Shozy Alien audio player: it looks like a bottle opener, but how it sounds after!

Well, gentlemen, today I will tell you about an overseas audio animal of a strange form, futuristic design and very good sound! So, meet Shozy Alien! What I knew about Shozy until recently was that it was a Hong Kong company that produced portable amplifiers and DACs. But here, thanks to the Mycroft store.Su I was able to get acquainted with their first swallow in the field of portable players – model Alien.

Shozy Alien Audio Player

Appearance and package

The package is as minimalistic as the design. Alien comes in a transparent plastic box. Inside, in white cardboard, is the player itself and a microUSB/USB cable to connect to a power adapter. I do not exclude that in future the set will contain some more “gingerbread”, but for now this is how it is.

Shozy Alien is a medium sized player, slim, lightweight, made of aluminum, pleasant to the touch. It can be freely carried in a shirt pocket, jeans pocket, but I would prefer to wear it around my neck, like an Olympic medal. You can adapt the strap from a flash drive and, in my opinion, this will be very convenient.

The device has a very fancy shape, a sort of mix of a bottle opener and an alien object, or a remote control for a spaceship. Such associations, you might as well fly away into space…

The controls are located at the top of the front panel, in the form of a small joystick-circle, sharpened for small Asian fingers. I don’t have a paw, retired violinist after all, but nevertheless the Asian joystick was a bit small for me too.

On the top of the circle there is a plus sign + which gives the increase of volume. At the bottom of the circle went into minus – , which translates as decrease.

On the left side of the circle you can switch tracks back, if you press longer, you will go to the previous folder. The same way is with track switching and skipping to the next folder, if you press the right arrow of joystick. In the center is the player on/off button.

In short, the controls, in my opinion, could be more convenient. Just below the “circle of control”, there is a tiny LED, which happily signals with a green-blue dot that the player is still working.

On the bottom end of the device are: miniUSB connector for charger, a slot for microSD memory cards and headphone jack 3.5 mm.

Turning it on happens almost instantly by pressing the central button on the joystick, turning it off is the same. Playback always starts with the first folder and the first track on the memory card.

Shozy Alien has no internal memory. The unit understands only two audio formats WAVE and FLAC. Lovers of MP3 and other formats will have to “bummer”. So that’s how modest it is.

Sound

Tested with Westone UM3X, Etymotic ER-4p, Beyerdynamic DT 1350 headphones.

I would like to start by saying that this is a very musical bling! The player has a clear, smooth and “tasty” sound. It can not be called a monitor, because it is too bumpy. The sound is somehow subtle and rich.

There is good dynamics here, clear punch on the woofer and depth. In general, Alien captivates with its way of presenting the musical material. You feel like nodding your head in time with the music, it’s so musical.

Some tracks have a hint of sibilance here and there, but nothing more. Interesting device in terms of sound. Disappointing lack of a screen and minimalistic controls. It is clear that the Shozy engineers wanted to make a minimal-sized device with good sound. But I think they went a bit overboard with design and user-friendliness.

The tweeter is a little crumbly. No excessive ringing, everything is quite clear, pleasant and not tiresome, which is very important in this frequency range.

MF – detailed, clear, musical – that’s how I would describe the sound in the middle. Listening to Spandau Ballet’s “Diamond”, I found myself walking down the street dancing with a smile on my face – to the surprise of passersby. I was just so excited about their music.

The bass is clear, there is no smudge or buzz. There’s not much, there’s as much as you need. The bass is pretty fast. It would be desirable to add it in some compositions, but it is a matter of taste. In general it’s not so bad here either.

Retrieved from

For all its lack of convenience in terms of control, the device came out very pleasant. The sound of the player, given its size, I was more than surprised. As a summer version, it is a real godsend for music lovers! The manufacturer’s recommended price is $200. If the exchange rate of dollar to ruble is more humane than today, I think that Shozy Alien will be very profitable purchase for connoisseurs of sound on the road.

Sound, size, battery life up to 8 hours.

Controls, no screen

.

Manufacturer’s specifications:

Recommended headphone impedance: 8 – 32 ohms

Signal to noise: >98dB

Formats: Wave, Flac

Power: 2 x 55mW into 16 ohms

Battery life: 8 hours

Charge time: 2 hours