How I became the owner of the legendary iPod Classic. Why is it needed in 2023

What not to do about Apple because it knows how to create memorable products. Designers, engineers, and marketers clearly get their money there for a reason.

Now, when it comes to a smartphone, many people imagine the iPhone. Its design is memorable and easily recognizable among phones of other brands.

If you ask about a device like a player now or 10-15 years ago, the first thing that comes to mind is the iPod – a white corner with a display and a steering wheel underneath it. It is difficult to imagine something from other manufacturers.

One small device had a huge impact on the music industry, Apple and society as a whole. Even after years it remains a desirable gadget. I was no exception to this desire.

And that’s how it all happened.

How I found out about iPod

I haven’t heard much about Apple and its products selling iPhones. And even until the presentation of the first iPhone 2G too. Although its products have appeared in some films and videos: for example, the iMac in the film “Final Destination 2.”

During high school, I was interested in phones and looked at free catalog magazines. There were similar magazines in several retail chains, but either there were fewer salons, or there weren’t so many of their own magazines; in general, I constantly looked at them from the Svyaznoy store.

Phones back then had little built-in memory, and models with flash drives were expensive.

In addition to phones, the magazine also had a section with players. They’ve proven to be a cheap alternative to listening to your favorite songs anywhere, once you’ve conquered the headphone bundle. That’s where the iPod caught my attention. The volume of its storage was impressive – it lasted several tens of thousands of songs or ten hours of video.

For comparison, at that time I had the simplest computer with a pot-bellied monitor, on which I learned Windows as a schoolboy. He only had 20GB of storage. Here is a pocket item that is similar or has a more capacious disk. But it’s true, it also cost more than my computer.

First acquaintance with iPod

Active youth began. Exams, graduating from high school, and also me going to college. And somehow I didn’t think about the iPod all this time. And I don’t remember that it was somewhere in store windows in our small town.

In the summer of 2011, at a student camp, among new acquaintances, two owners of an iPod Classic. We communicated quite well and one evening we agreed to borrow the player until the morning. For the first time I was able to interact with him without looking at the picture in the magazine.

Assembly without gaps. Nothing creaks. The metal body feels pleasantly cool on the hand. Its entire appearance and weight indicate that this is a quality item. When the disk begins to spin inside, you slightly feel the vibration. The disc rustles quietly there, which sometimes creates the feeling that the player is alive.

Click Wheel has a touch surface and 4 physical buttons.

From the magazines, I didn’t quite understand how navigation in the player happened, but in the first minute I figured out what and how. Using the Slick Wheel, it was convenient and quick to scroll through a list with hundreds of songs. The only thing I didn’t find then was how to turn off the iPod.

After watching it live, I liked the iPod even more. But I didn’t like the price in stores of 10-12 thousand. It’s naive that with my scholarship of 3.5 thousand rubles in 3 months I will have 10,500 rubles, then I’ll buy myself an iPod. But while doing cell phone, travel, and clothing updates, I said I wasn’t attending this one. The purchase of the player went to the distant shelves.

Long-awaited purchase

I already work at Apple ASC and I was interested in how iPods are serviced. It turned out that the housings were not disassembled and replaced. The idea came to me to buy a non-working one and replace it for a fee. But the replacement price of around 18 thousand rubles plus the cost of a non-working player made the idea irrational. By this time, the new iPod Classic had not been sold in stores for several years.

A colleague noticed my interest in iPods and told me he had one. I wanted to remember the rustling sound of the disc, and I thought that the player was in my hand, so I asked if I could lend it to him for a couple of days. He kindly helped me with it.

Even a sticker has been preserved, which at the output warns of the possibility of hearing damage from prolonged listening under the roof.

It was a silver 80GB iPod Classic in good condition without many scratches. I dropped the first few songs and somehow found myself in his 2011 in a new way. The player also weighed down the hand pleasantly and kept its metal body cool. Somewhere inside, a disk with a characteristic sound was rarely spinning.

When it was time to return, the player asked a colleague who wouldn’t sell him an iPod. I don’t remember what exact amount we agreed on so that he wouldn’t sell it too cheap and I wouldn’t buy it too expensive. We agreed on either 4 or 4.5 thousand rubles for the player and charging cable. This is how I became famous for the iPod Classic.

I received an iPod Classic in the same condition.

Autumn 2019. Player 2009. When buying equipment that lasts ten years, your biggest worry is the battery. But to my surprise, it lasted about 6 hours – not 30, of course, like when I bought it ten years ago, but also an excellent result for her age.

The battery life depended heavily on the distribution of factors: if you constantly scroll through songs, set the display brightness to maximum and the volume, and it’s also cool outside, then the iPod will last much less.

