[Lindholdt]

Received it finally and I am very happy with it and probably I was a bit lucky with my unit. Silver unit, 220V and my S/N is in the 3-hundreds. To assess the volume behavior, I placed my HE6se V2 on my miniDSP EARS and measured the SPL for each volume step. The HE6se V2 ist connecteted to the 4.4mm balanced output.
The S17pro is in LOW GAIN mode and at 50mA amperage. It is fed by XLR from my ADI-2 DAC (which has its Line-Out damped by 3dB and the windows volume is at 96/100) with a 1 kHz signal (resulting in a level of -23.0). The temperature ranged from 50 to 55 deg C during the test (standing on extra feet).

My results:
1. I would go deaf if I would put the HE6se at maximum volume on my head. People were walking on the moon when I was born and thus my hearing is definitely far from good but I cannot understand that anyone could stand this volume for more than a second. I don't want to imagine what it would generate in High Gain at max.
2. The SPL increases with every other volume step in a nearly perfect 2.0 dB step width.
3. There is no volume jump with my unit.

Here the SPL db values for the relevant volume range:

42	78.2
43	78.3
44	80.2
45	80.3
46	82.2
47	82.3
48	84.2
49	84.2
50	86.3
51	86.3
52	88.3
53	88.4
54	90.3
55	90.4
56	92.3
57	92.4
58	94.4
59	94.4
60	96.3
61	96.4
62	98.4
63	98.4

So for my unit, everything works perfectly. Temperature behavior will be monitored by me... and sound quality (at 100mA) is outstanding - subjectively better than my Burson Soloist 3x GT (in stock configuration). So I guess it is safe to say that the newer units are behaving well.

Great information, thank you for taking the time to post this I see you are from within EU, may I ask where you bought your unit?

 

[TheFritz]

Great information, thank you for taking the time to post this I see you are from within EU, may I ask where you bought your unit?

From HifiGo. Black Friday special price. Priority shipping to Germany ( 2 weeks, free on $300+) - All taxes & duties paid by Hifigo at $0.00 extra.
I have only good experiences with HifiGo and their service but if I knew before ordering about the potential issues with the S17pro, I probably would have bought it from within the EU.

 

[labeelen]

Received it finally and I am very happy with it and probably I was a bit lucky with my unit. Silver unit, 220V and my S/N is in the 3-hundreds. To assess the volume behavior, I placed my HE6se V2 on my miniDSP EARS and measured the SPL for each volume step. The HE6se V2 ist connecteted to the 4.4mm balanced output.
The S17pro is in LOW GAIN mode and at 50mA amperage. It is fed by XLR from my ADI-2 DAC (which has its Line-Out damped by 3dB and the windows volume is at 96/100) with a 1 kHz signal (resulting in a level of -23.0). The temperature ranged from 50 to 55 deg C during the test (standing on extra feet).

My results:
1. I would go deaf if I would put the HE6se at maximum volume on my head. People were walking on the moon when I was born and thus my hearing is definitely far from good but I cannot understand that anyone could stand this volume for more than a second. I don't want to imagine what it would generate in High Gain at max.
2. The SPL increases with every other volume step in a nearly perfect 2.0 dB step width.
3. There is no volume jump with my unit.

Here the SPL db values for the relevant volume range:

42	78.2
43	78.3
44	80.2
45	80.3
46	82.2
47	82.3
48	84.2
49	84.2
50	86.3
51	86.3
52	88.3
53	88.4
54	90.3
55	90.4
56	92.3
57	92.4
58	94.4
59	94.4
60	96.3
61	96.4
62	98.4
63	98.4

So for my unit, everything works perfectly. Temperature behavior will be monitored by me... and sound quality (at 100mA) is outstanding - subjectively better than my Burson Soloist 3x GT (in stock configuration). So I guess it is safe to say that the newer units are behaving well.

I am using the same headphone like you and I am also perfectly happy with the sound quality, I use it at volume 44 with a max temperature of 58 Celsius.

