Hello everybody,
After owning this amazing device for more than 3 month now, i will try to output my first review at all.
Everything under this review is my humble opinion, Some might agree and some might not, NO BIG DEAL..
First lets start with :
GUI (DESIGN) :
Since this is a screen-less DAP, So i will just comment on the looks,
Well it looks different, if any of your friends saw it, it will be either "Whats that stupid looking thing ?" or "Damn that looks very frikin cool" but they will never react as if its normal because it is not !!
( I honestly think it looks amazingly out of this world )
As for the buttons on the device it is not the best thing, As all buttons are on the same level, so a press from a bit fat finger could do other unexpected stuff
when i try to switch songs, sometimes i accidentally lower or raise the volume as they all share the same circle.
Also, the power button sometimes is not responsive and some other times it does the action twice ex: if i want to turn it off, i press the button, it switches off and turns back on with one click.
Some guys solve it by gluing smaller size rubber buttons above the device buttons, that way you can click a certain point.
SOUND :
There is something magical about it, Well i think it got the whole pack, very spacious sound, the bass is tight and punchy, those are the things i feel directly when i listen to it,
As for the mids or highs, i can praise the awesome separation and clarity.
While A/Bing with my X5, i didn't see that huge improvement, but when i put my X5 aside and listened to the alien for 1 week, by the time i am back to X5 i felt a slightly more clarity in favor of the alien and whats much more important i started feeling the x5 to be flat and kinda emotionless, and that's whats magical about the ALIEN is the musicality.
USAGE :
Well, this part seems to be the most annoying about the alien, as it came with no manual and left everything to be discovered by users.
Actually it took too much time to discover how this thing works, There were cool discoveries but what was the problem knowing how it works the first day i received it !
I will not go into much stories, instead i will point out helpful hints for any one who thinks of owning this player :
1- Some times songs that work normally on other daps will just stutter and hang the player, it just had to be reconverted by dbpoweramp or any other encoding app. ( I just reconverted all my flac collection to flac again, and it works fine)
2- Holding Volume Down for 3 Seconds switches playback mode (repeat album, repeat song, shuffle, back to normal) Kudos to @jaker782
3- Max Songs on root or in folder must be less than 99 songs (more than that for ex. 104 , there are 5 songs you will never hear , they are lost) but otherwise you can just create however many folders containing less than 99 songs. (You can use the Shozy Shuffler tool made available by @BruceBanner to shuffle your collection into a desired number of folders with max 95 songs per folder)
Features i think it lacks or could have been better :
1- Play everything (It only plays FLAC or WAV)
2- Starting on the last position it shuts on. (I am literally hating the song TLC- NO SCRUBS, i have to hear first part of it each time i power on)
3- No fast forward or rewind.
4- Cant connect directly to pc as storage.
BATTERY :
From 100% to 0%, 10 hours just playing at start volume or 2 clicks up, continuous play, no moving around or using the buttons.
I think that is a nice rate compared to other DAPS on market.
PRICING :
Well, Since i joined this community, i really didn't see anything cheaper than the sansa clip+ LOL.
Given it is a screen-less dap with almost no presentation at all (but the looks of the device itself), with very basic functionality, i think 200$ is a bit high for it.
but if you are going to measure price against sound quality only, i think you can accept the price.
PAIRINGS :
JH16 and SE846 : No Comment, they just sound amazing ! and i get no hiss to very little hiss which is not noticeable at all.
M100 : Very musical and the bass is just hitting hard, the best i have heard out of the m100 yet.
Mad Dogs : I tried the mad dogs, at start volume it sounded good but with low volume, i personally find the instrument separation on the mad dogs amazing + the alien its even more awesome but needed more volume, so i raised the volume, then there was a strange distortion and the volume was not high enough to distort.
So i think with harder to drive headphones, it just doesn't give that much power.
And pairing it with an amp was not a good choice, as double amping don't sound good, but it can solve the problem of distortion with harder to drive headphones.
LED LIGHT GUIDE :
Playing : blue/green
Pause : blue
battery empty : green with no sound until led light is off
Charging while off : red
finish charging while off : no light
charging while on : some 3 light combination don't remember.
CONCLUSION :
This is my most used DAP now, and its amazing.
And that's all from the top of my head, if i remember anything else, i will update the review.
I am ready for any questions or criticism.
