[msiekkb]

Another positive review from Alien+ Polish Tour https://translate.google.pl/transla...ivoodoo.blogspot.com/2017/07/shozy-alien.html

 

[ExpatinJapan]

Shozy Alien+ unboxing pron

 

[Raketen]

I'm going to be disappointed if my Alien+ doesn't come with a large crystal orb.

 

[mochill]

I need this in my life <3 <3

 

[rthorntn]

Most likely compression level was to high.

Is this a bug acknowledged by Shozy? Thanks.

I'm not really feeling the love with Shozy, I would like to know about new firmwares (features & fixes)... is anyone having any luck keeping track of this?

 

[siruspan]

Is this a bug acknowledged by Shozy? Thanks.

I'm not really feeling the love with Shozy, I would like to know about new firmwares (features & fixes)... is anyone having any luck keeping track of this?

I think that you're missing the point. Alien is as straightforward as it gets by design. They are working on firmware but there won't be any major updates that will add loads of features. It's basically wav player that also is capable of flac and mp3 playback. The only things they said that can be added are usb dac and maybe dsd playback way in to the future.

Don't get me wrong I would also prefer full android, wifi, tidal and so on but no other dap on the market that has this features comes close to Alien+ sound quality. Even sony changed their politics, zx1 and zx2 had an android and newer wm1z and wm1a have their own closed system and there's no tidal and spotify.

 

[rthorntn]

I think that you're missing the point.

I'm sorry but I'm not missing the point, the features I'm talking about are the player remembering it's settings (screen timeout) and reliably playing the 16/44.1 flac files that they say they support on a FAT32 SD card.

On this planet customers that pay good money for a product, should expect quality or a path to achieving that quality.

I would be happy with the basic A+ functionality if it worked.

Converting FLAC to WAV seems to introduce distortion so this is not an option for me. I don't have source WAVs.

It's such a simple OS, I can't see why they couldn't get it to do what it says on the packaging. I suspect they're just crap programmers with no discipline.

A terrible upgrade process, no version numbers, no release notes, poor communication, IMHO very Shoddy Shozy!

 

[rthorntn]

Hi,

Solid design, mine arrived from Penon with scratches and scuffing in a crappy cardboard box with a slither of tired looking bubble wrap, they refunded me $100. For the price I would have liked a carry case (to prevent accidental button presses) and a bung to hide the red laser light coming out of the optical out (being able to disable the optical would have been great, it must impact power consumption).

When using high quality source material I really enjoy the sound (with WAV) but the downsides are file size, no tags and most people don't have any of their music in WAV format.

In my opinion the software is not retail quality so I started this thread that deals with the software on the A+. I get that it's designed to be minimalist but I think Shozy are just using that as an excuse.

I had 200GB of 16/44.1 FLAC on a FAT32 SD, the A+ shows me zero files, no choice, I moved on from FLAC.

I set the display timeout, power off & on the timeout is defaulted. So it forgets some settings including the last track played.

The battery indicator doesn't show when it's charged, it just dies with no warning. This is supposedly by design. Well how do we know when it's charged (for a certain watt charger 2.5w, 5w, 10w...)? just stick it on charge for 5-6 hours they say... why can't you just show a charged icon? we are minimising graphical elements they say... What!

Upgrades are unreliable (use a small SD with only the upgrade file on it). No upgrade versioning. No release notes. Not good for 2017.

- I'm converting FLAC to WAV using XLD
- I'm hitting directory and filename restrictions (which is just awesome because we don't have tags)
-- A directory only shows 25 WAV files, had to break one of my albums into 4 directories
-- If your filename or directory names are too long the "Now Playing" screen becomes pretty useless
-- It doesn't like deep directories (genre > subgenre > artist > album > CD) had to remove the CD subdirectory to see my music
-- With a deep directory structure "Now Playing" shows a corrupted quality field, it's either empty, just the bit depth or just the sampling rate.

The A+ crapped itself and even the power button stopped working, I had to push the reset button to "fix" it.

There doesn't seem to be a way to lock the A+, so I accidentally press buttons all the time.

The transition from one track to another is bad (I know it's not gapless), quite jarring, too much delay. Probably going to have to stitch a few albums together in Audacity, more work.

I doubt we will see the USB DAC function, the excuses have already started on their webpage.

