Well, I finally broke down...

[Slosh]

...and got a new iPod Classic. My old Frankensteined (made from two broken iPods) 30GB iPod's headphone output stopped working on the left side, and I couldn't fix it. Both channels still work from the dock connector but I got tired of figuring out what to remove every time I wanted to put new music on it. That, and I heard a rumor this is the last year for HDD-based iPods. I currently have 10,120 songs on it (Lame V0 mp3) and have room for about 12,000 more songs! I briefly considered putting all Apple Lossless songs on it but since I mostly use it in my car, or with $30 JVC headphones I can't hear a difference. I can hear a difference when connected to a good stereo when I take it to friends' houses, but even so Lame V0 is still pretty damn good, especially for casual listening. I may use Apple Lossless for my favorite, well-recorded albums since I have so much capacity now. Probably not worth doing though given how I use it.

I did consider the 64GB Touch, but it's $400 vs. $250 for the 160GB Classic, plus I would still have to be choosy about what I put on it. I bet in the not too distant future there will be TB+ flash players, then I'll be able to use lossless for everything.

[ForeverAutumn]

...and got a new iPod Classic. ... I heard a rumor this is the last year for HDD-based iPods.

That's what I've been afraid of! My old 80GB classic is on it's last legs. I've been debating whether to replace it now or wait until it dies. My fear has been that if I wait, Apple will come out with new models and stop making the classic. I don't know this for sure, but I just have a feeling that they aren't very good sellers. Everyone seems to either want the cool factor of a Touch or the compactness of the Nano. Your post might be the one thing that I needed to hear to pull the trigger sooner rather than later.

I have a 32GB Touch and I actually prefer my Classic. I find the Classic way easier to navigate while I'm in the car. Plus, as you mentioned, the 32GB is full so I have to pick and choose what's on it. I still have some room on the classic. I leave the Touch connected to our kitchen stereo for now. Although it will become our new remote when I eventually get Apple TV.

[Slosh]

I actually did try to find something other than an iPod to replace my old 30GB, but no other brand has anything approaching the capacity and supports gapless playback. I still have an old 30GB Toshiba mp3 player in my garage (battery is dead but still works with the AC adapter), and I even think it sounds a touch better than the iPod, and has a better user interface. I would have simply replaced the battery in that one but it doesn't support gapless playback and Toshiba/Microsoft never issued any firmware updates. At the time I bought it (2006) the 5th generation iPod didn't have gapless playback either but that changed a few months later with a firmware update.

The few players I found with larger hard drives were geared towards video and were physically much larger. I'm only interested in music playback. I still am amazed a device about the size of an audio cassette can hold 20,000+ songs. :)

[ForeverAutumn]

I was in Best Buy looking at the Classics a couple of weeks ago and the 12-yr-old sales guy tried to talk me into a Touch. I told him that 64GB wasn't enough for me. He said, "DUUUUDE you must have a lot of video on your iPod" (okay, he didn't actually call me Dude). I told him it was all music....I don't think he believed me. :D

[Jack in Wilmington]

I was in Best Buy looking at the Classics a couple of weeks ago and the 12-yr-old sales guy tried to talk me into a Touch. I told him that 64GB wasn't enough for me. He said, "DUUUUDE you must have a lot of video on your iPod" (okay, he didn't actually call me Dude). I told him it was all music....I don't think he believed me. :D

If he said DUDE, I hope his hearing is better than his eyesight. Maybe DUDEETTE.

This is a little off topic, but about two weeks ago I plugged in my IPod touch to add some songs and ITunes informs me that a new version is available and do I want to download. I said yes and after the upgrade, I check and all my songs are gone. Now they are still in my library on the computer, but now I have to take the time and download them to my IPod. What a pain. Anybody else have that happen to them. Sorry FA for sort of changing the subject.

[Slosh]

I haven't ever lost music on my old 30GB iPod but much of the album art mysteriously disappeared a few times. When that happened I copied some songs from the iPod back to my computer and the mp3 files still held the album art. Weird. It took at least 4 hours to sync my 10,000+ songs yesterday. Hopefully I'll only ever have to do that once (should only be albums at a time now, and new playlists).

[ForeverAutumn]

Between iPods and my iPhone I've synced five new iPods over the years and done most of the updates and I've never lost music like that. But I have heard of it happening to other people.

[Slosh]

You can put a 240GB HDD in 5th gen or newer full-size HDD-based iPods. That's probably what I would have done if I had been able to fix the headphone connector on mine. Your 80GB is probably old enough now to need a new battery, so I'm assuming it will be a lot cheaper to just buy a new Classic. 160GB is plenty for mp3/AAC, though.

[ForeverAutumn]

I actually have no idea how my battery life is. I have docks all over the house, in my car and my office so the battery never has a chance to drain; it's constantly being charged. Mine is older than 5th gen though. I think it's 3rd.

