Nice work man! I dig how clean and transparent the sound is imo. 

Never truer words spoken.  I absolutely love my Alien and even more so when strapped to my e12a amp from Fiio.
And spoiler alert, the alien + e12a still comes in at the same size as the ak100ii.  When un-amped the Alien is perfectly shaped for the hand, and due to it being so thin slips into just about any pocket.
 
Love it.  I just need to adapt to carting less music with me as the no interface is bugging me.  This is no design flaw, just a flaw in my thinking haha.

Wyd4: Alien has an interface. It just doesn't have a graphic interface. In fact, because it lacks a GUI, flaws in its user interface are more apparent. The issues mentioned here are 100% with the failure of the user interface to act normally. Soundwise, Alien is flawless, but otherwise, it is chocked by issues.

Thanks for that informative response. I had no idea it had an interface at all. Those buttons were confusing me immensly.
Please forgive my generalization.

What flaws in the ui are you referring to?
The buttons all so as they are meant to do.

As far as I am concerned, any limitation of this device is by design.

When did  you get your Shozy Alien? The quality of the one I have (possibly beta?? Dunno...had it rather early on) the finish wasn't as polished with the buttons a little finicky. Sounds like you don't have that problem with your unit.

Good review BTW.

Wow, a player that's just for lossless! I'll get it immediately once I can tell the difference between a 160 bit/s and 190 bit/sec mp3 on my odac/objective2. Pretty much sounds like waste of money, at least to my ears. Anyway, impressive review! Congrats!

Thanks for the review. Alien looks pretty awesome. I found they make portable Amps as well. Donno wherther they are good too...

Nice review. This player sounds interesting. Anyone know how it compares with the DX90/100?