[MaxMini]

I don’t have the s17 pro but I do have the SA-1. To me your review makes perfect sense. The other poster said in the 50 mode they are similar amps and in 100 mode they like the S17 pro better. Which to me means a more tube like sound is enjoyable in that setup or to that person. Where your setup / preferences are probably hearing the music with no coloration or minor in comparison. Which to me I look at being a great thing. People come to these forums a lot of the time (I’m guessing because I do it) or watch YouTube videos hoping they find the perfect no brainer product in a specific price range. A product so good nothing stands a chance against it. It seems like based on your review and the reviews by wavetheory YouTube channel thoughts on the Mjolinir 3 - that the simplicity people are looking for is just not there in audio. Its synergy and preferences that seems to keep winning out in the end. That’s why it’s a never ending interesting subject and there is no perfect product. That to me I guess could be annoying for some, but that keeps the hobby way more interesting imo.

I covered it with a blanket and at a temperature of +66 C I can hear a change in the right direction, and the G-L setting sounds better for me.
This is definitely a very good amplifier. I don't rule out that I will leave Singxer for HE1000, and Aune will be the second amplifier dedicated to Focal Clear

 

[SmartCheetah]

The other poster said in the 50 mode they are similar amps and in 100 mode they like the S17 pro better. Which to me means a more tube like sound is enjoyable in that setup or to that person. Where your setup / preferences are probably hearing the music with no coloration

Difference between 50mA and 100mA mode is more than coloration, if anything the character of this amp is similar in both modes.

I feel that 100ma is everything you have in 50mA but more. It sounds richer, lusher and well… better. Soundstage becomes bigger, with increased depth and more "3d" feel. 50mA might have some uses in acoustic rock or "flamenco" type of music, but the S17 Pro sounds better in 100mA most of the time. This is a default mode.

 

[MaxMini]

Im only worried about these vertical streaks, Is this normal?

 

[Erick Muller]

A higher-end system is not my goal per se. I think that system synergy is a key issue to achieve a higher level of sound.
Resolution without proper timbre is just a collection of sounds, which is why Singxer has better resolution in my system,

I try not to judge Aune too harshly, but what if in the sample hi-res 192/24 recording - Sonny Rollins, Wagon Wheels

on Singxer, these quiet voices (like a whisper) in the background are so organic, so real, so completely natural, they make an obvious unity with the rest of the recording and the music, they enhance the entire atmosphere of the recording so much

on Aune, .... show this detail palely, almost artificially.... Unfortunately

I would agree that the Aune S17 it's probably not the most resolving amp even at it's price point or lower, it's more about Aune's house sound and "musicality" whatever that means. Fortunately I do use upsampling and I can extract more clarity depending what settings I use on HQP, but in general, I'm not on a journey for maximum fidelity and extracting as much resolution as possible, I'm looking to get the best listening experience I can have at a reasonable price, and the S17 it's providing that to me.

 

[Erick Muller]

S17 - Focal Clear - @ volume 48 seem too loud to me, unless your input side is low.
My S17 - Focal Clear - 50ma/L - always below volume 30.

I'm using HQPlayer and it has a -5dB digital attenuation to avoid clipping, I do like to listen at higher volumes in order to get more bass slam from my headphones, but in the case of the clears, 48 even at low gain is sometimes too much so I generally stick to 45, but the bass is not as impactful as I know it can be with other amps.

 

[Erick Muller]

I covered it with a blanket and at a temperature of +66 C I can hear a change in the right direction, and the G-L setting sounds better for me.
This is definitely a very good amplifier. I don't rule out that I will leave Singxer for HE1000, and Aune will be the second amplifier dedicated to Focal Clear

If you can, get a pair of HD6XX, install the Custom Cans bass weight dampers and take the foam out completely from the back and in the pads, also get some dekoni hybrid elite pads, put them on the S17 100ma mode, high gain and prepare to have a really good time

 

[Erick Muller]

Im only worried about these vertical streaks, Is this normal?

I haven't notice that in my amp.

 

[Currawong]

A higher-end system is not my goal per se. I think that system synergy is a key issue to achieve a higher level of sound.
Resolution without proper timbre is just a collection of sounds, which is why Singxer has better resolution in my system,

I try not to judge Aune too harshly, but what if in the sample hi-res 192/24 recording - Sonny Rollins, Wagon Wheels

on Singxer, these quiet voices (like a whisper) in the background are so organic, so real, so completely natural, they make an obvious unity with the rest of the recording and the music, they enhance the entire atmosphere of the recording so much

on Aune, .... show this detail palely, almost artificially.... Unfortunately

In my experience, it's the headphones, alongside one's treble sensitivity, that can be an issue. The HiFiMan models tend towards being somewhat bright. If there are resonances in the mid-range or treble region, they will just accentuate those frequencies. A similar thing happened with the Sennheiser HD800 (not S) when it came out. People preferred them with tube amps, or anything that helped with the treble emphasis.

