[bba1973]

So, I came across a 4th gen 20 GB iPod for $26. It had some issues, one of which was "Capacity: 0." Opened it up, disconnected and reconnected the hard drive cables, and it worked. It kept freezing up every 20 minutes or so, but after a few good whacks, I think it's working fine now. It played Dark Side of the Moon (non-TO made in Japan Harvest CD rip to FLAC; oh yeah, I put rockbox on it!) and a few other songs after that without any issue. It would occasionally give a sad face while booting, but it's worked fine for the past two days or so.

Now to the real point of the thread... While all this was going on, I ordered an LOD and a compact flash card adaptor (it's the right one for the 4th gen; $3 shipped seemed like it was worth a shot). I ordered the adaptor because I thought the hard drive was dying (it's probably still going to die, just not quite as soon now), and now I'm not sure if the compact flash mod would be worth it. If I did do the mod, I'd end up putting a 32 GB card in it (most likely the $74 Kingston from Newegg). Back in 2005, I bought a 1 GB Kingston card, so I have that to put in once the adaptor shows up.

Here's my questions:

Will the 1 GB card work (I know it's limited storage space, but I think it's enough to test out if it works)?
Will the sound quality change? (I'm hoping the cheap adaptor won't degrade it)
How much better will the battery life be? (my battery still gets 4-6 hours with FLAC and rockbox)
Should I wait a few months for the 32GB prices to drop, or will CF be dead and off the market by then?
If I get the card and adaptor secure in the iPod, how long can I expect this to last?
Would a cheap 1200 mah battery off ebay fit in the iPod (20GB monochrome) and how much would it improve battery life?
While I'm waiting for my LOD to show up, will the iPod + LOD sound better than my Zune (I use lossless on both)?

I already have a 120 GB Zune, and I think it's headphone out sounds a bit better, but its gapless playback still sucks. Since the gapless with rockbox is perfect (from what I've heard so far), that's the main reason why I want to keep both.

Yes, I did use the search function, and no, I don't have enough money to upgrade headphones yet

.


Thanks for reading.

 

[davidcotton]

Don't know if they've been fixed but apparantly there were issues using kingston cards with rockbox, at least with the ipod mini mods. Adata seemed to be the most successful, but like I said that issue could have been fixed. Been awhile since I used Rockbox.

 

[qusp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bba1973 /img/forum/go_quote.gif So, I came across a 4th gen 20 GB iPod for $26. It had some issues, one of which was "Capacity: 0." Opened it up, disconnected and reconnected the hard drive cables, and it worked. It kept freezing up every 20 minutes or so, but after a few good whacks, I think it's working fine now. It played Dark Side of the Moon (non-TO made in Japan Harvest CD rip to FLAC; oh yeah, I put rockbox on it!) and a few other songs after that without any issue. It would occasionally give a sad face while booting, but it's worked fine for the past two days or so.

lol, the fonz worked hey?? nice!!

Quote:

Now to the real point of the thread... While all this was going on, I ordered an LOD and a compact flash card adaptor (it's the right one for the 4th gen; $3 shipped seemed like it was worth a shot).

hehe, well I cant see that lasting too long. the cheap CF adapters are OK, but the tarkan ones are far superior and more reliable. although those are more than your ipod cost. actually not certain they have one for the 4G now that I think about it.

Quote:

I ordered the adaptor because I thought the hard drive was dying (it's probably still going to die, just not quite as soon now), and now I'm not sure if the compact flash mod would be worth it.

the CF MOD for ipods is well worth it IMO battery life is increased about 200-300% with a battery upgrade (try the cameron sino batteries) SQ is identical; has nothing to do with the dac or amp sections. although I suppose jitter would be reduced a touch. lets just hope it was the HD, I have a bad feeling its your logic board. though you can run the diagnostic tool in rockbox to se if it finds any problems. i'm assuming you have already reformatted the drive??

Quote:

If I did do the mod, I'd end up putting a 32 GB card in it (most likely the $74 Kingston from Newegg). Back in 2005, I bought a 1 GB Kingston card, so I have that to put in once the adaptor shows up.

I recommend the samsung the kingston elite pro works well in my iriver and ipod video. ADATA are good too
Quote:

Here's my questions: Will the 1 GB card work (I know it's limited storage space, but I think it's enough to test out if it works)?

yes it will work, the ipod/rockbox firmware should fit and leave a touch of space to put a few songs on there.

Quote:

Will the sound quality change? (I'm hoping the cheap adaptor won't degrade it)

no it will either work...or not

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How much better will the battery life be? (my battery still gets 4-6 hours with FLAC and rockbox)

considerably better. hard to tell with an older ipod and dying battery. with a newer higher ca[pacity battery and CF MOD you will get 2-3 times battery (if I were to try and put a number on it. with my 950mah battery in ipod video and CF I get about 20-25hrs of lossless (never run battery bench, so dont quote me on that; but lets just say a great deal

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Should I wait a few months for the 32GB prices to drop, or will CF be dead and off the market by then?

a few months will make zero difference to the price, its been around for years and if anything will be starting to be made less, so the economy of scale wont be there, it wont gop away in a hurry either, as many DSLR's still use it, plus many past ones do as well, that demand will not go away for a while me thinks, so I think you'll be sake.


