Shozy & Neo CP

Hey everyone! Welcome back to InToit Reviews. It’s Your Friendly Neighborhood Reviewer here, and today we’re going to be looking at the Shozy Neo CP. I don’t know if I’ve heard a Shozy IEM that I haven’t liked yet. For what they are, the Form 1.1, Form 1.4, and Rouge are all pretty unique and fulfill niches within the audiophile marketspace. But what about the Shozy Neo CP?

Let’s get InToit!



So before we get started, let me give a big “Thank You,” and shoutout to Farsil The Wizard for sending the Neo CP into the channel for review. Farsil knows that I was pretty excited for the Neo CP since I discovered its existence. Why? Well, unlike Shozy’s other offerings that I have reviewed at the channel, which have all been hybrids. The Neo CP is only constructed of three balanced armatures. I tend to like BA only driven sets when they do a good job of handling the low end, and offer a natural tone. And while sets like those may be a scarcity, I had hopes for the Neo CP given what I have heard from Shozy to date. But, we’ll get to how the Neo CP preforms when we talk about the sound.

Check Farsil The Wizard at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq4oZDBAZABMTPdIFHi8IxA

For now, let’s start things off with the build. Like I’ve already said, this is a 3 BA set, which are encased in a resin shell with an MMCX connection. The shape of the shell is reminiscent of Shure IEMs, and it mostly fits comfortably in my ear depending upon tip selection. With most tips, my ear had plenty of clearance, but with larger tips, the back curve of the IEM might rest up against my posterior concha, towards the anthelix. Even so, this wasn’t much of a bother, but it did make the fit more awkward when utilizing tips of this variety.



Uniquely, the BA’s in this set are resign encased, and sound tubes are utilized to deliver sonics to and through the stem. This is a technic generally, reserved for more expensive IEMs, so this was nice to see. This set also comes with two sets of metal, screw-on filters to adjust the sound to your liking. We’ll get into the impact of these different filters on the sound, when we get to that portion of the review. The colorway of the shells is described by Shozy as being clear, red and blue, but in actuality these look more like a clear shell with metallic, pink and teal, BA’s showing underneath.

The cable terminates in an unbalanced 3.5mm connector, and like I’ve already said, utilizes MMCX connections at its initiation points. And, this may be the best cable I have ever received in the box with an IEM a touch and play perspective. It is soft to the touch, remains free from tangles with use, and seems like it would come with a much more expensive IEM. This is the type of cable that should have come with the Shozy Rouge.



Beyond the cable and the filters, the Neo CP’s package comes with a variety of tips and the standard, black, Shozy carrying case that also comes with the Form 1.1. Like in the case of the Form 1.1 and the 1.4, one thing to know about the included tips is that, while you get a large amount of choice in terms of type of tip, you do not get many choices in terms of size, as it only comes with what appears to be super small, small, and medium varieties included for a number of different tip types, including the double-flanged silicones that I liked on the Form 1.4, and also would recommend for this set. Other, third-party tips that I enjoyed on this set were ePro Horn-Shaped Ear Tips, and JVC Spiral Dots- the latter of which was my preference for what I’m going to call the “laid-back” filter, while the double-flanged silicones or my preference for the “intense” filter.

So, in general, this is what I would call a “neutralish” set, with each filter acually pushing the tone of this IEM towards either side of the neutral line. In other words, the “intense” filter was quite a bit brighter than the “laid-back” filter, which has a warmer tone in comparison.



Nevertheless, this is a mid-forward set, overall, no matter the filter. But, the laid-back filter is smoother and more cohesive, especially in the mid-range, while the intense filter is more audibly “W-shaped,” with greater vocal separation and presence, greater bass percussion, and heightened treble in comparison. While, the intense filter should be seen as a more average presentation in the grand scheme of things, it is also notably leaner and more piercing in comparison to the laid-back filter, which has a thicker and smoother tone.

With more specific regard to the treble, graphs available online show that there is a relatively early roll in the treble, as things begin to drop off steeply at around 8K. I would suspect that these graphs were measured with the more laid-back filter, but I was unable to verify this in the course of this review, as these graphs also do not list which filter the measurements were taken with. Notably, I will say that there is decreased brilliance and air because of its roll off, but there is also more noticeable in the laid-back filter in comparison to the intense filter.