As you may have read in my previous post Aune Distribution Austria / Germany (Aune-Store.com) offers the service to reprogram the volume control for it’s customers for those who prefer the finer volume tuning (that your unit already was shipped with by default)

I will send in my S17 to be reprogrammed and will report my findings here when it is returned to me.

 

[Shane D]

Received it finally and I am very happy with it and probably I was a bit lucky with my unit. Silver unit, 220V and my S/N is in the 3-hundreds. To assess the volume behavior, I placed my HE6se V2 on my miniDSP EARS and measured the SPL for each volume step. The HE6se V2 ist connecteted to the 4.4mm balanced output.
The S17pro is in LOW GAIN mode and at 50mA amperage. It is fed by XLR from my ADI-2 DAC (which has its Line-Out damped by 3dB and the windows volume is at 96/100) with a 1 kHz signal (resulting in a level of -23.0). The temperature ranged from 50 to 55 deg C during the test (standing on extra feet).

My results:
1. I would go deaf if I would put the HE6se at maximum volume on my head. People were walking on the moon when I was born and thus my hearing is definitely far from good but I cannot understand that anyone could stand this volume for more than a second. I don't want to imagine what it would generate in High Gain at max.
2. The SPL increases with every other volume step in a nearly perfect 2.0 dB step width.
3. There is no volume jump with my unit.

Here the SPL db values for the relevant volume range:

42	78.2
43	78.3
44	80.2
45	80.3
46	82.2
47	82.3
48	84.2
49	84.2
50	86.3
51	86.3
52	88.3
53	88.4
54	90.3
55	90.4
56	92.3
57	92.4
58	94.4
59	94.4
60	96.3
61	96.4
62	98.4
63	98.4

So for my unit, everything works perfectly. Temperature behavior will be monitored by me... and sound quality (at 100mA) is outstanding - subjectively better than my Burson Soloist 3x GT (in stock configuration). So I guess it is safe to say that the newer units are behaving well.

Excellent info, thank you!
Would you be willing to list more numbers at lower volumes? Pretty much all of the numbers you listed would be too much for me. Although my HE6se V2's might be the exception.

Understand totally if you don't want to, but I thought I'd ask since most of my headphones are very efficient and I am a quiet listener.

Thanks!

 

[TheFritz]

I am using the same headphone like you and I am also perfectly happy with the sound quality, I use it at volume 44 with a max temperature of 58 Celsius.

As you may have read in my previous post Aune Distribution Austria / Germany (Aune-Store.com) offers the service to reprogram the volume control for it’s customers for those who prefer the finer volume tuning (that your unit already was shipped with by default)

I will send in my S17 to be reprogrammed and will report my findings here when it is returned to me.

Approximately the same volume setting of 42-46 is my comfortable (to moderately loud) listening level for the HE6se. I am currently listening for about 2 hours with the 100mA setting in high gain with my Arya Organic at a volume of approx. 24-28 to check the temperature curve of the aune S17pro; it is quite constant at 66 deg C for the last hour.
... Just can not stop to listen to music (will possibly regret it tomorrow morning).

 

[TheFritz]

Excellent info, thank you!
Would you be willing to list more numbers at lower volumes? Pretty much all of the numbers you listed would be too much for me. Although my HE6se V2's might be the exception.

Understand totally if you don't want to, but I thought I'd ask since most of my headphones are very efficient and I am a quiet listener.

Thanks!

Looking at matches in your listed gear, I could also test it with my Focal Clear (OG) and/or the Meze 109pro or HD660s(1) but that has to wait until tomorrow.

 

[Shane D]

Looking at matches in your listed gear, I could also test it with my Focal Clear (OG) and/or the Meze 109pro or HD660s(1) but that has to wait until tomorrow.

Thank you!

