[Simon Patten]

Thanks for your thoughts guys. I originally set it to low gain as I have plenty of volume and control it from my DAC but last night I tried changing it to high gain. The difference in volume made it difficult to detect SQ changes but, having left it in high, I did notice that there was a bit more bass 'thump' and on a couple of occasions there was some sub-bass that I hadn't heard before. I don't know about high frequencies as I have hearing loss and don't hear much above 8KHz but I would say that the extra power does improve the low end, although I'm not sure yet if it's less clean as a result.

 

[Erick Muller]

Thanks for your thoughts guys. I originally set it to low gain as I have plenty of volume and control it from my DAC but last night I tried changing it to high gain. The difference in volume made it difficult to detect SQ changes but, having left it in high, I did notice that there was a bit more bass 'thump' and on a couple of occasions there was some sub-bass that I hadn't heard before. I don't know about high frequencies as I have hearing loss and don't hear much above 8KHz but I would say that the extra power does improve the low end, although I'm not sure yet if it's less clean as a result.

Told ya!!!

 

[Khark]

So what's the High Gain number on this? Aune doesn't mention this in their promotional material and i think it's an important omission on their part.

 

[MaxMini]

Once again I would like to emphasize that what I am describing is about comparing the Singxer SA1 amplifiers with Aune mainly on HE1000 Stealth headphones and for my ear, so in any other system the Aune amplifier may give different results, I think.

I think that the HE1000 Stealth headphones are exceptionally fast and clean-sounding plenaries, so they very easily show the differences in the audio path, in the amplifiers, in the DAC and what I still hear is clearly better synergy with the Singxer amplifier and I am already writing why:

sound stage:

- the sound stage is evenly distributed in Singxer, only some sounds (in my opinion only those that should be) are created directly in the listener's head, in my opinion it gives a listening feeling similar to listening from loudspeakers, it is very natural and puts the listener in a relaxed mode, while therefore, the space itself is not significantly smaller than Aune

- the sound stage in Aune is clearly divided left / right with a clear deficit in depth and this unfortunately results in the fact that I cannot relax while listening, a lot of sounds originate in my head or move between the left and right ears, which irritates my brain ( This is good news because it means I have a brain )

timbre:

- in general, I think that Aune sounds with a slightly boosted upper midrange, and Singxer with a slightly boosted lower midrange - if someone owns the HE 1000, they will know immediately which amplifier will suit these headphones better, and for me, timbre is a key issue when choosing equipment.

- the above has a number of related effects, namely in Aune we have the impression of better controlled contoured bass, in Singxer e.g. the male vocal is deeper and more natural

- in general, the Singxer's tuning gives the impression of being more laid-back and relaxed, of course some may call it boring, although in my opinion there are no shortcomings in the Singxer's dynamics. In quick changes of dynamics, Singxer also keeps pace with HE1000 at the same level as Aune, the difference is in timbre.
Aune is playing on steroids, it reproduces each sound at 120% of its potential, but unfortunately each sound is separated, for me it gives an incoherent effect on the HE1000 headphones, and Singxer shows the music as one homogeneous whole on these headphones, you can forget that you have them on the head.

final thoughts:

Why am I writing about this?
I also read many comments on this forum that Aune fits HE 1000. Encouraged by these comments, I expected that the change in my case from Singxer to Aune would bring very tangible benefits. Unfortunately, this was not confirmed during listening in my system, so I think it is worth emphasizing it on this forum.

While in the case of Focal Clear I think that the choice of Aune or Singxer is a matter of taste, I wouldn't call it a step forward or backward, but probably sideways, in the case of all the egg-shaped Hifiman headphones, Aune is not a great choice in my opinion, which doesn't mean that you can't listen to it, on the contrary, I just think that you can do better, even for less money.

 

[MiguelP]

The Aune S17 Pro is very, very, very relaxing with Sennheiser HD800s. I never heard the He1000 but I find it hard to believe that it needs a more "relaxing" amp, but then again maybe it's our ears that are the main delta not gear related differences.
PS: I do own the Arya Stealth (not sure how do they compare with He1000), and they sound even more relaxed with the S17 Pro (may a bit too relaxed).

 

[MaxMini]

The Aune S17 Pro is very, very, very relaxing with Sennheiser HD800s

Can you write with what source?

 

[MiguelP]

Can you write with what source?

IFI Zen Stream + Chord Mojo 2 + S17 Pro

Edit: Listening to Qobuz through Roon, with EQ applied in Roon.

