Dock station compatibility

There will be two additional considerations:

1. it's an old model of iPod, so will you be able to find a speaker dock with the 30-pin adaptor connection?`
2. do you have the appropriate dock adaptor for your model of iPod?

You will probably only find a second hand speaker dock now, as the 30-pin connector was discontinued several years ago. But if you do, there is the matter of mechanical support for the iPod while it's in the dock.

The iPod Classic is, by comparison to most other models, heavy. So if you mount an iPod Classic in a speaker dock without the adaptor, it will put stress on the speaker dock's electrical connections, which will eventually cause the connection to fail. To prevent this, every iPod of that era came with a dock adaptor that looked like the ones shown below:

As you can see, the adaptor looks like a tray, which is exactly what it is. It snapped into the dock and provided a tray of the correct inner width and inner length for the particular iPod. Every iPod Classic came with it's own adaptor, and the inner dimensions of the tray (as indicated in the picture) were specific to each model. (Likewise, other 30-pin iPods of that era came with their own adaptor; the nano, the Shuffle etc.. The inner dimensions of their trays are very different, so you cannot bodge fit the iPod into the incorrect adaptor.)

I suggest then that if are successful in your quest for a speaker dock, but do not have the correct adaptor, that you find a method of supporting the iPod so that it does not lean back in the dock. In other words, place a wedge behind the back of the iPod, between it and the speaker. Also, take extra care when fitting the iPod into the dock, as the lack of tray will mean that the iPod connector is not being guided into the correct position.

That would be a 6th or 7th generation classic depending on the thickness. It has Apple's 30-pin docking port. I don't have any recommendations for a speaker dock.

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