Introduction

The AP100 is an entry submission DAP from the guys of Hidizs. Weighing a hefty 156g it's clearly not a slim DAP, but rather aimed for those wanting more power to drive harder headphones (hopefully without the need for amping). Retail price here in Australia is $330AUD (purchased from Minidisc.com.au), it can be had for cheaper on Amazon for USA residents.

Specifications (lifted from site)

Audio
- Supports Hi Resolution 24bit/192kHz
- Supports Audio Format WAV, FLAC, WMA, MP3, OGG, AAC, APE (Normal, High level) and ALAC
- Frequency response range +/-0.02dB 20-20000Hz / +/-0.2dB 10-70000Hz
- SNR 110dB
- Distortion plus noise < 0.003%
- PO Output Power L:2.2Vrms R:2.2Vrms
- LO Output Power L:2.2Vrms R:2.2Vrms
- Isolation >105dB

Main Functions
- Firmware Upgrade Supported, By MicroSD card
- Headphone Jack 3.5mm headphone jack
- Line Out 3.5mm headphone jack
- Digital Audio Output 3.5mm coaxial output
- Digital Audio Input 3.5mm coaxial input
- Built-in Battery 3000mAh (rated 10hrs playback)
- 8GB Internal Memory
- External Memory Micro SD card (up to 64gb, I believe higher is possible)
- Support for user-defined EQ

Hardware Specs
- CPU 4760B processor
- DAC chip CS8422 24/192 digital audio receiver by Cirrus Logic
- EQ chip CS48L10 coloration chip for superios hardware EQ
- Audio decoder chip CS4398 high indexes audio decoder
- Audio filter chip AD823A a dual channel filter chip
- Oscillator chip D350 & D348

General Specs
- Dimension 65.5 * 107 * 16.2 mm
- Weight 156g
- Display TFT 320x240 26 million colors
-Compatible Operating Systems Linux, Mac OS, Windows 2003, XP, 2008, Win7 and Win8

Other worthy 'mentionings' that I feel they under sell is the two unique buttons that I have never seen on a DAP before, a SRC button (Source) and a EQ button (Equalizer), more on this later...


Firmware

Before I grabbed this DAP I was reading quite a fair bit about it on headfi forums. It appeared that the staff of Hidizs were quite proactive in answering members questions and obliging with feature requests.
Since the AP100 was launched there have been 2 major firmware upgrades and several key features added to improve the functionality and appeal of this DAP. The following items below I point out as being particularly noteworthy;

1) Now supports DAC
2) Now supports DSD
3) Gapless Playback supported
4) OTG Playlist support (ability to create several Playlists)
5) Added 3 Custom EQ slots
6) Lyrics display supported (.lrc file only)
7) Supports M3U playlist files
8) Supports OTG storage management
9) Channel Balance

I was impressed to say the least, all this from Feb-April '15.




EQ (50hz, 70hz, 300hz, 700hz, 1kHz, 7kHz, 14kHz)

Ok, let's get straight down to why I actually bought an AP100. For me there was one thing that stood out on this DAP from all others... that EQ button.
Having a dedicated EQ button has been long on my wish list, for years I have searched for such a thing only to encounter it done once elsewhere (the Cowon E2) and not that well implemented.
I have even mastered the art of toggling EQ pretty fast on a Cowon i9+ (can be applied to most Cowon DAPs), you can see here for demonstration purposes.
But it's not the same as being able to hit a single button.

Ok... now before the purists wade in and talk about 'Flat' and 'Normal' being best, I want to point this very simple fact out. Not all albums are recorded equal. I have many many albums that sound 'off', a small tweak to Bass or Treble undeniably fixes the problem. It is not about listening to how the artist intended... the recording engineer/studio stuffed up, plain and simple.
If you are somebody who has never come across this before, then you're one of the lucky ones. I can mention many albums and tracks whereby I would argue profusely that things improve once EQ'd.
Sometimes the treble is overdone, and some albums can be very fatiguing, it is not always a solution to simply up the bass, I have to reduce treble somewhat as well, and the harshness goes away and the tracks become less fatiguing and more balanced.

And if it's not the tracks that are at fault then it can most definitely be the headphones. Perhaps you find a pair of headphones that are very comfy to use, but have some faults, a good EQ can help solve this problem.
There's no doubt about it, an EQ is a really handy thing to have.