Quote:

If I get the card and adaptor secure in the iPod, how long can I expect this to last?

dude; how do you expect us to answer that?? sight unseen and without any knowledge of what is or was wrong with it. way too many variables to even attempt to answer that IMO. the adapter is pretty shoddy though.


Quote:

Would a cheap 1200 mah battery off ebay fit in the iPod (20GB monochrome) and how much would it improve battery life?

errrrmmm if its a battery made for ipod 4g..well yes I guess it will work...good chance anyway

if its a 1200mah battery for a camera; well I dunno... all batteries are not made equal though, the duration I have made an attempt above, but really I cant put a real number on it other than it will improve noticeably




Quote:

While I'm waiting for my LOD to show up, will the iPod + LOD sound better than my Zune (I use lossless on both)?

not with your amp; but depends on the cans you are using with it. if the cans benefit from more power more than better quality then yeah sure it might sound 'better'

Quote:

I already have a 120 GB Zune, and I think it's headphone out sounds a bit better, but its gapless playback still sucks. Since the gapless with rockbox is perfect (from what I've heard so far), that's the main reason why I want to keep both.

yeah gapless is handy for gapless albums. I wouldnt go without RB

Quote:

Yes, I did use the search function, and no, I don't have enough money to upgrade headphones yet .

well either HP's or amp should be your next upgrade then. maybe try your hands at modding the ipod too

 

[bba1973]

Thanks for the lengthy reply qusp.

Quote:

lol, the fonz worked hey?? nice!!

It was more like hitting it on an old desk with a hand towel in between the iPod (former iPos...) and the desk. Not quite Fonzie, but Apple-directed violence did work, so I'm happy.

Quote:

yes it will work, the ipod/rockbox firmware should fit and leave a touch of space to put a few songs on there.

Sounds like just enough for a test run.

Quote:

try the cameron sino batteries

Where can I get one of those? I suppose I should stay away from a $6 ebay battery? One of my friends has a 4th gen 20 GB monochrome that needs a new battery (I put a new, cheap Chinese screen in it that works fine), so I could put one in his and see what he thinks of it. Maybe I could convert him to Rockbox while I'm at it...

Quote:

dude; how do you expect us to answer that?? sight unseen and without any knowledge of what is or was wrong with it. way too many variables to even attempt to answer that IMO. the adapter is pretty shoddy though.

Calm down. I'm talking about the life of the CF mod, not necessarily the iPod. Aside from hitting it to get the hard drive working again, I've treated it quite well.

Quote:

not with your amp; but depends on the cans you are using with it. if the cans benefit from more power more than better quality then yeah sure it might sound 'better'

I'd be getting new IEMs or cans before getting a new amp. Either way, it's going to be at least a few months before I can afford either one. For now, I'm happy with my rig.

Quote:

maybe try your hands at modding the ipod too

My soldering skills suck, and my soldering iron isn't much better. Those tiny little capacitors look alot smaller in real life.

The iPod has been behaving very well for the past few days. Unless it starts acting up againg, I'll do the CF mod later. Aside from needing a Rockbox port and a firmware update that fixes gapless playback, the Zune still works fine.

 

[bba1973]

My LOD came in today, and it sounds a bit better. I think I slightly prefer the iPod + LOD over my Zune (no EQ enabled on either one; I never use EQ anyway). It's really close, but the iPod has slightly more bass, which is really helpful for the UHP336's. iPods really aren't that bad once you use LODs and Rockbox and throw out the iBuds.

The CF adaptor is coming in from Hong Kong, so it's going to be a while before I get it. Thanks for the input, guys (mainly qusp). Unless it acts up again (it's been working perfectly for about four days now), I'll keep the hard drive in it. That 32 GB CF card money would probably be better spent on some Grado SR60i's...

 

[RAQemUP]

I recommend staying away from the el cheapo ebay batteries. They work fine for a bit but eventually they will show their true colors and start giving the worst performance. They are worse than the standard battery that comes with the ipod. With my Ipod Mini, I have prob gone through 3 of those bats in a year and a half and I need to replace the current one now. I've learned my lesson and will now sink more money into a better battery.

I modded my Ipod Mini with a 32 gig A-Data CF card and all I can say is it is totally worth it. I think I am lucky on my A-Data CF though as it reports slightly above 30g after formating it.

 

[bba1973]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RAQemUP /img/forum/go_quote.gif I recommend staying away from the el cheapo ebay batteries. They work fine for a bit but eventually they will show their true colors and start giving the worst performance.

Thanks for letting me know. The battery works okay for my uses now, but I'll probably get one from iPod Juice when I do get a replacement. They're supposed to be pretty good and come with a 10 year guarantee. But I'm going to make sure the iPos works perfectly before I spend that much on a battery for it.

It started acting up again yesterday. I reformatted the hard drive, restored everything, and it still acted up a couple times after that. So much for Apple's "It just works"...

Hopefully the CF adaptor will be in this week or next week, and if it works with my 1 GB Kingston, I'm hoping it will work with a 32 GB Kingston. I won't have enough money for a 32 GB until next month, but 1 GB will be enough to take to class and do a real world test run. $105 wouldn't be bad for a semi-DIY 32GB flash based FLAC player.

Here's another thought: Would, say, an SD to CF adaptor work with the CF to 1.8 HDD adaptor? Just thought I'd ask if anyone's tried it before.