[Erick Muller]

I mentioned similar back on posts 210 and 589, also ..... also one of the reviews alluded to imprinting a similar sound character....
If I was a headphone guy, I would suggest this as a pleasant alternate amp, as it seems lots of folks here have built-up an amp inventory :-）
I only used mine for a couple months as a speakers preamp, so not sure the effect of further break-in.
I have some studio experience, （both sides of the glass... as they say）, I would not consider this for monitoring as the number of end users that has the S17 playback presentation available would be a rather small percentage of the total customer base.

I would agree that this amp is defenitively not for an studio enviroment, it does colored the sound too much specially on 100ma mode at high gain, but that's kind of Aune's thing, they're not going for absolute meassurement and sound reproduction accuracy and they have their own house sound, in a similar matter to what Schiit does too imho. You could probably say that Aune is Schiit's chinese equivalent.

 

[fededige]

I would agree that this amp is defenitively not for an studio enviroment, it does colored the sound too much specially on 100ma mode at high gain, but that's kind of Aune's thing, they're not going for absolute meassurement and sound reproduction accuracy and they have their own house sound, in a similar matter to what Schiit does too imho. You could probably say that Aune is Schiit's chinese equivalent.

Schiit seems to have in their arsenal the new Mjolnir 3 which I will buy next after returning the S17 Pro and that seems to be one of the most resolving, crystal clear and detailed amp under 3 to 5 k.

 

[Erick Muller]

Schiit seems to have in their arsenal the new Mjolnir 3 which I will buy next after returning the S17 Pro and that seems to be one of the most resolving, crystal clear and detailed amp under 3 to 5 k.

I'm also planning on buying the Mjolnir 3 and preamping it with the S17 lol!!!! I know, complete heresy, but I like the idea.

 

[AuneAudio]

I want ask you, if there is some way, that I can reprogramme the volume by my self? Or is it complete impossible? thanks..

Hi, it can only be processed through official channels, otherwise there could be errors and the result is not guaranteed.

 

[Simon Patten]

I'm not sure Simon, I have not doubt that on balance the S17 is the best amp under 1k, maybe the Topping A70 Pro has more power on hand, but will it sound as good as the S17? I highly doubt it. tho I'm considering buying the A70 and premaping it with the S17 to get at least some of the lush, warm, punchy sound of the S17 in order to power the Tungstens.

Regarding the Tungstens, this video says the A90D can only give 70% of the performance they're capable of so we can assume the S17 Pro will be only slightly better. He has recommendations for you but you'll be looking at spending a lot more money.

It does sound like an amazing headphone, have you ordered one? I see they're sold out now and if others review them the same way they'll be unavailable for a long time.

 

[Erick Muller]

Regarding the Tungstens, this video says the A90D can only give 70% of the performance they're capable of so we can assume the S17 Pro will be only slightly better. He has recommendations for you but you'll be looking at spending a lot more money.

It does sound like an amazing headphone, have you ordered one? I see they're sold out now and if others review them the same way they'll be unavailable for a long time.

I'm ordering one after Easter season has pass, and yes I saw that review and I'm also following now the mjolnir 3 thread on this forum and they say it runs tungtens more than well enough, still I'm considering a flux labs amp as he recommended. He also say that the ferum Ooor is the one that runs it at 100% of its capabilities, but that's a little bit more expensive(almost $2k usd and that's without the power supply for this beast of an amp), but so are the tungstens, so probably either go with the mjolnir 3 and try to find a solution for my desk space, buy a A70 pro and preamp it with the S17 or see what else comes that might be able to run this monsters that is bellow $1k and it's not a measuring seeking amp like what topping makes and that sounds just as good as the S17.

I'm still positive that given the specs of the S17 and what Ryan has said about the power requirements for his headphone, I think this amp will run tungstens just fine but not at 100% of their capabilities tho. Again, Ryan has stated before that you need an amp that can deliver 1.5w at 150ohms, the S17 gives 1.8w at 150ohm so not a ton of headroom but is at least within the margin of error.

 

[AuneAudio]

@AuneAudio I have a question, I understand completely if you cannot answer it because, well, it's about possible products that might or might not be in development right now.

Are you planning in updating anytime soon your DAC line? maybe even an R2R DAC coming soon? In the same chassis as the S17 maybe?

There will be a pure DAC Very likely the same chassis as the S17 Pro. Please stay tuned.