However; no matter the filter, there is some BA harshness, grain, or grittiness, which negatively impacts clarity and resolution for this set on the whole, and also dates it within the audiophile marketplace. Nevertheless, I find the laid-back filter more gritty, and the intense filter more harsh in its upper mid-range and treble presences.

The stage is also somewhat different between the filters. The laid-back filter provides a more spacious, natural sounding stage with good depth, height, and width to it, while the intense filter is more narrow, and less cohesive overall. In other words, switching to the intense filter seemingly shrinks the stage.



Consistent between filters, these IEMs are straight-up, imaging monsters, and they have decent decay, good transients, and excellent peripheral details. But, with that said, I find the overall presentation of the laid-back filters most certainly the enjoyable between the two sets. On this set of filters, image placement is accurate, instrument distinction impressive, and image separation sufficient.

With that said, where this IEM really suffers is in the low-end. The bass is rather one-note, lacks detail, and often lacks presence, even on its more intense set of filters where the bass has greater impact and pressure. But, no matter the filter, the bass comes across at least somewhat compressed, and neither macro nor micro dynamics are particularly strong points on this set. And it’s not just the bass that suffers from compression, but whole the sound profile, at least somewhat, in general.



It may sound like I am being too harsh on the Neo CP. And honestly, I don’t want to be, because ultimately this is a good IEM, even despite its faults. Having said that, its price is too high, and its level of resolution and clarity is insufficient to justify not only its price, but also its place in the audiophile marketplace at this stage in the game.

This IEM screams that it is outdated. With regard to resolution, these are akin to something like the TinHiFi T4 at best (which is commonly $79), which falls in between the Form 1.1 and the Form 1.4, being better than the 1.1, but having less detail and clarity compared to the 1.4; and don’t get me started on the Rouge.

For the money at $165, I don’t think these do anything that the Rouge doesn’t do significantly better at $180. And while, I understand that the Rouge is $15 dollars more expensive, and you will need to buy both tips and a cable, it is still worth it in my eyes to invest in the Rouge instead of the CP. So, unless you’re allergic to a solid, linear low-end, I can’t imagine recommending these over the Rouge to anyone, in any case. In my eyes, by releasing the Rouge, Shozy has effectively made the Neo CP irrelevant amongst its own IEM lineup. I just wish they would give the Rouge the Neo CP’s cable. And, with that, I’m out… for now…

YouTube Review of the Shozy Neo CP by InToit Reviews:

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This is my first review, great!

INTRO:
I'm a 15 year old student that casually discovered this magic world of audio. At around three years ago, I was searching for a pair of bluetooth headphones, not knowing a single thing about equipment, specs, drivers, amps, DACs, sound quality, file formats etc. Then I started to watch videos on youtube, going from BT headphones to everything you can imagine, and so I went on and on, always discovering something new. So the years continued to pass, and as I started to talk with experienced people, I decided to get myself a gift. I bought a FiiO M3K and a pair of KZ ZSN's to start off my journey, downloaded some flac files and literally went: "What?". And that's how it all started, from a pair of 20$ iems... I have to thank a lot of people like Zeos, DMS, Joshua, Metal 571 and many others, I've learnt a ton of stuff from them and I will never get bored to watch their videos, simply because I think that before being nice reviewers, they are nice guys.
So now I'm here, to share my opinion and help the others!


Before getting into it, I'm basing my review with the filters that came pre-installed in combo with the silicon tips.
Let's talk about the packaging first.

This is the box that it comes with,

Some specs and additional info on the back:



Carrying case



Inside the carrying case...



I took 10 minutes for putting everything perfectly lined up together like this and it didn't even go that greatly, because when I tried to move them they kept bouncing here and there, sooo...



Here are the iems themselves with the cable, tips and the additional filters.

The shells:
They are made of resin and there's no space inside, they are well built and you can easily see through them. There are no edges or major imprecisions in the build, there you can see the crossover sitting just behind the proprietary mids and treble drivers and under the THICC knowles CL22955, wich throws out the bass. The left and right are so damn separated that you have to be real high to not tell wich one is wich XD.
And boi... They are utterly comfortable (also with glasses on), part of that is due to the angle of the nozzle, and in my opinion they are one sexiest looking in-ears avaliable.

