Look, a post in praise of the iPod Classic is bringing all these other fans out of the woodwork and people who also want an upgrade and a similar device with much bigger storage. Dammit, Apple, where's my 1Tb iPod Classic! It should be here by now.
http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/27/irl-ipod-classic-whosounds-tardis-bluetooth-speaker/
There's a small but real market for a portable device with >250Gb (and preferably 1Tb) of storage and a good audio output stage. If Apple won't build it, then who will? I do understand that the iPod Classic probably doesn't sell very well, have good enough margins and so make Apple enough money to justify the work. But that small demand for an iPod Classic update is still there.
Meanwhile are there any alternatives for those of us with very big music collections and the need and want to take it all on the road?
And no, Google Music (or similar streaming and locker services) is not a solution. We'll hit the 20k track limit, don't want to pay the bandwidth fees to access it and want access to all that music in places where connectivity is hard.
I also have an iTouch and refuse to put music on it. Aside from not enough space, it is an overrated Palm Pilot.
The thought of a 1TB iPod Classic is truly intriguing.
A bigger Classic would need a firmware update as well since there are some hard coded limits that mean even if you have a Video or 5.5 and swap the hard disk for 240Gb you can't necessarily use it all.