Aune S17 pro
Mar 2, 2024 at 8:02 PM Post #1,636 of 3,063
Speaking about the headphones, does anyone have experience with both the Nano and the Arya Stealth? The Nano is an upgrade over Edition XS, but I'm not so sure about the soundstage, which is super important for me.
Regarding soundstage, see if you can audition or take a chance on buying the Supra Excalibur USB cable, it was a revelation to me; upgrading to it from a bog standard Amazon cable added so much air and space, it was like the difference between a night-club and a concert hall, I was amazed. With that and the HEKS, it feels as if you could step forward and stand on the stage at times.

Check this thread if you're interested: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/whats-the-best-usb-audio-cable-for-the-money.718548/ a lot of us swear by it.
 
Mar 2, 2024 at 10:19 PM Post #1,637 of 3,063
Yeah, I ordered one. They are beautiful if nothing else and I needed a longer one anyway. You were right on time for me.
 
Mar 2, 2024 at 10:59 PM Post #1,638 of 3,063
Don't forget to let us know what you think when it arrives, I hope you're as happy with it as I was.
 
Mar 3, 2024 at 10:35 PM Post #1,639 of 3,063
I was thinking about possible suggestions for @AuneAudio for a second/successor/turbo charged version of this amp and I think we first have to solved the current issues the amp has and also suggest possible things they can add or improve. I want this to be as constructive and respectful as possible, so I would encourage everyone to not get into long winded rants and rage induced spirals but also be as honest as possible about the issues, possible fixes and improvements.

First the existing issues with the amp:

*R2R ladder control volume: It's a neat idea that works really fine in the sense that there's no channel imbalance at all even at very low volumes, either in low and high gain and both 50ma and 100ma, but the implementation it's the problem, setting aside the issue of the first batch of amps that latter was fixed in which every two steps you get a noticeable volume increase instead of 4, actually using the volume knob it's janky af, there's no consistency at all and it jumps up and down and it's hard to get a feel and the feel of the knob itself it's not great, if it wasn't for the fact that you get a really good remote with the amp, this will probably be a deal breaker for many people. For the next iteration of this amp, we defenitively need the whole 64 steps of actual volume range from this amp that actually can be operated by the knob and that's consistence and feels good to so.

*The temps problem: This is a more contentious issue imho in which I think there's being a great deal of misunderstanding and also possible QA and users possibly not understanding or being their first experience with a class-A amp(like myself), disregarding all of this, I think that Aune needs to improve this for a second revision or version of this amp for a future release, this could be done by improving the airflow to the amp by adding ventilation slits on the sides, top and the back plate of the amp. Currently the amp only has very small holes on the back plate of the amp, this should be extended over the whole length of the back plate and they should be ventilation slits. Also probably improving the internal heat-sinks , specially the bottom plate one underneath the board.

*The screen: It's a very nice screen that presents everything you need in a very concise way, the problem is that if you are watching the at any other angle that's not straight on and at eye level, some of the background detail in the screen(which in my opinion it's pretty nice), it's lost completely, fortunately the rest of the information like gain, volume and input are still legible.

Now to the improvements/wishlist of sorts:

*More powah!!!: This amp is already delivering a brick ton of power to the table, specially for the price and it can drive 99% of headphones on the market with relatively ease, specially in the case of high impedance dynamic driver cans like the SENN HD600s series this headphone excels at and with planar magnetic driver headphones also, the problem comes when we're dealing with with more demanding headphones like ModHouse Tungsten or in my case DT880s 600ohm, this amp simply doesn't have enough juice, if we could get a future revision or successor of this amp to deliver at least 1.6w into 300ohms or if even 2w into 300ohm, it would be fantastic and if we could also increase the power to at least 10w into 32ohm, in this way we can increase both the current and voltage that this amp can deliver to difficult to drive cans. I'm aware that this is going to be difficult to achieve while maintaining the current form factor of this amp, in order to keep cost down and to not develop an entirely new case from scratch for this new amp, I suggest that the power supply of the amp be moved externally, in this way it would open space inside the case of the amp to put the extra components and it would improve the airflow inside the amp, specially if you implement ventilation slits or perforations where I previously mentioned above. I'm aware that this is problematic in itself but I think if we can deliver in power and specs, your custumers would be willing to deal with a power brick. Audiophiles using Burson products don't seem to mind that much.