So why has it taken so long for a manufacturer to decide to grace users with a dedicated button that can toggle through presets and custom settings?!
Why do we always (usually) have to go through a myriad of system settings to get to EQ presets? By the time you select the one you're looking for the song is half way through! :|

Rockbox tried to give us something similar via using the shortcut feature and being able to bind Bass and Treble adjustment. In theory it would be great, but in reality the changes applied take so long to materialise that 30secs later you realise you did too much bass or too little, make a second adjustment and so on so forth and eventually by the time you have it right for that song, it's over.
I wonder if the iBasso DX50 or DX90 does better in this regard than the Sansa Clips and Fuzes?

Anyway... here we are treated to a glorious button that when pushed during song playback, toggles through the presets and custom settings instantly, no lag, no delay, immediate change

There are six presets (Off, Rock, Pop, Classical, Jazz, Bass) given as standard and three custom slots to use. When pressing the EQ button it cycles through each till you get back to the first preset.

But it gets better. I discovered that all of the Presets (Rock, Pop etc) can actually be tinkered with also and saved accordingly (I imagine a factory reset would reapply their default settings). Thus in reality it means that you have eight custom slots to muck around with, the only issue is you cannot change the names of the Presets.
Perhaps you like each preset, but wished to just slightly change their FRR, well... now you can.

This works really well in practice. I have altered all mine to cycle through a pattern of 'off/Flat' > 'slightly more bass' > 'slightly less bass' > repeat.

In days gone by I used to abuse DSP features a lot, nowadays I prefer to stick to something that sounds flat and neutral as possible, yet just lifting or lowering ever so slightly some FR ranges to compensate accordingly.

It's not perfect, but it's a start. Let's hope other manufacturers catch on and present us with an EQ button. It could be better. For example, let us change the names of presets and custom slots. Even better, an automatic system could be put in place if there was some way to mark or tag an album to using a specified FRR band, we could do away with the button altogether!




Sound Quality

Hidizs market it as a 'Pocket HiFi', to my ears that lives up to the name. It feels premium in build quality and sounds premium to my ears. I hear no background hiss, it seems black to my ears, yet can attain high volumes without distortion or growing hiss (unlike Cowon and Sansa). The EQ allows for subtle or heavy manipulation of sound, whilst at the same time not sounding artificial, but rather accurate and precise. Whatever you prefer to hear (warm or cold) I am sure a sound signature is possible with this player that will fit your needs (or indeed make up for headphone deficiencies).
I am not a Hi Res person, all I have used on the player to date so far are 320kbps MP3 files. I may throw some FLAC and WAV on for testing purposes, but to be honest if I notice a significant difference I will be wary, as all ABX testing so far that I have undertaken suggests I cannot hear a difference between 192kbps MP3 files and FLAC let alone 320kbps.

The Alien Shozy did a remarkable job of making the Flat/Neutral FRR sound exciting and engaging, but I cannot lie, The AP100 (with the EQ feature) allows me to push past what the Shozy can achieve for certain tracks and albums. If a record didn't require a tweak, then it becomes neck and neck as to which 'sounds better' with usually it being just different sounding and not necessarily a clear winner. But in case of a song or album requiring that additional FR help, the AP100 wins. For example, I have never heard Soundgarden's Louder than Love album sound better than on the AP100.

I have to point out that the AP100 also shares a similar trait of the Alien Shozy in that it also seems to be extremely low level hiss, certainly I cannot detect any with my PFE 232's connected (even at max volume). This of course is contrary to Cowon and Sansa players to which I can detect quite a fair amount of hiss (model and IEM dependent). A true hiss test for me is using my Yamaha EPH100's (which are very hissy on Cowon and Sansas) they don't hiss at all on the AP100.

And talking about volume, yes it goes very high. 80 is the maximum value, giving increments of 1.25% at each push (better than say Cowon's 40 steps).
I have replay-gained my music to being 93db, and I can comfortably listen anywhere between 65-80 and not feel I need more volume, and those that know me well know that I listen at insane volume levels.
I imagine a non replay-gained album (modern releases usually sits around 97-99db) to be extremely loud even at around 50-60/80, for headphones that need more room to grow, there is room.

