Aune S17 pro

[AuneAudio]

Thanks everybody for all the feedback and support. We are so glad and thankful that you like the sound of the S17 Pro which we made with our heart


To reply to the issues you may be concerned about:


1. The volume control of the S17 Pro is composed of an R2R chip and has 64 steps. The S17 Pro is mainly designed for large headphones. When we received user advice on volume, we took it seriously and have optimized the volume curve.The units now all use the new volume curve.If you are an earlier buyer and if it bothers you, please contact us via Email sales@auneaudio.com for a volume upgrade.


2. The S17 Pro is pure Class-A. Both 50mA mode and 100mA mode are class-A. There’s no Class-AB.

3. The 100mA mode of the S17 Pro is like the GT mode in a car, where the maximum throttle is engaged, and the car's continuous extreme mode also leads to significant energy consumption. In 100mA mode, there’s 0.2A per channel, even without headphones connected. The temperature rises noticeably faster compared to 50mA mode. High ambient temperatures and low impedance headphones can cause even faster temperature increases. Setting the jump to 50mA at 69 degrees is to ensure the stability of the device, similar to the restriction of maximum engine speed in a car. As long as the temperature is below 69℃, you can enable the 100mA mode again.


4. Any true Class A amplifier will have thermal noise due to the continuous presence of 100mA static current. The S17 Pro is already a well designed one, with a noise floor of only 4μv which is extremely low.And, as the S17 Pro is just an amplifier, if the front-end equipment has a noise floor, it will cause the S17 Pro to exhibit noise as well. If you are experiencing severe issues, please check your front-end audio source.


Hope the information helps.


Thanks for all your support. May music and joy always be with you

 

[FPunktKPunkt]

Since my S17 also reached the critical temperature of 69 degrees Celsius after approx. 2-3 hours and then automatically switched down to 50MA, I was able to solve the problem today simply and inexpensively. My S17 Pro stands on an approx. 5mm thick glass surface. I had noticed that the glass surface was heating up considerably due to the heat radiating downwards. I had the idea of using the glass plate even more for the S17's waste heat. Considering that there is only a narrow gap of 5mm between the rubber feet and that air is not a good conductor of heat, trying to increase the distance between the S17 and the base did not have any useful effect.
So I thought I'd build a bridge between the S17 base and the glass table to dissipate the waste heat more effectively to the glass surface.
No sooner said than done: I ordered a 20 cm by 20 cm by 5 mm thick aluminum plate (10 euros) from Amazon, drilled a hole for the protruding screw on the bottom of the S17 and simply placed the S17 on this (invisible) plate.
After three or four hours, the temperature is now stable at 65-66 degrees Celsius.
The thermal effect is certainly not huge, but more is not necessary (at approx. 22 degrees Celsius room temperature), as the critical range is only 2-4 degrees Celsius anyway. And my solution does that easily.
Of course, this only works on reasonably conductive surfaces such as metal or glass - I wouldn't recommend it for a wooden surface.
By the way, if anyone wants to replicate my solution, order the aluminum plate a little smaller than me 19x19cm fits better than 20x20cm. Another small disadvantage is that the S17 with the cooling plate at the bottom no longer stands on its rubber feet and therefore easily slips back and forth.

This is how it looks like with cooling plate. Its ugly looking but invisible when in use.

 

[MiguelP]

Aune just gave the explanation for the different beahaviour regarding the operating temperature between different users: room temperatures and headphone impedance. For me it reaches 69 C in one hour with Arya Stealth (32 ohm) and a room with probably temperature around 25 ° C (maybe more). Will try with Sennheiser HD800s (300 ohm) as soon as I can to see the difference. The only negative is that probably low impedance headphones will be the ones that will benefit more from the 100ma mode, but there's nothing you can do to beat physics.

 

[kopczas]

Hope the information helps.

Dear Aune.
since you're here can I ask about availability of S17. I've ordered my unit from Hifigo one month ago. They haven't sent it till this day.

 

[bogi]

For me it reaches 69 C in one hour with Arya Stealth (32 ohm) and a room with probably temperature around 25 ° C (maybe more).

Yours are 94db/mW 32 Ohm
Mine are 86 dB/mW 38 Ohm
I cannot be sure that your observation would not apply to my case. My summer indoor temperatures are up to 27 °C.
It is of course possible to better design class A device cooling.

 

[maszynista1987]

Hello
what battery is needed for the remote control ? In my kit there was none in the remote control and in the box.

 

[TheFritz]

Hello
what battery is needed for the remote control ? In my kit there was none in the remote control and in the box.

CR1220 3V, as posted here:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/aune-s17-pro.970060/post-17838947

 

[maszynista1987]

Thanks, after about an hour of listening the temperature was 58 degrees.

 

[MiguelP]

Yours are 94db/mW 32 Ohm
Mine are 86 dB/mW 38 Ohm
I cannot be sure that your observation would not apply to my case. My summer indoor temperatures are up to 27 °C.
It is of course possible to better design class A device cooling.

Yes it is surely possible to design better cooling. What I meant is that you can't avoid that the headphones that cause the temperature to rise more quickly are the ones that most benefit from the 100ma mode.

 

[Marlowe]

Aune just gave the explanation for the different beahaviour regarding the operating temperature between different users: room temperatures and headphone impedance. For me it reaches 69 C in one hour with Arya Stealth (32 ohm) and a room with probably temperature around 25 ° C (maybe more).

