[NLNH]

   
Yeh, many recordings I have already have hiss, that's unavoidable. The hiss from a bad DAP tho just amplifies it to me, and it's uncomforting to hear it when the song is paused or in a menu. I never heard a hiss with either my two IEMs on the Shozy, even very loud, like the uppermost volume that the Shozy can reach (yes I listened to it that loudly xD).
 
I cannot hear hiss on the AP100 either, but I can on other DAPs I own. When the hiss is enough to be glaringly obvious, it's an issue. If people are reporting its vague enough to only barely be audible under very quiet room conditions, then to me it passes flying colours.

 
Just be reminded some designs may shut the amping circuit when no songs are played, so don't be mislead into thinking when there is absolute silence during the gap it really is silent when you are playing a song.
 
Anyhow the Alien still hisses a tiny bit, but... it is relatively less than quite some daps 10x the price? 
doesn't imply anything tho

 

[daid1]

What is the max capacity of micro-sd card supported in Alien gold?

 

[BaTou069]

What is the max capacity of micro-sd card supported in Alien gold?

I have the normal gunmetal Alien and tried it with a 200GB card, it works

 

[angelo898]

   
Yeh, many recordings I have already have hiss, that's unavoidable. The hiss from a bad DAP tho just amplifies it to me, and it's uncomforting to hear it when the song is paused or in a menu. I never heard a hiss with either my two IEMs on the Shozy, even very loud, like the uppermost volume that the Shozy can reach (yes I listened to it that loudly xD).
 
I cannot hear hiss on the AP100 either, but I can on other DAPs I own. When the hiss is enough to be glaringly obvious, it's an issue. If people are reporting its vague enough to only barely be audible under very quiet room conditions, then to me it passes flying colours.

 
 
hi there, do you mind me asking what iems do you use?

 

[BruceBanner]

  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.

 
 

  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.

 
 

   
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.

 
 
Oh no! what have i done!
 
Haha, i only meant to give my 2 cents, not ruin someones blog/approach to ratings!

Well... thing is lots of things in life are like this. Take for example films (i'm a bit of a movie buff). I can see examples of lots of films I quite enjoyed such as Thor or Antman, I think they did a fantastic job with what they had to work with. If you're familiar with the comics and arc plot lines that preexist, most Marvel movies are book adaptations, they don't have an awful lot of room to move. So within their own unique confinements I factor that in when I rate them. In a sense I would give films 2 ratings;
 
1) How well did it set out to achieve it's own goal (individual rating)
2) Where does it fit overall in amongst all other films (global rating)
 
So for example, take Thor, I think it did great, possibly a 9/10 as a individual rating, imo it succeeded very well in what it had to work with. But globally I can't justify that rating, not when other excellent (more serious) movies exist with that same (or less) rating (such as Room, The Revenant), so globally I would give Thor something like 6.5-7/10 (ie its a good fun enjoyable film).
 
Even the Oscars work like this to a degree. There are examples of films out there that are truly fantastic, the acting is fine and top notch, but if the topic matter of the film is of such where there isn't a great deal of serious emotional content then the film won't even get a mentioning. The Oscars might as well just be a 'An Award For the Actor/Actress who 'breaks down' the Best'.
The little boy actor in the film Room is excellent, he never even got a nomination for best Actor, or Supporting Actor, perhaps because he doesn't 'break down', but nonethless much of the success of that movie has to do with his performance to which he is brilliant.
 
Ratings are difficult. I just watched a first episode of a tv show rated at 8.5/10 (imdb), suggests it's good huh, well it wasn't very. Compared with well established good tv shows such as Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones etc (that sit around the 9/10), then the more rubbishy/average tv shows are getting really close to excellent tv show ratings... it doesn't make much sense. There is a large difference as to how good a tv show will be with a small shift in overall rating. ½-1 point is a massive shift for tv shows, not so much with films. If a film is 8.5/10 it tends to be good and worth it, same if 9/10. If a tv show is 8.5/10 and another tv show 9.2/10 there can still be a large difference between the two (one is worth the time investment, the other not).

Digital cameras can be a little like this too. Do you rate the image quality in comparison to the absolute best camera that ever exists? Or do you rate it in reference to it's price point?
 
Getting back to DAPs, I only meant to say Feature wise it was sparse in comparison to it's competitions, and even on it's own merit. It actually DOES have some Features that screened DAPs don't commonly have! I read how one guy uses his Shozy for Marathon training (long runs). He is able to activate shuffle on or off, navigate to different albums, all done blindly and without looking at the DAP. Not many screen DAPs are able to do this function, most rely on line of sight to make such adjustments, or at least a very good memory as to what sequential button pushes are required to get you where yer going. Suffice to say the Shozy can do a few things better than screened!
And then there is comparing it with other nonscreened/shuffle style DAPs, which again I feel it does very well in.
Compared with the Hippo Biscuit+ it trumps it, the Hippo can't skip an Album (no folder jumping), that alone is a massive strike against the Hippo and a huge + for the Shozy.
 
