Sound
The sound of the Shozy Elsa is quite neutral and flat, with a slight warmth in the bass area. It has a very cohesive approach with a well-balanced tuning, making it a very impressive 5BA monitor. No frequency is in front or dominating the sound in the Elsa, so I can say it’s an uncoloured monitor.
It’s a very resolving and detailed IEM with a somewhat bright-ish tuning on the top end, but the bass warmth and very slight musical timbre save it from being too analytical. It’s quite suitable for genres like Jazz, Classic Rock and Classical. It’s not the IEM for more popular bassy music though. It also offers good technical qualities, however, but the tuning is definitely more on the neutral side rather than being bassy or mid-forward.
Bass
The new Shozy has enough punch and kick in the bass and the focus is on mid-bass surely. However, that large single BA driver certainly impresses at times, giving good sub-bass rumble and mid-bass warmth. The tuning here is seemingly set up for audiophiles overall, sounding like a reference-like bass response, except for the sub-bass rumble.
Shozy somehow added that sub-bass rumble to impress with certain recordings, especially Pop. This is one of the cases where you stumble upon a very impressive bass response with a full BA configuration. It reminds me of the legendary Spiral Ear SE-5 Reference. Who says you can’t get a great bass response from BA monitors? Shozy thinks otherwise for sure.
On the other hand, you of course don’t have the ”air” of the dynamic drivers. This is a much tighter bass, and you can feel a bit congested in this particular range. This is usually the case with BA monitors, and it’s a trade-off for better control and decay.
And indeed, the bass has great recovery and speed with the Elsa. So overall this is a very good bass performance for audiophiles, having the rumble, kick, impact and PRaT altogether. It’s not a bassy IEM by any means but gets the job done in terms of audiophile tuning and having that certain toe-tapping bass.
Mids
The Elsa has very good transparency and resolution. Mids have great positioning and timbre, making them sound very realistic, natural and correct. Tonality wise things are absolutely good. You don’t come across this correctness and reference tonality often in IEMs, especially at this price.
The mid-bass body completes the presentation nicely with good transition, and the mids have very good dynamism and definition. Although the Elsa is an IEM that gives generous treble, which I’ll go into shortly, the mids still have good space to shine. Elsa also escapes from being a thin-sounding IEM, and although it somewhat has a bright-ish signature, it still has a very good body and musicality here.
So the mids are quite energetic and a bit bright but not too much. So you get very good clarity and transparency here. The instruments and vocals have excellent definition. The instrument separation is good and the instruments and vocals have good positioning. The mids also have a very consistent and realistic tonality with a studio-quality approach. So the Shozy Elsa also gets the job done in the mid-range department too.
Treble
The treble is airy and transparent, and a bit bright overall. The definition of the treble is very good as well as its resolution. Highs also have good attack and dynamism. The extension and definition are very good in particular, and highs extend very well with great detail.
There’s great control in this area as well. Treble is not too aggressive or too crispy here, and even if it comes close to being a bit bright at times, Elsa still keeps it under control. It plays breathy with a good shimmer. I liked this treble presentation because it’s very natural but lively at the same time with good energy without being too aggresively bright. Overall Elsa is a very capable performer in this region.
Page 1: About Shozy and Elsa
Page 3: Technical Performance, Comparisons, Conclusion