*Proper pre-amp functionally: I wasn't sure if I should've put this on the issues or improvements section of this list, but in order to be charitable to Aune and maintain a respectful tone, I decided to put it here and also because much more expensive amps than this one also sometimes don't have this function properly impelmented. In this case, like in Topping amps like the A70 Pro and also Schitt products, we should be able to select if we want to output to the headphones or the balance and single ended outputs of the amp(or both). As a bonus also, if the amp could remember the volume and current settings per output option that would be absolutely awesome.

*Proper feet for the amp: Also another issue with this amp, the fact that we only have small rubber feet has contribute to the temperature management problem of this amp, but if we're going to be criticizing Aune for only using this small feet on the amp, we should do the same with Schiit because they did exactly the same with their much more expensive MJ3. I would suggest that they use similar feet like Topping does, again, in their A70 Pro amp, probably a little bit taller if possible in order to have proper airflow underside of the amp for proper temperature management.

*Introduce an extra gain level: I don't think this is a problem or issue currently in the amp, this is why I'm putting this in the improvement section, if Aune manages to increase the power delivery with this amp, we're probably going to need more control in the gain section, specially for IEM's and low impedance, very efficient headphones. I suggest a low(negative gain), medium(zero) and high gain(positive gain) for this turbo charge version of the amp.

As a conclusion to this list of suggestions for possible improvement of this amp, I think what should defenitively not change it's the different current modes and the sound signature that this amp is delivering, in fact I think that Aune should double-down in this regard and maybe if anything should change in this regard, is possibly creating more differentation between the 50ma and 100ma mode, making the 50ma more neutral-flat and the 100ma even more lush, punchy and tube like.

I'm aware that these improvements and changes are going to increase the price of the v2.00 of this amp, but as a final suggestion, I think that for solving the current issues with the amp as it exists today, people wouldn't have much of an issue paying an additional $100 usd, bringing the price of the amp up to $800usd, and I think that's as much as people would be willing to pay for those issues being resolved. For my suggestions for improvements, I think that given Aunes position in the market as it stands today and the competition that exist in this sector of the market, I think Aune for the super charged version of this amp it could only ask $1k usd tops, because it would come into direct competition with the MJ3 from Schitt, Flux Labs Mentor and Violectric and if Aune is going to charge more than $1k usd for this new amp, it might have a lot more trouble justifying that price given the competition that exist in the top and also because at that price that's a big psychological(and also real financial) barrier for most of Aune's clientele.

Sorry for the wall-text of a post but this is a concise and short as I could make it be.
 
Mar 4, 2024 at 9:02 AM Post #1,640 of 3,063
I was thinking about possible suggestions for @AuneAudio for a second/successor/turbo charged version of this amp and I think we first have to solved the current issues the amp has and also suggest possible things they can add or improve. I want this to be as constructive and respectful as possible, so I would encourage everyone to not get into long winded rants and rage induced spirals but also be as honest as possible about the issues, possible fixes and improvements.

First the existing issues with the amp:

*R2R ladder control volume: It's a neat idea that works really fine in the sense that there's no channel imbalance at all even at very low volumes, either in low and high gain and both 50ma and 100ma, but the implementation it's the problem, setting aside the issue of the first batch of amps that latter was fixed in which every two steps you get a noticeable volume increase instead of 4, actually using the volume knob it's janky af, there's no consistency at all and it jumps up and down and it's hard to get a feel and the feel of the knob itself it's not great, if it wasn't for the fact that you get a really good remote with the amp, this will probably be a deal breaker for many people. For the next iteration of this amp, we defenitively need the whole 64 steps of actual volume range from this amp that actually can be operated by the knob and that's consistence and feels good to so.

*The temps problem: This is a more contentious issue imho in which I think there's being a great deal of misunderstanding and also possible QA and users possibly not understanding or being their first experience with a class-A amp(like myself), disregarding all of this, I think that Aune needs to improve this for a second revision or version of this amp for a future release, this could be done by improving the airflow to the amp by adding ventilation slits on the sides, top and the back plate of the amp. Currently the amp only has very small holes on the back plate of the amp, this should be extended over the whole length of the back plate and they should be ventilation slits. Also probably improving the internal heat-sinks , specially the bottom plate one underneath the board.

