Shozy Ceres Review




The Shozy Ceres is a dual driver hybrid in-ear monitor featuring a single 9.2mm dynamic driver and a single balanced armature. The IEM retails for $179.99 and is available on Linsoul.com for purchase. Linsoul provided this review unit for me to assess and here we go...

A couple years ago, I was sent the Shozy V33 Pro. It was an interesting ear phone to say the least. It was marketed as an analog-vintage sounding IEM and even had a round shell with a vinyl-record like appearance on the faceplate. It sounded terrible to me. Low-resolution, mushy, blunted, and sucking the life out of pretty much everything I've heard. I did not like it at all.

The Ceres seems like a continuation of this concept. It takes some of that "vintage-analog" sound descriptor and adds a little bit more depth to it. The overall sound is very much "lo-fi", meaning it gives everything a heavy, dark haze to it. Imagine low hanging smog in your town, covering up most of the glistening sun and only letting parts of it through -- That's how I feel the Ceres presents itself to a lot of the music I listen to. 




In actuality, this has a lot to do with it's lack of upper-midrange, and elevated low end. The missing pinna compensation in its frequency response gives an overall hazy sound effect that makes everything sound smothered and veiled. Female vocalists in my playlist take the biggest hits here, and for the most part, male vocalist sound decent.

The Ceres works best for instrumental music that lacks guitars and strings which I feel need that upper midrange gain to really sound accurate. Instead, they all sound muted and constrained. 

An example of this effect is when listening to Cocteau Twins and really any track. Elizabeth Fraser's vocals are not piercingly high (a good thing) but lacks the dynamics and power that she can exhibit. The swirling guitars sound especially restricted and too controlled, and the drums, specifically cymbals sound off and inaccurate. 

I am a fan of lo-fi chill hop, and this IEM gives the semblance of that to pretty much every track I threw at it. Unfortunately, that's not how I think those songs should sound like.



The worst now is presented. What's good about this Ceres?


The Ceres has decent imaging and soundstage. It surprisingly has a layers of depth and is slightly wide, and that allows instrumentation to have some presence to it. I was a little surprised about this after my initial hatred of the IEM in general. 

Still, the tonality is just not what it should be, but with a bit of brain-burn-in, I can live with this more relaxed and analog sound. I don't think I could listen to this for everything, but perhaps certain older instrumental music in the right mood. 

This is definitely not one for those who want a hi-res sound with clearly defined notes and a lot of texture and resolution. This is very much a smoothed over, warm-bodied, punchy, and haze-fi sound. It'll take a lot of getting used to for the majority of us and not one I'd easily recommend.


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