Have a nice day.
After owning this amazing device for more than 3 month now, i will try to output my first review at all.
Everything under this review is my humble opinion, Some might agree and some might not, NO BIG DEAL..
First lets start with :
GUI (DESIGN) :
Since this is a screen-less DAP, So i will just comment on the looks,
Well it looks different, if any of your friends saw it, it will be either "Whats that stupid looking thing ?" or "Damn that looks very frikin cool" but they will never react as if its normal because it is not !!
( I honestly think it looks amazingly out of this world )
As for the buttons on the device it is not the best thing, As all buttons are on the same level, so a press from a bit fat finger could do other unexpected stuff
when i try to switch songs, sometimes i accidentally lower or raise the volume as they all share the same circle.
Also, the power button sometimes is not responsive and some other times it does the action twice ex: if i want to turn it off, i press the button, it switches off and turns back on with one click.
Some guys solve it by gluing smaller size rubber buttons above the device buttons, that way you can click a certain point.
SOUND :
There is something magical about it, Well i think it got the whole pack, very spacious sound, the bass is tight and punchy, those are the things i feel directly when i listen to it,
As for the mids or highs, i can praise the awesome separation and clarity.
While A/Bing with my X5, i didn't see that huge improvement, but when i put my X5 aside and listened to the alien for 1 week, by the time i am back to X5 i felt a slightly more clarity in favor of the alien and whats much more important i started feeling the x5 to be flat and kinda emotionless, and that's whats magical about the ALIEN is the musicality.
USAGE :
Well, this part seems to be the most annoying about the alien, as it came with no manual and left everything to be discovered by users.
Actually it took too much time to discover how this thing works, There were cool discoveries but what was the problem knowing how it works the first day i received it !
I will not go into much stories, instead i will point out helpful hints for any one who thinks of owning this player :
1- Some times songs that work normally on other daps will just stutter and hang the player, it just had to be reconverted by dbpoweramp or any other encoding app. ( I just reconverted all my flac collection to flac again, and it works fine)
2- Holding Volume Down for 3 Seconds switches playback mode (repeat album, repeat song, shuffle, back to normal) Kudos to @jaker782
3- Max Songs on root or in folder must be less than 99 songs (more than that for ex. 104 , there are 5 songs you will never hear , they are lost) but otherwise you can just create however many folders containing less than 99 songs. (You can use the Shozy Shuffler tool made available by @BruceBanner to shuffle your collection into a desired number of folders with max 95 songs per folder)
Features i think it lacks or could have been better :
1- Play everything (It only plays FLAC or WAV)
2- Starting on the last position it shuts on. (I am literally hating the song TLC- NO SCRUBS, i have to hear first part of it each time i power on)
3- No fast forward or rewind.
4- Cant connect directly to pc as storage.
BATTERY :
From 100% to 0%, 10 hours just playing at start volume or 2 clicks up, continuous play, no moving around or using the buttons.
I think that is a nice rate compared to other DAPS on market.
PRICING :
Well, Since i joined this community, i really didn't see anything cheaper than the sansa clip+ LOL.
Given it is a screen-less dap with almost no presentation at all (but the looks of the device itself), with very basic functionality, i think 200$ is a bit high for it.
but if you are going to measure price against sound quality only, i think you can accept the price.
PAIRINGS :
JH16 and SE846 : No Comment, they just sound amazing ! and i get no hiss to very little hiss which is not noticeable at all.
M100 : Very musical and the bass is just hitting hard, the best i have heard out of the m100 yet.
Mad Dogs : I tried the mad dogs, at start volume it sounded good but with low volume, i personally find the instrument separation on the mad dogs amazing + the alien its even more awesome but needed more volume, so i raised the volume, then there was a strange distortion and the volume was not high enough to distort.
So i think with harder to drive headphones, it just doesn't give that much power.
And pairing it with an amp was not a good choice, as double amping don't sound good, but it can solve the problem of distortion with harder to drive headphones.
LED LIGHT GUIDE :
Playing : blue/green
Pause : blue
battery empty : green with no sound until led light is off
Charging while off : red
finish charging while off : no light
charging while on : some 3 light combination don't remember.
CONCLUSION :
This is my most used DAP now, and its amazing.
And that's all from the top of my head, if i remember anything else, i will update the review.
I am ready for any questions or criticism.
Have a nice day.
