These are just some short thoughts/impressions with less than a day of listening, this ain’t a review, and don’t treat it as one lol.
So I’ve been listening it to the dac for a bit now (actually picked it up pretty early this morning). I decided to be overkill I started off using the pinnacle 2 ultra with the mdr 10, and then later on tried out more reasonable amps and headphones with it. So far it’s pretty nice, and I do like it, but right off the bat, I do have to say you can hear it’s an ess chip, but it’s a good implementation, and doesn’t really bother me here, not to common that you get a more laid back and smoother ess.
So far my preferred filter is slow minimum, I do find the brickwall and hybrid interesting, although not something I would say is my preferred, and apodizing just sucked in this instance lol, other filters were good but average. Running using usb with the aune driver, power brick works well and no issues there. Preamp out worked fine from my like 1 min test to make sure it worked, nothing sounded off there.
Sound wise, it’s solid, perhaps a bit more fun and interesting tuned than most of the dacs in the price range, but not that unusual. The sound changed a bit depending on the opamps used, I got mine with the extra opamps + my own v5i:
OPA2134 (stock): Sounded fairly neutral and average, pretty decent and not bad stock, still enjoyable and gave a more laid back and slightly relaxed sound
OPA2604: Sounded a bit dry and lifeless bit more detail though than the 2134, also a higher noise floor imo but a bit better staging, prefer stock here actually
MUSES01: IMO an improvement over the 2134, more refined and neutral but a bit less smooth, a bit better at recreating space, good for neutral yet engaging
NJM5532: More aggressive than other options, a bit more narrow, kinda v? shape, not sure how to feel about this one atm, I really want to get ahold of a higher quality NE5532 and see though, this felt like a slight dip in quality almost felt broken
V5i: More “musical”, warmer yet maintain clarity, wider, almost more spacious, enjoyable fun choice for me at least
So I pretty much like the v5i for fun and muses01 for neutral, but I would want to spend more time of course lol. Stock ain’t bad though and you aren’t really missing out that much by not messing with op amps imo
Going off my experiences with the v5i, if you are looking for a fun and more ““musical”” dac, this is pretty good for the price, as imo if you were looking for fun in this range your options are limited. The muses01 is still enjoyable, so neutral with a hint of fun, also solid, but imo if you wanted something clean and neutral I would perhaps consider something else as it would get the job done for cheaper. Also these op amp changes aren’t drastic, but are noticeable, but I doubt they will make or break the sound for someone, just tweak it to your liking a bit better.
I do think this is a solid dac so far, but I would question how good it actually is. I think it’s good for the price, but imo not actually stand out stock, and a bit better with the muses or burson, but even then I still don’t think it lives up to the name of “magic” dac. A main competitor would be the el dac ii I would say, which is neutral with a hint of smoothness and sweetness, but I don’t have these side by side, but imo they are on a similar tier and I like both, the el dac ii is closer to the x8 with the muses imo, I think it would come down to amp pairing for which one I prefer.
Comparing to the e30, I do think the aune is better at detail, recreating space, a bit better timbre, and overall a bit higher performer, but that being said, IMO the e30 is close, and it’s really hard to justify the price jump imo, because once you get into the range of 300 usd for the aune, I would say it would be worth it instead to save for a higher tier of dac where the differences are way more apparent like a bifrost 2 or ares ii, also a dac1421 (which can typically be found used in the 500-600 range), which imo I think is really worth it over the aune even though it costs a fair bit more if you are looking to make a significant upgrade
That being said this is pretty solid, and I do like it, but it doesn’t really stand out to me as much as I thought it would. The fpga thing is mainly marketing imo, but I don’t really know what it’s doing in there (most likely handling usb or perhaps dac filters but idk) but it’s not really acting as a dac so calling it a fpga dac is misleading, and doing a really unfair comparison with higher end fpga dacs I have, it’s a multitude of leagues apart but again not fair comparison lol. A closer comparison with a real fpga dac would be the chord mojo, but I don’t have one of those on hand, and I don’t really rec using the mojo as a dedicated dac as there is not a true line out (double amping).
I would consider it if you are looking for something different yet good in the 300 range, but only if you don’t think you would be able to shell out the dough for some of the higher end more substantial dacs in the future (like the aforementioned b2, ares ii, 1421 etc), and the idea of opamp rolling appeals to you. But if you already have something like a d10, e30, or something along those lines with a single ended setup, I think it would be more worthwhile to save up for the aforementioned higher tier dacs that will actually offer you more for your money here if you plan on upgrading in the future.
Some good pairings that I tested with amps that I had on hand in the appropriate range would be the asgard 3 + x8 (this was overall solid, harshness was not an issue and it was pretty fun), the Gilmore Lite mk2 + x8 (I liked the burson here as it toned the highs of the gilmore a tad to a nice level, good detail too), hagerman tuba + x8 (I liked the muse here, was very reference sounding with the tuba, neutral), rnhp + x8 (with the burson this was pretty nice for timbre and spatial recreation for an ess). I would def prefer the higher end dacs I mentioned though with these amps as imo it would take them to another level, where the x8 would slightly upgrade them (currently on hand for what I would call midrange dacs I have the dac1421, ares ii (this one came today), and the parasound Zdac v.2, waiting on the bifrost 2 to come back in stock)
If stuff changes on how I feel, I’ll just update on that, and also eventually on if I am going to end up keeping this dac or not. Overall it’s good for the price and is different, but I don’t think it’s a class leader in performance or anything, but a nice outlier for ess dacs in terms of sonic signature and implementation, but I don’t think it does anything to place it in the realm of the higher end dacs in terms of performance, nor does it offer as much value as the topping e30 imo. It’s in a weird range price wise, I would be more enthusiastic about it if 200 was the price tag imo, but it’s a decent buy at 300 for what it is if you like what it has to offer and wouldn’t consider saving for a higher end dac in the future imo.
Edit: The closest actual fpga dac comparison I have at the moment is the chord hugo 2, and while I personally wouldn’t get it for the dac only, I do think it’s easily a higher class and the aune just doesn’t compare in most of all aspects, although that being said I think with the burson or warmer op amps it’s more fun for casual listening perhaps, but I would easily still pick the hugo 2 if I had the chance. But really not a fair comparison of course. Also to be clear here, I don’t think having fpga makes something better, but it does offer a different sound, I am more pointing out the mildly misleading marketing of the aune calling itself a “fpga dac”