I actually have 2 Singxer SA-1 amps & I like the sound of them. They were $599 each when I got them a couple of years ago.
The Aune S17 Pro is $699 currently. I don’t know if it would be any better than my SA-1 in any way other than it costs $100 more.
Who has tried both or has both? Are there any substantial differences in sound?
Haven’t tried both tbh, but I recently bought the S17, it might be a slight improvement over the singxer.
My understanding with the singxer SA-1 and the reason I went for the S17 instead was that in order to get the most performance out of the singxer, you have to do a relatively simple mod inside the amp but you have to make damn sure that it’s not going to damage the rest of your equipment and I don’t have the tools nor the know-how to determine that myself tbh.
What I noticed with the S17 is that at first the sound it’s kind of lean and not as warm as reviewers like zeos and others that have reviewed it said, and I did my burn-in of the amp for a couple of weeks, the thing that I didn’t know you have to do in order the get the warm tube-like sound from it is that you absolutely need to give it a work out with a high impedence headphone like a HD600 series or a BD DT880 600 ohm for about a week or so and then it got to be absolutely amazing sounding and it it’s going to affect the sound of everything you plug into them.
But being real here with you, and take this with a grain of salt given that I listen to headphones at relatively high volumes, so this might not be a problem for you or other people, but the S17 does struggle a bit, not a lot, but a bit with SEN HD650 if you listen to them at high volumes, I actually think I’m hearing the amp distorting a bit, but that’s almost going full volume at high gain, they still sound amazing, but I do hear the occasional crackle depending what music I’m listening too.
So considering all of this, if you want a real and noticiable updgrade from the Singxer, you probably have to move to something like FLUX LABS amp, the balanced one or maybe even to the new schiit mjolnir 3 in order to have a noticiable audio uplift, if you want a fully balanced, class A headphone amp.
Hope this helps you.
Hello,
I have just received the S17 yesterday, my current AMP has been Singxer SA-1 V1 combined with the ARES2 DAC firmware 1.8. My primary headphones are VERUM 1 MK2 with 7 ohm of impedance.
After few hours of listening yesterday night, I need to admit, S17 is not the upgrade by one step compared to the Singxer, it is an upgrade 2 steps up or more.
The price difference between the 2 amps is absolutely ridiculous in the US. In the Europe is much wider 430 vs 699. Anyway, for 700,- S17 is no brainer and the bargain. Best AMP I have ever heard period.
The sound of S17 is effortless, under full control, mellow, clear, the TUBE effect is there, however, your experience might differ with your specific audio system.
I would not use the S17 for the high impedance headphones, even though, it claims a lot of power in that impedance range. I would look at some dedicated high impedance headphones amps. I see the S17 as an ideal choice for the planars with the low impedance.
The unit is not perfect though, the volume knob is a disaster, you do not want to touch it, I control it via the remote which works great, LCD screen is quite basic with poor view angles, there are almost none vent holes, usual temperature is 55degress at 50mA. On the other hand, the overal build is solid with the quality neutrik connectors. Almost all the money went into the electronic components of the device, nobody should expect a perfect chi-fi device for 700,- btw. the preamp out is always on and S17 does not have any standby button.
It is a keeper for me, Singxer has been dethroned in the price range by a lot of margin.