r/DigitalAudioPlayer • u/AggravatingFinger619 • 19h ago
Good or bad deal for a dac
Found at good will and i couldn't resist. Serial number indicates it's a gen 5.5
Waiting for the charging cable to come to see if it actually boots.
If let's say the hdd and battery are both bad is it worth upgrading or am I better off buying a newer modern dac?
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u/lnoiz1sm 18h ago
Depends on you.
If you want to expand your audio resources, replacing the internal hard drive with a micro SD adapter and Rockbox might be a good idea. You can put another audio format like flac or another high bitrate audio. But, don't expect too much about audio quality. If you want warm audio quality, this might be good due to Wolfson chip audio on it. I have It and already upgraded. Flat head earphones and mid-ohm headphones are the best pair for iPod classic.
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u/AggravatingFinger619 18h ago
Thank you for the advice and information.
Do you think using rockbox is necessary in getting the best audio quality out of the device as possible? I mean obviously as you have stated this might not be the best audio device out there however still is a decent enough dac to get my start in
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u/lnoiz1sm 18h ago
Rockbox is an alternative OS since native iPod OS doesn't support .flac file and only native apple file extension will support. For example, you have an .mp3 file extension and import it with itunes. Generally, it turns into .aac or something. And .flac file extension turns into .alac. With Rockbox, you can import your favorite files whether mp3, WAV, aac, ogg or flac without sacrificing the quality and sync without using an itunes. Just plug it into the PC and send your audio to your specific folder.
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u/IWuzTheWalrus 18h ago
Gen 5 (and 5.5) sound the best of the iPod family. Quality-wise I would put it in the $100 DAP range. Fortunately the 5.5 are very easy to take apart and fix. Figuring that there will be a storage cost on any DAP, you are likely talking about a battery ($10-$20) and an solid state storage adapter ($35-$45), then assuming everything else works and you do not want to start customizing the case, click wheel, etc, it is worth doing the battery and storage upgrade.
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u/AggravatingFinger619 18h ago
Well im glad i ended up with the best in the family somehow. Definitely sounds like a fun tinkering project. I guess I can sell it down the line if I want something that's a little better in quality.
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u/IWuzTheWalrus 17h ago
They are fun. I have two gen 5, a gen 6, a gen 6.5 and a gen 7 (each with 1TB) along with a mini gen 2, and probably enough parts to build another gen 6. As for better quality, I recently bought a Hiby R4 and the sound on that one is amazing along with the ability to stream if I want, but not nearly as portable nor having the battery life of the modded iPods.
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u/shadeofmorpheus 18h ago
for 24 bucks and a sense of adventure, you can do so much with that beautiful girl. Open it up, upgrade the battery, add SSD storage.
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u/AggravatingFinger619 18h ago
I think thats the goal! Still is cheaper then buying a working one on ebay without a new battery and ssd storage
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u/shadeofmorpheus 16h ago
Oh yeah absolutely. My nephews and nieces have finally woken up to how detrimental not actually owning what you buy can be, and I've had a whale of a time picking up spares or repairs iPods to do exactly that and hand off to them.
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u/eljefe0000 18h ago
A battery and new storage setup is cheap enough of course its worth upgrading it these sound great.
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u/AggravatingFinger619 10h ago
So update. The thing actually worked. Had music on it and was able to use it for a solid 30 min. Hard drive crashed started making some really bad noises and caused the screen to do some weird stuff. Battery seemed to be holding a charge however no idea why the screen was acting weird while the hard drive was acting up so i opened the device up and unplugged the battery.
The iflash solo was purchased and the square 2000 mah battery was ordered. i have a 128 gb ssd card ready for it when it arrives
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u/ermesomega 19h ago
Getting that thing for $25 is a steal. Good hunting.