Apple iPod classic 160GB black
£239.99
In A Nutshell - So far, so good. I ve owned my I-pod 160GB for about a week, so it s still early days. My needs are simple. I want my whole music collection (which is some 20,000 songs I guess)on one portable device. So far, I ve crammed about 2,000 tunes on to it and the capacity bar shows that there s still a long way to go before I fill the thing up. I m immensely impressed with the amount of space that this i-pod has. A few points - the volume is more than adequate! It s far louder than my Nano. I agree that the sound can be a little bright, although this can be counteracted with the EQ settings.The Cover Flow is a neat touch, although only about 30% of my album covers have been recognised. Ho-hum - I didn t buy this because it looked pretty. As with my Nano, it s remarkably easy to use and coupled with I-Tunes v.8, it really is a revelation. It s also true what they say about how prone this i-pod is to scratches. Mine has several already, so I ve ordered a silicone case to offer some protection - for 5 notes, this seems a small price to pay. All in all though, £170 for 160Gb...? It s a surefire winner, although probably one for the serious music aficionados out there.Be quick before Steve Jobs and Co in their infinite wisdom, discontinue this model for the sleeker 120GB Classic.
I love it - I already own an ipod nano for music. I wanted to purchase this to put movies on it so I don t have to take my massive DVD collection with me when I go travelling. I also thought it would be great for on the plane. I was a bit shocked at the cost of movies on itunes but I purchased cucusoft software for putting my existing DVD collection onto it. What a wicked bit of software! I agree that the volume limit is a slight downside but I think it is loud enough for me. A day after I bought this I saw that Apple have discontinued it and are now producing 120gb ipod classic in replacement of this one and the 80gb classic - apparently the 120gb is thinner/lighter than the 160gb - I m still pleased I bought the 160gb (if you want loads of memory buy one before they sell out!)
ABSOLUTELY USELESS FOR AUDIO PLAYS AND PRE APPLE MP3s!!! - This 160 GB Ipod Classic was my first and very last MP3/MP4 Apple product I bought!!! I spent hours and hours trying to download tons of Audio Plays and Audio Books on this useless pile of rubbish machine but it will only show individual tracks (bits and pieces of traacks mixed with all tracks from any other audio book). The truth is that Apple exploited its near monopoly on MP3 Players to force every decent Windows user onto the Apple file structure - it DOESN T ACCEPT THE Windows FILE STRUCTURE!!!I sold this product via Amazon as I could return it anymore (Amazon only accepts (technically) non defective items if these are in an unsued orginial conditon!!! At the time of writing, the Archos 504 with 160 GB is priced at only £ 199.99 and does fully support the Windows file system so that it is only a matter of secs to drag n drop all MP3 files including any file structure onto the Achos player (and after it will have transferred your files which can take a while - but was far faster than with the Apple Classic player - will play anything just as you yourself arranged it in Windows. ARCHOS is absolutely a great player (have a look also at their 604 and 704 160 GB video players which are now offered at Amazon for far less (around £ 250ish).I have to add that this is absolutely my first product review at Amazon and that I am not linked in any way with the Archos company...
The iPod Classic is bigger, but not necessarily better - I bought an iPod Classic 160GB model simply because I had filled my 5th generation 80GB model. Having used the latter happily for a couple of years, Apple s latest offering has proved to be a less than satisfactory experience. Given Apple s desire to market not only the hardware but also its iTunes software as part of the iPod package it s appropriate to look at that package in this review.First, the hardware, the interface has been changed cosmetically but isn t any better than that of the 5th generation. In fact, until some modifications to the device s firmware were issued there were a number of reports that it ran jerkily and slowly. Mine runs acceptably but I can t say the innovations, such as cover flow, are of any great appeal. More importantly, there have been a number of complaints about the sound the device produces. Sound is a notoriously subjective matter but playing the earlier 5g model alongside the new one on similar settings is revealing. I find the sound of the latter is boosted in the bass and treble regions with a thinner middle. I don t like it compared to the sound produced by the earlier model, which is more natural and rounded to my ears. So, whilst it works reasonably well, generally this new model feels like Apple has taken a couple of steps backward with it. That s disappointing.Secondly, those of you who use iTunes to manage your iPod will probably be quite content with the Classic. However, there are many who regard Apple s iPod Manager-cum-music store as an unnecessary and inconvenient piece of bloatware. I m one of them. Therefore, I m more than merely irritated by Apple s decision to encrypt the firmware on the Classic model. This has rendered useful pieces of software, like Anapod Explorer (the best iPod manager I ve used, even if it s indifferently supported) and euPod (a volume boosting utility) inoperative. There are other software interfaces that do work (MediaMonkey is a good example) but Apple s continuing attempts to coerce its customers into using its software is frustrating.To sum up, it seems that the trade off for getting more disk space is a model shows little or no improvement over the preceding one and in some aspects -- importantly, the sound -- seems inferior. When you add in the inconvenience of not being able to use certain well-established pieces of software either as a replacement for iTunes or to overcome some of that program s limitations then the question of whether a different mp3 player would be a better choice has to arise. Given the opportunity I m not sure I d plump for an iPod Classic again.
How Did I Live Without It? - I got my 160Gb iPod last year and have used it every day since. I have loaded on all my CDs, all our digital pictures and even backed up the family PC on to it and it still has space for more.I rediscovered old music I had not listened to in years thanks to the shuffle function, then I discovered podcasts. Downloading podcasts is so easy via the BBC or iTunes and free. Now I have hours of great comedy, drama, fascinating documentaries and sports reports to listen to whenever I want. It travels to work every day in the car, has been to Japan, California, all round Europe and works perfectly well. I really don t know how I got by without it before, but would not be parted from it now.