Apple iPod classic 160 GB (7th Generation)

Brilliant for sheer storage size but it fills up quickly if you like videos, or have a lot of music at high bitrates or lossless. It's an iPod so the interface is easy.
 
Sound great for trains and other mobile use, worth pairing up with decent in ears to get some isolation and reduce the sound levels for sustained listening.
 
For stereo/hifi or in-house use buy a dock or cable that plugs into the bottom. The internal DAC is pretty good but is a compromise that is quite reasonable in such a small device. It gives pretty decent stereo rather than hifi - this becomes more apparent when you've heard an iPod through a digital dock and DAC, like the NS-D1 or the Wadia. For lossless and high bitrate music, this gives very good quality sound from a portable convenient device.
 
Note the limitation to 48kHz although it seems to play 24 bit files. And it won't play WMA or FLAC as most people know already.

great device if you have an HUGE cd collection (like me) and want to take everything everywhere you go do not buy from game stop buy refurbished from apple.com there 200$ for this price its a great deal. i have heard that the ipod classic's hard drive dies after 3-4 years of usage so think twice before buying used. over all this is the best ipod you can buy i actualy bought this over the ipod touch 4 (crap). i have the ipod touch 2 but thats another story.........
LONG LIVE IPOD CLASSIC 

Good player but the EQ isnt so good...

It's exactly what it says it is. I've tried some great looking, incredibly expensive DAPs - Honestly, in my opinion, a lot of them just add colouration, or EQ, or look pretty. Some of them do perform well, but fall short in many areas.

If you just want your music files to be reproduced exactly as they were mastered, with a line-out to pipe your music into any amplification you might require.. Get this device.

Pinpoint accurate, to points that are far beyond the limits of human hearing. Adds no colouration, and Rockbox has fantastic EQ and crossfeed options if you want, not to mention .FLAC playback.

A lot of people will hate on this device because it is mass-produced, and loved by the general population.. If you're thinking about an expensive portable DAP, just be wary of what you're buying.

When you spend hundreds more, on a DAP that has less battery, capacity, playback options or general functionality, ask yourself - why not spend the money on headphones that will make a significant difference? 
 
My personal model is the black model, not silver. The only difference is the exterior colour. I've also put a vinyl skin on it, and installed Rockbox custom firmware. 
 

i love the massive storage and the easy to use interface.

Due to the great battery life and an immensely large capacity, it's the optimal mp3 for those with a large collection.
 
It's also quite durable, I've had mine for 5 years now, and it still works fantastically and looks great too (practically new apart from a few scratches on the back).

Massive space with decent audio quality.

got to love it.this isn't my only iPod I purchased. ive had ipod 15,30, I bought it for its large hard drive.
I didn't stil fill it yet. I have bought many headphones for my ipod 160. it got real expensive. I finally .found just the right headphones. skull candy aviators
they are a marriage made in heaven. .  

It's all that

There really isn't a whole lot to say. This player will hold a s*!t-load of music and/or movies and/or pictures, but I only use it for music. The hard disk is a little loud at times and it lags somewhat as well, but at 160 gb they couldn't have put solid state drives in yet.

I got a classic to replace my 30GB Ipod Video after it was stolen.  It has decent audio quality with a good set of IEMs but lacks the power to drive a set of larger cans.  It does have a bit of lag as others have said but is not really a big deal once you start listening to music and is unnoticeable when jumping from tracks, however there is a company that makes a kit to convert them to use a compact flash cards which would take care of any lag and can be had in capacities as large as 128GB.  The classic is extremely tough and I have had for about 4 years and it works just as well as the day I got it despite it being abused and dropped constantly.  The only other ipod I have found that is as tough is the original shuffle as that has been through the washer and dryer more than once and keeps on living.  I had an ipod touch as well but it no longer holds a charge and the headphone jack no longer works so it is pretty much dead to me.  As much as I like the Classic, I feel that the Ipod Video was the superior player and I would take a Video over a Classic despite the smaller capacity as it is MUCH thinner and has less lag plus it comes in white which looks way better than the Classic.  Overall the Classic is a fantastic media player and I highly recommend it, now if only apple would support FLAC they could have a great media player.