The cable:
It's basically the best i've had so far, it's solid, soft and smooth, 1.2 m of lenght, it doesn't fight me and I really like the color, lastly it has a metal splitter and a effective chin slider that I basically use everytime I walk out my house. It terminates in a 3.5 mm metal straight plug with a carbon fiber texture on the oustide and it has a strain relief. There is a thing worth noting tho, and it's the T I G H T N E S S of those mmcx connectors (they are marked left and right too!) wich I didn't manage to pull out barehanded... Now for me that's something great because I tend to put the cable under my shirt, so when I need to pull them out of my ears they just hang on it and I'm sure they're NEVER going to fall off. However this makes cable swapping a big deal, so for you out there be sure to call Hulk.

The tips:
3 pair of silicons (S, M and... M?) yes, you have two pairs in the same size, one already comes installed on the iems. These are what I use the most, i'll talk about the differences between the tips in the sound portion of this review.
3 pair of memory foams (S, M and L), I use them for extended listening sessions and they isolate the most, to the point you hear your voice like it's more muffled than it is when you're underwater.
3 pair of double flange silicons (S, M and L), I don't really use them that much but they block out a bit more than the standard ones.
All of them are of a good quality, but they could included another size for people with bigger ears, however for me (medium sized ears) the M size works the best.

The carrying case:
It's all black, rubberized on the outside and it's pretty sturdy and it opens with a metal zipper. It has enough space for another pair of iems to fit in with some tips, on the front there is the "Shozy" logo. Inside it you'll find everything, in the upper side there is a web-like leap with an elastic on the top containing the tips, no paperwork included. The only issue I have with this is that it's not that pocket friendly due to its dimensions, tho you could fit it in if you have large pockets.

Here on the left earbud, with this prospective, you can see the Knowles driver, the sound tubes on the left side, and the "Shozy" logo that is, luckily, fixed into the resin, so there's no way the letters could eventually fall off.



On the right earbud, with this prospective, you can see the mid frequencies driver (the bigger one), placed under the high frequencies driver, the crossover board and on the inner side there's the model number and the word "NEO" "sculpted" outside of it.



Now let's jump into drivability.
I'll make it short. You can drive these off of anything due to the pretty low impedance and high sensitivity, they sound good even off of a phone.
It's worth to mention that even if they don't get that much better with more expensive gear, they tend to pick up the flavors of various sources really nicely. For example, on my FiiO M3K they tend to have a brighter sound to them (by a margin), while on my Atom amp (Khadas Tone Board as a source) they sound warmer and more laid back.

Specs:
Drivers: 3 BAs with a crossover network, 1 Knowles Cl-22955, proprietary mid & high drivers.
Impedance: 30 ohms
Sensitivity: 107 dB/Mw
FR: 20-20.000Hz (and that's all you need).
Passive Noise Isolation: 25dB (can get even better with foams)



SOUND:

Signature: neutralish with a fun character to them, a bit warm, they somehow remind me of the HD600's in terms of tuning, they really aren't boosting any part of the frequencies, they may have some emphasis on the highs, but nothing heavy there.

Bass: it's really good for a BA, knowing this is the biggest driver Knowles currently produces. It never left me desiring more from it, EDM and Dubstep included, it's VERY well rounded, pretty tight, fat but not emphasized, it's engaging and kinda large in it's own way. It's quality bass, no questions about that. The only thing that could have been better is it's extension towards the subbass, I'll say it's present, but it doesn't go that low.

Mids: clear and lively, pretty natural, but their strongest point is their smoothness, they don't ever offend nor get on my nerves. The vocals there are not extremely open but the CP's manage to separate them from the rest of the mix easily, and I love that attribute. Male vocals sound bigger and more rounded than the female ones, wich on the other side, are a touch clearer. The problem with them is that they don't like violins, I mean, they are pretty nice, but in comparison to ALL the other instruments they tend to sound a tad muted and toned down, like someone decided to put some dampening foam just for them, but otherwise, overall great perfomance with the mids.

