Before I start my review, I would like to Thank Cozoy for providing me with a review sample in exchange for my honest opinion.
The product website:
http://www.cozoyaudio.com/aegis/, and for those interested you can buy it from
Penon, CTC Audio, and other Distributors listed on Cozoy
website.
Btw, despite my 3.5 star rating and a more critical than usual review/analysis, I still think it's a fantastic product that deserves an attention, thus a purpose of my review.
Cozoy/Shozy (two sister companies) made a big splash in portable audio world with their popular releases of a unique Alien DAP and miniature Astrapi DAC/amp. As a matter of fact, the big part of this splash was not only related to a sound quality but also to a fine crafted minimalistic design utilizing cutting-edge metal processing technology. I’m telling you how it is, their products look and feel like a piece of Art. Also, as part of their design philosophy, their minimalistic exterior is carried over to an optimized circuit board design/layout with a simplified clean signal path. After all, the shortest uninterrupted distance between point A and B is a straight line, and that’s how they approach their design without gain switches, playback controls, or multiple in/out ports. It’s a straight forward design with a fine partitioning of digital domain from the input source and analog domain driving headphones load.
Though eye-candy design details are important, we all know they won’t be able to carry the weight of the product without sound quality behind it. I don’t have Alien, but heard from a lot of trusted sources that it sounds quite amazing, despite lack of a display and supporting only wav and flac audio formats. I have reviewed Astrapi in the past and found it to be a jack of all trades or as I called it: a Swiss army knife audio interface. To be able to pair up with Android/iOS/PC/MAC and to use it as an external audio interface with your smartphone or laptop regardless of OS platform is very impressive in such a small package. While using Astrapi, sound improvement was more noticeable with my laptop versus smartphone, and the output power was just modest to drive “average demand” headphones. To take the performance of Astrapi to the next level, Cozoy released a new more powerful model - Aegis.
My review sample arrived inside of a foam insert that suppose to go into the compact packaging box (white Apple style), exactly the same one that was used with Astrapi. And just like Astrapi, it will arrive with accessories of micro-usb to micro-usb otg short cable for your Android smartphone, micro-usb to lightning short cable for your iPhone (no need for any intermittent connector kit), and micro-usb to full usb cable for your PC/MAC laptop or desktop. I still remember my unboxing experience when I received Astrapi - it was quite shocking to find how tiny it was, even smaller than usb memory stick. Though I received Aegis "as is" without official packaging box, the unboxing experience shouldn't be any different.
Unboxing.
Overall this new design has some similarities to Astrapi, but the shape of Aegis took on more of “Alien” lines and there is no more clip on the back. The only available ports are micro-usb for digital data input and 3.5mm for analog output where you plug in your headphones. There is also a small led pinhole to indicate the power. The build is solid, bulletproof, lightweight, high-end scratch proof CNC milled aluminum. It really felt great in your hand, but I do miss the clip from Astrapi. The clip allowed different mounting options for this tiny device, like for example clipping it inside of your jeans pocket with 3.5mm jack sticking out for easy headphone access while a smartphone is somewhere in your pocket connected with usb-otg umbilical cord. Another advantage of Astrapi was clipping it to the attached rubber band without rubber band going over the top of the DAC/amp, exposing bigger heat dissipation area. At the same time, Aegis is small enough to leave in-line with your headphones cable, though micro-usb smartphone port gets loose after awhile and it will be easy to pull otg cable or accidentally disconnect it. Bottom line, I miss that clip.
Design details.
There is a good reason I mentioned about heat dissipation because due to its higher output power, I found Aegis to consume more current which puts a strain on your smartphone device.
Just to put it in a better perspective, I found HRT dSp - 60 mA, Cozoy Astrapi - 40 mA, Geek Out 450 - 400 mA, Schiit FULLA - 140 mA, AQ DragonFly - 90 mA, and finally Aegis - 150 mA. From this list, dSp, Astrapi, and Aegis are the only three with an official USB OTG support, where dSp and Astrapi draw a fraction in comparison to Aegis. Such current drain even at a moderate volume level had a negative effect on my Note 4 battery when listening to music, which got even worse while watching a movie since a screen stays on (more current drain).
I don’t want to go into exact numbers in hours since every smartphone will drain battery at its own specific rate depending on your model, battery capacity, and all the apps running in the background, but in general I noticed approximate 3x faster drain rate in comparison to my typical audio use. In theory it’s not the end of the world since it could be on the same battery playback level as other android or non-android based DAPs, but when dealing with a smartphone on the go you have to realize this is not just a dedicated audio stack-up. With Aegis connected to your smartphone when you're out, better keep an external battery handy to juice up your phone.
Pair-up with a phone (Note 4 + Aegis + Linum cable + Oppo PM-3).
