[Erick Muller]

I used thick double sided tape to attach both the feet and the fan, and to remove the original feet i just used a thin screw driver to pry them off, they are stuck on with strong glue, on the pic of the bottom you can see i stuck them back on between the bigger feet just in case id ever need then again for some reason, doubt it though.

Thx dude, maybe I will try this method myself latter, also if you could report back once you have more time with your unit in regards to how well the double sided tape holds up over time because I have concerns given that the bottom of the amp is the part that gets the hottest.

 

[Zaemon]

For any Aune remote, heres a fix to increase the IR signal. The LED is just a few mm to far recessed into the case.

After this mod the angle to use the remote is alot wider. Sometimes + became - after transmission loss. That fixed itself cause the signal is better overall.

I just desoldered the IR LED and soldered it back with maximum distance to the PCB.

Works realy well.

Before and after pictures.

Im thinking about getting a shorter IR LED so that it doesnt stick out like this. Looks a bit odd. Or maybe ill try one with 50mA and 940nm. Noone knows wich wavelenght the receiver needs. 865nm or 940nm. The 865nm are all 22mA.

 

[Alexfux12]

Thx dude, maybe I will try this method myself latter, also if you could report back once you have more time with your unit in regards to how well the double sided tape holds up over time because I have concerns given that the bottom of the amp is the part that gets the hottest.

Yeah im thinking the same thing, maybe ill glue it with some hot glue or some better heat resistant tape, either way ill update if anything changes.

 

[stevedlu]

Ok, I was starting to like this amp. No temp issues as long as I don't use fancy cables. No volume issue with FW 5.5. Sounds pretty good but a relay switches and momentarily cuts the sound for a second at random intervals every 5 to 30min. I can hear it coming from the chassis. Seems to happen when its crosses the temp threshold at every 10 degrees. So going from 50 to 51 or 60 to 61 also going back the other way. The temp hypothesis could just be a coincidence. Either way I'm giving this thing a few more days and if it doesn't quit it's being sent back to try a diff model/brand. I was on the fence anyways, the bass is kind of weak with the Focal Clears which is bizarre because I have a dongle that provides more sub-bass / punch down low and it doesn't even come close to the TA-22. Female voices are a little too sharp as well.

 

[MaxMini]

... Female voices are a little too sharp as well.

What I wrote already in comparison with Singxer. In Aune I heard a light coating in the midrange.

 

[risingsun1981]

Hi everyone,

I had a singxer long time ago for spin and returned to the shop as I felt it was not my cup of tea. I have to say that I think that the s17 is better as at least, i feel the sound boast some good characteristics.

One question though, anyone compared this amp to the Master 19? I remember @Currawong kindly told me they are similar but I am still hesitating to exchange back while adding a bit more for the master 19.

Am I to expect some improvement in some department sonically?

Thanks again for your help!

By the way, on the temp side, for me, the fact that I connect or not a headphone doesn’t influence the rise…

 

[Currawong]

I only have the R27HE running, and I'd say that since both are Class A, they have somewhat similar characteristics. I think the Aune sounds a bit narrower, and has a bit more bass emphasis, and possibly a touch more in the treble. Audio-gd gear tends to sound like there isn't an amp there at all, with the soundstage getting wider and deeper the bigger the amp you buy. So, my speculation is that a Master 19 will be somewhat similar, maybe with a bit more even overall tuning.

 

[bagwell359]

In really warm rooms it would seem raising it up at least 2 inches higher then with the stock feet^ and a very small boxer/whisper fan aimed at one or the other of the ventilation holes in the back is the only way unless you want to borrow from overclocking chips solution side and circulate cold water (or heh - liquid nitrogen) over the externals or internals of the amp - or easier - wait until they release v2 which is sure to have a solution for this issue - which is taking away from its sales and reputation.

^ On my Rag 1 I got rid of the dinky feet and built up a 1.5" tall set of feet using fender washers and high duro sorbothane and a longer screw - and that cut the heat down a lot so it stopped making clicking sounds (probably a relay) when it got too hot. Slightly different implementation needed with no screw holes. Or try a shelf with lots of holes in it, and still get it higher for normal air circulation to cut the temp a bit.

Being totally anal with the external fan on a vent hole one could stick a temp sensor into the amp via a vent hole and when you figure out what temp it hits when the amps output drops, set the fan to turn on and off a few degrees below that - say 95F on, 90F off (or whatever works).

 

[stevedlu]

Please give us an update once the amp has broken in and after it's been switched on for an hour prior to listening. I'm interested in maybe this or the TA-20 Plus so I'd love to hear your views on the TA-22 comparison

I returned the S17 Pro today. My unit, the bass was weak, the midrange was veiled/harsh at times, and the treble wasn't smooth at all. It has good image separation....thats it. In my opinion, this is another over-hyped product from dishonest/naive YouTubers that people are trying to make sense of.

Because you asked, TA-22 is just musical throughout the spectrum, mids are lush, loads of power in the low end, provides really nice bass slam when it calls for it, smooth top and the integrated DAC is wonderful. The separation and staging is on the average side, nothing special, but everything else makes up for it. The TA-20+ has a tube rectifier, so the energy in the bass will be weaker. I'm not a fan of tube rectifiers.

Edit: Forgot to mention you can totally fix, and drastically improve, the separation/staging on the TA-22 with some JJ ECC802-S tubes that are easy to get for $ 38 x 2. For $580 total, I don't see anything that comes close to that value.