 

[MaxMini]

I had both of these toys, congratulations on your choice, but it must sound brightly with Arya in my opinion, I'm thinking about pop or rock music. And for me it brightly means not entirely relaxing. I think the difference is not so much in hearing, but in experience and expectation, and perhaps the biggest difference comes from the fact that each of us describes the sound differently.

 

[MiguelP]

I listen to a lot of Indie music (lots of guitar, distortion et al). I wouldn't carategorize the act of listening to this kind of music as relaxing, but I think that's not the artists goal when they produced the music. Many of these recordings also have many flaws and that's what I hear with the HD800s/S17pro Combo (the rest of the chain should have little to no effect - they are meant to play the files and convert them to analog). When listening to indie music I prefer the S17 Pro /Arya Stealth combo which I find more forgiving and less fatiguing (or relaxed maybe?). But if I listen to Jazz (especially atmospheric or doom) or to Ambient/IDM the HD800s/S17 combo is as relaxed as I want it to be - just perfect.

 

[Majuto]

I listen to a lot of Indie music (lots of guitar, distortion et al). I wouldn't carategorize the act of listening to this kind of music as relaxing, but I think that's not the artists goal when they produced the music. Many of these recordings also have many flaws and that's what I hear with the HD800s/S17pro Combo (the rest of the chain should have little to no effect - they are meant to play the files and convert them to analog). When listening to indie music I prefer the S17 Pro /Arya Stealth combo which I find more forgiving and less fatiguing (or relaxed maybe?). But if I listen to Jazz (especially atmospheric or doom) or to Ambient/IDM the HD800s/S17 combo is as relaxed as I want it to be - just perfect.

I guess Aune is more relaxed with so called warm headphones. Of my phones Atrium open is such. Veeeery relaxed. On the other hand, compared He1000Stealth is quite reference tuned and Aune a bit softens the Hifiman high frequencies, but differs not so much from Violectric V340 solid state.

 

[Erick Muller]

Once again I would like to emphasize that what I am describing is about comparing the Singxer SA1 amplifiers with Aune mainly on HE1000 Stealth headphones and for my ear, so in any other system the Aune amplifier may give different results, I think.

I think that the HE1000 Stealth headphones are exceptionally fast and clean-sounding plenaries, so they very easily show the differences in the audio path, in the amplifiers, in the DAC and what I still hear is clearly better synergy with the Singxer amplifier and I am already writing why:

sound stage:

- the sound stage is evenly distributed in Singxer, only some sounds (in my opinion only those that should be) are created directly in the listener's head, in my opinion it gives a listening feeling similar to listening from loudspeakers, it is very natural and puts the listener in a relaxed mode, while therefore, the space itself is not significantly smaller than Aune

- the sound stage in Aune is clearly divided left / right with a clear deficit in depth and this unfortunately results in the fact that I cannot relax while listening, a lot of sounds originate in my head or move between the left and right ears, which irritates my brain ( This is good news because it means I have a brain )

timbre:

- in general, I think that Aune sounds with a slightly boosted upper midrange, and Singxer with a slightly boosted lower midrange - if someone owns the HE 1000, they will know immediately which amplifier will suit these headphones better, and for me, timbre is a key issue when choosing equipment.

- the above has a number of related effects, namely in Aune we have the impression of better controlled contoured bass, in Singxer e.g. the male vocal is deeper and more natural

- in general, the Singxer's tuning gives the impression of being more laid-back and relaxed, of course some may call it boring, although in my opinion there are no shortcomings in the Singxer's dynamics. In quick changes of dynamics, Singxer also keeps pace with HE1000 at the same level as Aune, the difference is in timbre.
Aune is playing on steroids, it reproduces each sound at 120% of its potential, but unfortunately each sound is separated, for me it gives an incoherent effect on the HE1000 headphones, and Singxer shows the music as one homogeneous whole on these headphones, you can forget that you have them on the head.

final thoughts:

Why am I writing about this?
I also read many comments on this forum that Aune fits HE 1000. Encouraged by these comments, I expected that the change in my case from Singxer to Aune would bring very tangible benefits. Unfortunately, this was not confirmed during listening in my system, so I think it is worth emphasizing it on this forum.

While in the case of Focal Clear I think that the choice of Aune or Singxer is a matter of taste, I wouldn't call it a step forward or backward, but probably sideways, in the case of all the egg-shaped Hifiman headphones, Aune is not a great choice in my opinion, which doesn't mean that you can't listen to it, on the contrary, I just think that you can do better, even for less money.