*The screen: It's a very nice screen that presents everything you need in a very concise way, the problem is that if you are watching the at any other angle that's not straight on and at eye level, some of the background detail in the screen(which in my opinion it's pretty nice), it's lost completely, fortunately the rest of the information like gain, volume and input are still legible.

Now to the improvements/wishlist of sorts:

*More powah!!!: This amp is already delivering a brick ton of power to the table, specially for the price and it can drive 99% of headphones on the market with relatively ease, specially in the case of high impedance dynamic driver cans like the SENN HD600s series this headphone excels at and with planar magnetic driver headphones also, the problem comes when we're dealing with with more demanding headphones like ModHouse Tungsten or in my case DT880s 600ohm, this amp simply doesn't have enough juice, if we could get a future revision or successor of this amp to deliver at least 1.6w into 300ohms or if even 2w into 300ohm, it would be fantastic and if we could also increase the power to at least 10w into 32ohm, in this way we can increase both the current and voltage that this amp can deliver to difficult to drive cans. I'm aware that this is going to be difficult to achieve while maintaining the current form factor of this amp, in order to keep cost down and to not develop an entirely new case from scratch for this new amp, I suggest that the power supply of the amp be moved externally, in this way it would open space inside the case of the amp to put the extra components and it would improve the airflow inside the amp, specially if you implement ventilation slits or perforations where I previously mentioned above. I'm aware that this is problematic in itself but I think if we can deliver in power and specs, your custumers would be willing to deal with a power brick. Audiophiles using Burson products don't seem to mind that much.

*Proper pre-amp functionally: I wasn't sure if I should've put this on the issues or improvements section of this list, but in order to be charitable to Aune and maintain a respectful tone, I decided to put it here and also because much more expensive amps than this one also sometimes don't have this function properly impelmented. In this case, like in Topping amps like the A70 Pro and also Schitt products, we should be able to select if we want to output to the headphones or the balance and single ended outputs of the amp(or both). As a bonus also, if the amp could remember the volume and current settings per output option that would be absolutely awesome.

*Proper feet for the amp: Also another issue with this amp, the fact that we only have small rubber feet has contribute to the temperature management problem of this amp, but if we're going to be criticizing Aune for only using this small feet on the amp, we should do the same with Schiit because they did exactly the same with their much more expensive MJ3. I would suggest that they use similar feet like Topping does, again, in their A70 Pro amp, probably a little bit taller if possible in order to have proper airflow underside of the amp for proper temperature management.

*Introduce an extra gain level: I don't think this is a problem or issue currently in the amp, this is why I'm putting this in the improvement section, if Aune manages to increase the power delivery with this amp, we're probably going to need more control in the gain section, specially for IEM's and low impedance, very efficient headphones. I suggest a low(negative gain), medium(zero) and high gain(positive gain) for this turbo charge version of the amp.

As a conclusion to this list of suggestions for possible improvement of this amp, I think what should defenitively not change it's the different current modes and the sound signature that this amp is delivering, in fact I think that Aune should double-down in this regard and maybe if anything should change in this regard, is possibly creating more differentation between the 50ma and 100ma mode, making the 50ma more neutral-flat and the 100ma even more lush, punchy and tube like.

I'm aware that these improvements and changes are going to increase the price of the v2.00 of this amp, but as a final suggestion, I think that for solving the current issues with the amp as it exists today, people wouldn't have much of an issue paying an additional $100 usd, bringing the price of the amp up to $800usd, and I think that's as much as people would be willing to pay for those issues being resolved. For my suggestions for improvements, I think that given Aunes position in the market as it stands today and the competition that exist in this sector of the market, I think Aune for the super charged version of this amp it could only ask $1k usd tops, because it would come into direct competition with the MJ3 from Schitt, Flux Labs Mentor and Violectric and if Aune is going to charge more than $1k usd for this new amp, it might have a lot more trouble justifying that price given the competition that exist in the top and also because at that price that's a big psychological(and also real financial) barrier for most of Aune's clientele.

Sorry for the wall-text of a post but this is a concise and short as I could make it be.
Thank you!:)
 
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Mar 4, 2024 at 10:18 AM Post #1,644 of 3,063
Regarding soundstage, see if you can audition or take a chance on buying the Supra Excalibur USB cable, it was a revelation to me; upgrading to it from a bog standard Amazon cable added so much air and space, it was like the difference between a night-club and a concert hall, I was amazed. With that and the HEKS, it feels as if you could step forward and stand on the stage at times.

