I went down a rabbit hole a few months ago and bought an ipod classic 5.5 with the wolfson dac for ~$40, I plan to modify it a bit storage and battery wise, and possibly some cosmetic mods. I also researched IEM's and paired it with some 'Chi-Fi' IEM's like the moondrop Aria and then got some aftermarket spinfit tips and changed the headphone cable to something of better quality. I plan on upgrading the IEM's to something more expensive but right now these are a good first pair for $70.
The real reason I did all this was because I got nostalgia and could not afford an iPod back in the day but now I see myself buying more exclusive harder to find music because nothing is more annoying that having playlists on Spotify where songs are no longer available/blacked out or deleted rare music from youtube due to copyrights. I would like to have some kind of ownership over my music independent from an internet connection or a streaming service (nice to discover new music) dacs of course are not as good as modern phones of today but goddamit-NOSTALGIA!
The real reason I did all this was because I got nostalgia and could not afford an iPod back in the day but now I see myself buying more exclusive harder to find music because nothing is more annoying that having playlists on Spotify where songs are no longer available/blacked out or deleted rare music from youtube due to copyrights. I would like to have some kind of ownership over my music independent from an internet connection or a streaming service (nice to discover new music) dacs of course are not as good as modern phones of today but goddamit-NOSTALGIA!