Newer Sony Walkmans have lossless support and some can also act as a USB DAC. Unfortunately the UIs are still terrible (no search, only oversensitive alphabet scroll?), proprietary cables and the device slowly re-indexes every boot. Organizing music hasn't improved since 2000 with some albums being split into 10 artists if they have collaborations. Still, at least we don't have to use Sonic Stage any more, mine has a uSD slot, and mass storage largely works. It's a shame Zune went nowhere, the HD was a wonderful device.

But an iPod from the 2004 era is both hard to use and very heavy. You can get a tiny flash-based modern mp3 player for $30-$40, which is below the apparent price of a 2004 iPod on eBay.

Mmm agree to disagree, iPod classic is not a heavyweight device and the UX is what we had when I was a kid so easy AND nostalgic, but agreed the little sandisk clips solve the problem just as well.

Edit: I can't imagine swapping HDD for flash saves more than a few grams, can it?

Ipod classics have a spinning rust hdd. They are heavy. The 2004 4th gen 40 GB is 176 grams and is a bulky 110 cm3. That's quite a bit more than my pixel 5, which is 151 grams and just 81 cm3. In fact, could buy nearly any old phone and do better, immediately, and have a much nicer display and better bluetooth codecs and the ability to play lossless formats.

I had an iPod in 2004. I gave it away because it was too heavy to carry around.

I ultimately replaced it with a Zen Stone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Zen#ZEN_Stone/Stone_P...

With the HDD swapped out for flash the weight is going to be much less, isn't it?

So what, you want to modify a good mp3 player to look more like a bad one?

With the classic iPod you've got a bad UI instead of a good UI and a large object instead of a small one. And while it will be lighter without the hard drive, it will still be a lot heavier than an mp3 player. It's pure downside on several different dimensions.

If you want to play your music on a device shaped like an iPod, it's even easier to use your existing phone.

I have no idea what a classic iPod weighs without the drive inside. No need to dismiss other people's requirements and preferences though.

I've had about 4 San Disk clips now. mostly because I lose them or put them through the wash.

some of the older models were definitely better, but at 20-40 bucks each and no real dependencies on the rest of my personal computer ecosystem it's a fair trade.

it's only that Spotify and YT music are easy to use that I haven't bought a new one. with enshitifacation being a thing I might go back

They are awful to use, even if you just want to shuffle songs.