Highs: really clear, sparkly and extended, they have that feeling of airiness that i personally enjoy a lot and sometimes they give me goosebumps because of the level of realism they have. Tho they're not that relaxed and sometimes, with some specific songs, it can be an issue for some people sensitive to treble, I mean it's definitively not a deal breaker (also because there are some ways to tone it down quite a bit), sometimes it even bothers me, (tho consider that I listen to them with some sustained amounts of volume).



Imaging: It's not that far from pinpoint accurate, and it's better than the HD600's, it gets stronger the closer you get the sides than the center.

Soundstage: this is a strange one, let me explain. Normally they tend to sound pretty intimate (usually nothing get out of my head), until you give them some wide recorded songs, for example those from Birocratic. In some songs they managed to put a particular instrument half meter to one or the other side, the first time it happened I turned my head as I tought there was someone on my left playing a trumpet. Depth and height are pretty much always restricted.

Detail Retrieval: another thing they do greatly, that sparkly treble let them breathe all the way through, from the lower mids to the very top end. I have nothing to complain about them. You can easily pick sounds like the fingers hitting on the keys of a piano or, if you focus, you can hear the movements of an orchestra in the background.

Dynamics: This is one of my favorite parts of the CP's, they slam! They hit! I was very surprised when I listened to Mountains from Interstellar, these managed to hold their integrity while making my ears explode at the same time, this ability makes them super enjoyable for electronic, disco or even orchestral music.

Separation, realism, and forgiveness: the separation there is almost with the other attributes out there, there's a good amount of space between the instruments and each of them stays firm in it's position, without bouncing here and there in a song. However, on the most complex tracks, it can get a bit congested, expecially at low volumes, but nothing especially problematic. The realism there plays a nice role, some instruments, at higher volumes, manage to be almost lifelike, that crossover chip is getting it's job done, and the transition from bass to highs is a big pro. Another thing that I liked about them is that they don't make mp3 files sound too far from flac files, I'm not saying that they aren't resolving enough to tell you the difference between the two, but you're gonna get good sound also from compressed files.

TUNING FILTERS AND TIPS:
I discovered that with these, the filters and the various tips combination, the sound changes quite a bit.


(I know that this pic sucks but the filters are so tiny that I couldn't get a decent focus on them, hopefully you can still see the difference)

The ones behind are the balanced ones: they give that sparkle to the treble and that pretty neutral presentation to the sound, however if paired with the silicone tips (standard or bi-flange) that same treble can get fatiguing for long listening sessions (however this is my favorite combo despite the highs issue because it opens the sound like anything).
Swapping the silicons with the foam ones brought the treble a notch down, and I prefer them for longer listening session and extra noise isolation (people will yell at you).

The ones in the front are the bass ones (they don't have a name but I call them like this): they tone down the treble considerably and bring up the bass, to the point I'd call it boomy, as it becomes overbearing and tends to mask a bit the mids. However when I swap the silicon tips with the foams, magic happens. Now the bass comes down a bit and the treble remains pretty much unvaried, while the mids can breathe again... And you have this mellow, warm, romantic and laid back sound that I just put behind the silicone-balanced combo as far as preference goes (it sacrifices some of the details and airiness for more low end and completely solves the harshness/sibilance problem) I thought I've been amazed enough, but I was wrong.

Other tips: I don't see much of a difference swapping the included silicons with some aftermarket tips, so, until you need a bigger size of eartips, the stock ones are fine.



CONCLUSIONS:
What to say? These are a spectacular all rounder, complete package, good build, good cable, comfortable AF, sexy and great sounding iems that can reminds me of an HD600. As a review I can't knock off anything from the cons, my job here is to be honest with you and if there's something wrong/that I don't like I'm going to say it. However! For 165$ you get what you could ever need from a pair of in-ears that managed to put a smile on my face several times and even made me go "what the ****" more than a few times... Hope that tells you something .
These get my recommendation without thinking twice.

I'm done here, I hope this was useful to you! Ciao!

Shozy gave me a pair of these in exchange for my opinion on them.

I reckon that for the money they are asking, if you're after a relatively inexpensive, and relatively "neutral" pair of IEMs, they do a good job. They IEMs have a small body and include a variety of shallow-depth tips that may not go deep enough to seal for everybody. Otherwise they do a pretty good job, with a good deal of detail and instrument separation for the amount they are asking.

See my video for the full review.