WTB: Your old MP3 players/DAPs

Bidley

As above, getting into fiddling about with these. Preferably ones with spinning rust drives. Especially interested in old iPods and Creative Zens. Let me know what you have rolling about in drawers! Cheers!

Woodandwires

I have a creative Zen I never use any more, fully boxed with instructions, drive cd etc. power cable, the leather case is a bit worn though.

Bidley

You have a PM @Woodandwires

littlethoughts

Im pretty sure I’ve got a creative zen knocking about somewhere as well, I’ll try to find it

Bidley

Awesome, be good to hear from you @littlethoughts ;

littlethoughts

@Bidley dont hold your breath! I think it’s in the loft somewhere but when I summon the courage to go rummaging I’ll let you know.

enjo

I have a Sony NW-HD5 in the loft if that is of interest?

beed84

Although I don't have anything to offer, I'm intrigued as to what your plan is?  Apart from playing music on them, of course

Bidley

@enjo possibly! I'd need to figure out if you can transfer music without the proprietary software. PM me

@beed84 I managed to mod an iPod to use a 128gb SD card, and that sort of got me into taking these things apart and seeing if I can either bring them back to life or upgrade them in a similar way. I still have a soft spot for these old chunky mp3 players, as I was about 16/17 when they first came about. I lived out of my Creative Zen Vision back in the day and have many fond memories involving it. I'm certainly not fixing/upgrading and selling them on or anything like that - they're still worth an absolute pittance to 99.999% of the population (except maybe Apple collectors who want them pristine anyway)

digitalkettle

Just got inspired to dig out my iRiver H140 after it had been mothballed for 12 years.

Five minutes charge and it appears to be as good new...wonder what the battery is like?!!

Bidley

Might be fine, might be spent... I've got a couple nearly 20 years old that are fine, some are totally dead. Generally if it stays on after removing the charger, it'll be fine. Generally a new one will have more capacity and potential longevity though, obviously. Those old iRivers are cool!

One of the most satisfying things is grabbing a "parts/untested" player off eBay (usually because they've lost the original charger because everything used a weird proprietary 30-pin variant), charging it up and finding "Sue's housework" playlist from 2006. Great time capsules!

beed84

Bidley said:

@beed84 I managed to mod an iPod to use a 128gb SD card, and that sort of got me into taking these things apart and seeing if I can either bring them back to life or upgrade them in a similar way. I still have a soft spot for these old chunky mp3 players, as I was about 16/17 when they first came about. I lived out of my Creative Zen Vision back in the day and have many fond memories involving it. I'm certainly not fixing/upgrading and selling them on or anything like that - they're still worth an absolute pittance to 99.999% of the population (except maybe Apple collectors who want them pristine anyway)

Sounds great being able to put old technology to more modern use. Before getting an iPod, I had a couple of the Creative Zens and a Sony NW of some description, the latter being a bit of pain due to ATRAC and SonicStage. Still, they did the job. Funnily enough I'm looking at getting one of the latest and least expensive Sony Walkmans as the HiRes audio thing intrigues me. That and I prefer my music on a separate device, not on my phone, and not streaming. Anyway, good luck. Sounds like a cool thing to do!

Bidley

Yeah the newer Sonys and the Fiio stuff is great these days. But the older Creative stuff still sounds really quite good. iPods can have Rockbox (custom firmware) installed which expands the useability, grants it the ability to play FLAC as well! Music on my phone is ok for running and bluetoothing to my car, but like you it's nice to have something that doesn't ding every 5 minutes for an email, Whatsapp etc.

danishbacon

You’ve just reminded me of the beast I once owned. Nomad Jukebox. After a lot of saving I bought a 3rd gen ipod, and that was the proverbial dogs….

TTony

Bidley said:

Yeah the newer Sonys and the Fiio stuff is great these days.

Got one of each (as well as a load of old - not for sale - iPods).  Quality is much better than listening to music on your phone @beed84 and you can generally use microSD cards for the extra storage, which you can’t do with most phones nowadays.

Bidley

The original Nomad Jukebox was my first player back in the day. Loved that thing. I remember the HDD died in warranty, I contacted Creative and they sent me the Xtra version as a replacement! Tempted to pick another up if I see one for a steal, although they're proper bricks by today's standards!

pt22

My wife has an old iPod Classic 160gb in storage but it’s got custom engraving. I don’t remember what but her name or something. Is that of any interest? If so I’ll ask her about selling it. 

Bidley

@pt22 I'm interested, fire me a PM when you get chance

littlethoughts

danishbacon said:

You’ve just reminded me of the beast I once owned. Nomad Jukebox. After a lot of saving I bought a 3rd gen ipod, and that was the proverbial dogs….

I did the exact same upgrade!

Sarge

I may still have an old Archos 604 "media player"
A fantastic device but clunky software made it frustrating to use. if I still have it, it comes with a plethora of stands/stylii, carry case etc... and probably a good few films on too 

it's yours, gratis..... IF I still have it. 
I'll have a rummage in the usual places and let you know. 

Bidley

That would be awesome, thanks @Sarge ! The old Archos stuff was proper back in the day