There is one other aspect that I have not touched upon yet which is relevant to sound quality, and that is the SRC (Source) button, or as headfi peeps have coined it 'the magic button' . There seems to be a bit of confusion over what this button actually does.
There are 5 modes, 16bit 44.1kHz > 24bit 88.2kHz > 24bit 96kHz > 24bit 176.4kHz > 24bit 192kHz. A push of the SRC button cycles through the above, and each press does change the sound quality (regardless of file type being played).
I don't quite understand what it's trying to do. I am playing 320kbps MP3 files and the AP100 will tell me that the file is 16bit 44.1kHz. But I can indeed set the SRC mode to anything I like, I'm sure it's impossible to upscale the file to 24bit 192kHz, so what is it actually doing? All I know is that toggling (even on a 16bit 44.1kHz file) will change the sound, I actually leave mine sitting on 24bit 96kHz most of the time.

I posted in headfi what this feature of the player actually does, and this is the only half decent response I got;

"From a french forum

-24/88.2 : plus dynamique, medium légèrement en retrait
-24/96 : scène moins large, medium plus en avant, aigus moins prononcés
-24/176.4 : scène étendue, medium en retrait
-24/192 : scène plus large, moins précis mais très dynamique

Trying to translate :

24/88.2: More dynamic, slightly set back medium
24/96: less wide scene, medium more forward, less pronounced treble
24/176.4: scene area, set back medium
24/192: wider scene, less precise but very dynamic"


So yeh... there you go :|

Certainly there are lots more things to do and test with this gizmo, who knows... perhaps I will even throw a DSD file in there and see how it sounds...




Summary

I am really enjoying the AP100. I can't emphasize how great the EQ button is, nor can I believe in a world of 'Audiophiles' that it has taken 'till 2015 to see a DAP with (what I would call) a bloody obvious feature. I kid you not when I say that I was looking for something like this a good 5+yrs ago...

My audio journey seems to be getting more and more expensive, but at the same time I am under the impression the sound quality is getting better (or at least it is appearing 'cleaner'). My only main gripe is the weight of my DAP choices keep increasing, from the feather like weight 40g that is the Cowon i9+ to the Alien Shozy at 80g, to the AP100 at 156g! If I keep this up my next DAP will weigh 300g!

Sadly the AP300 is in the works, and so far it looks touchscreen based (which I consider to be a con) with an emphasis of form over function, and seems to be another brick to ferry around.

My perfect DAP is something that has this sound capability, a dedicated EQ button, supports all Lyric formats, can rate songs and weighs a good 50g tops.

Well... one can dream can't they?

Pros
-Leather Case included, high quality, if sold separately I would imagine a price tag of $30-50USD attached to it! It's worth considering if cases are your thing.
-Sounds Quality excellent, good EQ implementation
-Dedicated EQ button
-Tactile buttons only, great for blind operation
-Unlikely to need amped
-Can be used as a DAC also
-Favorites and Custom Playlists possible OTG
-Line Out
-M3U support

Cons
-Weight (heavy)
-Price (expensive)
-Screen quality is average
-NPS is a little boring, lack of customization here. No large album art display etc
-No support for Tagged/unsynced Lyrics, only LRC files
-Not able to delete all songs stored in Favorites easily, have to do one by one.
-No real Song Rating feature, have to use Favorites and Playlist workarounds.
-Not able to mass add files/albums to playlists.
-Battery life, 10hrs max

I'm going to finish off this review with a short video detailing the menu, navigating it, and all the other settings etc to help give interested parties more info;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lig_3zhwg5Q

Ok i'll just jump straight to the point, should you buy this? Absolutely Not . Here's why;

- It's a screen-less shuffle style player, obviously not intended to compete with the screened DAP market, fair enough, but if it actually shuffled properly it might be of some use.
This is by far the worst implementation of a shuffle algorithm I have ever encountered. It was doing so many weird things that it took a month of experimenting to see if I could understand a logical approach as to what it is indeed trying to do, in the end I have just branded it as buggy and bad.

There is a shuffle toggle button on the device, sounds nice in theory (and I wish other DAPs would have a nice physical shuffle switch). In theory you shuffle your entire music collection and when you find a song you like and want to listen to more on that album, you simply toggle off, right? Wrong... this doesn't really work like that at all.