Yesterday I listen to my first hifiman, an HE400SE (not sure which version, but probably it's the least efficient one, I'll get to that latter). In general what I found is that the bass is very well extended, but kind of lean at the same time, not a lot of punch, the mids are very recess, vocals sound like they're coming from very far away, which is not enjoyable to me and the highs are really well extended and clear, except in some circumstances where it makes them nearly impossible to tolerate them with some songs and some specific singers, generally they're pleasing to my ears(I'm not very treble sensitive, I know this because enjoy my DT880 but I did have to EQ the treble peak at 8k because ooffff, the silibance was intolerable in some instances).

Regarding your comments that the S17 on hifimans are not as holographic as the singxer, I think there's something to that observation, I did notice that in some songs, the HE400SE are very left, right and center, there's not a huge extension laterally, but sometimes I do find with the Aune that you have a lot of depth and layering, which I enjoy a lot, but I would tend to agree, huge soundstage it's not really there, of course I was listening on 100ma mode and high gain which has the effect, as some other people have describe of making everything feel more cramp or closed in.

I proceeded to look for an EQ profile for the 400SE and I found one by Chrono on headphones.com forum, bass shelf, bring up the mids at 1.5khz and bring down the peak at 7khz, these headphones truly shine with that EQ, the 400SE starts rumbling and has some slap to it and it smooths out the troublesome treble peaks while maintaining all of the clarity, with one exception still, Pink Floyd's When the Tigers Broke Free, God almighty, when the vocals come in, I almost rip the headphones from my head and threw them at wall, had to stop listening at that point, everything before the vocals in that song it's absolutely georgous, but man now I know what people mean with hifiman treble.

The other thing I noticed, and also the reason I suspect this is the most inneficient version of this HP it's because my dad told me he was not getting any bass, at all, from his DAP and when I hook this babies to my amp, I had to go to high gain and the temps rose to about 66 degrees, so this babies are drawing a lot of current, had to turn my usb control fans to bring temps down a bit.

This has me a little concern because these HP are relatively inexpensive and people are going to get the impression that because they're not that expensive, they're going to be able to run them and get great sound from their headphone jack out of their laptops or PC, which is not the case at all, you need a dedicated HP amp in order to get good sound from them, otherwise they're going to be incredibly boring and bland and you're not going to get a lot of volume out of them.

 

[Majuto]

Yesterday I listen to my first hifiman, an HE400SE (not sure which version, but probably it's the least efficient one, I'll get to that latter). In general what I found is that the bass is very well extended, but kind of lean at the same time, not a lot of punch, the mids are very recess, vocals sound like they're coming from very far away, which is not enjoyable to me and the highs are really well extended and clear, except in some circumstances where it makes them nearly impossible to tolerate them with some songs and some specific singers, generally they're pleasing to my ears(I'm not very treble sensitive, I know this because enjoy my DT880 but I did have to EQ the treble peak at 8k because ooffff, the silibance was intolerable in some instances).

Regarding your comments that the S17 on hifimans are not as holographic as the singxer, I think there's something to that observation, I did notice that in some songs, the HE400SE are very left, right and center, there's not a huge extension laterally, but sometimes I do find with the Aune that you have a lot of depth and layering, which I enjoy a lot, but I would tend to agree, huge soundstage it's not really there, of course I was listening on 100ma mode and high gain which has the effect, as some other people have describe of making everything feel more cramp or closed in.

I proceeded to look for an EQ profile for the 400SE and I found one by Chrono on headphones.com forum, bass shelf, bring up the mids at 1.5khz and bring down the peak at 7khz, these headphones truly shine with that EQ, the 400SE starts rumbling and has some slap to it and it smooths out the troublesome treble peaks while maintaining all of the clarity, with one exception still, Pink Floyd's When the Tigers Broke Free, God almighty, when the vocals come in, I almost rip the headphones from my head and threw them at wall, had to stop listening at that point, everything before the vocals in that song it's absolutely georgous, but man now I know what people mean with hifiman treble.

The other thing I noticed, and also the reason I suspect this is the most inneficient version of this HP it's because my dad told me he was not getting any bass, at all, from his DAP and when I hook this babies to my amp, I had to go to high gain and the temps rose to about 66 degrees, so this babies are drawing a lot of current, had to turn my usb control fans to bring temps down a bit.

This has me a little concern because these HP are relatively inexpensive and people are going to get the impression that because they're not that expensive, they're going to be able to run them and get great sound from their headphone jack out of their laptops or PC, which is not the case at all, you need a dedicated HP amp in order to get good sound from them, otherwise they're going to be incredibly boring and bland and you're not going to get a lot of volume out of them.

Planars are sometimes quite tough to drive for DAP's. E.g the new Dan Clark E3 planar, what I've tead, works only with the most efficient of DAPs. I have a Fiio M15S, which is quite powerfull, but have to say it struggles more or less with He1000Stealth. This might come a bit like a surprise if one thinks efficiency same way as with desktop amps. DAP's have to compromise so much between size and current capabilities.

