[BruceBanner]

Nice read, but really a black background even with ck10? I find that hard to believe unless shozy really stepped their game up on this version. The hiss I got from the black alien was unbelievably distracting when listening to my ambient collection. That soundstage is to die for though.

 
I own the original Alien and have reported back numerous times that even with the most hissiest IEMs I have ever come across, it is completely black to me, even at insane volumes (which I am reknowned for using as baseline lol). Tbh I am astounded at anyone who says that they hear hiss, with whatever IEM they use. I am more of the opinion that their Alien is faulty tbh, as I think more often than not that the original Alien is thought of as being very black background.
We should start a poll here, to see who here hisses and who doesn't from their Alien
 
 
 

  Retested with ATH-CK10 at various volumes and tracks.
 
Seems to be no hiss, or if it is there it would be minimal at best.
 
no music no hiss.
 
I hope that is helpful.
 
*Can other Shozy Gold owners chime in please, I am no hiss master and would like confirmation or not about your experiences.

 
I've yet to read yer review but will get onto it, but yeh, for me the original Alien is 100% hiss free, even at insane volumes with my IEMs used.

 

[Semuapunmau]

I own the original Alien and have reported back numerous times that even with the most hissiest IEMs I have ever come across, it is completely black to me, even at insane volumes (which I am reknowned for using as baseline lol). Tbh I am astounded at anyone who says that they hear hiss, with whatever IEM they use. I am more of the opinion that their Alien is faulty tbh, as I think more often than not that the original Alien is thought of as being very black background.
We should start a poll here, to see who here hisses and who doesn't from their Alien

 



I've yet to read yer review but will get onto it, but yeh, for me the original Alien is 100% hiss free, even at insane volumes with my IEMs used.

I got an Alien Gold. Using it with Empire Ears and JH Angie. Tried with AAW Nebula One, Shure old series and Klipsh earphone (cant remember the model). Hiss free and free of hiss

 

[williamw0918]

So i just bought me a gold alien! I already have a black one ..................

 

[Jmop]

I've read some reports on it being rather hissy and some on it not having any at all. It could be that some have hiss and some don't, I mean it is a strange DAP with it's controls and what not.

 

[williamw0918]

I've read some reports on it being rather hissy and some on it not having any at all. It could be that some have hiss and some don't, I mean it is a strange DAP with it's controls and what not.

I don't hear any hisses..

 

[Jmop]

I gotta try the gold and find out for sure!

 

[BruceBanner]

I've read some reports on it being rather hissy and some on it not having any at all. It could be that some have hiss and some don't, I mean it is a strange DAP with it's controls and what not.

 
That's kinda what I meant. I mean I think it's a fairly small company, I would not be surprised if their manufacturing process is not meeting the same standards and consistency that the more well known and branded companies manage to achieve...

I dunno tho, if I have learned anything in this game it's that sound quality is very subjective indeed, and hiss amount seems to be on a whole other level of subjectivity! 

 

[BruceBanner]

  My usual style short and sweet review is live.
 
This time of the Shozy Gold Alien.
 
enjoy.
 
http://headpie.blogspot.jp/2016/03/shozy-gold-alien-dap-review-expatinjapan.html
 
kind regards
expat

 
Nice review.
 
I would agree with most points (in relation to the original Shozy) except you gave it a rather overly generous 3.5/5 pie rating for 'Features'. I understand you were judging it on it's own merits, ie screenless etc, but really with so many other screened competition around that's pretty biased if you ask me, I mean what other DAP gets a 'pass' like this when using such criteria? Do we take it easier on say the Fiio M3 for sound quality when rating it, due to its smaller and lighter form factor at expense of greater amp components inside? No.. of course we don't, so why give the Alien Shozy 3.5/5 for features?!

Here's a short list of features it sucks at and misses which are pretty basic and can be found on numerous similarly priced DAPs;
 
- Ability to navigate quickly to a select album or track.
- Skipping tracks is slow and painful, quick rapid presses do not work.
- No Search ability (fast fwding or rewinding through song)
- Doesn't recall previous volume used.
- Doesn't auto resume.
- Due to nature of device is not well suited to a large collection of files, even if it can play them all (navigation issue again).
- Battery life is very low, 8hrs.
- No EQ, no treble or bass adjustment. *now if u think this is going 'against the philosophy' of the Shozy, then go start pairing with some amps that allow for treble and bass adjustments, and prepare to be wowed! I utterly adored what I could get when paired with my Soundmagic A10 (and it's Bass Boost feature, and others reported similarly with different sound adjusting amps).
- No support for m3u files/playlists.
- No MP3 support, very limited file support.
 
Those are just a few mentionings off the top of my head, there are prolly more if I sat down and thought about it. FWIW the Hidizs AP100 ticks everyone of those boxes above with the exception of battery life, it too craps out around the 10hr mark, but I would sure as hell rank the AP100 higher on the Feature gradient than the Shozy! But the AP100 isn't a complete feature set, I would still prolly mark it around the 4/5 pie rating... so yer telling me that the Shozy fails by about half a measly star/pie?

I think you get my point...

It's ok to give it 1-2 stars for Features and still love it for what it is, I know I did with mine too! But I have 'moved on' because eventually those above issues start to gnaw away at you, you realise the Shozy is only useful in a handful of situations and that other DAPs can be better 'all round' performers. Well... at least that's what my experience has taught me. I went on a 15hr flight recently, took the AP100 instead of the Shozy because I wanted all my music with me and I wasn't sure what I wanted to listen to until it was time to have a whirl. I found the Alien required a home set up, a bit of forward thinking, "ahh... what do I want to listen to today..." and then go about loading said music files onto a sd card for it (and any converting to FLAC or WAV that might be required).
The lack of MP3 support is prolly the greatest reason my Shozy collects dust.