So it all depends on where yer coming from. I just wanted to give my 2 cents, I found a product that has a richer feature set and still satisfies in the sound department, also costs less, so I would personally want to highlight the difference in Features more between the two units. YMMV.

 

[BruceBanner]

   
 
hi there, do you mind me asking what iems do you use?

 
I used two IEMs. My main IEMs are the PFE 232's, the second are the more 'known to be prone to hiss' Yamaha EPH100's.
 
Using the EPH100's with my Cowon's for example, the hiss is very high, unbearably so, literally I cannot use them with these DAPs. However, paired with my AP100 or Alien Shozy they are dead quiet, as silent as the PFE 232's. In fact, when the EPH100's are stacked with the AP100 or Shozy they are extremely good sounding! If not for the feel of different fit/comfort in the ears I might have trouble telling the difference between the two IEMs! This coming from a price difference of about $75AUD vs $400AUD! It just goes to show how a IEM can be transformed when connected to the right source.

 

[Loquah]

Shozy and Cozoy products both tend to have slight levels of background noise that's audible with sensitive in-ears, but only in quiet environments. It depends as well on your hearing sensitivities. Remember, we all lose some hearing range over time and some more than others. There may also be additional sensitivities due to the natural resonances of our ear canals which are all slightly different too.

The hiss isn't necessarily bad though. On some products, background noise interferes with the music, but on the original Alien it never really interferes. I believe it's there because Shozy don't apply filtering to the signal path in an effort to maintain a pure signal and simple path. This is probably why so many of their products sound so organic and enjoyable.

 

[Raketen]

   
Compared with the Hippo Biscuit+ it trumps it, the Hippo can't skip an Album (no folder jumping), that alone is a massive strike against the Hippo and a huge + for the Shozy.
 
So it all depends on where yer coming from. I just wanted to give my 2 cents, I found a product that has a richer feature set and still satisfies in the sound department, also costs less, so I would personally want to highlight the difference in Features more between the two units. YMMV.

 
Limitations are fun sometimes. I remember my Nomad that only had 64 megs, and music had to be converted before uploading, and uploading took ages. Had to think carefully about what I'd put on it, because I wouldn't have time to redo the upload till the next weekend. Came to be a bit of a fun habit, making little personal mixes for myself every week. Nowadays I guess I'd just use a small memory card and shuffle if I wanted something similar... my laziness knows no bounds

 

[Loquah]

Limitations are fun sometimes. I remember my Nomad that only had 64 megs, and music had to be converted before uploading, and uploading took ages. Had to think carefully about what I'd put on it, because I wouldn't have time to redo the upload till the next weekend. Came to be a bit of a fun habit, making little personal mixes for myself every week. Nowadays I guess I'd just use a small memory card and shuffle if I wanted something similar... my laziness knows no bounds :tongue_smile:

I agree. The Alien's limited interface helped me to return to listening one album at a time and has had me rediscovering old favourites.

 

[ExpatinJapan]

  Oh no! what have i done!
 
Haha, i only meant to give my 2 cents, not ruin someones blog/approach to ratings!
 
1) How well did it set out to achieve it's own goal (individual rating)
2) Where does it fit overall in amongst all other films (global rating)
 
Ratings are difficult.

Digital cameras can be a little like this too. Do you rate the image quality in comparison to the absolute best camera that ever exists? Or do you rate it in reference to it's price point?

Thanks, you nailed it on the 1) and 2) points, and the bit about the camera rating.
 
Its a bit hard to quantify and keep coherent between different price brackets. And adjusting old review scores over time would be required.
 
I will miss those pies, but may settle for a one line of 5 pies summary. Or none at all.
 
one less headache anyway
 
__________________________________________________________
 
Now back to the Shozy Alien Gold.

 

[BruceBanner]

   
Limitations are fun sometimes. I remember my Nomad that only had 64 megs, and music had to be converted before uploading, and uploading took ages. Had to think carefully about what I'd put on it, because I wouldn't have time to redo the upload till the next weekend. Came to be a bit of a fun habit, making little personal mixes for myself every week. Nowadays I guess I'd just use a small memory card and shuffle if I wanted something similar... my laziness knows no bounds

 
Yeh, I didn't mind the Shozy limitations, personally I worked around them.
 
What yer talking of is basically 'mixtape' or what I actually do today with my AP100 is build a playlist for the day, which is the same kinda thing.

 

[msiekkb]

This is best synergy for me, Alien Gold wit Ety ER4s, sounds signature is very flat and organic now
.

And this is old version, one of first copies Alien with Custom Art pro330v2

 
I prefer new Alien, there are more details and more treble

 

[Jmop]

Is there more upper frequency altogether or is it emphasized more in lower or upper treble?

 

[msiekkb]

There are more treble emphasised lover and upper treble, especially if song have to emphasised too.

 

[Jmop]

Gotcha. I was actually thinking the alien might pair well with eph100 which I'm considering getting. It would probably do well with the soundstage and the added treble on the new one. Maybe Bruce can chime in on how it pairs with the old alien!