First off, when not in shuffle mode it doesn't actually play the songs in an album in the right sequential order.
It doesn't read file names, it reads tags, and although the track numbers are tagged properly (in all my work), it ignores them and instead just reads tag track names, therefore the album will be played in song name alphabetical order.
Only... it might not, you see it kinda seems as tho if you have few music on your Hippo it might somewhat behave. I could swear at one time it was playing an album in the right order but filling a 32gb card up with songs and it's a different story. Either way, it's not consistent, or at least perhaps it's doing different things with MP3 and WAV files..

Back to the shuffle. It doesn't shuffle, out of 3000+ songs it would go round and round cycling through about maybe 50 tops. Trying to 'get out' of that 'shuffle list' (and into some new songs) is impossible. I would try toggle the shuffle off, listen to a new song (or two), skip forward a few tracks put shuffle mode back on and hope it would now pick some new songs (even if again just cycling through 50 or so)... but before long we're back to the previous 10-50 tracks it seems hell bent on staying with :|
And it gets worse... it kinda freezes sometimes (between tracks), waiting 1min at times till it frees itself up and resumes on a particular song (and it's always this song when it does this).
It's just bad... bad bad bad.

- Now that the shuffle mode and default mode have been sufficiently explained it, also doesn't have a 'skip album' button/feature. The Biscuit will read a single folder fine, but you can't skip it. Also, if you apply the shuffle feature it will shuffle only that folder of which you are currently in, and not the entire music on the player. That might work for some, it doesn't really work for me. Besides... because default mode is not reading file name or tags properly (but instead just from the id3 track/song name alphabetically)... default mode IS kind of a shuffle mode anyway lol.

- It is simply unusable with a 32gb card filled up with any file type (WAV, MP3 etc), because it simply can't handle that volume of tracks properly with the shuffle mode implemented, believe me I have tried. I tried 4gb cards, 16gb cards, multiple folders vs dumping all the tracks on root of card, but even just putting 200 songs on and I would start to recognise the shuffle mode going through a cycle of revisiting previously played songs (and very quick too). I even got stuck between just 2 songs a few times, going back and forth every time i hit 'next' (and no they weren't in a folder all by themselves)... it's just the ****tiest shuffle i have ever used. :/
This device is useful for a handful of albums at a time, but to be safe you will have to rename the id3 track tags with the inclusion of '01 xxx, 02 xxx' etc to ensure they play in the right order.

- And no it's not gapless, in fact I do believe there is a short fade in on every new track it plays.

- It is not terribly loud. Loud enough for most users I am sure, but whereas with the Shozy I can replaygain everything to 89-90db, the Biscuit is too low for my liking with these settings, I have to 'put back' the albums to 97db (which so many seem to be released at today).

Ok... and now the good.



- It does sound good, so good that I did a little amateur A/B testing against my Alien Shozy to see where I felt it pitched against my favorite sounding DAP to date. Once volume matched (to the best of my ears ability), i flicked the switch between the songs, and at certain times I would be fairly convinced that if blinded I could not tell the difference (between the two). These times were most prevalent when the song had lots of things 'going on'. If the song was at a part and only a few instruments playing, then the difference was more apparent, and the Shozy sounding to my ears the better player.
But out of the box, it sounded better than a sansa clip in 'normal mode', but I never persevered hard enough to see if I could find a eq setting with a Clip that would better the Hippo (because in all honestly I have given up on the Hippo Biscuit, it just collects dust in my drawer now).

- The button placement is pretty good as well, I wish the Shozy had this style of button placement, easier to seek out blind via feel etc.

- Build quality is decent, nice, strong and robust.

- It can also be connected to the PC via usb and read the card from there, rather than needing to eject it every time.

Conclusion

Well for $70AUD i'm not going to cry. I was looking for something like the Alien Shozy but lighter (for the gym), at first I thought I had found it, but after doing more testing found that the Default/Shuffle mode is so poorly implemented that it's simply unusable. But if anything it has made me appreciate the Alien Shozy all the more, it can skip folders/albums, is loud, has a good shuffle mode and sounds better.

Hippo Buggy Biscuit.

"Greetings Earthlings, all of your ears belong to us! Resistance is futile!" etc etc.







Yes... quite.

So what is this oddly shaped DAP all about?

Specs (lifted from rear packaging because i have no idea how to do Chinese or whatever those letter thingies are...):




From the company Shozy comes 'Alien' their first attempt in the DAP market. Shozy is a company already established in providing audio equipment and oem soloutions for various audio and tech companies, they also produce portable amps and the like.

