[Eddy123]

After reading this thread, I bought the Aune S17 pro and would like to tell you about my experience.

Heat: I have the device in a rack, but open to the front (of course), back and on the right side. The room temperature is approx. 22° C. My device has never reached the limit of 69° C in 100mA mode, even after many hours of operation. (I think the maximum was 66°.) Personally, I prefer the 50mA mode in terms of sound, so it's not a problem for me anyway.

Volume control: Even volume control is already implemented on my device. It was a bit strange that the volume only changed every second step, but that's not really a problem. So, the volume control works very well.

And now to the most important thing, the sound: fantastic! I listen to a lot of classical music, on the hifi-system, but also a lot in concerts, so I can claim to know quite well what a realistic sound is. And I can only say: it is very realistic with the S17. The instruments stand wonderfully in the room, it is a very three-dimensional sound. Figuratively speaking, you think you can grasp the instruments. A reference track is, for example, Handel's Hallelujah conducted by Paul McCreesh. The different voices are wonderfully separated from each other with a wonderful layering in depth.

As I said, I prefer the 50mA mode as the resolution seems to be slightly better (although I find the difference to the 100mA mode to be very small). So even if the temperature in 100mA mode were to rise above 69°C in midsummer, that wouldn't be a problem for me at all. For me the 100mA mode is an optional feature, nice to have, but nothing more.

These sound experience apply to both operation as a headphone amplifier and as a preamplifier (power amplifier: Atoll AM300, loudspeaker: Geithain ME 100).

Conclusion: I can highly recommend the S17.

My next step is to improve my system with a better DAC. At the moment I'm using a Loxjie D40, which I'm basically happy with. (For example, I found it significantly better than the Soekris dac1541 that I had before.) Do you have any suggestions?

 

[Majuto]

0

After reading this thread, I bought the Aune S17 pro and would like to tell you about my experience.

Heat: I have the device in a rack, but open to the front (of course), back and on the right side. The room temperature is approx. 22° C. My device has never reached the limit of 69° C in 100mA mode, even after many hours of operation. (I think the maximum was 66°.) Personally, I prefer the 50mA mode in terms of sound, so it's not a problem for me anyway.

Volume control: Even volume control is already implemented on my device. It was a bit strange that the volume only changed every second step, but that's not really a problem. So, the volume control works very well.

And now to the most important thing, the sound: fantastic! I listen to a lot of classical music, on the hifi-system, but also a lot in concerts, so I can claim to know quite well what a realistic sound is. And I can only say: it is very realistic with the S17. The instruments stand wonderfully in the room, it is a very three-dimensional sound. Figuratively speaking, you think you can grasp the instruments. A reference track is, for example, Handel's Hallelujah conducted by Paul McCreesh. The different voices are wonderfully separated from each other with a wonderful layering in depth.

As I said, I prefer the 50mA mode as the resolution seems to be slightly better (although I find the difference to the 100mA mode to be very small). So even if the temperature in 100mA mode were to rise above 69°C in midsummer, that wouldn't be a problem for me at all. For me the 100mA mode is an optional feature, nice to have, but nothing more.

These sound experience apply to both operation as a headphone amplifier and as a preamplifier (power amplifier: Atoll AM300, loudspeaker: Geithain ME 100).

Conclusion: I can highly recommend the S17.

My next step is to improve my system with a better DAC. At the moment I'm using a Loxjie D40, which I'm basically happy with. (For example, I found it significantly better than the Soekris dac1541 that I had before.) Do you have any suggestions?

I'm very pleased with Gustard R26 R2R DAC, which is detailed, musical and natural sounding & has e.g vol adjustment and so it can be used as pre amp too. It won't by any means diminish Aune's naturalism, musicality and being tubey like.
Sandu Vitalie is a dac specialist and if you like, you can find his deep going reviews in Soundnews.

 

[jazzzy]

The volume control thing was fixed long ago with a firmware update.

we took it seriously and have optimized the volume curve.The units now all use the new volume curve.

I want to buy one and if used how do I know if that is early production model or such with optimized curve ?
I listen mostly to IEMs so while testing S17 Pro I was bothered that it needed so many wheel turns to get the right volume

 

[SmartCheetah]

I want to buy one and if used how do I know if that is early production model or such with optimized curve ?

It will change the volume every 2 "clicks" instead of 4. Also by checking the firmware version, I don't recall the exact details, but this was discussed recently in this thread.

And if I'm not mistaken, even with the older firmware version, it can still be updated with Aune's customer support assistance.

 

[Erick Muller]

After reading this thread, I bought the Aune S17 pro and would like to tell you about my experience.

Heat: I have the device in a rack, but open to the front (of course), back and on the right side. The room temperature is approx. 22° C. My device has never reached the limit of 69° C in 100mA mode, even after many hours of operation. (I think the maximum was 66°.) Personally, I prefer the 50mA mode in terms of sound, so it's not a problem for me anyway.

Volume control: Even volume control is already implemented on my device. It was a bit strange that the volume only changed every second step, but that's not really a problem. So, the volume control works very well.

