
- Update the HDD for solid state storage
- Increase the capacity
- Big ol new LiPo battery - 200mAh to 3000mAh
- Refresh the stale black scratched plastic
- RockBox - A new OS so that i dont ever have to deal with iTunes. Ever
Installing
Popping the back off this thing was unbeliebably hard - just clips but its a tight fit! Once that was off, putting it together was failrly straightforward, just ribbon cables between all the new parts.
The result is this beauty - 256GB SSD with a slick neew software, and a retro and gorgous clear faceplate, and polished black back.
Sounds great with lossless audio and a high quality DAC. Scrobbles to last.fm when I sync it, and i set up a navidrome instance so i can still listen to the tracks if i am stranded with my phone - but only my collection! No more algorythmic stuff or not knowing what im listening too.
Back enjoying my music
Wow if this isnt the way to do it. slowly building a collection, listening to the newest addition all the time. Asking people for albums they think i should add and its starting lots of great convos, and great finds. Another consequence of this as time’s gone on is that I’m starting to associate albums with periods of life. Summer 2025 is the season of Future Islands - im sure ill always think of kicking it in the Berlin sun with a club matte when Tin Man comes on.
Long live the iPod!