Aune S17 pro

[Hooster]

PC - SMSL SU10 - S17 - ATH R70X
What more could anyone possibly want? It sounds fantastic.

 

[DP42]

Adding onto this, I did manage to try the Holo Audio Cyan 2 R2R Ladder DAC amongst other R2R DACs. While it undoubtedly provided a nice warm signature, I did feel as though it sounded muddy and I couldn't separate the mids from the instruments. The Qutest was the only DAC I tried that day that completely blew me away with its resolution and balance in keeping the warm signature we love from the S17 Pro, without making the mids overly forwards and zero sibilance whatsoever in the treble.

Similarly though I listen to a bunch of different music of different recording qualities, so there are probably some genres of music that R2R DACs outperform FPGA DACs on - but not enough for me to care about!

BF 2/64 + E3 here. After extensive A/B comparisons of S17 pro vs V222, I must say that some of the initial charm of the S17 pro has worn off and I am now favoring the V222 on most tracks. The clarity, separation, and layering is significantly better on the V222, looks like Ichos had the right take on the comparison. Nothing wrong with the S17 Pro, it has a weighty full presentation, sounds great with blues guitars and is forgiving with old 80's poorly recorded material. But, for my listening preference, I find the V222 gives me the details that stimulate my brain more.

 

[Hooster]

It is a true sign of admiration for the S17 that anyone would even bother comparing it to another amp that costs twice as much, has no remote, limited functionality, and beauty that is surely only in the eye of the beholder. Thanks for taking the trouble.

 

[ngohw]

BF 2/64 + E3 here. After extensive A/B comparisons of S17 pro vs V222, I must say that some of the initial charm of the S17 pro has worn off and I am now favoring the V222 on most tracks. The clarity, separation, and layering is significantly better on the V222, looks like Ichos had the right take on the comparison. Nothing wrong with the S17 Pro, it has a weighty full presentation, sounds great with blues guitars and is forgiving with old 80's poorly recorded material. But, for my listening preference, I find the V222 gives me the details that stimulate my brain more.

Funnily enough I’ve been eyeing the V550 PRO for my next amp purchase whenever that may be… good to hear the cheaper option is already an improvement!

 

[Erick Muller]

Agreed, it needs raising by at least 1/2 inch/1.2cm to allow better air flow underneath, but Erick Muller and myself did some testing earlier in the thread and came to the conclusion that the headphone cable makes a big difference too. Using my Null Audio cable the S17 stays at 59-60 degrees for days (literally) but if I replace it with the cable that came with my HEKS, the temperature immediately starts rising and it drops back to 50ma mode within an hour. Admittedly they are different lengths but we believe that the S17 is particularly sensitive to the quality of the cable as nothing else changed and we saw similar results comparing cheap/supplied and more expensive cables.

If the temperature problem is too much for you, I'd suggest buying a better headphone cable which will improve the sound quality and hopefully make the amp usable without adding fans. (I'm happy to recommend Null Audio, they make nice cables.)

I discover the issue with cables by complete accident lol.

But yeah, the first two things you should check if you're having temp regulation issues with your amp is first, raising the amp at least an inch to improve airflow to the bottom plate of chassis because it's where the main heatsink of the amp is located, second is changing cables on your HP to see if the temps raise at the same rate or it stabilizes before reaching 69. If that still is an issue, you need to see if you can check the position of your S17 where there's more ventilation, the USB fans are not really necessary unless you live in places like I currently reside where 40+ degrees are the norm on summer time.

 

[Erick Muller]

What DAC would you recommend to pair with the S17? I'm currently using the EF400 I bought this year, and it sounds great, but I'm itching to try something new.

My headphones - Arya Stealth, HE1000SE, FAD Pandora Hope VI, so all relatively bright.

People say that an R2R DAC like yours and the S17 combo is magical, I'm planning to buy a Cyan 2 soon, probably this week or next, also the Gustard R26 is a good option from reports and they have a good synergy with the S17.

 

[Erick Muller]

Adding onto this, I did manage to try the Holo Audio Cyan 2 R2R Ladder DAC amongst other R2R DACs. While it undoubtedly provided a nice warm signature, I did feel as though it sounded muddy and I couldn't separate the mids from the instruments. The Qutest was the only DAC I tried that day that completely blew me away with its resolution and balance in keeping the warm signature we love from the S17 Pro, without making the mids overly forwards and zero sibilance whatsoever in the treble.

Similarly though I listen to a bunch of different music of different recording qualities, so there are probably some genres of music that R2R DACs outperform FPGA DACs on - but not enough for me to care about!

Did you try upsampling with HQPlayer into the Cyan 2?, because that's going to be the main use case for me if I get the Cyan 2.

 

[ngohw]

Did you try upsampling with HQPlayer into the Cyan 2?, because that's going to be the main use case for me if I get the Cyan 2.

Nope, I use Apple Music exclusively out of convenience — so there’s always going to be a slight bottleneck, but for me it’s a price worth paying to make my life easier both at home and away.

 

[MaxMini]

BF 2/64 + E3 here. After extensive A/B comparisons of S17 pro vs V222, I must say that some of the initial charm of the S17 pro has worn off and I am now favoring the V222 on most tracks. The clarity, separation, and layering is significantly better on the V222, looks like Ichos had the right take on the comparison. Nothing wrong with the S17 Pro, it has a weighty full presentation, sounds great with blues guitars and is forgiving with old 80's poorly recorded material. But, for my listening preference, I find the V222 gives me the details that stimulate my brain more.