Of course battery drain it’s not as much of an issue when connected to your laptop or desktop, but you will have to deal with other problems. In order for Aegis to be recognized, you need to install Cozoy provided drivers which you can find on their product page:
http://www.cozoyaudio.com/aegis/. Once installed, device is recognized without a problem, but you will get a very erratic volume control. I really hope it’s a work in progress because my experience of using it paired up with my ThinkPad was not the most pleasant.
As usb dac it works OK under Win7, but hardware volume control is very jerky with sudden jumps and poor resolution. Even down to Vol 0 there was still a low level of audio leakage; USB2.0 performance was inconsistent where sometime even at low volume setting the actual volume all of a sudden jumped to the max giving me an unpleasant earful surprise. Of course, the workaround of this problem is to find a suitable volume setting for your headphones and use the software volume slider within your audio playback program for a smoother adjustment, like from within Foobar or whatever is your favorite audio player. I just hope this driver issue is going to be resolved. Coincidentally, there are no volume issues connected to my Note 4 (Android), the control was smooth, but there was an issue with a power drain.
Connected to Laptop (USB DAC + Audeze EL-8C).
Well, it feels like I started my review on a high note talking about the product and the design, and went downhill from there talking about the pain of a pair up. But things get better really fast once you get to a sound analysis. All my testing was done using Note 4 connected as a source and Neutron MP as audio app. Aegis quickly redeems itself with a signature of a warm smooth dynamic sound and a great staging expansion, tight low end control, and a decent retrieval of details.
The combo of Note 4 + Aegis yielded following results with some of my headphones.
w/MSR7 – an expanded sound, with a nice deep sub-bass extension, clear and detailed mids, and a smooth detailed airy treble without metallic harshness.
w/R70x - transparent warm sound, drives these 470 ohm cans with authority, excellent sub-bass extension, smooth mids, and a surprisingly smooth sparkle in treble.
w/EL-8C - among the best portable pair ups I heard w/EL8, full body sound with a great low end extension, smoother (in comparison to other sources) mids, and non-sibilant sparkly treble. I typically like to drive EL-8C with external portable amp and turn bass boost on to add body to a sound – here it drove it like a champ without a need for a bass boost!
w/PM-3 - smooth detailed dynamic sound with a good retrieval of details, also an excellent pair ups, even better than HA-2 which requires high-gain setting. It has a high level of transparency, and even slightly better dynamics in comparison to N6/PM-3 pair up. Keep in mind, I was using Linum BaX litz cable which also makes a big difference in sound.
w/ZEN - clear detailed natural transparent balanced sound with an excellent layering and separation, dynamics of the sound is even better than with N6/ZEN. No issues driving these 300 ohm earbuds.
Due to its high output power, pair up with my sensitive or just regular IEMs wasn't as good because I had to keep the volume down, leaving a rather narrow dynamic range for a volume adjustment, and even some background hissing (more like buzzing).
The next comparison was next to my other portable USB DACs: Astrapi, HRT dSp, AQ DragonFly, Schiit FULLA, and GO450.
Using Note 4 and ATH-MSR7, here is what I found in a relative comparison to Aegis:
dSp - an average soundstage, a little flatter sound (not as dynamic).
Astrapi - nice expanded soundstage (more width then depth), thinner sound.
GO450 - better dynamics (similar to Aegis, just a touch better), wide/deep soundstage, and a bit more sparkle/airiness in the sound.
FULLA - great dynamics (similar to Aegis, just a touch flatter in comparison), and also a touch less detailed (that one was a surprise).
DragonFly - good dynamics (but not as good as Aegis), a little less detailed, sound is smoother/warmer.
Conclusion.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, I found Aegis to be at its best when driving demanding headphones, while efficient headphones or sensitive IEMs or just average IEMs were not a good pair up because of too much power. I was very impressed how well I was able to drive my planar magnetic headphones and other high impedance headphones and earbuds. Also, I absolutely love the build, the shape, and the portability which makes it perfect for a mobile use. But on the other hand, its high power works against it when paired up with a smartphone, causing accelerated battery drain. My feeling about Aegis is really on a fence, constantly flip-flopping. Cozoy developed an excellent product, and to be able to stuff it inside of such small package is phenomenal. But this product is not very practical for a mobile use, its main intention, because of an excessive battery drain. This would have been an easier pill to swallow if priced on a level of Astrapi, but at $300 it's rather high in comparison to competition. For someone who is a diehard audio enthusiast and appreciates and collects fine and rare audio gadgets, this little gem would be a rare find. But I wouldn’t recommend it for a beginner or an average consumer since you can find other cheaper solutions, though not at the same performance level in such a tiny package.
In my post-conclusion, I want to mention to Cozoy/Shozy that you proved to us with Alien and Aegis that you know a great deal about sound quality and design details, now it’s time to show how you can apply this knowledge to make a killer DAP!