The 6th Generation iPod Classic has been my go-to for analogue music playback. Whether it be background music, party shit, if it has a 3.5mm input jack you best believe the iPod’s getting shoved in there
The thing is, ever since I got a Škoda Fabia MK2, It has found a full-time job at the AUX. Gone are the days of half-functioning Bluetooth adapters that fail on calls and CDs that chirp because of course the read head is trash.
Before I rewired my AUX back into the stock headunit I had a Bluetooth Module that connected to the back of the DANCE headunit. The point is that the module needs connection to a power source that should’ve been distributed from the interface where the CD Changer (AKA the AUX for those that don’t have a CD Changer) goes, but the Chinese were too lazy and just didn’t implement such a trivial thing. The thing is – I can’t even stuff the exposed wires into the plug itself, there’s no female metal bit I can crimp onto the connector so that the pin from the head doesn’t push the contacts out and either cause damage or completely waste my time and progress.
Whatever. Bluetooth is wack anyway. I don’t want calls interrupting my music. But there’s a slight issue that irks me;
Lack of Radios.
In Plexamp, you have the option to start a Track Radio. As does any other major streaming service, but unless you use Apple Music, your recommendations will span into nonsense that just sucks to listen to (I’m speaking to Spotify users, please just leave that app behind. It sucks).
With your own library being the only source Plex can read from, it can algorithmically decide what to play next. This is a novelty feature because sometimes you get an album for the most popular songs, but it also recommends the things many people overlook, so you get to experience your library, shuffled, but with all the irrelevant crud filtered out.
6.5/7th Gen iPod Classics have this thing called Genius. Genius is an algorithmic Thing that basically does what I said. It makes a mix for you based on your current track, and tries not to deviate from it.
The only issue? I don’t have this.
Which makes me compelled to do the tedious work od assembling a playlist, hating the song choices, ruining the element of surprise and new song discovery, and just ruining the experience.
One more issue; iTunes is SHIT, but the best choice I have. I had to make my own utility that syncs stuff from Plex into iTunes and compress my extensive library so that unsupported formats get put into AAC. I have close to 8000 songs. I am not kidding when I say that encoding, importing, transferring and managing this much music gets fucked up real quick. I tried MusicBee, foobar2000, and every time I said “Nope.” Even though iTunes is unfettered bootycheeks, it still outranks other software.
Some may even ask;
Why not just use Rockbox?
Two things;
- It doesn’t have Track Radios.
- It still won’t solve playlists and their transfers
- It will only solve the Audio Format issue
- Rockbox is NOT made for iPods.
- It runs like SHIT on iPods.
It drains their battery like crazy, the UI and UX suck, Syncing is horrible, and the IAP doesn’t work. For those who don’t know, if you plug an iPod into something like an old receiver with a USB port or even into car from the 2010s, chances are that the iPod will show the vendor’s logo and everything will move onto the screen of the thing you connected it to. Rockbox will not support it. It just won’t
But it’s all fine. It works. The device plays music, the UX is fast and fine, and I only need to buy like 2 30-pin dock connector cables…
I was thinking of getting an iPod nano, 7th gen, because it was truly the prettiest iPod, but then I remember that its biggest storage size was 16GB and my music takes up about 4x as much… Yikes…