Shozy Black Hole Review

Sound

The sound of the Shozy Black Hole is very impressive and different just like its appearance. It is on the neutral side with a great amount of air and effortlessness. It presents the music like you’re in an indoor concert hall. I think this model might as well have been named “Shozy Air”. It would’ve been a proper model name for it.

It’s a very resolving IEM with a flat and wide signature. I can say it’s suitable for genres like Classical and Jazz. It’s definitely not the IEM for more popular music. It also offers good technical qualities, once again proving Shozy’s abilities to put up an IEM that is certainly impressive.

Bass

The Black Hole doesn’t have too much bass but it is pronounced enough to give the music a nice foundation. It has nice control and attack together with good texture. However, don’t expect a big rumble or a punchy type of bass. Although this is a dynamic driver, it is tuned very differently. It’s under tight control at all times with a subtle presentation.

It has a good resolution in the bass with good detail. The impact like I mentioned is not huge but it’s there. You can follow the bass notes if you want to or if you focus on them. Lows have great separation from mids. Bass balance is also very very good with good enough mid-bass to give that certain body to the sound. But it’s not more than that when it comes to quantity.

I appreciate the overall quality and technical performance of the bass region. Yet, this is not an ideal presentation for Pop, Rnb, EDM, or anything of that nature. This is more like a jazz performer. In jazz, the bass quantity and presentation is very important. That’s because of the contrabass notes of jazz recordings, which become overwhelmingly thick and fat with bassy IEMs. With Shozy you don’t have this problem so it’s a great performer with classical and jazz music as well as instrumental.

Mid

The mid-range is very nice and the tonality here is quite lively and vivid. Especially the vocals sound ear-pleasing with great tones. Mids have great resolution and transparency, instruments have good definition and body when needed.  The timbre is particularly impressive with a life-like approach. It’s airy, breathy, and relaxed overall, thanks to the open design. Mids are very well defined and there’s no sibilance with vocals and instruments so it has good control.

They are also very detailed with good note size together with a very realistic timbre. Mids are not very energetic or bright as a whole. They’re rather relaxed, The instrument separation is also very good, and the instruments have great positioning. So I think this is a very successful mid-range presentation. Speaking of it, the mid-range presentation is a bit in your face. It reminded me of the Grado headphones. Hence, it’s a very unique experience to listen to the guitar with this IEM. Something like The Doors or the great Jimi Hendrix, you got them covered with the Black Hole.

Treble

The treble is airy and very transparent. The definition of the treble is good as well as its resolution. Since this is an open-back IEM, treble presentation is different to some degree and there’s quite an amount of air and spaciousness in the treble region. Highs also have good attack and dynamism. The extension and definition are very good in particular, and highs extend very well with great detail. Treble is easy-going, controlled but definitive same time. There’s a slight roll-off in the highest frequencies which I think is there to prevent any aggressiveness.

There’s great control in this area as well. Treble is not aggressive or too crispy here, it instead plays relaxed and breathy with good enough shimmer. I liked this treble presentation because it’s very natural but lively at the same time with good energy without being too bright. Overall the Black Hole is a great performer in this region. However, I would’ve liked a bit more brightness and definition here, just a bit more.

The review continues on PAGE 3 with technical performance and comparisons.