Taken from their website the Alien is "sleek Wav/Flac player with a solid CNC aluminium housing with hairline surface treatment and navigation of great simplicity."

Yep you heard right, no MP3 support <shock! gasp!>.

I guess they feel lossless is the way to go, something I am (still) not entirely convinced of.

If you're wondering where the screen is... yeh... there is none. This is a screenless DAP, and depending upon your point of view that is either a good or bad thing. With no screen comes certain advantages, no firmware, no disappointing UI, no bugs (well... less bugs) and according to some a cleaner signal (the idea that the addition of OS and screen gives way to interference and noise and a less than optimum sound quality).
It may very well be true, I have been following a few Headfi threads for awhile now, threads that discuss some of the other 'boutique' DAPs. Examples Fiio's X3, X5 and iBasso's DX50 to name a few, and a common theme creeps in on all these threads - namely software bugs, but also how different firmware release versions seems to alter the sound, and a lot of complaining and moaning centered around these issues.


I don't own any of these other DAPs, I'm sure they are all very good at what they do, for sure everyone has different needs and for some a DAP without a screen is a deal breaker, but before you dismiss this player I encourage you to read on.


My Background

You can skip this section if you like, but I feel it important to give the reader some idea of the reviewer, my competency in reviewing this DAP amongst other things.

For about a decade I have been collecting and listening to mp3 players. For awhile now I have been an avid lover of Cowon players, my personal favorite the i9+, 32gb memory, BBE and Jet Effect, 40grams in weight and a decent 20+hr battery life.
It's an understatement to say I enjoy an EQ/DSP tweak, it's more honest to say I am an abuser of these settings. Those that like their sounds clean and neutral would be horrified to see what settings I use, and I'm too embarrassed to post them here. But alas, the ears like what the ears like and I stand by my love for BBE/Jet Effect.


But that's not to say I don't enjoy flat neutral sound either. I think it's really important to highlight that at home, in front of the computer, I will listen to music unaided by any EQ/DSP tweaks via Foobar2000>Fiio E9+E7 USB DAC combo>Superlux HD668B cans. I don't know why but I never felt the need to reach for a tweak, everything sounded just fine as it was, the signal was also very clean with minimal hiss and I started to wonder if I could repeat such a similar thing 'on the go'.

Now i'm no audiophile, I may go that extra bit in considering alternatives for portable music solutions than the average consumer i.e. getting past a smartphone and stock ear buds), but I’m not comfortable using well known terminology surrounding sound quality. For example, when some people have described a sound as analytical or cold, that to me has often meant boring or dull. When someone speaks of something being 'warm' that often means to me that it's more enjoyable. I don’t know, for me it just seems such words are open to misinterpretation so I will try and keep these to a minimal (for sake of being misunderstood).
Instead I will be giving a more practical review of the Alien Shozy, something I feel more qualified to appraise giving my extensive mp3 player collection that I have amassed over the years.


Unboxing




Well this was an interesting experience, by far the worst boxing of a product I have ever come across (and that coming from a Cowon user is quite an achievement!).
For starters their is a piece of decorative card that doesn't even fit in the box properly, it's bent and contorted, clearly a few mm too large to fit properly, and it's thin and flimsy, a thicker piece of decorative cardboard cut to the right size would make the thing look better in it's box, as is, it looks like a cheap Chinese knock off.
The rear of the box is in fact the manual and specs, as there is no booklet/manual to be found. I cannot remember if there was a usb cable provided as it was awhile ago since I unboxed the thing, and there is nothing to read that says what's included in the box, but it doesn't really matter... the usb cable is just for charging the device (standard micro usb cable affair, the kind most modern android phones have), in reality I think most of us will have about 15 of these usb cables lying around the house. I have been using any I find lying around to charge the shozy, no issues.
The packaging suggests cheap and nasty, luckily from here on it’s onwards and upwards!


MP3, FLAC, WAV & Sound

My first task was to actually find some way of putting music onto this device, as up to this point I have been an MP3 man all the way.
I gave up on buying physical CDs a long time ago (I live in pretty small dwelling and just don't have the space, same for DVDs, everything is digital for me).
I had only one recent CD purchase which was a limited 500 copy 4 disc box set by the Electronic Welsh DJ outfit band called Hybrid, so I started a rip from there. WAV was first up.
Connecting my PFE 232's to the Alien I switched it on and waited…
At first I thought something was wrong, as I wasn't hearing any hiss whatsoever. Usually my experience with DAPs is, upon switching on, u hear some kind of hissing/background noise as the player starts, a click or beep here or there, something to alert you to the fact that the thing was on. I got nothing, dead silence. I pulled the headphones out and put them back in; it was like I never removed them from the jack at all. And then the song started playing...