Reminds me though, I really need to see if I can do, or get a crosstalk measurement of the S17 before I do the review. I am guessing that I know why it sounds more full in the bass.

 

[Erick Muller]

In my experience, it's the headphones, alongside one's treble sensitivity, that can be an issue. The HiFiMan models tend towards being somewhat bright. If there are resonances in the mid-range or treble region, they will just accentuate those frequencies. A similar thing happened with the Sennheiser HD800 (not S) when it came out. People preferred them with tube amps, or anything that helped with the treble emphasis.

Reminds me though, I really need to see if I can do, or get a crosstalk measurement of the S17 before I do the review. I am guessing that I know why it sounds more full in the bass.

Do you suspect there are second order harmonics on this amp in 100ma mode?

And yes, even with the slight smoothing that happens in 100ma mode, with upsampling and EQing, DT880s and HE400SE can sometimes get either shouty and/or sibilant or just generally unpleasant and harsh in regards to the upper mids/treble region.

 

[MiguelP]

For me, the topic of comparison is rather over. And if I feel relieved that I no longer have to stress about testing equipment, and I just enjoy the music, it means that I made the right choice for myself. Maybe my ears are different? I don't know, but every time I switched to Singxer I knew this was it.

Since the seller had to send me the Aune in black, he owes me an exchange for a silver one, so I have the opportunity to check out another copy, but I don't know if I have the energy or desire to do so.

To clarify, I just need to add that I do not accept any EQ correction, my equipment must play natively.
The second quite important thing is that the Singxer is connected at the input and output via a balanced connection and this is the only option for this amplifier to work to its full potential, if someone uses it as an SE, they are making a mistake, just as an aside.

So there are a lot of nuances that come into play in this game as you can see.

For me there is only one downside to this situation with Aune - now I know that to upgrade to something better than the Singxer SA-1 I will probably have to spend much more money than I thought.

I used to think that way about EQ but nowadays I believe that I was wrong. If you listen primarily to digital (from streaming or stored digital files), using EQ will make more difference (for the better) than using a different amp. If you listen to vynil or even CDs I recognise that it's much more difficult to integrate EQ - Roon, for example, makes it a breeze to use it with different presets for different (or the same) headphones.

 

[MiguelP]

Regarding the difference between 50ma and 100ma modes I am starting to feel that my Arya Stealth's sound better in 50ma. I've been listening primarily in 100 ma through all my headphones but after trying a bit more the 50 ma mode I feel that the Arya's (for my taste) benefit more from the lower quiescent current.The bass feels much tighter and cleaner. There's some extra thickness in the 100ma that I feel that do not benefit these headphones (please note that I use them with EQ with some gain added in the lower frequencies). This is not true to all the music that I hear (some jazz records from ECM Records for example sound too clean and sound better in 100ma), but for the most part it is. The Sennheiser HD800s on the other hand sound better to me in 100ma mode, altough I do also use them with some added bass through EQ. In this case I still haven't found any particular kind of music that benefits from the 50ma mode. I also have the Focal Radiance but very rarely listen to them, especially through the S17 Pro, but I do feel that these headphones don't benefit much when we scale up the amp, and as such I imagine that the difference between both modes wouldn't be as pronounced.

 

[risingsun1981]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all the different posts on this amp and information. This has been useful.

I was really looking for a warm type of sound and the s17 delivers greatly on that account.

I received mine last week. The sounds works great and it goes well with my setup.

However, I am plagued by the same issue that everyone discuss about the temps raising high.

I have purchased some laptop pad to elevate the amp and that helps greatly.

Without elevation, the amp in 100ma mode was reaching the 69 in a bit more than an hour.
With elevation, I can last 4 or more hours but eventually it will get there…

Some fans came with the laptop pad but they are way too noisy for me. However, If I let them run, the amp runs at 57 constant on 100ma!!

So few things come to mind:

I can see some folks in this thread where temps are a non issue…is it worth for me trying to exchange it with another model? I can still ask for it.

Or should I focus on getting a good fan with some variable power so I can run them silently?

Finally, the last question, the same shop offers also (for a bit more) the AudioGD master 19…is that an alternative to the s17 ( I love the sound and if the m19 is brighter then, I will refrain from that choice). I really love music for something to be nice and enjoyable…I hate thin sounding and sterile amp.

For information, I have a Demafrips Venus2 dac for source (and a Mercury V2 Pi2 design streamer as transport linked in hdmi i2s).