And now to the most important thing, the sound: fantastic! I listen to a lot of classical music, on the hifi-system, but also a lot in concerts, so I can claim to know quite well what a realistic sound is. And I can only say: it is very realistic with the S17. The instruments stand wonderfully in the room, it is a very three-dimensional sound. Figuratively speaking, you think you can grasp the instruments. A reference track is, for example, Handel's Hallelujah conducted by Paul McCreesh. The different voices are wonderfully separated from each other with a wonderful layering in depth.

As I said, I prefer the 50mA mode as the resolution seems to be slightly better (although I find the difference to the 100mA mode to be very small). So even if the temperature in 100mA mode were to rise above 69°C in midsummer, that wouldn't be a problem for me at all. For me the 100mA mode is an optional feature, nice to have, but nothing more.

These sound experience apply to both operation as a headphone amplifier and as a preamplifier (power amplifier: Atoll AM300, loudspeaker: Geithain ME 100).

Conclusion: I can highly recommend the S17.

My next step is to improve my system with a better DAC. At the moment I'm using a Loxjie D40, which I'm basically happy with. (For example, I found it significantly better than the Soekris dac1541 that I had before.) Do you have any suggestions?

People that have R2R DACs have reported it pairs wonderfully with this amp, like a Cyan 2 or Gustard R26 and the like.

I would recommend also trying HQPlayer and upsampling to DSD, for me it has been wonderful and I highly recommend it you try this out, tho I understand most people are not going to be able or willing to go to the trouble and expense of getting a PC powerful enough to do this and the steep learning curve that comes with this software.

The 100ma mode is the one that I like the most, but I do get you when you say that you prefer the 50ma because of the resolution, the preference for this mode it's going to come down to taste, I personally prefer the thicker, lusher sound that 100ma mode gives, but to each it's own.

Regarding the heat, in my experience, as long as the amp it's getting proper and good ventilation, it's enough to have it running for hours on end running on high gain, 100ma mode. In my case, opening the window to my room it's more than enough the majority of the time, very rarely I have to turn on my cooling fans.

 

[Majuto]

I want to buy one and if used how do I know if that is early production model or such with optimized curve ?
I listen mostly to IEMs so while testing S17 Pro I was bothered that it needed so many wheel turns to get the right volume

You can figure out the firmware version by pushing the volume knob while switching the amp on. E.g mine is older,5.2 version, with four steps vol change which clearly is too coarse if it's the only way for vol adjustment. I'm not sure is the vol thing newly tuned from 5.3 or 5.4 versions.

 

[jazzzy]

I sometimes compare the S17 to my EF400

Can you share experiences of using EF400->S17 Pro ?

 

[MiguelP]

Can the users which units don't reach 69°C in 100ma mode please share the maximum temperature your units reach in 50ma mode?

 

[Erick Muller]

Can the users which units don't reach 69°C in 100ma mode please share the maximum temperature your units reach in 50ma mode?

Right now?, I leave my amp overnight on 50ma, low gain and at most it reaches 52 degrees when I remove the rag over the screen, not playing any music, just being on.

If the rag wasn't on the amp it would at most reduce the temp by a couple of degrees, before anyone asks.

 

[kopczas]

Can the users which units don't reach 69°C in 100ma mode please share the maximum temperature your units reach in 50ma mode?

In my case it's basically 10 degrees difference : then 50mA reaches 55oC, 100mA would run at 65oC.
And BTW last weekend temperatures in Warsaw reaches late spring lvls so overall temp in my house rose to 25-26oC. I left Aune on 100mA whole day, it never got hotter then 66oC.

 

[SmartCheetah]

Can you share experiences of using EF400->S17 Pro ?

Sure, just note I haven't used the S17 Pro with any other DAC, so I don't have much of a comparison. I was coming from the EF400 as an AiO, later paired with the Earmen ST-AMP. The Aune S17 Pro is much better than either the ST-Amp's or EF400's amplifier sections. Synergy in NOS mode, which is a true R2R, is very good in my opinion. I preferred the OS mode with the ST-AMP (which is a more neutral and less lush and powerful amplifier) as it's more punchy and feels like a slight V-shape filter with a more focused and less airy/spacious presentation. But with the S17 Pro, NOS mode is IMHO superior as it combines the airiness with a vivid and full character of the S17 Pro.

Overall, I read several opinions that the EF400 is a better DAC than amplifier (which isn't bad either btw) and it's worth its price for it alone. And I tend to agree, as I preferred to pair it with both the ST-Amp and now the S17 Pro than using it as an all-in-one unit.

 

[SmartCheetah]

Can the users which units don't reach 69°C in 100ma mode please share the maximum temperature your units reach in 50ma mode?

~50-52 degrees, which is 10 degrees less than in 100mA.

 

[leoxdebois]

Okay guys I'm gonna ask the bad question!

Did anyone try to change the opamps on the headphone output ?

 

[Erick Muller]

Okay guys I'm gonna ask the bad question!

Did anyone try to change the opamps on the headphone output ?

I'm not aware this amp had swapable op-amps, but I'm sure doing that will void the warranty in this amp.

 

[kopczas]

Okay guys I'm gonna ask the bad question!

Did anyone try to change the opamps on the headphone output ?

It's too soon.

There are SOIC package opamps, those neet to be desoldered.
BTW aune decided on ancient NE553x opamps.