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13th January 2009

Modding: Audiophile meets iPod (diyMod)

By Tarkan | Permanent Link
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The Surgery

Performing this hack is not very difficult but I can’t tell you it’s easy. Of course, it depends on your soldering experience. You need a temperature controlled soldering iron with fine conical tip.

As I am not in the habit of soldering and desoldering tiny components (SMD), I used a broken iPod to have a try. It’s necessary to use a magnifying glass because the PCB pads are very small and delicate and it’s useful to make sure that there is no shorting to any neighbouring components.iPod Motherboard

After opening the 5g iPod, you need to separate the logic board from the front panel. I recommend you to keep the logic board and the metal framework together and it’s not necessary to remove the clickwheel. The first step is to desolder the coupling  capacitors near the DAC, the inductors near the dock, and the capacitors that comes right after the dock inductor.

iPod Motherboard WheelNext, you have to route the wires from the pads near the DAC to the pads near the dock. The goal is to route the audio signal from the DAC to the internal capacitors then to the dock connector. You need to use a very thin cable. I used 30 AWG single strand wire. Of course, be careful when soldering anything. You have to find the best path for your wires that do not prevent the closing of the front panel. Make sure that the wires are not too close to the clickwheel.

I used a little hole on the board to route the wires from the DAC. I was obliged to drill the back of the front panel just enough for the thickness of the wires.

iPod Motherboard WheeliPod Case

iPod Cable RouteThere is a space near the clickwheel ribbon where the wires could be routed to the dock pads. I used adhesive to secure the wires down the specified path.

There is more wiring than the classic diyMod (with external caps) because the caps must be connected on the other side of the board. The two caps are inserted from side to side the ZIF conector, it was the only location that I could have enough space. The screenshots show you this arrangement.

iPod CapacitorsiPod diyMod Installed

Finally, close the iPod and enjoy the pure audio straight from the source!

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Posted on Tue, 13th January 2009 at 3:44 pm under Modding, Tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

There are currently 10 responses to “Modding: Audiophile meets iPod (diyMod)”

Comments? Suggestions? Help? Well here's your chance! Leave a comment.

  1. 1 On February 6th, 2009, Eric said:

    Hi Tarkan,
    Thank you for your great article :-)

  2. 2 On February 6th, 2009, Tarkan said:

    No. Thank you, Eric. :)

  3. 3 On February 14th, 2009, Brian said:

    Hi Eric & Tarkan,
    Thanks for the article. I wonder, do you think you could use bigger or better caps if you use an 80gb back plate? :) Would it be worth it?

  4. 4 On February 19th, 2009, Tarkan said:

    Brian,

    When you say size do you mean electrical size or physical size??

    The capacitors sole purpose is to block the DC component of the DAC output. The capacitance, source resistance, and load resistance go on to form a high-pass filter. Unless you are feeding the output in to a very low resistance input then any capacitance above 47uF will be more than enough.

    However, we are talking audiophile here!!! so rational discussion is really thrown out the window – so buy whatever is the in-thing and buy the most expensive and biggest that will fit :)

    I personally think the capacitor Eric used is fine, sonically and physically – unless you are trying to ring out the final 0.000001% of quality improvements then it will be ok!!!

  5. 5 On February 24th, 2009, Eric said:

    Brian,

    I think there is two approaches for the mod :
    - portable solution with BG capacitors or similar, the 47uF BG is good for the size. Perhaps, you could use bigger caps with 80gb plate but I am not sure because the size is always limited by the CF adaptor! The improvement will not be significant.
    - less portable but more audiophile solution with big capacitors outside the ipod (nichicon, blackgate, sonicap, etc.). See the headfi thread for examples.

  6. 6 On March 7th, 2009, The Apple diyMod: My Take on the Famous iMod [56k killer] Featuring 3G, 4G, 5G and nano 1G! - Page 119 - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio said:

    [...] [...]

  7. 7 On May 29th, 2009, Need Advice on Mp3 Player - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net said:

    [...] help the sound quality but would only be recommended for people comfortable with a soldering iron. http://www.tarkan.info/20090113/tuto…ts-ipod-diymod [...]

  8. 8 On December 8th, 2009, 5 year old iPod may need to be replaced - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net said:

    [...] quality FLAC files it sounds a hell of a lot better than any of the newer players on the market. Here's a guide for the diyPod if you're interested. [...]

  9. 9 On April 6th, 2011, Matt said:

    Quick question: I have no confidence that I could do this kind of soldering, but I want this badly… Would an electrician be able to do this? Is there anyone in the US that could do this for me if I supplied the logic board?

  10. 10 On April 10th, 2011, Tarkan said:

    Hi Matt,

    I would suggest posting a message on the original head-fi.org forum thread.

    There many people who have done this mod and many people who have refined the procedure. I am sure you will be able to find someone willing to do it for you for a small cost.

    Good luck.

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