[Woochifer]

These iPod Classic rumors have been buzzing for a couple of years now. A lot of the earlier rumors had to do with supply issues surrounding the 1.8" hard drives. Basically, aside from what Apple purchases for the iPod Classic, the 1.8" hard drive is a dead market right now, and Toshiba is the only remaining supplier.

But, some signs point to the Classic still being viable for the time being.

My understanding is that the black iPod Classic is actually the #5 best selling media player -- ahead of all the iPod nano models (more colors available, so the combined sales might still be greater than the Classic). The three iPod touch models rank #1 to #3, and the white iPod shuffle ranks #4.

the more recent rumors have to do with the white iPod classic being backordered and hard to find right now. Indeed, Apple has a history of discontinuing products while they're still popular and/or viable (e.g., the bestselling iPod mini getting discontinued when Apple introduced the iPod nano). But, the backorder might be due to Toshiba coming out with a 220 GB version of the 1.8" hard drive. Apple might simply be clearing out inventory and revising the Classic with this higher capacity.

Personally, I use a nano and a touch. The touch is primarily for apps, while I manage the 8 GB limit on the nano by swapping playlists. I use the Genius playlist feature a lot, and let it auto-generate new playlists that I sync to the iPod. It's actually better than shuffling, because the Genius playlists are more genre-focused.

[Slosh]

My Classic is white (well, the click wheel is, anyway). I only picked white because my daughter has a slightly older black 120GB Classic, that otherwise looks identical.

I haven't really played around with the Genius feature. Often I'll just pick a genre and put it on shuffle. I only ever use iTunes to sync mp3s to the iPod, and to make mp3 playlists that mimic my lossless playlists. All of my normal at home listening is lossless via MediaMonkey. iTunes is so slow and navigation is a PITA with a large library. Navigation is so much easier with MediaMonkey 3.

I played around with Foobar and Winamp. Of those I like Winamp better but still prefer MediaMonkey by a wide margin.

[ForeverAutumn]

A little digging has shown that the rumours are that something is happening with the Classic, either it is being updated and upgraded to 220GB or being discontinued. So my dilemma is, do I wait for the upgrade and risk having them discontinued or do I get one now while they are readily available? There is also no time-frame mentioned in the rumours. Although traditionally Apple upgrades happen in September a 220GB Toshiba MP3 player could have Apple doing an early release (according to the rumour sites). I don't really care about the 220GB. I have an 80GB that is only about 60GB full. So it'll take me a while to even fill up a 160GB. Not to mention my 32GB Touch and a 32GB iPhone. So capacity is not really my issue. I'm just wondering what other improvements could be made. A slimmer more compact body? Better software?

Should I wait or pull the trigger? My 80BG is still working okay. It occasionally locks up and requires CPR to get it's heart beating again, and it doesn't sit as tight on the dock as it used to, but otherwise it's still ticking.

[SlumpBuster]

I finally drank the Apple Kool-Aid this Christmas. And while it sounds like you guys are way ahead of the curve on this, here is my 2 pennies.

I screwed around with a little 1GB player years ago and my wife has a latest generation 8GB Nano. Last year I took the time to put our entire CD collection on a hard drive in both lossless format (about 800gb) and then converted that to a decent Apple format (don't remember which but it is good mix of sound quality and small file size). The CDs are now in boxes under the stairs. Other than putting playlists together for my wife, I didn't really know what to do with all those music files. Integrating my PC to my stereo was not really a good option for a number of reasons, mostly because I listen to LPs at home and CDs in my car.

Then (drum roll please), I got a 64GB Ipad for Christmas. I'm hooked. It does take work to keep the playlists paired down, but I've got about 7500 songs on it. I would have preferred to have everything on it for the simple pleasure of having it play random forgotten gems. I don't understand why Apple is so stingy with its flash memory.

The best part though is the way it integrates with my primary stereo through Apple TV. No Ipod dock for me. Ipad to Apple TV by WiFi to my own stereos DACs. Sounds good enough in the Apple format that the varying quality of the CD's mastering has more of an impact than the loss from conversion.

If your considering upgrades, consider WiFi and wireless. I know I could have wirelessly integrated my computer to my stereo years ago without the Ipad, but it takes all kinds I guess. Sure it may not be the perfect "audiophile" solution, but I'm listening to records I haven't heard in years and even some I didn't realize I had. Plus, I'm downloading more songs from Itunes than ever before right from the Ipad. My record player is grateful for the respite.

Edit: My brother was already the first to quip "Great, somebody got you a $900 Ipod."

[ForeverAutumn]

Apple TV will probably happen in my house before the end of the month. :) noddinOff has been a huge help with that decision.

[nobody]

Hard to beat these things for taking to work, playing in the car and all that. I've pretty much abandoned CDs completely and do vinyl at home and MP3s on the go.

So yeah...I will be needing to get one of those 240 GB upgraded hard drives, didn't know about those. Thanks.

Honestly though. I like my iPod for portability and all, but Apple and their closed systems and the general clunkiness of iTunes have me pretty much just waiting for another company to come up with a high capacity good quality MP3 player and I'll just ship in a heartbeat.