Thank for taking some time to answer as I like this little guy and appreciate some feedback from my peers headfiers.

 

[Erick Muller]

Regarding the difference between 50ma and 100ma modes I am starting to feel that my Arya Stealth's sound better in 50ma. I've been listening primarily in 100 ma through all my headphones but after trying a bit more the 50 ma mode I feel that the Arya's (for my taste) benefit more from the lower quiescent current.The bass feels much tighter and cleaner. There's some extra thickness in the 100ma that I feel that do not benefit these headphones (please note that I use them with EQ with some gain added in the lower frequencies). This is not true to all the music that I hear (some jazz records from ECM Records for example sound too clean and sound better in 100ma), but for the most part it is. The Sennheiser HD800s on the other hand sound better to me in 100ma mode, altough I do also use them with some added bass through EQ. In this case I still haven't found any particular kind of music that benefits from the 50ma mode. I also have the Focal Radiance but very rarely listen to them, especially through the S17 Pro, but I do feel that these headphones don't benefit much when we scale up the amp, and as such I imagine that the difference between both modes wouldn't be as pronounced.

With the Radiance the difference it's not that pronounce, but I do feel that sometimes 100ma can come as to thick with these headphones, depending on the music I'm listening so sometimes I go to 50ma mode and it cleans up the sound signature a little bit.

 

[Shane D]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all the different posts on this amp and information. This has been useful.

I was really looking for a warm type of sound and the s17 delivers greatly on that account.

I received mine last week. The sounds works great and it goes well with my setup.

However, I am plagued by the same issue that everyone discuss about the temps raising high.

I have purchased some laptop pad to elevate the amp and that helps greatly.

Without elevation, the amp in 100ma mode was reaching the 69 in a bit more than an hour.
With elevation, I can last 4 or more hours but eventually it will get there…

Some fans came with the laptop pad but they are way too noisy for me. However, If I let them run, the amp runs at 57 constant on 100ma!!

So few things come to mind:

I can see some folks in this thread where temps are a non issue…is it worth for me trying to exchange it with another model? I can still ask for it.

Or should I focus on getting a good fan with some variable power so I can run them silently?

Finally, the last question, the same shop offers also (for a bit more) the AudioGD master 19…is that an alternative to the s17 ( I love the sound and if the m19 is brighter then, I will refrain from that choice). I really love music for something to be nice and enjoyable…I hate thin sounding and sterile amp.

For information, I have a Demafrips Venus2 dac for source (and a Mercury V2 Pi2 design streamer as transport linked in hdmi i2s).

Thank for taking some time to answer as I like this little guy and appreciate some feedback from my peers headfiers.

I would be awful curious about that Master-19. Have you had a chance to check it out?

 

[Erick Muller]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all the different posts on this amp and information. This has been useful.

I was really looking for a warm type of sound and the s17 delivers greatly on that account.

I received mine last week. The sounds works great and it goes well with my setup.

However, I am plagued by the same issue that everyone discuss about the temps raising high.

I have purchased some laptop pad to elevate the amp and that helps greatly.

Without elevation, the amp in 100ma mode was reaching the 69 in a bit more than an hour.
With elevation, I can last 4 or more hours but eventually it will get there…

Some fans came with the laptop pad but they are way too noisy for me. However, If I let them run, the amp runs at 57 constant on 100ma!!

So few things come to mind:

I can see some folks in this thread where temps are a non issue…is it worth for me trying to exchange it with another model? I can still ask for it.

Or should I focus on getting a good fan with some variable power so I can run them silently?

Finally, the last question, the same shop offers also (for a bit more) the AudioGD master 19…is that an alternative to the s17 ( I love the sound and if the m19 is brighter then, I will refrain from that choice). I really love music for something to be nice and enjoyable…I hate thin sounding and sterile amp.

For information, I have a Demafrips Venus2 dac for source (and a Mercury V2 Pi2 design streamer as transport linked in hdmi i2s).

Thank for taking some time to answer as I like this little guy and appreciate some feedback from my peers headfiers.

I would recommend that you get a usb control, variable speed fans for the S17, also you don't have to run them all the time, I recommend that once the temps in the S17 rise above 65 degrees, you turn your fans on and let it cool down a little, maybe till you hit equilibrium and then turn those fans off, these means that you have to keep an eye on the temps on the amp, but it's not something that you have to be constantly checking up all the time, just once in a while.

Elevating the amp a couple of inches seems to mitigate a lot of issues with temperature with this amp, also if you can, open a window into your listening room, having good ventilation helps to keep this amp at a stable temperature.

Mr. @Currawong has a lot of experience with AudioGD equipment, maybe he could help you with your question.