Anyone else have any issues they would like to share, maybe Shozy can use this to replace their bug tracker?

Has anyone tested the A+ with exFAT?

Thanks.

Richard

 

[Layman1]

[QUOTE="rthorntn, post: 13618619, member: 119802 I suspect they're just crap programmers with no discipline.[/QUOTE]

Yay, personal abuse. Good luck getting your questions answered lol

 

[HiFlight]

I'm sorry but I'm not missing the point, the features I'm talking about are the player remembering it's settings (screen timeout) and reliably playing the 16/44.1 flac files that they say they support on a FAT32 SD card.

On this planet customers that pay good money for a product, should expect quality or a path to achieving that quality.

I would be happy with the basic A+ functionality if it worked.

Converting FLAC to WAV seems to introduce distortion so this is not an option for me. I don't have source WAVs.

It's such a simple OS, I can't see why they couldn't get it to do what it says on the packaging. I suspect they're just crap programmers with no discipline.

A terrible upgrade process, no version numbers, no release notes, poor communication, IMHO very Shoddy Shozy!

My 16/44.1 Flac files play just fine on my A+

 

[Layman1]

My 16/44.1 Flac files play just fine on my A+

Ditto

 

[rthorntn]

I'm buying shares in Kool-Aid.

 

[Layman1]

@rthorntn To be fair, I have sympathy with you regarding the issues you're facing.
For me, it's not about Kool Aid or anything. I went into this purchase with my eyes very much open.
A very stripped down player, with many limitations, unfinished firmware (e.g. USB DAC) and an approximately 6 hour battery life.
For the same price you can get a Fiio X5iii, with dual micro-SD card slots and every bell and whistle imaginable. And fully functioning FW I imagine too
At this budget level though, it seems there pretty much is a choice to be made regarding bells and whistles vs sound quality.
I prize the latter above all else and chose to buy the Alien+.
For me, the sound is astonishingly good, straight out of the box. I had a few issues getting things to work. I couldn't get the micro-SD card to be recognised the first time I think.
It's mildly annoying that it doesn't remember settings, but again, I made a conscious choice and I can live with it. First world problems and all that lol.

Regarding the FLAC issue, I found that most of my FLAC files would play (just the 24/192 ones wouldn't. I can't remember whether any of the 16/44 ones had issues).
I too found that when I converted some FLAC files using Foobar2000, some of the 24/* (96, 192, etc) ones which previously sounded fine on other players now had a horrible static background noise, making them unlistenable.
For disclosure purposes, these were torrented, so I have no guarantees as to the original quality of the files. For those files, I just found/ripped 16/44 versions, directly to WAV from CD's or converted from FLAC's and all the problems were gone.
I should also mention that many of the albums in 24/* FLAC *did* convert fine on Foobar2000 and play back on the Alien+ with no issues.
So I'm inclined to put that down to glitches with the original files or the conversion process, rather than an issue with the Alien+..

The problem with all this is that I (and presumably others) are being able to use the Alien+ without any real bugs or issues (or we are at peace with the few we've encountered).
Our experiences obviously don't invalidate your own and vice versa.
I'd say @NLNH on here has been very helpful to me and others previously?
Maybe try PM'ing him for suggestions?

Or ask questions to us on here, preferably in a slightly less confrontational way lol, and I imagine people will bend over backwards to help, myself included.
I'm not trying to 'preach' at you, and I get that you're frustrated. I hope this can be of help.

 

[JaeYoon]

Does Anyone have Opus 3.
I was thinking of getting it, but Im thinking highly of Alien+. I have a portable battery charger.

But dat Opus 1. I dunno how they would compare.

 

[Hawaiibadboy]

My 16/44.1 Flac files play just fine on my A+

Mine do not.
I still have the Feb 26 FW and it will not update beyond that.
It will not play flac

Shozy has tried hard to help but I have formatted cards deleted libraries and bought another card but this device is not budging.
"User error"...dumb people....account for 99% of problems on Head-Fi. I know. I help other folks all the time. I did everything I can to fix this, Shozy tried everything and I'm stuck with a unit that is a wav player forever.
Fine, but...I would not have bought it even discounted if that had been the case.
Sounds great
Shozy has been great
This unit is having issues.