ISN Earphones impression thread. New ISN NEO 3!
Oct 28, 2021 at 9:38 AM Post #3,031 of 5,041
So this was my impression of the Shozy & ISN SCB2
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https://penonaudio.com/shozy-scb2.html
It is like adam and eve. Peanut butter and jelly. Yin for the Yang. I was able to evaluate this paring for the past week and yes indeed this is a marvelous match up in sound and form. The ISN SC4 cable shown here is one of their all time best sellers and is imo one of the absolute best bang for buck cables in the market. Mostly pure silver with some copper elements. This cable is very close in sonic ability to the famed 175 cable that was introduced a while ago in the cable threads.

As for the host earphone.
SCB2 is imo their best sounding earphone I have heard from the group. I am gonna be honest and say I have never really been impressed by Shozy sound in the past. But these little gems are different.

It is an all metal construction that oozes style and yes they fit flat on your ears making them ideal for relaxing around or walking around as they have decent isolation due to the all metal build. Dual magnetic dynamic rich in timbre and musicality.

The SCB2 is a mild L shaped tuning with a moderate stage but what makes them sound unique is they have a supreme height and depth to the sound. These are the complete opposite of the recent Tin Hifi T2 Evo I did a review on. A bold full on forwardness to the sonics with more lower mids emphasis than upper mids. Male vocals sound superb on these as a result. Has a mild upper mid pinna gain. Their cohesion and timbre is outstanding. Their rich tonal character reminds me a bit of the old JVC woodies for timbre which was unexpected. Sound is clean and has a headphone like fullness to the sonics that was also unexpected. Shells are actually smaller side of medium in size a cheez wedge shaped design that has a great fit and will fit anyone with comfort. It does have a relative shorter nozzle but not a big deal when using longer stemmed tips like Azla Senda fits.

The Shozy & ISN SCB2 has a rich tonal character that can sound a bit dark especially with the copper nozzle. Hence the match up with a more pure silver cable matches up extremely well to enhance its techicalities, stage, separation,details and imaging for this tuning. The three nozzles change the treble characteristics with the titanium nozzle being my preference. Its slightly enhances the treble and balances out the bold bass end. Treble has excellent extension and is fairly even balanced for the sound tuning. Not too much in presence but just right for the musical presentation.

Their copper nozzle enhancing wamth thickness and bass. Steel nozzle somewhere in between. Here is a bit of a crazy coincidence. I had Fiios FD5 earphones on my desk when I was hearing the SCB2 and the nozzles from the FD5 and the FD7 both fit on the SCB2. Which also gives a slight different sound characteristics and makes the nozzle stems longer. Sounded really good with the treble large nozzle from the FD7.

Bass end of the SCB2 also has a rich tonal character and has a good amount of mid bass with a slight roll off toward sub bass. It has a healthy amount of bass for bass infused music and has good rangy tonal ability and fullness for the low notes. If I was a guessing man based on levels of bass. I would guess to be somewhere in the 10 db plus range in bass emphasis. The SCB2 reminds me a bit of the sound balancing of the recent ISN EST50 in tuning and sound profile. Of course in the form of a very capable dynamic. Excllent dynamic earphones and uniquely musical, superb timbre and very good technicalities round up the Shozy & ISN SCB2.
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Oct 30, 2021 at 7:17 AM Post #3,035 of 5,041
Oct 30, 2021 at 7:22 AM Post #3,036 of 5,041
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H50 in the house. Got these about an hour ago.

All I am saying is these things sound stupendous! ISN has done it again. Will post an impression soon.

They look great! Looking forward to hearing your opinion on how they compare to the H40.
 
Oct 30, 2021 at 7:23 AM Post #3,037 of 5,041
DSC09157.JPG
H50 in the house. Got these about an hour ago.

All I am saying is these things sound stupendous! ISN has done it again. Will post an impression soon.
Looking forward to your impressions, I know would be good compare it with H40 but should interesting compare it with more expensive Land, EST50 and Canon.
H40 has a great success and I regret to have not buy it anymore, maybe H50 should be right choice over H40 considering all my stuff?
 
Oct 30, 2021 at 7:28 AM Post #3,038 of 5,041
Looking forward to your impressions, I know would be good compare it with H40 but should interesting compare it with more expensive Land, EST50 and Canon.
H40 has a great success and I regret to have not buy it anymore, maybe H50 should be right choice over H40 considering all my stuff?

Agreed. This is likely to out-perform its price bracket, assuming it remains similarly priced to the H40, so comparisons to more expensive stuff will go a long way :)
 
Oct 30, 2021 at 7:41 AM Post #3,039 of 5,041
Oct 30, 2021 at 7:42 AM Post #3,040 of 5,041
Oct 30, 2021 at 7:57 AM Post #3,042 of 5,041
Oct 30, 2021 at 8:09 PM Post #3,045 of 5,041
Last night when I put them in my ears for the first time. The very first thing that hit me was. These sound like the Legends. Lol. No they are not as refined as the Legends but the stage. The freaking stage. How can they make the H50 with an average sound stage. The answer to that is they can't. The sound expansion and stage on the H50 is magical. Out of my DX300Max the sound stage is unbelievable. We are talking IER-Z1R/ Legend stage, very comparable here. I have yet to hear an earphone in the price range these will be going for that has this stage. So automatically these set themselves apart from your average hybrid. If your not wowed by the stage presentation of the H50. You just haven't heard a proper wide staged earphone. I would say even more so than the H40.

Vocals sound phenomenal on the H50. The upper mid projection is superb on these making vocals stand out much like how the Legends project vocals. ISN is known for its bass emphasized earphones yes but these things have Penon pedigree written all over it. Two BAs doing the full range mid bands. Two BAs doing lower to upper trebles. A newly chosen 10mm composite dynamic doing bass duties. Bass this time around has greater presence for sub bass vs mid bass. Tighter more defined than the H40 digging deeper at the same time.

Basically these are what the Penon Legends would sound like if they added a dynamic for bass instead of the 2X Sonion dual acupass bass BAs. As crazy as that sounds. I was told these were clearly tuned to do one better than their H40. Not only are they better. These are easily rivaling their ISN flagship the EST50s. To be honest I would have a hard time choosing between either the EST50 or the H50. Of course it makes it an easier choice when the H50 is less than $300.

I always wondered if you took the high end tuning of the Legend and throw in a dynamic instead how that would sound. Well as you guys can see for yourselves. These mimic the Legend tuning from 100hz-6Khz. It does have a bit more treble presence over the Legends but again while not as refined makes up for it with an addictive sparkly treble. Excellent treble presence with a deep rumbly highly defined bass. Forward vocal projection with an ambient smooth flowing sound from the lowest of bass notes to the highest treble notes. Supremely balanced sounding. Better technicalities from the H40. Yes we are talking better definition, precision, imaging with a better spacious and dimensional sound presentation.. Eclipsing anything ISN made.

These things sound superb. I can't put it any other way. If the stage don't wow you. Its addictive sparkly treble presentation, punchy tight deeply defined bass and a forward projecting highly dimensional mids all in a huge ambient fluid and cohesive sound stage will leave a lasting impression.

Your witnessing a new benchmark for the price folks. As much as the H40 was impressive out of the box. These things!
 
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