Chosen Solution
This 80G Classic is experiencing scratchy/poor sound issues. Tried several headphones, etc. but it’s the iPod itself. Jiggling the headphone metal prong connector while inside the iPod does not produce a difference in sound as it would if the jack was not positioned correctly. I opened the iPod and with headphones on to detect a sound difference, pressed on cables, the metal jack box, and all parts/cables connected to the jack assembly to see if something might be loose. Made no difference in sound. This leads me to think the headphone jack is not the problem, however I don’t know what other part controls sound in order to troubleshoot. Any ideas what to check?
Well, I still think it might be a bad headphone jack, but here’s what you can try: Try playing music through the docking port if you have like a music station or something. If the sound is scratchy then too, it’s probably the motherboard that is bad. If it’s not, it still might be a bad motherboard, but I’d lean toward guessing bad headphone jack. Just replace it, there’s pretty cheap I think.
all ipods suck. apple knows they are defective but wont’ do anything about it. they all have the same defect in manufacturing. people think it’s the headphone jack but it’s just poorly designed circuitry! i called apple and talked to an executive and they basically said “oh that’s the old ipods and we stopped replacing them - the new ones are all fine” I say bullshit! F apple people stop buying their overpriced crap!
