[Stuff Jones]

whats the battery life?

 

[Layman1]

   
Do you even know the price? How on earth would you hate something you haven't used?

He said he hates the design, the screen and UI.  All of these can be seen from the pictures without purchasing first

I'm not criticising you, nor saying he's right. Just offering some clarity

 

[Stuff Jones]

 
He said he hates the design, the screen and UI.  All of these can be seen from the pictures without purchasing first

I'm not criticising you, nor saying he's right. Just offering some clarity

 
Yet he criticizes it based on a price that's not known. Also it's kind of his MO.

 

[musicday]

The price is shown on the website, $435 have a look:http://www.shozy-hk.com/alien/

 

[BruceBanner]

 
I have mixed feelings about it.
Funnily enough, I was actually thinking to buy an Alien Gold.
I've got a pair of Noble Katana and Trinity Audio PM6 on the way, and not enough money to buy (e.g.) an Onkyo DP-X1A or Fiio X5iii or similar mid/upper-mid tier DAPs.
 
I currently have an xDuoo X3 (Rockboxed), but it keeps freezing and crashing. So I was hoping to find something with mid-fi level sound at a bargain price, and the Alien Gold had all these glowing reviews (regarding the sound at least).
Also, I loved the unique appearence of the Alien Gold, and was actually quite comfortable with the screenless design, since my general modus operandi is to walk around with the DAP in my pocket and change tracks etc using the physical buttons. I figure I can just buy some cheap 2 or 4GB micro-SD cards and put individual playlists or artist discographies on each.
 
However, whilst reading up on the Alien Gold on Head-Fi, I came across this thread (via someone's review of the Alien+).
 
So it was quite frustrating to read that it seemed to offer significantly improved sound quality over the Alien Gold, especially as I was pretty much ready to pull the trigger on that lol.
Also, one thing I didn't like about the Alien Gold was that it didn't offer MP3 support, and this does!
I try to use FLAC exclusively, but some tracks are only available to me in MP3. So it would mean going into each of my existing playlists and folders and removing all MP3 tracks (and losing songs that I love).
 
But then, Alien+ has the higher price. At $300 (US Dollars), which I heard mentioned on here, it's just about within range, although still a bit too high ($200 better for me right now).
But then I checked the price in China using a currency converter and it's looking more like $400, so I'm really not sure what the final price of this is supposed to be?
For the record, I'm actually in the UK, so I'd be using British pounds anyway lol

 
I agree that the styling of this thing is a big step backwards.
The Alien lacked a screen, but otherwise looked pretty sleek, unique and advanced. Nearly all DAPs these days seem based around the same oblong shape (with optional bits added onto the sides or top to make it look slightly different).
One thing I'd have hoped is that Shozy could have brought out something like the Alien that looked markedly different from the rest of the field, since this seems to be a strength of theirs.
I know there are budget and manufacturing constraints, but you know..
 
Whilst of course I'd love a full sized touchscreen, I do appreciate the design ethos of Shozy here, which is that sound performance is the goal, and (within budget restraints), shiny tech can cannibalise that, and also create more things to go wrong.
 
I just feel that perhaps this player has neglected one of their strengths (cool and unique design), perhaps tried to compromise to much in terms of bells and whistles, and hence ended up at a price that is not an ideal fit for such a stripped-down DAP experience.
On the other hand, if they've improved the sound even more, that's hugely commendable. I'd be interested to hear comparisons between the Alien Gold, Alien+, and other mid-fi DAPs, especially the ones I mentioned in this post

 
1) Be careful with any opinion of 'significantly improved sound quality', it is far more likely to just being a different sound quality and that comes across to the user as being better. The ears will adapt, 6 months later dig the Alien Gold out and be amazed at what comes out of that vs the Alien+.
Remember when the original Alien came out, folk comparing it to Tera in terms of sound quality and super expensive Astells etc lol, you have to ask yourself what is really going to be better, what percentage is perceived better, and at the end of the day it's always opinions, lets see some blind testing going on etc.

I can say this with a great deal of confidence as I have been using DAPs for over a decade, have 10 sitting in my drawer, and regularly do A/B comparisons, and more often than not each player has a certain sound quality strength and weakness, one will shine more than the other with a particular track.
I recently bought the cheapo Walnut V2, tis a great little DAP, bass is deeper and extends more than other DAPs I have, is pairing great with my car stereo, but it is hissier than the rest.
The colourfly C3 is very neutral, dead silent background but flavourless, but suits certain tracks more than the Shozy. Both of those players are peanuts in price compared to the Shozy, they are extremely good value whereas the Shozy now seems quite overpriced...
(And don't get me started on my beloved AP100...)
 
2) Use foobar and convert the Mp3 files to FLAC, problem solved.
 
3) Yes,completely agree with you in terms of design, it's so atypical of current trend, sharp corners slanting sides, it offers virtually nothing to distinquish it from the rest (whereas the Alien design was truly unique). It's a missed opportunity for sure to gain some separation from the pack.
 