Check this thread if you're interested: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/whats-the-best-usb-audio-cable-for-the-money.718548/ a lot of us swear by it.
I never suspected that the USB Cable can improve sound to be honest as it's digital, so it transmits data, not audio. I would have thought that if it doesn't keep up, then you hear crackling/popping, not smaller stage or worse audio quality.

Yeah, I ordered one. They are beautiful if nothing else and I needed a longer one anyway. You were right on time for me.
I'm interested in your opinion :)
 
Mar 4, 2024 at 10:20 AM Post #1,645 of 3,063
Mar 4, 2024 at 10:37 AM Post #1,646 of 3,063
..
 
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Mar 4, 2024 at 12:32 PM Post #1,647 of 3,063
I was thinking about possible suggestions for @AuneAudio for a second/successor/turbo charged version of this amp and I think we first have to solved the current issues the amp has and also suggest possible things they can add or improve. I want this to be as constructive and respectful as possible, so I would encourage everyone to not get into long winded rants and rage induced spirals but also be as honest as possible about the issues, possible fixes and improvements.

First the existing issues with the amp:

*R2R ladder control volume: It's a neat idea that works really fine in the sense that there's no channel imbalance at all even at very low volumes, either in low and high gain and both 50ma and 100ma, but the implementation it's the problem, setting aside the issue of the first batch of amps that latter was fixed in which every two steps you get a noticeable volume increase instead of 4, actually using the volume knob it's janky af, there's no consistency at all and it jumps up and down and it's hard to get a feel and the feel of the knob itself it's not great, if it wasn't for the fact that you get a really good remote with the amp, this will probably be a deal breaker for many people. For the next iteration of this amp, we defenitively need the whole 64 steps of actual volume range from this amp that actually can be operated by the knob and that's consistence and feels good to so.

*The temps problem: This is a more contentious issue imho in which I think there's being a great deal of misunderstanding and also possible QA and users possibly not understanding or being their first experience with a class-A amp(like myself), disregarding all of this, I think that Aune needs to improve this for a second revision or version of this amp for a future release, this could be done by improving the airflow to the amp by adding ventilation slits on the sides, top and the back plate of the amp. Currently the amp only has very small holes on the back plate of the amp, this should be extended over the whole length of the back plate and they should be ventilation slits. Also probably improving the internal heat-sinks , specially the bottom plate one underneath the board.

*The screen: It's a very nice screen that presents everything you need in a very concise way, the problem is that if you are watching the at any other angle that's not straight on and at eye level, some of the background detail in the screen(which in my opinion it's pretty nice), it's lost completely, fortunately the rest of the information like gain, volume and input are still legible.

Now to the improvements/wishlist of sorts:

*More powah!!!: This amp is already delivering a brick ton of power to the table, specially for the price and it can drive 99% of headphones on the market with relatively ease, specially in the case of high impedance dynamic driver cans like the SENN HD600s series this headphone excels at and with planar magnetic driver headphones also, the problem comes when we're dealing with with more demanding headphones like ModHouse Tungsten or in my case DT880s 600ohm, this amp simply doesn't have enough juice, if we could get a future revision or successor of this amp to deliver at least 1.6w into 300ohms or if even 2w into 300ohm, it would be fantastic and if we could also increase the power to at least 10w into 32ohm, in this way we can increase both the current and voltage that this amp can deliver to difficult to drive cans. I'm aware that this is going to be difficult to achieve while maintaining the current form factor of this amp, in order to keep cost down and to not develop an entirely new case from scratch for this new amp, I suggest that the power supply of the amp be moved externally, in this way it would open space inside the case of the amp to put the extra components and it would improve the airflow inside the amp, specially if you implement ventilation slits or perforations where I previously mentioned above. I'm aware that this is problematic in itself but I think if we can deliver in power and specs, your custumers would be willing to deal with a power brick. Audiophiles using Burson products don't seem to mind that much.

*Proper pre-amp functionally: I wasn't sure if I should've put this on the issues or improvements section of this list, but in order to be charitable to Aune and maintain a respectful tone, I decided to put it here and also because much more expensive amps than this one also sometimes don't have this function properly impelmented. In this case, like in Topping amps like the A70 Pro and also Schitt products, we should be able to select if we want to output to the headphones or the balance and single ended outputs of the amp(or both). As a bonus also, if the amp could remember the volume and current settings per output option that would be absolutely awesome.