I've used the Arya Stealth for as much as 4-5 hours (including warmup) at 100 mA in low gain and it has never exceeded 65° and I only saw that temperature once in over a month of use--it is usually at 63-64°. I have no way of knowing the exact temperature in my apartment, though I am sure it is a fair bit cooler; if forced to guesstimate, I'd say around 70°F, likely lower when I have a window cracked (sorry, after 70 years I can't help but think in Fahrenheit; my conversion table tells me that's about 21°C). Would a few degrees in external temperature, which is really not that large and in any case is significantly below the S17's internal temperature, really make that big a difference? That's why it seems to me that there is either some other factor at play or there is a significant variance between some units.

 

[MiguelP]

I've used the Arya Stealth for as much as 4-5 hours (including warmup) at 100 mA in low gain and it has never exceeded 65° and I only saw that temperature once in over a month of use--it is usually at 63-64°. I have no way of knowing the exact temperature in my apartment, though I am sure it is a fair bit cooler; if forced to guesstimate, I'd say around 70°F, likely lower when I have a window cracked (sorry, after 70 years I can't help but think in Fahrenheit; my conversion table tells me that's about 21°C). Would a few degrees in external temperature, which is really not that large and in any case is significantly below the S17's internal temperature, really make that big a difference? That's why it seems to me that there is either some other factor at play or there is a significant variance between some units.

Maybe I am underestimating my room temperature - less than one month ago I was using A/C at 26°C in my living room because of the heat (and I can tolerate the heat easily - the cold is more difficult for me ) . And I have the amp at 1m from a large window (with curtains) that gets direct sunlight for much of the day. To me it's difficult to understand which components can cause that big differences in the units temperature.

 

[MiguelP]

Maybe I am underestimating my room temperature - less than one month ago I was using A/C at 26°C in my living room because of the heat (and I can tolerate the heat easily - the cold is more difficult for me ) . And I have the amp at 1m from a large window (with curtains) that gets direct sunlight for much of the day. To me it's difficult to understand which components can cause that big differences in the units temperature.

26 °C was the temperature for which the AC was set - not the room temperature.

 

[Hengstenberg]

Like everyone maybe knows, I´m a very big fan of the Aune S17 Pro, so i´ve bought a second one.
My first unit was ok, but with the second unit, i had exactly 1:1 the same problems like this buyer from amazon, incl. the vailed, muffled SQ on vol. settings < 56db.


Here the S17 Pro review from amazon.

"I wrote to Aune headquarters contact person on Saturday (today it is Tuesday) about my issues of the volume staying exactly the same for 4 clicks at a time and then jumping to a new level on the 5th click, And the more serious concern that the sound quality seems slightly muffled and veiled at all volume settings up to 55 and below, and then suddenly makes a big jump in level (7db) and sound quality at 56 at which point the sound is suddenly pristine and amazing. And the other minor question of why am I listening at such a high indicated level with the moderately efficient Ananda Nanos?

I haven't heard back yet. I'm hoping to get a clarification from them that they know what the problem is, which serial numbers might be affected, and have fixed it going forward. There are several of us here that are having the more or less same problems and probably dozens more that don't know about forums and just sent their amps back.
It seems there is something wrong with the volume resistor chip shorted across ladder tracks, the relays, or the controller holding too many relays at once.

I want to like this amp and recommend it over the equally unreliable Topping A90D that are being price reduced everywhere, but don't have confidence that exchanging it will get me a good one. And for how long?

My unit runs at 63C at idle on 100ma with the room at 16C. High or low gain is the same. Sitting on my desk with nothing else near it. It doesn't change much when playing. Maybe 64C. It is sitting all by itself with nothing else near it. The Aune S17 should come with optional tall feet. It will recover to 53C on 50ma after a few minutes and then down to 45C after a few hours. It does sound better on 100ma.

Disregarding the issues with the jumping volume control and lack of total gain in my malfunctioning unit (how is it that I am normally listening to efficient Ananda Nano at settings above 56 out of 63? with either of 2 dacs?), my Aune S17 sounds really good. Wide, deep sound stage with nice air. good detail, in fast attack and reverb tails. great control and extension in the bass. Fleshed out instruments and vocals with clear separation. I was however inclined to build a slow roll in of a few db of high treble lift eq starting above 10k to bring up the air and snap of drum kit compared to the brighter sound of the amp section of the IFI Zendac2.

Comparing the gain and bias settings, It sounds noticeably better on low gain. Slightly more spacious and blacker between the the images. High gain brings the vocals and center image fatter and more forward in the mix with slightly less balance of the detail to the far edges. There is only about 4.5 db difference in matched level between high or low gain on my amp.

There is much less difference between 100ma and 50ma and is most noticeable on material with big transient peaks which hold their substance and separation better on 100ma. Less dynamically demanding tracks would be very hard to AB the difference. I measured the draw from the wall at 27 Watts on 50ma and 38 Watts on 100ma. It didn't really change between playing hard or at idle. Maybe 1 Watt.

I am going to send my S17 back to wait for a few months until Aune tells us they have the bugs worked out (my unit also arrived with a cut in the item presentation box which all audiophiles know knocked a substantial amount off of the resale value right off the bat which is reason enough for a return and reorder in any event"
Many users seem to have perfectly functioning S17's (or just never cared to notice the behavior) but until Aune issues a statement that they have addressed the issue, I can't recommend this amp."

 

[leoxdebois]

For thoses who are interested, the best results I have is using the S17 at its maximum power (level 63) and controling the volume on my dac or my digital interface. Here the amp reveals all his punchy tridimensional resolving juice.

 

[AuneAudio]

Dear Aune.
since you're here can I ask about availability of S17. I've ordered my unit from Hifigo one month ago. They haven't sent it till this day.

Hi, currently there are a lot of orders from our distributors. We've been working hard to ensure supply. The S17 Pro units are been shipped to them in order.