The iPod Classic 160gb is still sold by Apple, and is currently a top device if you want to carry all you music around with you. But with mobile phones including Apple’s own iPhone fighting back, it probably won’t be long before the iPod Classic finally hit the dust.

iPod’s are all about the music, the quality and the sound. So how will it pitch up against the HTC One that also features sound as its strength either via its boom sound speakers or via the headphone jack using Beats technology.

I started on Saturday with a wide variety of headphones, some so big you simply wouldn’t normally use them with any portable player, and others of more modest sizes, right down to in ear canals. I had borrowed a number of headphones off a few friends to help with this test. Brands included Audio Technica, Sennheiser, JVC, Sony, Beats, Beyer and Denon.

First up the loudspeaker test. The HTC One wins this hands down as the iPod Classic doesn’t have any built in speaker or speakers.

Next using the headphone jack. The iPod Classic did very well with most of the in ear canals producing a lovely detailed sound across a all genres. But the HTC One also competed really well, and then destroyed the iPod Classic with all the over the ear hard to drive headphones.

In fact the HTC One built in DAC and headphone amp is so good, that I would use the phone as a standalone MP3 player. The only saving grace for the iPod Classic is its memory of 160gb. The HTC One has 25mb available plus you can connect a USB hard drive or memory card if you need.