I must sound like I hate Shozy when in reality nothing could be further from the truth, I'm just disgruntled with this next offering, I hate the idea that they spent/invested in this when we had a 150 page thread with lots of user feedback and discussion and virtually nothing was addressed or changed in regards to that. The design is still the same, and although pretty and striking, it is not the most intuitive and easiest shuffle player to operate blindly! Plenty of mi****s to be had, we had users here (myself included) stick on adhesive rubber bumper cushions over the button controls to give more accurate registers and allow for blind operation better, but did they listen at all and make better buttons? Nope... exact same design. Classic case of form over function. And what's with not including (to buyers) proper instructions, why do we all have to turn to the internet for help in finding out what certain buttons do? This is the second/third go around for the Alien, can't they include how to get into Shuffle mode on the back of the box lol?

I wish it all the success in the world, as a good return will mean something new in the future. I just hope this isn't the last (DAP) offering from Shozy.

 

[Decommo]

I was told that Alien is poor man's Tera Player. Does Tera Player have any more functions that Alien doesn't? I had a quick look at Tera Player spec and it only plays WAV file and it does shuffle all just like Alien does but that's about it. If it is the case, I guess that Alien is definitely poor man's Tera player since sound quality is great (another person told me that it is 80% SQ of Tera ) and price is reasonable. Correct me if I am missing anything.

 

[Onix]

  I was told that Alien is poor man's Tera Player. Does Tera Player have any more functions that Alien doesn't? I had a quick look at Tera Player spec and it only plays WAV file and it does shuffle all just like Alien does but that's about it. If it is the case, I guess that Alien is definitely poor man's Tera player since sound quality is great (another person told me that it is 80% SQ of Tera ) and price is reasonable. Correct me if I am missing anything.

 
I never had a Terra but it is pretty much similar to Alien in regard to function and the lack of screen. The Terra is kind of a controversial thing, with some saying it's amazing and others that it is not (as it always happens). If anything, you could say that the Alien is a bit more practical playing FLAC. Other thing about Terra is that it plays not only standard CD quality but also extremely high definition files, which are suposed to be more transparent. But those are the main differences between the two regarding formats. I seem to remember that someone compared the Alien to the Astell and Kern players and it turned out to be comparable in sound quality, for what is worth. Anyway, I kinda dreamed with a Tera for sometime and thought about having the song list loaded to my phone as a text file in order to know what song is playing. Maybe that could work for you.

 

[ExpatinJapan]

   
Nice review.
 
I would agree with most points (in relation to the original Shozy) except you gave it a rather overly generous 3.5/5 pie rating for 'Features'. I understand you were judging it on it's own merits, ie screenless etc
......................

It's ok to give it 1-2 stars for Features and still love it for what it is, I know I did with mine too! 

Thanks for the feedback Bruce, I will ponder on the present pie rating I applied.
 
kind regards
expat.
 
Extra Note: My original plan was to get about ten reviews on the blog finished and then go back and revise the pie scorings and try to work out a standard scoring rating.

 

[Onix]

  Thanks for the feedback Bruce, I will ponder on the present pie rating I applied.
 
kind regards
expat.
 
Extra Note: My original plan was to get about ten reviews on the blog finished and then go back and revise the pie scorings and try to work out a standard scoring rating.

 
Your system is fine in my opinion. Well balanced and audio quality in the first place of the pie chart. It's fine. I bet other reviewers, more in the "gadget" side of things, will ponder other factors above sound and that would be fine in their context. But this being basically an audio review is done very well.

 

[ExpatinJapan]

   
Your system is fine in my opinion. Well balanced and audio quality in the first place of the pie chart. It's fine. I bet other reviewers, more in the "gadget" side of things, will ponder other factors above sound and that would be fine in their context. But this being basically an audio review is done very well.

Thank you also for your feedback.
 
I try to keep the focus more on sound, and I also attempt to make it brief so that readers can digest it in one quick sitting.

 

[Loquah]

  Thanks for the feedback Bruce, I will ponder on the present pie rating I applied.
 
kind regards
expat.
 
Extra Note: My original plan was to get about ten reviews on the blog finished and then go back and revise the pie scorings and try to work out a standard scoring rating.

 
I'm not for a second suggesting that I have it right or that there is one single correct way to do this, but I found on my blog that scoring systems made things more difficult over time. For example: do you score a cheap earphone like the VE Monk based on its price or its outright quality? If you then have something TOTL on the same blog (i.e. Noble K10 with its outstanding sound quality and build / design quality), how do you then score that so people know that relative to the VE Monk (and vice versa). If you scored the VE Monk outright then it might get only 2-3/5 compared to a TOTL offering that gets 4-5/5, but then that becomes misleading for someone who is coming from stock earbuds and will find a massive improvement with a high quality budget solution. If you scored the VE Monk relative to its price then it should get a 4-5/5 because it's so good and yet so cheap, but now it looks (at first glance) like it is as good as a Noble K10.
 
I let go of ratings for this reason - too hard to balance different value levels and too hard to adjust the scores as newer, better stuff is released. For example, once upon a time, the iPod Video was a top notch portable player worth a solid 4-5/5. These days it's probably a 3/5 relative to what's available.
 
Not sure the answer here. My response was to do away with ratings and just discuss each product on its own merits, but that lacks the at-a-glance ratings that some people love so it's not the perfect solution.

 

[ExpatinJapan]

I'm not for a second suggesting that I have it right or that there is one single correct way to do this,..........

Not sure the answer here. My response was to do away with ratings and just discuss each product on its own merits, but that lacks the at-a-glance ratings that some people love so it's not the perfect solution.

thanks, i may also consider this option as an easy long term fix.

Or a one line overall pie rating.

Because i will miss the pies....


Buuut simple is best.