 

[Musiccc]

Received it finally and I am very happy with it and probably I was a bit lucky with my unit. Silver unit, 220V and my S/N is in the 3-hundreds. To assess the volume behavior, I placed my HE6se V2 on my miniDSP EARS and measured the SPL for each volume step. The HE6se V2 ist connecteted to the 4.4mm balanced output.
The S17pro is in LOW GAIN mode and at 50mA amperage. It is fed by XLR from my ADI-2 DAC (which has its Line-Out damped by 3dB and the windows volume is at 96/100) with a 1 kHz signal (resulting in a level of -23.0). The temperature ranged from 50 to 55 deg C during the test (standing on extra feet).

My results:
1. I would go deaf if I would put the HE6se at maximum volume on my head. People were walking on the moon when I was born and thus my hearing is definitely far from good but I cannot understand that anyone could stand this volume for more than a second. I don't want to imagine what it would generate in High Gain at max.
2. The SPL increases with every other volume step in a nearly perfect 2.0 dB step width.
3. There is no volume jump with my unit.

Here the SPL db values for the relevant volume range:

42	78.2
43	78.3
44	80.2
45	80.3
46	82.2
47	82.3
48	84.2
49	84.2
50	86.3
51	86.3
52	88.3
53	88.4
54	90.3
55	90.4
56	92.3
57	92.4
58	94.4
59	94.4
60	96.3
61	96.4
62	98.4
63

Ah! A breath of fresh air.
Thank you TheFritz for conducting a systematic measurement. Really helpful information.
I could tell that you bought this unit to enjoy music.
Unlike some that just want to count the micro steps, watching the temperature, trying to find "faults", rather than listening to music. "Defects! Bad designs! Dad engineering! Bad this! Bad that!"

 

[sendler2112]

The topping A90D sounds more about grip and control of the main body of the instruments and with more weight in the bass. The Aune S17 has a wider, deeper soundstage and more detail of the reverb decay but is more distant with less powerful body of each instrument. The A90D is a bit soft on top from the upper midrange which places a slight veil over female vocals and hall air but I run Foobar with the Math Audio EQ plugin so I can dial in a slight treble lift above 7k. The new price of $509US is very fair compared to $699 for the S17. And the volume control of the A90D actually works.

 

[TheFritz]

Excellent info, thank you!
Would you be willing to list more numbers at lower volumes? Pretty much all of the numbers you listed would be too much for me. Although my HE6se V2's might be the exception.

Understand totally if you don't want to, but I thought I'd ask since most of my headphones are very efficient and I am a quiet listener.

Thanks!

Behold the beauty of logarithmic scales!
As requested the measured SPL dB(A) 1 kHz values with some well-known headphones of different sensitivities at lower volume ranges on the aune S17pro. Same settings as for the HE6se V2 above (XLR input from ADI-2, all in LOW GAIN) with the exception of keeping it in the 100mA setting to check the temperature (currently at 66 deg C after the tests).
All on the balanced 4.4mm output (including the Beyer DT880 600 Ohm which I modded long time ago). I was to lazy to write down every volume step - the 2clicks=2dB steps are very consistent (I did however test this time how reproducible they are coming back from other volumes to the same setting... and they yield the same SPL within +- 0.1 dB).

I learned from this test that the Focal Clear ("pro" = OG with other colour) and the Sennheiser HD 660s have exactly the same sensitivity which somehow surprised me.
The DT880_600(bal) generates a SPL of 99.4 dB(A) at max. volume in LOW gain. Thus driving them all is no problem for the S17pro even in Low Gain - and they all sound very well driven with enough authority and control.
The most sensitive one of this bunch, the Meze 109pro is loud enough for me at vol=18..22 and faint enough at vol=01 (however not completely quiet; music is still listenable)... sensitive IEMs thus might require more digital volume reduction (I am not an IEM guy before someone asks ).

