If you're in the US or a country that Drop ships to, I would recommend you be on the look out when they do a batch of violectric HPA V222, it's like $900 usd when it comes on sale on drop but that's definitively a step up from the aune S17 and it's going to be brand new. Something used?, I'll be on the look out also for a Schiit MJ3.
I'm not a big IEM guy but I have a set of moondrop's starfields and it works fine with zero hiss or background noise on both 50ma and 100ma modes. Didn't test on high gain tho.
Did you directly compare the V222 with the S17? Could you describe why it would be a step up? What's the difference in terms of sound?
I haven't heard the V222, but I'm not sure that everyone would agree that it is a definite step up from the V222. Ichos reviewed and liked both a lot and thought they were very close. Though I admit that I'd probably go for the V222 at $900. But at its full MSRP, which is almost double the S17, it might be a different story.
I read this evening the Raal 1995 thread, in which someone said that the just to market coming totl headphone Raal Immanis sounded unexpectidly good with Aune set in some of these big audio happenings. A 700$ amp with 9000$ headphones.
Singxer SA1 might be a good alternative, there's some people that have had both amps and some prefer the SA1 over the S17 and it's less expensive, so this is a good alternative, but in reality it's going to come down more to your personal preferences.
I haven't compare them but there's people around this thread and in this forum that say it's indeed a step up, how much of a step up it is?, well I think we're entering the realm of ever increasing diminishing returns, I don't imagine the V222 or the MJ3 being several times better than the S17, it's going to definitively be an upgrade and a noticeable one but I imagine it's going to be like moving from a RTX 3080 to a RTX 4080, reaching for comparisons to the pc gaming world, there's a measurable increase in performance but it's not something out of this world. You have to keep in mind than when people in this forum say something it's way better, we're talking about audiophile differences, that means, if you grab a person out of the street and put a pair of headphones on their head and ask them to tell you the difference between this amp and that dac combo vs this other combo, they're not going to be able to tell you there's any difference at all, people are going to stretch A LOT how much "sound quality" and "performance" you're gaining moving from x or y electronics box over to this other you currently have, 30%, 40%, 50% and even more when in reality this are more like tonality shifts and slight improvements at best to suit different tastes and we're most likely just dealing with increases in actual performance that might just barely be above margin of error, if even that.
Exactly my worry. I am not even sure that I will be able to hear the difference between Singxer and Mjolnir, and especially between aune and MJ. And if I will be able then I don't know which type of sound I like. I am looking to buy my FIRST amp and for me two finalists for the purchase are Aune s17 pro and Schiit Mjolnir.
I would recommend instead of focusing on the subjective aspects of this question and diving straight into to weeds it would be better if you first ask yourself, what's your budget? even if money it's not a question for you, you should put a limit on how much are your willing to spend on a DAC and Amp, specially if it's going to be your first dive into this endless rabbit hole.
third and most importantly, what do your ears like when listening to music?