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.


It was very scratched, just polish it and BOOM! awesome again!

The iPod has been an icon of portable music for almost a decade, and the Classic still lives up to its original expectations; battery life, capacity, while providing decent portability.  I had one before and it was stolen, it feels so good to have one again! If you can afford it, buy it.
 
For this one, I bought some generic screen protectors to protect the stainless steel back and the glass screen, I recommend you do so also. I know if you use the classic for excersise or hard activity, your increasing the chances of the harddrive doing funny things and messing up.

Got this from a pawn shop in the hood. Prob stolen and sold to buy drugs which clearly adds value.
 
My last one died slowly from dropping upwards of 50 times, i got myself a SEXY hard case and some sennheiser cx680i headphones for the gym, and a FiiO E5 amp. Thing is wonderful
 
Ill add pics to show my case!

[size=medium]First off: I’m coming from a Creative Zen Vision M 60 GB which very unfortunately died on me.[/size]
[size=medium]I was very satisfied with this gismo. Sadly they don’t make them anymore, otherwise I would have bought a new one.[/size]
[size=medium]Considering all things I find important, only the IPod Classic would do.[/size]
[size=medium]This fine machine ticks most of the boxes: large capacity, excellent sound quality, no touch screen, storing of pictures and movies. The things I miss, compared to the Zen, are a customizable equaliser (so I can match different headphones better), a built-in mike, a programmable function knob and a radio. The thing I hated most was the necessity of ITunes. Fortunately, some genius made a plug-in for Winamp, my favourite player, and the IPod now synchronises perfectly without ITunes.[/size]
[size=medium]You see, I had to part with some nice features when I chose the IPod classic, but rather surprisingly, I gained sound quality. When I decided on the Zen a few years back, one very important reason was the SQ. Or I didn’t audition very well at that time, or this new IPod just has better sound than his predecessors.[/size]
 
[size=medium]Conclusion:[/size]
[size=medium]It took some getting used to, but this is a very fine machine. Most other IPods wouldn’t do because of the touch screen. I often operate the player in the dark (like in bed) and I have to feel the knobs to control it.[/size]
[size=medium]I hardly miss a radio (there are other ways);[/size]
[size=medium]I sometimes miss a built-in mike, but I know I can get a tack for that;[/size]
[size=medium]I found a so-so setting for the eq. that gets me by with one of my cans (on the other ones I don’t use eq)[/size]
[size=medium]I gained capacity (160 against 60 GB)[/size]
[size=medium]This Pod has a much faster response time when starting up[/size]
[size=medium]The sound quality is marvellous for a portable player[/size]
[size=medium]It’s not cheap, but the Zen did cost me about the same a few years ago.[/size]
 
[size=medium]For home use, I bought an Onkyo media transport (like a dock) which surpasses the built-in DAC and lets me use the DAC of my Yamaha receiver. This showes the Ipod DAC is very good.[/size]

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.  

I was looking a player to replace my imod 5.5 (ipod video 5.5 modded), as it only has 3 hours battery life. Because I love the click wheel design and I have loads of songs, I bought an ipod classic. It's thinner and lighter than my imod5.5. However, the sound quality is worse than the previous generation. The previous generation are using wolfson's dac which is way better than the cirrus logic's dac(dac that is using in ipod classic). I felt disappointed in it. In addition, this ipod classic cannot be rockboxed. The sound is quite flat and neutral.

If you can't stand some DAP without a decent UI, Ipod Classic will the best choice for you.
Powered by Itunes, Classic might be an unmatched DAP and also the most popular one.
However, some fatal cons make it (without amps) stay out of Hifi area
 
For a single DAP 5 stars,
For a hifi DAP only 3 stars
So average scores will be 4

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