The current state of the disk. No bad sectors appeared

Another important point, and sometimes the initial one for the iPod Classic, is the state of the internal storage. The hard drive is very sensitive to falls and shocks, especially during operation.

I checked it using the built-in check – there are no bad sectors. Startup time for work and disk is 80 hours.

Someone sees original headphones, but I spent 350₽

Since I only had the player itself with a cable from the kit, I bought original headphones for complete authenticity. They have been gathering dust in case of replacement for more than one year. Now it’s not the first year he’s left it in film with me.

For listening at home, use an iPod in conjunction with the Marshall Major 2, and outside the home with the Sony MDR-EX15LP.

Downloading music is not so difficult and scary

At one point, working with iTunes in one way or another infuriated all owners of Apple equipment. In the meantime, you understand the operation of this combine and come to some acceptance of it. If you connect the iPod music jack using it.

Ever since school, I had a small music library on my computer – some downloaded from the Internet, some from disks. Meanwhile, songs were transferred from one computer to another: first one desktop computer running Windows, then another. After the Macbook Pro 13 2015, then the Macbook Pro 13 2019, and now the Macbook Air M1. Covers were added via iTunes and it became absolutely beautiful.

I loaded all my songs into the player and listened to what I wanted – from classics to hard rock.

Download songs from your library to iPod Classic using the Music app

In the future, if I liked a new song or an entire album, I would download it and also put it on my iPod. Most often they downloaded from VK using a browser extension.

In one version of Mac OS, the iTunes application limited its existence – several applications appeared in its place, and Finder took over some of the functions for working with connected devices.

The player still holds and detects any Apple laptop without any problems

You can now upload new songs not only from your library in the Music application.

You can also move a song from your downloads folders, desktop, or other storage location to the Finder window.

Nuances in the operation of the iPod that no one talked about in reviews

For the first time, I often used the iPod – I carried it with me for walks, took it on the way to work and back, and just on trips. It’s always like this with a new thing – at first you use it constantly, and then less and less. Several external factors were detected during use.

At first I thought that perhaps this was a problem with my device and some kind of defect. But I read thematic forums with messages from 2010-2014 and people there had the same thing.

Of all the original chargers, Apple only charges the iPod with the small US unit.

iPod is fastidious when it comes to charging. From the very beginning of the show, the center of the iPod ecosystem was the computer, to which it periodically needed to be connected. Connect not only to sync music, but also to charge.

If the computer is not nearby, to charge it you need to block the charger marked “for iPod”. The player almost always does not see other charges, even with similar characteristics.

Music can be heard with zero sound. You set the value to zero, that is, there is no blue sound in sight, but there are headphones in them. It’s quiet, but it’s quiet.

All your MP3 songs are converted to AAC

Sensitive to converting mp3 files. At times the iPod would skip over a song. Or after listening, he didn’t let her listen more, and it lost. There is a song in the list of songs, but when you select it, the next one plays. At the same time, everything plays back without problems in iTunes. The solution is to reconvert the track.

The equalizer ruins the sound. The view has several options for preset equalizer settings. There are settings such as Pop, Rock, Jazz, Latin. There are a total of 22 settings, which in theory should give a slightly different sound to familiar compositions. But the value of low frequencies here is a little overestimated, so in most cases, instead of bass, you hear wheezing in the ears.

iPod Classic as a different way to listen to music

You stop mindlessly listening to what the algorithms provide for you. The algorithm here is you yourself and you listen to what you chose and downloaded. Somehow you begin to approach the choice of songs more seriously and consciously, even if they simply drown out the noise of public transport.

As the saying goes, “if you’ve never had goosebumps from music, then it’s time for you to think about whether you’re listening to bad music?”

Cover Flow mode on iPod Classic

Choosing a song and the process itself is similar to choosing a vinyl record for good evenings. Cover Flow mode brings this parallel even further. The iPod Classic is a kind of vinyl record player for the digital age.

Only instead of a record inside, it quietly spins a disk. In the case of the iPod, we are no longer talking about sound, but about tactile sensations from interaction.

Why do you need an iPod Classic in 2023? This is a personal time capsule

Music has one property – it can transport you to moments in the past. For everyone, some song evokes memories. That’s why the iPod Classic is like a personal time capsule for me. Perhaps this is one of the main reasons for purchasing.

Someone might say that you can download music to your phone. Can. But it won’t be quite the same. There are a lot of irritations on the phone, such as notifications or the desire to go somewhere and scroll through an endless feed. At such moments, music fades into the background, and the brain is again overloaded with an unnecessary flow of information.

With an iPod, you are alone only with the song and its artist, as well as possible memories. Or you can just think about your own.