 

[Simon Patten]

I'm ordering one after Easter season has pass, and yes I saw that review and I'm also following now the mjolnir 3 thread on this forum and they say it runs tungtens more than well enough, still I'm considering a flux labs amp as he recommended. He also say that the ferum Ooor is the one that runs it at 100% of its capabilities, but that's a little bit more expensive(almost $2k usd and that's without the power supply for this beast of an amp), but so are the tungstens, so probably either go with the mjolnir 3 and try to find a solution for my desk space, buy a A70 pro and preamp it with the S17 or see what else comes that might be able to run this monsters that is bellow $1k and it's not a measuring seeking amp like what topping makes and that sounds just as good as the S17.

Let me know when you find it. (As much as I love my current system, I'm interested too.)

Added later after some reading: I wonder if maybe the problem with trying to use the Tungstens with a S17 might be heat. Apparently higher impedance cans make it run hotter and with a pair that demanding it'd probably throw you back to 50ma in minutes!

 

[MiguelP]

From my personal experience, the current setting is the only thing that has an effect on the heating (apart from room temperature). My unit goes from 28 °C to 62 °C (50 ma) or 69 °C (100 ma) within one hour of turning it on. Regardless if there any cables connected or not - this thing doesn't know if music is being played.

As for sound quality I need more time to be sure of my evaluation (I would say for now that my biggest gain was regarding dynamics - coming from a Chord Mojo 2 as DAC & Amp).

 

[Deuch]

There will be a pure DAC Very likely the same chassis as the S17 Pro. Please stay tuned.

Sounds good And surely will look good too

 

[helloh3adfi]

Hi @AuneAudio , it looks like many people are nagging about the high temperature when running 100+ ma mode. Wouldn't it be a good idea to place a fan inside the chassis to prevent overheating? Other than that you could cut some gaps off of the top chassis like Schiit does.

 

[leoxdebois]

Hi @AuneAudio , it looks like many people are nagging about the high temperature when running 100+ ma mode. Wouldn't it be a good idea to place a fan inside the chassis to prevent overheating? Other than that you could cut some gaps off of the top chassis like Schiit does.

Fans increase the noise. A passive cooler would be more appropriate

 

[Lindholdt]

Hi @AuneAudio , it looks like many people are nagging about the high temperature when running 100+ ma mode. Wouldn't it be a good idea to place a fan inside the chassis to prevent overheating? Other than that you could cut some gaps off of the top chassis like Schiit does.

If they decide to do another revision that addresses the temperature, I really hope it's in a passive way. Active cooling is very much something I would prefer not to have in audio equipment. Also, it shouldn't be required with active cooling, some passive solution should be more than enough, if just raising the cabinet can help in many cases

 

[Erick Muller]

Let me know when you find it. (As much as I love my current system, I'm interested too.)

Added later after some reading: I wonder if maybe the problem with trying to use the Tungstens with a S17 might be heat. Apparently higher impedance cans make it run hotter and with a pair that demanding it'd probably throw you back to 50ma in minutes!

Not exactly my experience Simon.

I've been running HD650s on my S17 regularly at high gain, full tilt on 100ma mode and it never gets above 65, even with my minisplit heating up the room, tho I don't really have high impedance planar cans to test this theory(only my LCD2Cs and those are like 70ohm planars, middle of the road when it comes to planar efficiency for what I have seen). Like I mentioned before, the two cases where I have noticed that temps spike up really fast is with the 3m long xlr cable that comes with the focal clear's connected to any of my focals, it gets the amp to 69 degrees relatively fast and the other even more fascinating case is with the koss khp40 with a balanced 4.4mm cable, it gets to 69 also but much faster. There's something weird going on with my unit or there's something about this cables that are causing some weird edge case issue with the amp or there's a weird issue with the amp itself.

I haven't read anyone else having this problem but I also haven't seen anyone else having tested this amp in the same way as I did, specially with the long xlr cable from focal because I think most people either throw away that cable or leave it in the box because is goddamn awful lol!!!. Zeos did try his S17 with the same set up of koss kph 40s running the same cable and it seem the temps went up fast for him also(btw, Zeos is right, the khp40 scale with this mofo and they sound amazing also, specially on 100ma mode, and also I was running them at low gain and it seems zeos was also running them at low gain)

 

[Erick Muller]

There will be a pure DAC Very likely the same chassis as the S17 Pro. Please stay tuned.

My pp is hard!!!, can't wait to get that DAC specially if it competes well against something like the bifrost 2/64, Denafrips Ares 12th and the geshelli labs jnog2 socketed.