 

[Erick Muller]

Planars are sometimes quite tough to drive for DAP's. E.g the new Dan Clark E3 planar, what I've tead, works only with the most efficient of DAPs. I have a Fiio M15S, which is quite powerfull, but have to say it struggles more or less with He1000Stealth. This might come a bit like a surprise if one thinks efficiency same way as with desktop amps. DAP's have to compromise so much between size and current capabilities.

Completely agree, even with a somewhat more efficient planar like my LCD2C, it struggles a bit with my dad's DAPs, tho it can sound pretty good on portable amps like my Shanling H5, but for the most part, planars will sound much more better from a dedicated desktop HP amp.

In comparison, I think the LCD2C sounds overall better than the HE400SE, and it can slam harder than them, but I think the hifiman has better resolution on the high end still, tho I do have to do a lot more EQ on the LCD2Cs in order to get the most out of them compared to the hifiman HE400SE tbh.

 

[huyrua811]

Hello, this is my first time posting on head-fi. Since I've been following this thread from the beginning, I want to share my feelings after owning the S17 Pro for a few days.

As I don't have many audio devices, I only own the ifi neo idsd2 and the Hifiman Edition XS as my only headphones, so I can only compare the S17 to the idsd2. My setup is PC (Qobuz) > idsd2 as DAC (RCA) > Aune S17 > xs (4.4 balanced)

The S17 seems to drive the XS very well. Everything is amplified larger, warmer and the added dynamics are fantastic. However, listening to it is not at all tiring. Although the idsd2 is a very smooth listening device but at some tracks bring out uncomfortable sibilant sounds but on the S17 this completely disappears. The immersive sound experience the S17 provides is what I want to highlight.

Is it because I'm lucky or has Aune improved in quality with recent batches? My S17 was manufactured in 2024, and the volume steps increase every 2 levels. I don't listen much at 50mA but at 100mA, I've never seen the temperature exceed 63°C. Although the temperature doesn't bother me, I've also experimented. I don't have a laptop cooling pad but I have a small battery-powered desk fan. And when I directed the airflow to the bottom of the S17 the temperature stopped rising and gradually decreased. The S17 had been raised by 2 inches before.

Another thing, I don't know if it's because I have less sensitive ears, but I completely don't notice the difference between 50mA and 100mA modes. But I noticed that temperature can affect the sound. I feel this amplifier runs very well at 53°C and above.

In conclusion, I love my S17 so much. This is the first time I've felt a worthwhile audio device. I don't know if another standalone DAC will provide a better sound experience but I think I'll stick with the neo idsd2. It truly is a lovely device for its compactness and convenience. I think I'll stop here, and my next goal will be another pair of headphones :"D

 

[AuneAudio]

Hello, this is my first time posting on head-fi. Since I've been following this thread from the beginning, I want to share my feelings after owning the S17 Pro for a few days.

As I don't have many audio devices, I only own the ifi neo idsd2 and the Hifiman Edition XS as my only headphones, so I can only compare the S17 to the idsd2. My setup is PC (Qobuz) > idsd2 as DAC (RCA) > Aune S17 > xs (4.4 balanced)

The S17 seems to drive the XS very well. Everything is amplified larger, warmer and the added dynamics are fantastic. However, listening to it is not at all tiring. Although the idsd2 is a very smooth listening device but at some tracks bring out uncomfortable sibilant sounds but on the S17 this completely disappears. The immersive sound experience the S17 provides is what I want to highlight.

Is it because I'm lucky or has Aune improved in quality with recent batches? My S17 was manufactured in 2024, and the volume steps increase every 2 levels. I don't listen much at 50mA but at 100mA, I've never seen the temperature exceed 63°C. Although the temperature doesn't bother me, I've also experimented. I don't have a laptop cooling pad but I have a small battery-powered desk fan. And when I directed the airflow to the bottom of the S17 the temperature stopped rising and gradually decreased. The S17 had been raised by 2 inches before.

Another thing, I don't know if it's because I have less sensitive ears, but I completely don't notice the difference between 50mA and 100mA modes. But I noticed that temperature can affect the sound. I feel this amplifier runs very well at 53°C and above.

In conclusion, I love my S17 so much. This is the first time I've felt a worthwhile audio device. I don't know if another standalone DAC will provide a better sound experience but I think I'll stick with the neo idsd2. It truly is a lovely device for its compactness and convenience. I think I'll stop here, and my next goal will be another pair of headphones :"D

Thanks for liking the S17 Pro For your "next goal" you may consider the AR5000

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/971107