*Proper feet for the amp: Also another issue with this amp, the fact that we only have small rubber feet has contribute to the temperature management problem of this amp, but if we're going to be criticizing Aune for only using this small feet on the amp, we should do the same with Schiit because they did exactly the same with their much more expensive MJ3. I would suggest that they use similar feet like Topping does, again, in their A70 Pro amp, probably a little bit taller if possible in order to have proper airflow underside of the amp for proper temperature management.

*Introduce an extra gain level: I don't think this is a problem or issue currently in the amp, this is why I'm putting this in the improvement section, if Aune manages to increase the power delivery with this amp, we're probably going to need more control in the gain section, specially for IEM's and low impedance, very efficient headphones. I suggest a low(negative gain), medium(zero) and high gain(positive gain) for this turbo charge version of the amp.

As a conclusion to this list of suggestions for possible improvement of this amp, I think what should defenitively not change it's the different current modes and the sound signature that this amp is delivering, in fact I think that Aune should double-down in this regard and maybe if anything should change in this regard, is possibly creating more differentation between the 50ma and 100ma mode, making the 50ma more neutral-flat and the 100ma even more lush, punchy and tube like.

I'm aware that these improvements and changes are going to increase the price of the v2.00 of this amp, but as a final suggestion, I think that for solving the current issues with the amp as it exists today, people wouldn't have much of an issue paying an additional $100 usd, bringing the price of the amp up to $800usd, and I think that's as much as people would be willing to pay for those issues being resolved. For my suggestions for improvements, I think that given Aunes position in the market as it stands today and the competition that exist in this sector of the market, I think Aune for the super charged version of this amp it could only ask $1k usd tops, because it would come into direct competition with the MJ3 from Schitt, Flux Labs Mentor and Violectric and if Aune is going to charge more than $1k usd for this new amp, it might have a lot more trouble justifying that price given the competition that exist in the top and also because at that price that's a big psychological(and also real financial) barrier for most of Aune's clientele.

Sorry for the wall-text of a post but this is a concise and short as I could make it be.
I know it's just a wishlist, and actually some points are very solid, however, to do:
- 2W at 300 Ohm with 10W at 32 Ohm need a freaking big PSU capability. Delivering such high voltage and high current at the same time. Any example from existing amp that able to do this?
- A separate PSU contain of Linear Toroidal Transformer. Automatically you also need a proper way to connect PSU to Amp (like Ferrum or XIAudio did). Also it require extra cost for another metal case for the PSU.

These two factors absolutely will cost you way more than $100 increased price.

Just my 2 cent of course, i'm not the manufacturer

p.s: The closest Amp that able to deliver this power requirement is Flux Volot, with Dual Mono Design, deliver 1.7W at 300 Ohm and 16W at 32 Ohm. That amp use 160W of PSU (More than three times power of PSU inside S17), and the cost of the amp is $2549 (which, some people already consider high value/performance).
 
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Mar 4, 2024 at 2:56 PM Post #1,648 of 3,063
As part of the improvements I am missing :
-The switch on the front.
-The ability to adjust the brightness and turn off the display .
Yep I forgot those two lol!!!, a stand by mode and the ability to adjust brightness and/or turn off completely are good improvement, right now, because I have the amp in my bedroom, I have to put a rag over the screen because it's too bright and I don't want to power cycle these kind of amps.
 
Mar 4, 2024 at 2:59 PM Post #1,649 of 3,063
also, plz add the FAN on the chassis.
I don't think a fan it's necessary if they move the power supply out of the chassis and add more ventilation slits.
 
Mar 4, 2024 at 3:30 PM Post #1,650 of 3,063
I never suspected that the USB Cable can improve sound to be honest as it's digital, so it transmits data, not audio. I would have thought that if it doesn't keep up, then you hear crackling/popping, not smaller stage or worse audio quality.


I'm interested in your opinion :)
Me too, man, I always argued the "1s and 0s, Dude" side of the argument. But then I watched PFS's video about it and objectively there are differences; probably better but we'll see. It's pretty clear from the video that some cables arent bringing all the data with them.

DHL has some seriously fast shipping- coming from Denmark to Arkansas in 2 days is something else.

 
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