Spotify, Tidal, and YouTube Music rent you temporary access to music you don’t own, while draining your phone battery as much as your wallet. Vinyl and CDs have brought back the joy and intentionality of physical listening, but they lack portability. Digital Audio Players (DAPs) claim to be the modern solution, but they’re really just the latest version of an iPod. In many ways, the older, retro device wins out.

Choosing a DAP

Finding the right standalone player depends on your budget and whether you want modern features out of the box or prefer a more retro approach.

• Budget modern DAPs (AU$100+): Compact, dedicated players like the FiiO Snowsky Echo offer a nifty player, physical buttons, and microSD card expansion, but lack a fast, refined user interface.
• Android DAPs (AU$350+): Higher-end DAPs from brands like HiBy and FiiO are basically Android phones with CNC aluminum bodies, physical buttons, headphone ports, and audio circuitry to drive demanding headphones.
• Phone dongles (AU$20+): Plug your headphones into a dongle, then plug the dongle into your USB-C port. It’s a slightly awkward setup, and you’re still using your phone, with its distractions, notifications, and battery drain.

The Retro Options

If you want the best bang for your buck, support reusability, or just want a cool retro nostalgia hit, there are two standout options.

1. An old Android phone: Pull that old phone from the drawer, make sure it has a headphone jack, and factory reset it. Suddenly you have a dedicated, purpose-built DAP for free.
2. A classic iPod: It won the MP3 wars for a reason. Its click wheel navigation still holds up, and storage of 30 GB, 80 GB, or even 160 GB is likely more than you can dedicate to music on your current phone. It also has an extremely dedicated and active modding community.

Turning a Phone into a DAP

Repurposing an old phone sitting in your drawer is the fastest zero-spend route to a dedicated player.

1. Find an old phone: Look in your old tech drawer, ask your parents or friends, or grab one on Facebook Marketplace. Make sure it has a headphone jack.
2. Factory reset: Clean out all the old apps, and don’t install anything new beyond a music player app. If your device is supported, a custom ROM like LineageOS will give you a lean, fast, energy-efficient base to work from.
3. Use airplane mode: Keep airplane mode on. You can still turn Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on if you have wireless earbuds or want to sync wirelessly.
4. Load your library: Drag and drop your library or use a syncing tool for wireless sync.

You’ll be surprised how fast an old phone feels when it’s running minimal services in airplane mode. The battery should also give you hours of playback, even on an aging device.

An iPod in 2026?

iPods remain exceptionally viable DAPs, especially the Classic or Video versions, provided you’re willing to spend an afternoon refurbishing one or buying a pre-modded unit.

The biggest issue is going to be the battery. At 20+ years old, you’ll be lucky if the original battery can turn it on. Luckily, a battery replacement is an easy mod.

The ideal sweet spot for iPod modding is the 5th Generation (aka iPod Video) or 6th/7th Generation (iPod Classic):

• Great sound, a full click wheel, and large storage capacity
• USB connection (older models used FireWire)
• Easily sourced and reasonably priced replacement parts
• Plastic and metal clips, with no glue removal or heat guns needed to open

Keep the Drive or Upgrade to Solid State?

Keeping the mechanical spinning hard drive is completely viable if you’re on a strict budget or happy with the stock capacity (30 GB–160 GB). However, aging drives are vulnerable to mechanical failure from drop impacts.

Replacing the drive with an iFlash adapter (allowing the use of 1–4 SD cards for storage) drastically reduces weight, improves seek times, and removes power-hungry moving parts. It also allows a large battery to be installed if you want to go weeks without plugging in. The major disadvantage of flash storage is cost. With 2026 storage prices where they are, getting 256 GB of storage is going to cost an arm and a leg. You can quickly approach the price of a brand-new, mid-level Android-based DAP when modding.

A New Battery

Opening the iPod 5th Generation is about as difficult as replacing RAM in a laptop. The 6th/7th Generation is a little harder and requires a more delicate touch to avoid scratching or bending the outer shell.

Make sure to get the correct battery. There are three types:

1. Standard size for thin iPods
2. Standard size for thick iPods
3. Large size for flash-modded iPods. Much larger capacity, using the space freed up by removing the hard drive

Thin iPods have smaller storage capacities, while the thicker ones were used to house larger hard drives.

The $25 Earbud Revolution: Modern IEMs

If you don’t already own a pair of decent wired headphones, the recent leap in In-Ear Monitor (IEM) performance is staggering. While most consumer electronics get more expensive and restrictive every year, budget wired IEMs are one of the rare tech categories getting dramatically cheaper while delivering near-audiophile acoustics.

A prime example is the Tangzu Wan’er SG 2 (Jade Dragon Edition). Sourced on AliExpress for roughly AU$25 shipped, these budget IEMs offer clean vocal separation, balanced treble, and tight bass control that rivals gear costing ten times as much a decade ago. While the light plastic housings won’t survive heavy physical abuse, the detachable 2-pin cables and tuned dynamic drivers provide an unbeatable entry point for an offline setup.

Where to Start

Transitioning away from cloud streaming doesn’t require dropping hundreds of dollars on boutique DAP hardware. You can scale your setup based on what you already own.

The free tier

Pull an old smartphone out of your desk drawer, enable airplane mode, and pair it with some old wired earbuds or headphones. You can even use existing Bluetooth buds to get started. You now have a zero-distraction, high-fidelity audio player for the price of an hour or two of setup.

The $200 retro tier

Source a 5th Generation iPod Video or 6th Gen Classic, drop in a high-capacity replacement battery, grab some $25 IEMs, and start listening to your library.

Reclaim Your Attention

Rebuilding an offline music collection is ultimately an exercise in intentionality. It shifts your daily habits away from renting media on subscription loops, doomscrolling, and reading notifications. It puts the focus back on tactile, deliberate choices and lets you listen to your music on your terms.

Stop buying the latest disposable tech, cancel the monthly subscriptions, and reclaim ownership of your library. Use the money you save to buy one of our awesome retro shirts, like our Hearts Life Bar retro gaming shirt.