 

[Erick Muller]

I returned the S17 Pro today. My unit, the bass was weak, the midrange was veiled/harsh at times, and the treble wasn't smooth at all. It has good image separation....thats it. In my opinion, this is another over-hyped product from dishonest/naive YouTubers that people are trying to make sense of.

Because you asked, TA-22 is just musical throughout the spectrum, mids are lush, loads of power in the low end, provides really nice bass slam when it calls for it, smooth top and the integrated DAC is wonderful. The separation and staging is on the average side, nothing special, but everything else makes up for it. The TA-20+ has a tube rectifier, so the energy in the bass will be weaker. I'm not a fan of tube rectifiers.

Sad to hear you didn't enjoy your S17.

Tbh I don't have any experience at all with tube amps of any kind, tho I already bought(pre-order) my first OTL tube amp from Drop, it's actually the colab they make with xDuoo precisely and I´ll probably get it by September or October of this year, so fingers cross, so given this I cannot say how the S17 does against or compares to your or any tube amp, all my audio experience has been with SS amps so far.

In my subjective experience tho, I have find that what the reviewers have said about this amp has been correct for the most part, with the exception of the technical issues this amp has suffer from and I would say that this amp excels with high impedance DD cans like the HD650 and the DT880, planars it handles them well enough, tho it seems that it could handle them better imho, I'm getting absolutely excellent bass from my modded HD6XX without any EQ and the midrange it's just wonderful, to the point that this are the only cans I use for video content.

But like they say, YMMV, and it your case, this amp wasn't for you and didn't fulfill your needs, It happens sometimes unfortunately.

 

[SmartCheetah]

In my subjective experience tho, I have find that what the reviewers have said about this amp has been correct for the most part

Same here. For me it was a great improvement coming from the K7, ST-Amp and EF-400.

But I'm interested to at least try the TA-22 to form my own opinion.

 

[davehutch]

I returned the S17 Pro today. My unit, the bass was weak, the midrange was veiled/harsh at times, and the treble wasn't smooth at all. It has good image separation....thats it. In my opinion, this is another over-hyped product from dishonest/naive YouTubers that people are trying to make sense of.

Because you asked, TA-22 is just musical throughout the spectrum, mids are lush, loads of power in the low end, provides really nice bass slam when it calls for it, smooth top and the integrated DAC is wonderful. The separation and staging is on the average side, nothing special, but everything else makes up for it. The TA-20+ has a tube rectifier, so the energy in the bass will be weaker. I'm not a fan of tube rectifiers.

Edit: Forgot to mention you can totally fix, and drastically improve, the separation/staging on the TA-22 with some JJ ECC802-S tubes that are easy to get for $ 38 x 2. For $580 total, I don't see anything that comes close to that value.

Thanks for this, much appreciated. As you say, the reviews are all exceptional but I've always been put off by the fact that the amp doesn't seem to be able to cope with what most people would term a 'standard' cable. No info from Aune about this and the fact that so many people on here are resorting to special stands and fans.
There's nothing special about 200mA of current into 32ohms as other manufacturers seem to be able to that in full Class-A with no overheating issues.

I do keep coming back to an Xduoo hybrid amp, but the TA-20 Plus is too tall and the lack of a gain switch is an issue as my Mojo 2 performs best between 3 and 4V output. I may end up with a limited volume pot range.

The TA-22 is a much nicer looking unit with better features IMO but I'm not in a rush so I might just wait a while longer. If the TA-32 comes out that could be the winner for me. Great info about the tubes, so thanks again for getting back to us with your findings..

 

[MiguelP]

Thanks for this, much appreciated. As you say, the reviews are all exceptional but I've always been put off by the fact that the amp doesn't seem to be able to cope with what most people would term a 'standard' cable. No info from Aune about this and the fact that so many people on here are resorting to special stands and fans.
There's nothing special about 200mA of current into 32ohms as other manufacturers seem to be able to that in full Class-A with no overheating issues.

I do keep coming back to an Xduoo hybrid amp, but the TA-20 Plus is too tall and the lack of a gain switch is an issue as my Mojo 2 performs best between 3 and 4V output. I may end up with a limited volume pot range.

The TA-22 is a much nicer looking unit with better features IMO but I'm not in a rush so I might just wait a while longer. If the TA-32 comes out that could be the winner for me. Great info about the tubes, so thanks again for getting back to us with your findings..

I find that the Mojo 2 works better between 2 and 3 V. Above 3V it starts clipping. The Chord Mojo 2 pairs wonderfully with the Aune S17 Pro (it's the combination I use). The only complaint I have is indeed the heating but it's not fair to compare with other brands that do not switch to a lower current to preserve the components. When you're saying that other class A amps do not get hot that's simply not true - what you meant is that you don't have a indication of their temperature and they don't lower the current above certain temperature (as far as we know).

 

[MiguelP]

....

 

[davehutch]

I find that the Mojo 2 works better between 2 and 3 V. Above 3V it starts clipping. The Chord Mojo 2 pairs wonderfully with the Aune S17 Pro (it's the combination I use). The only complaint I have is indeed the heating but it's not fair to compare with other brands that do not switch to a lower current to preserve the components. When you're saying that other class A amps do not get hot that's simply not true - what you meant is that you don't have a indication of their temperature and they don't lower the current above certain temperature (as far as we know).

I didn’t say that ‘other Class-A amps do not get hot’. Please don’t misquote me. I know perfectly well what I meant. Also the Chord Mojo 2 does not clip above 3V and it’s SINAD has been measured best between 3v and 4v. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...hord-mojo-2-review-portable-dac-hp-amp.34160/