Shozy Form 1.1 review: So close...

Even before the release of the Shozy Form 1.1, there have been several occasions that I see the Vietnamese mentions about Shozy. They are a Hong Kong company that is more known with producing DAC/Amplifier/DAP rather than IEM - an area that they recently only entered.
The Shozy Form 1.1 seems to be one of the latest product in 2019, with the 1.4 following after this year which I might review later. Let's see what they have to offer.

Before going into the post, if you are new, please read this before having any comments regarding my writing or point of view‌.

Information:

Drivers: 1DD 1BA
Price: 75$
Purchase link: https://www.linsoul.com/collections/shozy/products/shozy-form-1-1

The Shozy Form 1.1 was kindly provided by Linsoul in exchange for my honest review of the product

Build and Accessories:

The Shozy Form 1.1 packaging

3 pairs of foam tips (S/M/L)
3 pairs of double flange tips (S/M/L)
3 pairs of single flange tips (S/M/L)
Unbalanced 3.5mm 2-pin cable
Hard (Semi-hard?) case
The IEM itself

Among all of the chifi I have tried to get my hands on, I must give my praise to Shozy on the Form 1.1's accessories. While the packaging of the Shozy Form 1.1 is quite simple and as expected from an IEM this price, but they seem to put more effort into polishing it enough that let me satisfied.

At the very least, my only complaint about the packaging is the Shozy Form 1.1 cable. Don't get me wrong, it is one of the nicer cable among the Chinese IEMs that I have ever tried: It is smooth and soft thus really nice to touch and I would use this cable every day given the chance. The only problem with it is the chin-slider which doesn't seem to work well due to the texture of the cable but this is just me being nitpicky at this point.

The Shozy From 1.1's build features a black plastic shell with a short nozzle. The faceplate seems to follow cosmo theme and has the word "Shozy" written right under. It is light and also stays relatively still in my ear even when I tried to shake my head.

Sounds:

Shozy Form 1.1 Frequency response

Measurements are done on a steel coupler with dynamic microphone, while the result seem to be close to an IEC-711 coupler, there is noticeable roll off in the bass region and frequencies higher than 2kHz is also expected to have 2 - 3dB roll off.

My measurements are also raw and uncompensated, hence flat in graph is not flat in real life.

Signature:

Depending on your interpretation, the Shozy Form 1.1 can be a V/U-Shaped earphone. The most notable point about the earphone from the graph is the peak at 7 - 8kHz which can cause some fatigue to your ear.

Subjective opinions:

Since you have read the title of this review at this point, I will start my explanation the reason behind it with my final verdict about this IEM: The Shozy Form 1.1 is a good earphone for the price, but still lack some potential for me to call it "great".

The good part about this earphone is mostly in its tonality in the upper-midrange. While I do prefer the mid to be more forward to fit my own personal preference, I can see a lot of people enjoying the Form 1.1 due to how tame the earphone sounds but still provide enough energy into the song that prevents the Shozy Form 1.1 from being muddy. Comparing to the BLON BL-03, it is also less congested and can produce more details even if that is only a little more which is acceptable for me on Instrumental genre.

Shozy Form 1.1 vs BLON BL-03

Now, for the "so close" part, let's start with both the bass and the treble. While I don't mind the lack of rumble and bass bleed of the Shozy Form 1.1, the treble is a bigger problem for me. Not only being badly extended, I find myself a little bit sensitive with the treble peak. In some songs especially with dense tracks, while not outright audible, the Shozy Form 1.1 can still cause some ringing to my ears and ended up fatiguing even after a 45 minutes session. Hence, I would advise against buying the Shozy Form 1.1 to people who usually listen to "energetic" songs as you may find the earphone lacks energy for these types of music and ended up getting your ear fatigued for raising the volume.

Maybe this is just me having that habit of raising the volume which I should try to correct. I do find myself doing it more often with the Shozy Form 1.1 though.

Finally, the Shozy Form 1.1 technicalities is somewhat acceptable for this price since I have seen worse. Also it is worth to mention that I find its soundstage a little bit narrow but I digress.

Conclusion:

Still, at the price of 75$, I can put the Shozy Form 1.1 safely on my "Recommendation" list. While I still don't prefer how it sounds, it will be one of my usual recommendation if anyone ever asked me.
I am looking forward to reviewing the Shozy Form 1.4, the Shozy Form 1.1 just need a little bit more magic. It's almost there...