[H20Fidelity]

   
LOL. Sorry - I haven't tried it
 
I had a chance to test another Alien yesterday for hiss with A83s and I hear hiss on both units so I think I must just be particularly sensitive to hiss. The good news is that it disappears once music is playing and is essentially non-existent with 'phones of slightly higher impedance

 
I've tested further able to use Alien late at night, very quiet environments, I do hear hiss with Fidue A83, at 11ohms.

But Its much like you said and little less for me, I'm talking no more than I hear with my Sony Walkmans (F806 / Z1050). For example, very quite passages may grab your attention slightly and if volumes anything over 1/4 I don't hear it. So while my Alien does hiss the quantity is quite acceptable.

How loud to you tend to listen generally? I'm usually up around the 1/2 way mark. (40%-50%)
 

 

[Loquah]

   
I've tested further able to use the Alien late at night, very quiet environments and I do hear hiss with Fidue A83, at 11ohms.

But it's much like you said and little less for me, I'm talking no more than I'd hear with my Sony Walkmans (F806 / Z1050). For example, very quite passages may grab your attention slightly and if volumes anything over 1/4 I really don't hear it. So while my Alien does hiss the quantity is quite acceptable.

How loud to you tend to listen generally? As I'm usually up around the 1/2 way mark. (40%-50%)



 

 
I haven't actually found the end points of it's range to know, but I think I'm probably around the same sort of mark as you (at a guess). If I start at 0 volume it takes about 30-40 individual presses of the + volume button to get to my level. (EDIT: That's with the Nobles which are around 30 ohms)
 
This has me questioning now how small the steps are and how many of them make up the full range of the Alien's volume control

 

[H20Fidelity]

   
I haven't actually found the end points of it's range to know, but I think I'm probably around the same sort of mark as you (at a guess). If I start at 0 volume it takes about 30-40 individual presses of the + volume button to get to my level. (EDIT: That's with the Nobles which are around 30 ohms)
 
This has me questioning now how small the steps are and how many of them make up the full range of the Alien's volume control

I know you can go very low in volume I was testing this a few nights ago, but like you I've never gone to max volume yet. I've found I get quite an amount of detail at volumes so there's no need.

Put it this way, I have a fan in my room that is set to number 2  ( power being 1.2.3) and I hear that humming in the background in silent sections before the hiss, so for me this is good!

I can make a silent track with dbpoweramp and get to the bottom of it if we like but I've not bothered.

Also, all this earlier talk about the usablity is a little over the top, this Alien is sooo easy to use!

  

 

[Loquah]

 

I know you can go very low in volume I was testing this a few nights ago, but like you I've never gone to max volume yet. I've found I get quite an amount of detail at volumes so there's no need.

Put it this way, I have a fan in my room that is set to number 2  ( power being 1.2.3) and I hear that humming in the background in silent sections before the hiss, so for me this is good!

I can make a silent track with dbpoweramp and get to the bottom of it if we like but I've not bothered.

Also, all this earlier talk about the usablity is a little over the top, this Alien is sooo easy to use!

  

 
Agree on all counts. My only very minor issue is that ocassionally I have pressed forward or back when I was actually pressing the volume (especially if trying to pause), but it really is minor

 

[Loquah]

.

 

[Uberclocked]

How would stacking this with a Fiio e11k work?  Is there a line out?  Also, how will it taste in comparison with a Hippo Biscuit (yum, yum)?

 

[Uberclocked]

Found another review:
http://www.wheninmanila.com/shozy-alien-portable-music-player-where-hi-fi-meets-simplicity/
Direct quote: "With the Shozy Alien besting the AK120 Titan on sound quality alone..." 

 

[H20Fidelity]

  Found another review:
http://www.wheninmanila.com/shozy-alien-portable-music-player-where-hi-fi-meets-simplicity/
Direct quote: "With the Shozy Alien besting the AK120 Titan on sound quality alone..." 

You know what? I wouldn't be surprised at all about that claim.

We've already established people can prefer Alien over X5, another who said it can tackle DX90.

 

[goodvibes]

  How would stacking this with a Fiio e11k work?  Is there a line out?  Also, how will it taste in comparison with a Hippo Biscuit (yum, yum)?

Unless you need the power, I wouldn't recommend it. The E11 is OK but it doesn't improve good daps with enough power for their load. 

 

[goodvibes]

 

You know what? I wouldn't be surprised at all about that claim.

We've already established people can prefer Alien over X5, another who said it can tackle DX90.

Perhaps but regardless of what you hear from those biased against AK and I think that's reasonably clear in that review, the AK120 is still a step up from those you mentioned. In fact, I prefer my Ak100 mk2 as well though you could call it a personal preference vs the VG DX90. I'm not an X5 fan.
 