Every time you switch the device on it will default back to stock volume level, it cannot remember where you last had the volume, so naturally on my first go it was too quiet for my ears, so i increased the volume. At first I did a long hold press on the volume + button... silly me... this is how you play/pause the device (in my mind a short press of the on/off button for play/pause made more sense, and long presses of the on/off for turning the device on and off, but there u go.
So it had to be multiple presses of the volume + button to get it the volume I wanted.

What’s this?! At first i thought perhaps it was a little broken, as it appeared some presses weren't being recognised, then i listened more closely, actually every press was being recorded, it’s just they were tiny increments! This was very good news (for me), I can't stand large increment volume adjustments <cough *android* cough>! Coming from Cowon (which gives 2.5% increment adjustments, the smallest I had experienced to date) I wasn't expecting this. To hazard a guess I reckon the increments sound around 1-2% steps, very small, but I like it this way, it allows me to get very close to the absolute loudest sound I can derive before distortion kicks in


And a small note about volume and distortion here. This Alien goes crazy loud, I haven't managed to discover maximum volume for fear of ruining any equipment connected to (those that know me that's quite a claim)!
Although it has plenty volume it does start distorting at a point earlier than you might expect, a bit earlier than I would have liked, but not by much. I am still able to be satisfied in a ‘max volume + no distortion’ department. I'm just saying if there is a Alien Shozy 2.1, if they could hold off on distortion at the louder volumes a tad bit longer then that would be a welcome addition.



Anyway... where was I? Ah yes... how did it sound? Well... I was very very pleased with what I was hearing. To my ears it sounded like I was getting something very similar to the PC desktop rig I use (of which is formerly mentioned above). I was getting zero hiss and everything felt balanced and right. Not too little bass, not too much, crisp treble but not harsh, separation, detail, and comfortable soundstage, I had no complaints.

Normally when listening to a new mp3 player I find the default Flat/Normal/Neutral settings to be dull and lifeless, almost muffled. I tend to head straight to the DSP settings and try and tweak to finding something I like, usually that's a loose V shaped signature of some description.
With the Shozy I wouldn't describe its sound to being flat, perhaps because my ears enjoyed it so much on first hearing that suggests to me it may be more V shaped, I don’t know, I’m no expert in this regard, but I liked whatever it was I was hearing.

And of course on the Alien there is no way to change any sound settings, WYSIWYG, and with that comes pros and cons. With no ability to tinker the sound you can only sit back and enjoy. No getting caught up with buggy UI, or being frustrated with not getting the sound signature you're trying to seek. Perhaps now being forced to listening to the song as is, maybe closely resembling what the artist intended (tho no one really knows the answer to that other than the artists themselves). But from someone who has come from a BBE/Jet Effect (ab)user this was actually a remarkable breath of fresh air! Oddly enough, when trying some songs I felt at times this was actually hitting a sound signature that sounded very similar to my own Cowon tweaked BBE sound signature… can’t be… must be all my imagination...

But here is where the Shozy really shines. With the Alien, when shuffling a mix of various songs from various genres (more on how to do this later) I wasn't feeling as tho I needed to increase bass for this track here, or lower for this track there, everything sounded good, with no hand looking to go reaching for something to tweak.
On my Cowon, I found when shuffling music like this, I needed to have the 4 user custom presets set in such a way to slightly change depending upon genre. Bass heavy music such as rap or hiphop needed a bit less bass emphasis, but on older heavy metal tracks benefited with more bass, so with Cowon I was constantly reaching down, tweaking the player to jump to a different preset depending upon which track came on next. I managed to get very fluid and quick in doing this, but still it was a slight pain in the ass.
I can confidently say that this hasn't been the case with the Alien. Going from one genre to the next doesn't make me reach down for a tweak, everything is as it should be and I was really surprised by this revelation.

