Apple DIYmod 80gb 5.5 Gen iPod Classic and AMB Mini3 Amp with Blackgate Capped LOD (Apple / AMB Audio)

This is a stellar portable system, which I mostly built and refurbished. I reconditioned an 80gb Ipod (5.5 Gen with the much loved Wolfson DAC) with a new faceplate and battery about 18 months ago. Installed Rockbox v3.6 onto the ipod, which is excellent for drag and drop file transfer, playback support for formats such as FLAC, and equalization and myriad audio control options not present on the stock Apple firmware. Nice thing is that you can easily boot into the Apple firmware also if desired. Battery life on the ipod is excellent, holds a very good charge (I refurbished with a higher capacity battery) and provides many hours of playback. Though not pictured, I will include a third party USB cable for the ipod. No earbuds or headphones are included.

I also bypassed the ipod's internal capacitors with high quality wire, this is called the DIYmod and is similar to the modification that Red Wine Audio performs (iMod). This only affects the line out audio, headphone jack still functions perfectly. With the low grade internal capacitors bypassed, I had a very nice custom LOD (line out dock) cable built by AudioMinor using Blackgate capacitors, and a combination of ultra pure copper and silver conductors. It is necessary to use this LOD when using the line out audio, running the ipod's line out signal without any capacitors in line to filter DC voltage can damage connected headphones and/or equipment.

This is fed into an AMB Mini3 amplifier that is powered by a single rechargeable 9v battery (wall wart charger included, just be advised the Mini3 does not have a shut off circuit on the charger, it therefore charges very slowly and I generally run it overnight for about 8-10 hours to fully charge the battery after it becomes drained). The battery still holds a good charge providing many hours of playback, it is not terribly difficult to replace if needed down the road. The Mini3 does not have the $40 engraved covers that AMB sells, as can be seen in the photos the plates are blank but this device is simple enough that I never felt the urge to purchase the labeled covers. The ipod and Mini3 both have 3M dual lock and when connected are like one piece, it is great stuff, takes a pretty good amount of effort to actually pull them apart!

I have used this setup with the Hifiman RE0 and Etymotic ER4S with excellent results, I have also driven my full size Grado and Denon headphones with ease using this setup. Sound quality is outstanding in every way for a portable rig. Cosmetically everything is in nice shape, the ipod has the typical light surface scratches on the steel case, the cover is very nice, has some superfine almost imperceptible lines here and there, the one thing I should mention is that because of the wires laying on top of the PCB that were used to bypass the internal capacitors, the cover does sit a hair lifted off from the stainless steel case around where the clickwheel is. These are manufactured with no room to spare and I did not use the thinnest wire that I could have, I wanted to get good signal conduction.

Hope I provided enough info - any questions, feel free to shoot me a message.