That said, this take and some other comments had me decide to try the

. Preferences aside, if it even competes with the AKs, they've scored a huge win. 24/96 is more than enough for portable use but it would be nice if it did 192, just so I wouldn't have to downconvert an existing file to play it. Only takes a minute to do but still. I'm a HiRes guy but to be honest, unless it's the very best kit around, the player itself will have more sonic relevance that the bit rate. Much more important to me that it does 24 bit than 192khz so I'm good.

 
 
At $200 I'm willing to give a no screen player a shot. There's a limit to what I'd spend on this level of function, regardless of how good it sounds. If it competes with an Ak120, ya, I'd spend more but double would still be my limit without a screen. I know Tera owners seem to relish in it's uniqueness but that's not me. I do understand that part of why these no screen players may be good is that they don't have screens to run or added codecs/functions/buffers/shared resources to deal with but call me pampered. I still like air conditioning and a muffler on my ride.

 I'm not one to be intrigued by it's uniqueness but I will enjoy it if it sings.

 

[H20Fidelity]

Naw, don't worry about the no screen it's eaasssy to use, part of getting this unit for me is I like gear far away from the mainstream as possible. I'm all about supporting the smaller companies as I believe that's where true sound quality lies where they 'tune to excel' I've never heard a mainstream DAP with the extreme separation of say...  take Hisound units for example which I've owned three of and how you'll see me always active in the Colorfly C3 thread, so for me Alien is right in my shooting range, not to mention it looks real nice in person.

With the Fidue A83 / Alien (or Rhapsodio hybrid) I'm where I want to be, right out of those mainstream products.


 

You'll come up with your own conclusion about the sound like others, but rest assured it sounds 'classy' there's no doubt about that separation is high, detail, resolution, I was looking for a DAP to put with my A83, I considered DX90, X5 (which I've had both on extended home audition) and probably would have gone the DX90 route and caved. 

Another thing for me is threw MP3 out the window years ago, nothing but 16bit FLAC here, I don't venture to much into 24bit personally, it was simple for me to migrate to the Aliens supported file formats.

Looking forward to your thoughts goodvibes.

 

[goodvibes]

You must hate AK then, LOL. Those would be well out of your described wheelhouse. Audio is a funny market. It seems the common denominator is that good things come from those the understand music and it can come from any price point. While many think AK is about marketing and profit, it's clearly more. I still have to respect that they make very musical things and are actually the best made stuff out there. AK100 mk2 is super friendly in size and use with the side V wheel etc. Other than screen, the alien should be as well. Small companies are probably well served by keeping it simple. Companies like AK will have enough resources to do more and be able to work out the bugs but at a price. At the end of the day, there's no best way and there's lots of paths to goodness as long as the result has a high goose bump factor.
 
I really like that the alien is built like a tank, has assumed a unique identity and likely sounds great. 

 

[lin0003]

  You must hate AK then, LOL. Those would be well out of your described wheelhouse. Audio is a funny market. It seems the common denominator is that good things come from those the understand music and it can come from any price point. While many think AK is about marketing and profit, it's clearly more. I still have to respect that they make very musical things and are actually the best made stuff out there. AK100 mk2 is super friendly in size and use with the side V wheel etc. Other than screen, the alien should be as well. Small companies are probably well served by keeping it simple. Companies like AK will have enough resources to do more and be able to work out the bugs but at a price. At the end of the day, there's no best way and there's lots of paths to goodness as long as the result has a high goose bump factor.
 
I really like that the alien is built like a tank, has assumed a unique identity and likely sounds great. 

It looks really impressive, but the lack of MP3 and no screen makes it less appealing for me. 
 
I do very much believe that it could be better than the AK120. I tried the AK100 and it was terrible, maybe it was the impedance but it honestly sounded no better than the Kogan DAP. 

 

[goodvibes]

22 ohm output will do that. Apples and oranges. AK should get called out for the original AK100 but by the same token, it's sound is not representative of anything they've made since. They may not be a great value but everything after the original is in a very different class than a Kogan.

 
Back to the Alien. I'm actually excited to hear one. I'm like you regarding screens but at $200, I can deal if it's good enough. At over 10 times that, not so much.

 

[lin0003]

  22 ohm output will do that. Apples and oranges. AK should get called out for the original AK100 but by the same token, it's sound is not representative of anything they've made since. They may not be a great value but everything after the original is in a very different class than a Kogan.

 
Back to the Alien. I'm actually excited to hear one. I'm like you regarding screens but at $200, I can deal if it's good enough. At over 10 times that, not so much.

IMO the Tera Player is the most overpriced thing in audio. At it's original price of 1500 euros or something it was already hugely overpriced IMO but at 3000 or whatever they have jacked up the price to now it is just ridiculous to me.