Vol (Low Gain)	SPL(1 kHz) HE6se	Meze109pro	Focal Clear	hd660s	hd800s	dt880_600_bal
16		69.9	67.0	67.0	61.4	53.3
17		69.9			61.4
18		72.0	69.0	69.0	63.4	55.3
19
20		74.0	71.1	71.0	65.4	57.4
21
22		76.1	73.1	73.2	67.5	59.4
23
24		77.9	75.0	75.0	69.4	61.3
25	60.2
26	62.2	80.0	77.1	77.1	71.4	63.3
27	62.2
28	64.3	82.0	79.1	79.1	73.4	65.4
29	64.3
30	66.2	84.1	81.2	81.1	75.4	67.4
31	66.3		81.2
32	68.2	85.9	83.0	83.0	77.3	69.2
33	68.2		83.0
34	70.2	88.0	85.0	85.1	79.4	71.3

... now I would like to go back to listening to music on my S17pro, not to 1 kHz tones

EDIT:
It is running now for more than 7 hours in 100mA mode and is fairly constant at 67deg C. No fallback to 50mA up to now. Will move it from the current very well ventilated area to a little bit more confined space - hope it keeps that temperature behavior after that.

 

[sendler2112]

Aune wrote back to me today. I purchased my S17 on 11/16 so must have gotten one of the last bad ones.

"Yes , we did a little upgrade since the end of Oct for the software upgrade"

 

[bogi]

@TheFritz It looks every 2nd step makes change. I had that impression already from the upper volume level measurements you posted yesterday. Then effectively there are only 32 steps for your unit available.

 

[TheFritz]

@TheFritz It looks every 2nd step makes change. I had that impression already from the upper volume level measurements you posted yesterday. Then effectively there are only 32 steps for your unit available.

Yes exactly. The units have effectively 32 physical output volume steps and they are now distributed equally over the volume indicator range of the 64 different values (including 0) as I meant with every other step increases the SPL by 2dB. The first batch(es?) obviously had a different volume curve with slower increase at lower volume numbers and sudden jumps at higher ones. That was not to the liking of the users (not surprising) and that is corrected now.

 

[sendler2112]

From Aune today regarding USA Amazon stock:
"New stocks on December will be the latest version, as it shipped from China on November. We already changed that (volume control) from the end of October and Amazon out of stock for some days (which would have emptied the inventory of wonky volume versions). New stocks for 16pcs are the latest version ,thanks"

 

[Marlowe]

Aune wrote back to me today. I purchased my S17 on 11/16 so must have gotten one of the last bad ones.

"Yes , we did a little upgrade since the end of Oct for the software upgrade"

From Aune today regarding USA Amazon stock:
"New stocks on December will be the latest version, as it shipped from China on November. We already changed that (volume control) from the end of October and Amazon out of stock for some days (which would have emptied the inventory of wonky volume versions). New stocks for 16pcs are the latest version ,thanks"

Hmmm. I ordered my S17 on November 15 (it shipped on the 16th) directly from the official Aune store in China, so I wonder what version I got. In any case, I'm not too fussed about the volume control issue. Regardless of which version I may have, I've found that every headphone I've tried with the S17 (Arya Stealth, ZMF Aeolus, Focal Elex) all work well in low gain at roughly 35-42. And I like it fairly loud. Since I never expect to afford a Susvara or Abyss, this seems to be a non-problem for me. (And I'd bet that any new Hifiman summit flagship, whether a revision or replacement of Susvara, will be a lot easier to drive.)

I am a little concerned about the heat issue. So far, I have not had a problem; even after 4-5 hours of warm-up and use, I've never seen a temperature above 65 and it usually stays around 63. I stuck on .89 inch (about 22 mm) rubber feet as soon as I unboxed the S17. But it's winter now and my apartment is pretty cool (and I often have a window cracked during the day for fresh air). But in the summer, even with the AC making it comfortable for me (and I hate heat) I know my apartment is significantly warmer than it is now. Well, I'll find out in 6-7 months (if I make it, as I tend to say since hitting 70 this fall).