Apple iPod classic 160 GB (7th Generation)

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MrVitalic85

New Head-Fier
Pros: Classic design, large capacity, dac is ok, battery life
Cons: bad EQ, hdd issue. UI can be slow at time ( hdd )
I like mine so much, that I will mod it with a msata ssd and tarkan iflash. My HDD begin to show sign of wear but this player is very sturdy. I always listen to my music on studio headphones and with no EQ. But if you want to use the EQ, stay away. Its so rubbish I cant believe it. At the moment you use an eq setting for the bass, bass become distorted and ugly.  

LeoTheAwesome

100+ Head-Fier
Pros: Build quality, battery, user interface, ascetics
Cons: Price, has to use iTunes, back is a scratch magnet
OVERVIEW
 
Great looking DAP, but I'm sure that if you have been on planet Earth for the past 10 years or so its safe to assume that the iPod looks is not a novelty.
 
The interface is a breeze, even if you are not accustom to IOS and apple devices. The OS for the iPod classic is unique to all the other apple devices. One do however has to be familiar with iTunes to sync, and that will force to convert the FLAC files to Apple Lossless. Not a big deal for me, both are perfectly fine. 
 
Battery life is spectacular! More than 24 hours easy easy, cant tell for certain the exact numbers but i change it only once or twice a week. 
 
Still uses the 30pin connector, what is actually a good thing. The new Lighting connector does not support line out, so yey!
 
Note: 
Lossless files can only be max 48.000kHz
Use XLD to convert Flac to Apple Lossless (Mac users, i care not for Windows) 
XLD can also convert frequency rate and do bulk conversion
 
 
BUILD QUALITY 
 
The build quality is amazing, not manny companies know how to make a product feel as premium as Apple. If fells so good in your hands, and the new iPod classic is quite thin also.
 
Back of the item is a scratch magnet, if you decide to not use a cover for some reason (like me) don't worry too much about the back. It can be easily polished, just use a Dremel or a cheap attachment for your screw driver and you are awesome to go! Don't forget to use a polish paste.
 
SOUND QUALITY
 
The sound quality on the iPod Classic is for all purposes really good. It is not very clean amplification, my Shure SE535 do get some light his at very low volumes. But again, those things are so sensitive. Any other headphone of mine is clear as a whistle. 
 
It add some sparkle to the reproduction, it improves sound stage but i feel that it is a little rolled off on the lows. 
 
It is a perfect addition to my SE215LTD and SE353 as they do roll off a little on highs. My Grados are already so bright, so i cant very much hear the difference. 
 
That been said, these characteristics are extremely minor. I have to listen to ****t stack back and fourth to get difference. 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
Great product! Go for it!!
 
106GB, great build quality, outstanding battery life, user friendly, looks great (to my eyes).
 
A strong point over the Fiio X3 and X5 (the most popular competition on Head-Fi) is Apple support, they are constantly updating softwares and fixing bugs. Chances that you will have a defective product and struggle back and fourth with china is about 0.001%.
 
It is not the cheapest, the X3 comes $50 cheaper, but after you added a 126GB SD its almost there anyway.
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It was very scratched, just polish it and BOOM! awesome again!
D
davidcotton
Nice review, however various forum threads point to the fact that Fiio are still updating the x3 as well as the x5 in terms of firmware.  In terms of reliability, so long as you purchase from somewhere with a good returns policy (amazon and the like) then you should be fine (no I don't own any fiio products and am not affiliated with them.)
 
Other than that spot on.
LeoTheAwesome
LeoTheAwesome
Yeah the X3 and the X5 just got a new firmware update last week to be honest. I think that the X5 even got hardware upgrades, not 100% sure. However, my point is that a company such as apple has infinite more resources than Fiio or any other Chinese company. So their software and hardware development is more stable. 
 
That been said, Fiio has very good quality control and user interface, adverse to iBasso for example that has so much quality complaints. 
 
