Shozy Magma Review

I have been happy with all of the IEMs from Shozy that I have been listening to recently. Both the Form 1.4 and the BG 5ba have been worthy selections in their respective price ranges, and now I am happy to check out one of their more premium models. The Magma has been hyped up a bit, as I have had colleagues praise its quality. It is one of their biggest mid-budget options available, with a price of $499. Is it worth the hype?

What You Get

• Shozy Magma Electrostatic Universal In-Ear Monitors
• High Purity Cable
• Assorted Ear Tips
• Carrying Case

Look and Feel

I appreciate Shozy for forming a great design with a smaller housing. Many IEMs that have a similar style can sport a good fit, but the size of the housing itself takes up a significant amount of space in your concha. With the Magma, the shell only occupies half the space, while still granting you good support and security. The artistry on the face of the shell is also quite fancy and reminds me of some selections from ThieAudio’s best designs.

Design

A 9.2mm dynamic driver occupies the inner housings main unit. It is made using a compound molecule composite membrane, along with a Knowles midrange driver and dual Sonion super tweeters. A coherent signal is formed using a 3-way crossover design.

• Frequency Response : 20HZ-20KHZ
• Impedance : 21Ω @ 1KHZ
• Sensitivity : 105DB +/-1DB @ 1KHZ

Soundstage

What I’ve heard from Shozy thus far, it seems like their IEMs have a firm grip on what a good soundstage should be. The Magma is the best I’ve heard from them, offering a spacious image presenting all of its elements concisely. Each sound is placed in the stereo field accurately, with layers revealing greater depth and articulation. Its separation abilities give the stage an airier quality while showing just enough dimension to feature a semi-holographic structure.

I became easily immersed in this soundstage, especially when listening to heavily dynamic genres like film scores. Listening to the great Howard Shore’s score to “Crimes Of The Future,” you feel like the Magma is delivering the proper spectrum of sound without limiting itself. The soundtrack uses a lot of electronic effects mixed with traditional orchestration, and the Magma showcases this mix of personalities with even handling of transparency.

Low End

This bass is almost like a tease of a bigger tone. What you get on the Magma, is a solid amount of slam that feels tight and accurate. I got the feeling that it could extend its sub-bass just a bit more, but each track I tested had the same result. The bass is exceptionally clean, and the drive behind its timbre hoists up the response subtly enough to take on a more energetic form.

Mids

The Magma hosts a midrange with a clean and focused presentation, however, it does appear like some of its fundamental frequencies are scooped out in terms of gain. There’s not a ton of forwardness behind the tonality like the bass is, and that can result in some instruments feeling like they’re being relegated to the background. Vocals stick out quite nicely though, especially those within the upper-midrange. All of the frequencies that occupy the mids have a naturally resolving response that includes a good amount of detail, but the power isn’t distributed equally. I didn’t take much issue with this profile, it’s just good to know that some areas of the mids are favored over others.

Highs

In the highs, the sound signature comes alive. They have a good amount of extension to the soundstage and come with a ton of nice details. There is a ton of personality in the Magma’s treble, reaching a stable balance between emphasis and smoothness. Even though they have a significant amount of energy behind them, you don’t need to worry about brightness or harshness in the frequencies. Everything goes down smoothly while offering a truly enhanced experience.

Summary

With the Magma, Shozy presents an IEM in intense competition with some of the top mid-budget models around. In the end, end the Magma stands tall, offering a solid sound with a spacious presentation. There are a lot of options in this price range, but the Magma should be at the top of your list.

The Shozy Magma is available at Audio46.