[emofruit]

I'm planning on buying a refurb'd 5.5g because it doesn't cost much. However, there are several things I'd like to know before buying.

1. Will the refurb'd still have the Wolfson DAC?
2. Will I be able to convert my .flac files into ALAC so I can play it in my iPod? And can I do this with iTunes or will I have to use dBPowerAmp or something like that?
3. Is this player gapless?

Thanks in advance.

 

[iriverdude]

5.5 gen ipod supports Rockbox so you could just play flac with RB and saving you time converting to alac. Then rebooting when you want to use stock apple firmware for your existing itunes music.

 

[Aiyo]

1. Yes
2. Yes, and I'm not sure about the second part.
3. Its gapless if you choose the option in iTunes.

also, for how much are you getting your 5.5g?

 

[Meloncoly]

1. Will the refurb'd still have the Wolfson DAC?
Yes. No hardware changes are made with the refurbished units. You will get the same parts as a regular 5g. It's just like buying it used but refreshed.

2. Will I be able to convert my .flac files into ALAC so I can play it in my iPod? And can I do this with iTunes or will I have to use dBPowerAmp or something like that?

You can convert it, but not through iTunes. You would have to use a converter such as dBpoweramp.

3. Is this player gapless?
Yes, if you use iTunes to manage your music. iTunes manages the gap information when you drag your music in. I'm not sure if the other programs for managing music allows for gapless or not. I have only used iTunes because I'm in love with their organization system, regardless of the sound quality. If you don't like iTunes, you can use RockBox on your iPod, which supports gapless playback natively, support for FLAC files as well natively, but your battery life will take a hit because Rockbox (which allows for drag and drop, folder tree organization, or iD3 tagging), even at Ver3, cannot fully utilize 100% of the iPod battery. I believe they have it to about 70% now. You can counteract this with a cheap upgraded battery from Ebay. It will boost the battery life by quite a bit, although you will still get more running under the Apple firmware.

 

[member1982]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iriverdude /img/forum/go_quote.gif 5.5 gen ipod supports Rockbox so you could just play flac with RB and saving you time converting to alac. Then rebooting when you want to use stock apple firmware for your existing itunes music.

Sounds great, rockbox was fairly awesome when i tried it.

 

[frozncore]

Quote:

Originally Posted by member1982 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Sounds great, rockbox was fairly awesome when i tried it.

My battery life was atrocious with rockbox.

 

[insyte]

Battery life issues aside. Rockbox is soooooo much better than having to use itunes

 

[Geruvah]

I preferred iTunes because trying to make playlists was a pain for rockbox. I have a handful of playlists that have songs in a specific order but rockbox will always do it alphabetically and it was annoying how if I press menu while a song was playing, it brought me back to the top menu.

As other people have said, "yes" to 1, 2 and 3.

 

[emofruit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aiyo /img/forum/go_quote.gif 1. Yes 2. Yes, and I'm not sure about the second part. 3. Its gapless if you choose the option in iTunes. also, for how much are you getting your 5.5g?

About 200 dollars. I'd get a new one... but they're about 600 dollars on Amazon.

 

[member1982]

Unless you really really really want the 5.5g.. the 6th generation iPod Classic with 120GB goes for $224.95 on amazon.com

Can i ask why you want the 5.5g? so you can put rockbox on it? you like the plastic case?

 

[EFN]

The latest RockBox V3.1 offers much better battery life. My iPod 5G 30GB can play FLAC continously for 12 hours on a single charge. I'd expect it to last even longer with lower bitrates.

In contrast the older RockBox can barely run 5 hours on FLAC

 

[frozncore]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EFN /img/forum/go_quote.gif The latest RockBox V3.1 offers much better battery life. My iPod 5G 30GB can play FLAC continously for 12 hours on a single charge. I'd expect it to last even longer with lower bitrates. In contrast the older RockBox can barely run 5 hours on FLAC

If thats the case then I'll be willing to give it another go as I much prefered it to the original firmware. Just out of curiousity, EFN are you using the stock battery or have you gotten a replacement for your 5th gen iPod?

 

[EFN]

Quote:

Originally Posted by frozncore /img/forum/go_quote.gif If thats the case then I'll be willing to give it another go as I much prefered it to the original firmware. Just out of curiousity, EFN are you using the stock battery or have you gotten a replacement for your 5th gen iPod?

Thanks for asking. Mine has been replaced with fresh stock (OEM) iPod 30GB batt. The older one was already degraded even and does not hold a charge even when using apple firmware

 

[krmathis]

1. Yes. Refurbished products are identical to the "new" ones. If repairs have been done identical components have been used.

2. Yes. iTunes don't support FLAC out-of-the-box though, so you either have to add support. Or use a different application, like ex. dBpoweramp (MS Windows) or Max (Mac OS X)

3. Yes. As long as you use iTunes to manage you music,

 

[gechu]

No need for Itunes. I use Winamp to add music and videos.