Yutaka, The Creator Tokyo Japan

I've spent most of my life with tens of thousands of tracks in my pocket. Since I was a schoolboy, I've chased one thing: the deepest possible immersion in music, built with whatever money I could afford at the time. As a teenager that meant audio systems — always reaching for the best sound my budget could reach.

But here is the truth of living in a Tokyo apartment: you can no longer build a large listening system. The room won't allow it. So the question became — must the joy be given up? I don't believe it must.

This is my answer. An iPod 5th generation, rebuilt around the legendary Wolfson DAC — a chip whose analog warmth has never quite been matched since. Not a room full of equipment. A single object in your hand, and the whole world of sound inside it. Pair it with a fine set of wired over-ear headphones and you're there. I run mine with the Shure SRH840 — a studio headphone that is, to my ear, quietly underrated. Choose whatever you love; the iPod is ready for it.

I run it on Rockbox, not iTunes. I tested iTunes for a long time, and I won't sell something that breaks in your hands months later. With Rockbox, you simply copy your music across — it just works, and it keeps working. I made this choice so that what you buy stays yours, for years.

I built this because it's the sound I actually want to live with. I ask the highest of everything I own, and I would not offer you anything I wouldn't keep myself. If you've ever wished you could disappear into your music the way you once could — this was made for you.

— Yutaka, The Creator, Tokyo

New to Rockbox? See how simple it is →