So... I'm getting ahead of myself a little here, back to MP3's FLAC and WAV.
I also tried ripping a CD to FLAC and found no audible difference (to the WAV). I wish the Shozy could take MP3's because when I played the FLAC and WAV rips of my CD against a 320kbps MP3 file, I couldn’t hear any audible difference (using Foobar with the Fiio E9+E7 USB DAC combo running through Superlux HD668B cans). I would hazard a bet that MP3's would sound just as good on the Shozy, but hey... FLAC and WAV only attracts a certain crowd right?

I wasn't about to go and rebuy all my music collection in FLAC or WAV so I had to do a Mp3 conversion to WAV or FLAC, less than ideal. Nonetheless I used foobar to do this task and for me I can't notice any difference between a CD rip to FLAC/WAV vs a MP3 320kbps>FLAC/WAVconversion. Perhaps my ears are too stuffed to tell the difference, I dunno.. YMMV.

In my opinion the success of this player isn't because it only plays WAV (44.1k/24B) or FLAC (44.1k/24B) but rather what's happening on the inside in combination of removing as many software/screen components that get in the way of reproducing good sound quality.

I support this statement because when i connect my PFE 232's (which hiss very little) to my Cowon or Sansa players, even with EQ's turned off and volume low, I heara slight hiss, and more hiss when songs are actually being played. Only recently did I buy the Yamaha EPH-100's, intended for the Cowon i9+, I was disappointed, they were by far the hissiest IEM I have owned to date (to be fair they sounded pretty good if you could get past the hiss). It's a very different story however once you connect them to the Shozy, absolute zero hiss again. I threw every IEM I owned at the Shozy, I couldn't hear hiss on any of them. It just goes to show... sometimes different sources do matter.


Functionality




Well there's little to talk about here, having no UI means I have little to discredit. There are some gripes tho. The button placement for example, is too cramped really. The player has no resume feature, so if you have been listening for an hour and a half, accidentally hit the off button (middle one) then when you go to switch it back on you’re presented with what could be quite a few time consuming skipping of tracks to get back to where you left off. And you can't press the skip quickly either, you have to wait for each song to start playing before moving to next track. Again something that could hopefully be improved upon for the next model.
There really is no need for such cramped button arrangement, for a player that is really going to reside in your pocket for 99% of the time, you’ll want to operate it blindly, slightly further apart button placement would help, and pronounced raised buttons so you can feel them easier.

A bonus however is with no UI comes no library updates or refreshes. Once the card is inserted music starts playing within a few seconds.

It's clear Shozy intended this player to have a 16 or 32gb card inserted and drag and drop albums onto the player and listen to each album sequentially, long pressing fwd button to skip entire albums.
I had a different plan.
I love shuffling my music. When I come across new albums and new material I will listen to the album as intended a few times, but ultimately I pick the songs I really like and add them to my 'best of' collection. And with that I often shuffle some of the songs in that best of collection depending upon what mood I'm in that day.
With the Cowon i9+ I used their 'on the fly' solution to do this courtesy of their Favorites feature. But it was still a little fiddly and time consuming, for the Shozy I have moved to a better method, Winamp.

I now have Winamp setup with a library consisting of only FLACs. Each morning I build a playlist of what I fancy listening to and by using Winamp to do this feels superior to any OTG fiddly player alternative. I get full album art display, no lag, less mistakes and basically finding the songs I really want i.e. a faster better playlist.
Once I have the playlist I save it to desktop, then by using a handy little program called 'Amok Playlist Copy' it copies all the FLACs that exist in the playlist onto my micro sd card in my card reader (by the way i have a 64gb card working fine). I did a test the other day, 231 files (6gb) took 6.5 mins to copy across to the sd card (fyi).
But now I am left with lots of song files starting with 01 xxxx.flac, 01 xxxxx.flac etc. If I were to listen as is then I would be hearing track 1 of everything in the playlist for a good long time before moving onto track 2 etc. I wanted things really shuffled, but how to do this?

In steps my IT friend who simply says 'i can do that!' and makes a cool little script that randomises the files and allocates 0001 0002 0003 etc in front of the files to ensure they play in that randomised order. Nice.