 

So are most high end machine that got no good UI? It is not an excuse for us to input less on UI and keep yelling it is a highend direction. If you know how much it will be worsen, you will feel like it is more pathetic... test it and see if it is a wanna-be or a real deal

 
I'm not at all sure what yer trying to say here? I think yer saying that yer not alone in being an expensive high end machine with crap UI, and um.. yeh... they are overpriced garbage as well! You designers think you can ride on the back of presenting unbelievable sound quality at the expense of features and UI, where in reality yer just cost saving. Already you've gone back on yer original statement saying a 'screen brings in unwanted sound quality artifacts' by releasing a DAP with a screen! Like... adding m3u support, lyrics, favourties, OTG playlist building, MP3 support all adds to a diminished sound quality experience LOL! Yer browsing by folder structure only oddly doesn't affect sound quality! ID3 tag database BAD! lmao... it's just unskilled coding and expense saving.
 

   
Do you even know the price? How on earth would you hate something you haven't used?

 
Yeh i know the price. You can hate the idea of something (in combo with the expected price)...

It could be the best sounding thing I have ever heard, but that alone is not the sole experience in using a DAP. Battery life, UI, features, cost vs value, it all plays a part to individual perceived value. Please don't hate on me for sharing an opinion that I don't (on paper) like at all what I see here...
 

 
He said he hates the design, the screen and UI.  All of these can be seen from the pictures without purchasing first

I'm not criticising you, nor saying he's right. Just offering some clarity

 
Thank you.
 

   
Yet he criticizes it based on a price that's not known. Also it's kind of his MO.

 
Not unknown.... and what?
 

The price is shown on the website, $435 have a look:http://www.shozy-hk.com/alien/

 
^

 

[NLNH]

Originally Posted by BruceBanner /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 I'm not at all sure what yer trying to say here? I think yer saying that yer not alone in being an expensive high end machine with crap UI, and um.. yeh... they are overpriced garbage as well! You designers think you can ride on the back of presenting unbelievable sound quality at the expense of features and UI, where in reality yer just cost saving. Already you've gone back on yer original statement saying a 'screen brings in unwanted sound quality artifacts' by releasing a DAP with a screen! Like... adding m3u support, lyrics, favourties, 

 
If only you know what is cost saving .... 

 
And cost saving does work when you can put the savings back into parts.
 
have you thoughts about quality of batteries, motherboard, layout designs and the noise induced?
Also have you ever try to search about the part and the companies that built the parts?
 
I feel like this is an insult to yourself without even looking inside or knowing anything about the designs and you call them overpriced shxt. 
 
And we actually did explain what problems a screen causes, if you are experienced with how the specifications are measured and noise treatment you should be able to notice our effort and judge if that is useful but not to criticize on some low level issues. And if you really do care about the concept on the original Alien you should have asked something else or disproof us in an earlier time.
 

 OTG playlist building, MP3 support all adds to a diminished sound quality experience LOL! Yer browsing by folder structure only oddly doesn't affect sound quality! ID3 tag database BAD! lmao... it's just unskilled coding and expense saving.

 

 
I believe you feel no difference between linux, Macs and WIndows? Linux must be bad in coding! Poor software support you can't even run foobar!
Not to mention open source codes, Android on the other hand is nearly free and it could be as cheap as 20 USD for an android tablet in China.

 
 
And trust this or not adding album art also affect the sound, not on android maybe.
 
* And we have MP3 support *
Again if you are trying to get the best UI experience and best price to performance ratio, please go to the sound science forum and disproof why a phone with dsp is not better than your DAP setup which also has comparatively crap UI. And I also feel like if we say  
 
Lets try to be contributive, tell us what is the ultimate form of DAP and what tech specs it should attain, then we probably know how to address your concerns.
In the end I am curious what do you perceive as ''not cost saving'' on a DAP?

 

[musicday]

Let's get back on track shall we?
After all that's why we are here on this particular thread to find out more about this music player.
If you don't mind me asking : when can we have the full specifications and battery life?
Thank you Charles.

 

[NLNH]

Let's get back on track shall we?
After all that's why we are here on this particular thread to find out more about this music player.
If you don't mind me asking : when can we have the full specifications and battery life?
Thank you Charles.

 
Battery life is ~6 hours with wav but it may be longer after digital vol is added.
Specs aren't finalized while we are polishing the firmware,
expect high output (in terms of mW) and try to refer to the chipsets used for a rough guess 

 

[BruceBanner]

6hrs... oh boy...

 

[rcoleman1]

Wow...6 hrs. I'm unsubbed 

 

[musicday]

Sad and very sad.The Alien Gold last 8 hours,the Shozy+last 6 hours when playing WAV.If DSD support is added then the battery life is 2 hours?

 

[BruceBanner]

You might as well grab a HUM Pervasion that also has 6hrs battery life, least that thing ran android and therefore opened up the device to running various feature packed UI and DSPs to go...

 

[ExpatinJapan]

I think I will wait for the final build and test it then.

Most will probably just use 16/44 anyway which will increase battery life.

The sound was great, above the Alien Gold I thought and with a slightly different signature.

 

[mochill]

Yay 6hrs

 

[BruceBanner]

I think I will wait for the final build and test it then.

Most will probably just use 16/44 anyway which will increase battery life.

The sound was great, above the Alien Gold I thought and with a slightly different signature.

 
I don't doubt that it will sound great, but you have already hinted at sounding slightly different, and this is where I think many of us therefore perceive an increase in sound quality where really it's just apples and oranges. I can totally imagine someone saying the exact thing you have said here in a scenario whereby the Alien+ came out first and the Alien Shozy Gold second, I guarantee some users will say exactly what you have just said.