In the end, I kept the S17 pro as PRE, and the role of the power amplifier was given to Singxer SA1, this combo together constitutes a very good duo, incredibly well-balanced tone. Aune adds dynamics and strength, and Singxer adds fluidity and more organic, and also makes the vocals a little deeper, which is beneficial in my opinion. This is technically possible because both amplifiers are extremely quiet.

I'm curious what you would get from connecting the V222 with the S17, but in my opinion it is important to connect it with very good interconnects, in my case NEMOI 1220 SE from R26 to Aune and NEMOI 3220 XLR between amps . With weaker ICs, sharpness and sibilance may appear.

 

[DP42]

In the end, I kept the S17 pro as PRE, and the role of the power amplifier was given to Singxer SA1, this combo together constitutes a very good duo, incredibly well-balanced tone. Aune adds dynamics and strength, and Singxer adds fluidity and more organic, and also makes the vocals a little deeper, which is beneficial in my opinion. This is technically possible because both amplifiers are extremely quiet.

I'm curious what you would get from connecting the V222 with the S17, but in my opinion it is important to connect it with very good interconnects, in my case NEMOI 1220 SE from R26 to Aune and NEMOI 3220 XLR between amps . With weaker ICs, sharpness and sibilance may appear.

That would have been an interesting experiment, but I have already let the S17 Pro go. I also did not try the S17 pro as a pre-amp for my speaker amp, I needed it to pass the headphone test before trying that.

The S17 Pro has an attractive sound, it seems to pull you in immediately, whereas the V222 takes more time for my ears to settle in. I have owned the MJ3, G111 MK2, V222, and S17 Pro, and have listened to all of them extensively with the BF 2/64 + E3. My rankings would be MJ3->V222->S17 Pro->G111 MK2. I had a few issues with the MJ3, so sadly let it go. Then, tried going back down to my first amp G111 MK2, that was a no go (too bright with the E3, but I do like it with the LCD-2C). Then got the V222 and it had details, but wasn't as good as the MJ3. So, I took a chance on the S17 Pro since supposedly class A and thought it might bring back some of the MJ3 magic. While comparing and deciding whether to keep the S17 Pro or V222, I found out that details were more important to me than the class A tubey warm sound. I found out that the small little bits of information that the V222 provide were giving me more listening pleasure.

However, the S17 Pro was more engaging and sounded better on several albums, particularly where guitars were the focus. On some BB King and Peter Frampton tracks, the guitars had more life than the V222 and were similar to the MJ3 experience. But, on many other albums the V222 was feeding me more clarity, separation, and details, and occasionally gives me the old MJ3 wow factor as well.

 

[MiguelP]

That would have been an interesting experiment, but I have already let the S17 Pro go. I also did not try the S17 pro as a pre-amp for my speaker amp, I needed it to pass the headphone test before trying that.

The S17 Pro has an attractive sound, it seems to pull you in immediately, whereas the V222 takes more time for my ears to settle in. I have owned the MJ3, G111 MK2, V222, and S17 Pro, and have listened to all of them extensively with the BF 2/64 + E3. My rankings would be MJ3->V222->S17 Pro->G111 MK2. I had a few issues with the MJ3, so sadly let it go. Then, tried going back down to my first amp G111 MK2, that was a no go (too bright with the E3, but I do like it with the LCD-2C). Then got the V222 and it had details, but wasn't as good as the MJ3. So, I took a chance on the S17 Pro since supposedly class A and thought it might bring back some of the MJ3 magic. While comparing and deciding whether to keep the S17 Pro or V222, I found out that details were more important to me than the class A tubey warm sound. I found out that the small little bits of information that the V222 provide were giving me more listening pleasure.

However, the S17 Pro was more engaging and sounded better on several albums, particularly where guitars were the focus. On some BB King and Peter Frampton tracks, the guitars had more life than the V222 and were similar to the MJ3 experience. But, on many other albums the V222 was feeding me more clarity, separation, and details, and occasionally gives me the old MJ3 wow factor as well.

Have you tried the S17 Pro in 50ma?

 

[DP42]

Have you tried the S17 Pro in 50ma?

I did not hear much difference initially, so settled on 100ma + high gain for my testing since I thought that mode sounded best

 

[MiguelP]

For what it worths. Initially, when my unit reached 69 °C and switched from 100 ma to 50 ma, I was never able to identify the moment when it happened, so clearly I wasn't able to notice a difference. Now when I choose 50 ma I seem to find that it has improved detail and tighter bass, at the cost of a little bit of that magic in the mids, especially in voices. I guess that the sound has a little bit less distortion in 50ma. Maybe it's closer to the V222 sound, as you describe it, but with that magic that you seek.

 

[SmartCheetah]

For me the 50mA sounds a little flatter, less energetic, with a worse staging, but the difference isn't substantial overall.

 

[ngohw]

For me the 50mA sounds a little flatter, less energetic, with a worse staging, but the difference isn't substantial overall.

I read that 50mA and 100mA is entirely based on the headphones you use. For me, I notice zero difference on my LCD-2 Classics, but others insist there is a huge difference on their headphones (that are not LCD-2C). It might be worth creating a list of some sorts for headphones that are affected by the change.