For you lucky people in USA Amazon is the best way, in South Africa i can only get it from Ebay that is why i pointed out the back and fourth with China comment. 

fluffyberry

100+ Head-Fier
Pros: battery life, support for wide range of file types, storage space for everything
Cons: not the best sound quality, scratches easily, chunky, dont bother with the EQ
Just some background stuff before the review...this is the second source i have owned dedicated to music (i.e not listening to music off my iphone) so i don't have much experience with high end sources. all impressions were formed listening to 320kbps mp3 or lossless rips on the eytomic hf5s unamped across a wide range of music genres, so here goes.
 
i bought this after reading through a bunch of reviews on headfi and have been using it for quite some time, switching between this and my old iphone 4, which i pretty much use only for music and videos, and (very occasionally) my galaxy ace 3, so there will be some comparisons where i can provide them.
 
Build:
the first thing you'll notice about the classic is its weight, at 140g, this thing is hefty, so forget about bringing it on trips to the gym, unless you dont mind lugging around something that feels like a paperweight. the back is a very eye catching silver chrome, which i loved at first. however, it scratches incredibly easily, even taking it out of the pouch i keep it in left a mark from the zipper, so be prepared to buy a protective case for it, unless you dont mind a severely scratched back. Aside from that though, this thing is pretty sturdy, holding up daily trips to and from school, as well as all the time spent in my bag during the day, so i expect it will keep on working for some time unless i drop it or something.
 
Sound quality:
This ipod is probably one of the most common players available, and its easy to see why. for under $300, it performs pretty well. Without EQ on, it complements my rather analytical hf5s very well, with no significant over-emphasis on any frequency, making it ideal for listening to music across a wide range of genres. however, the EQ, at least i my opinion, is quite rubbish; having played around with all the setting, the EQ settings fail to optimize the classic to play any kind of music, even the one the setting was designed for, making the listening experience very fatiguing. Compared to my iphone 4 (which has a cirrus DAC), the classic lack a bit of shine in the higher frequencies, which made the music that much less lifeless, but the difference is small. Overall, while the ipod cannot possibly compete with players like the fiio x5 or some of the iBasso players, it will do its job well for the majority of music listeners, which i guess was its original purpose anyway.
 
Misc:
battery life on this thing is really good, although it isn't likely to last the 36 hours apple claims it does, but i have never run out of battery when using this thing, even though i use it a good 2-3 hours every day. you can watch video on it, but the screen quality and size are far below any of the smartphones that are available, so you probably wont make much use of it as a video player. the click wheel also takes some getting used to, especially for me coming from listening to music on a phone, and does make searching for a particular song more troublesome than on a touchscreen. finally, and perhaps most importantly, this thing has the storage space for pretty much your entire music library, with about 150+ gb of storage (not counting the space already taken up by apple's pre installed programs) to use. I have full movements from symphonies stored in lossless and 320kbps, plus a whole bunch of other songs, and i still have plenty of space left.
 
final impressions:
the classic is a good DAP for everyday use and provides decent sound quality. portability might be an issue for those without deep pockets of bags to place the player in due to its size, but it is manageable most of the time. the storage space is a big draw, as is the ease of the itunes system (which you are forced to use), but i did have trouble, and still do, with syncing my ipod to my pc, although that might just be an isolated case; and you can always use 64gb or 128gb sd cards for other players with micro-sd slots. so while i do like the classic, i might not recommend it for those with phones with decent DAC chips, or people with slightly bigger budgets who can go for fiio or something like that, and in the end, the classic is simply the epitome of an average music player-good at what it does, but not the best 
JeremyB796
JeremyB796
hell yeah, rockbox for those things is great.
fluffyberry
fluffyberry
oooh ok i'll give it a shot. Thanks guys :)
CanadianMaestro
CanadianMaestro
try to get a 5.5G classic on eBay. sounds a bit warmer than 7G. track-dependent.

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