But I felt this wasn't enough, we can do better! A lack of resume feature made it a little painful to get to track 50 or 60 quickly after a power off, so my friend went one step further and created a GUI interface that allowed the files to be split into folders of how many files you like. This way I now had my 231 files randomised, allocated 0001 0002 0003 etc to their file names AND they were split up into folder lots of 10, 20, 30 tracks or how many you liked! Now when I resume and want to find where I left off I can long press the fwd button and skip 10, 20 or 30 songs with ease, and then single press the fwd button to find the last track heard (or rwd button if gone too far). Perfect! Thus with a little help from a friend I have circumnavigated some of Shozy's shortcomings, the lack of resume feature and no shuffle.

The new improved ShozzyShuffler can be found here. (pw shozy)
 
EDIT: A member on headfi (Jaker782) discovered that the Shozy can indeed Shuffle! Long pressing the volume down mode puts the player into a different playback mode.

First long press: Album repeat mode (folder repeat)
Second long press: Default mode
Third long press: Song shuffle mode
Fourth long press: Default mode

The Shuffle mode plays everything on the SD Card and not just within a folder, so it is a true 'Shuffle All'.

It is bizarre that the player does this and is no way advertising this fact. If you look at the specs picture above you will notice that they make an effort to point out that long pressing the volume + button acts as a play/pause but volume - button is still just volume down...
There is actual evidence to support that one of the Shozy developers is unaware of this feature... truly a device 'out of this world' lol :S

Ok, back to the review...

The lack of UI for some is probably an automatic deal breaker, but if you’re brave enough and you think that you can make the Shozy work for you then I say go for it. No screen is actually quite refreshing; there is also nothing to scratch! Adding an amp might make a nice addition (tho technically double amping as the Alien has no line out), but seeing as the shozy has a very clean output I suspect it will work very well with a variety of amps.
Something that also annoyed me about amping in the past, with previous DAPs, elastic bands or whatnot can overlap the DAPs screen etc, anchoring the two devices together can be problematic, here with the Alien we don't have that problem, no screen, no issue.

Personally I have not used an amp with mine, no need, the Alien is powering all of my IEMs fine as is. But this is a device aimed for the IEM user specifically; if you plan to use different headphones such as cans you may very well need more power to drive them.



Conclusion

Since owning the Shozy Alien I have not picked up another DAP. I like the sound and zero hiss too much to go back to a Cowon. I feel I have conquered the no screen limitation, it's not a big deal for me, and if you think it might be for you I encourage you to think outside the box.


According to other users, for $200USD you're getting a player that is on par with some very expensive boutique DAPs, competing with and in some peoples opinions trumping (in sound quality only of course) even very expensive $1000 players like the AK240s.

There is room for improvement, the 8hr battery life for one is indeed hard to swallow, but for me and my life circumstances I can make do, gone are my days of listening to music 10hrs non stop, yours may not be.


Only you can decide whether you are ready to join the little green men...


Summary

Pros

-Excellent sound quality, engaging and addictive, balanced and not lending to wanting to be tweaked in anyway. Suits a variety of genres.
-No hiss, at least to my ears none, tested with a variety of IEMs that have pronounced hiss on other well known DAPs.
-No screen to scratch, no distractions, no buggy firmware. (Yes i see this as a Pro!)

-Small volume increment adjustments.
-Plays music fairly quickly with no refresh databases to contend with.
-Shuffle mode does exist.

Cons

-Lack of features and functionality that come with similar priced DAPs (namely screen/navigation assistance)
-Buttons slightly cramped, tho in reality not a big issue, I personally have never accidentally switched off the device when meaning to pause for example.
-No Bass or Treble control, but again perhaps that detracts from the point.
-No Mp3 support (where in reality I would surmise it would sound as good as FLAC and WAV).
-Short battery life.
-Weigh's 80g. On the one hand this is a decent weight when considering the sound quality and what might actually exist inside components wise (vs competitors), but for a shuffle player this is still mighty heavy. Lighter is always better in my opinion and opens up the player to be used in a variety of different scenarios.
-Only one folder depth possible, subfolders are not read.
-No Shuffle or resume ability, but partially navigated around using above method.
-No Search feature (as in skipping through a song)
-There appears to be a max file limit for a single folder, 231 files was not read accurately with quite a few songs being omitted, splitting the 231 files into folders of 20 or 30 solved this issue (or leaving them in root).


Unsure


-Does the Shozy play and charge same time? I dunno.. will find out.
 
EDIT: Yes it does, but is not advised as it may not be healthy towards the battery.

I purchased my Shozy Alien from noisymotel, they offer excellent customer service and believe they post internationally.