Review: Aune X7s – shooting the moon

Disclaimer: Aune graciously provided the X7s sample for the purposes of this review. The X7s goes for about 250$ USD. You can find out all about it here: Aune X7s Class-A balanced output headphone amplifier.

Relevant links:

Review: MyST OrtoPhones – Uplifting
Aune B1 Review – Vincent
Vorzüge Pure ii Review
Vorzüge PURE II+ Review
Lynx Studio Technology HILO Review

Not sound

Aune’s X7s’s attenuator knob is mostly naff. Its sharp edges are of no utilitarian value. Neither does it pivot equally between MIN and MAX values, my unit favoring MAX by about thirty degrees. And, it sits off kilter, wobbling slowly with every nudge up or down. The good news is that it turns smoothly.

Aune X7s-4

For 249$, just about everything else is groovy. Purists may decry its use of a phase splitter rather than an IN-OUT dedicated balanced circuit. They’d have a point. And yet, despite its few faults, the X7s is a powerful, sensible amp.

Another insensible thing is the X7s’s electronic manual. Aune have buried it in a plastic USB sliver. At least it’s not on a CD or DVD. It can’t have been done for environmental reasons. I mean, gee whiz: if you’re going to thrust it in a plastic blister inside another plastic blister alongside a business card, why not just first print out a simple manual and forgo the plastic? Why make it that much harder for users like me, like Thom, like Gracie, and Kuko, to find use?

Isn’t it time to away with electronic user manuals.

Let’s get back to the volume attenuator. I understand that Aune added a top plate to help suss its position when in a dark room. I get that, I really do. But nowhere else in the X7s is such stylistic flourish used. And, as I said above, it’s not properly aligned between stops. Shame that.

But let’s be done with design criticism.

Aune X7s-3

Everything else about the X7s can be judged against its feature set and price- not a tack I like to take. Price is price. Branding, build, quality of after-sales support do fit into that. But it’s complicated. Things simplify a bit when a product offers so much for so little. Which almost perfectly describes the X7s.

Two pair of RCAs run the amp’s IN/OUT array, including the pre-amp output. The volume attenuator governs the voltage spat therefrom. It’s a dead-simple, tried and true method. It’s problem is cross-talk. Plugging an output line into the pre-out results in a minute portion of the music turning back into the headphone output section where it shouldn’t be fed back into the input at all. The other problem is that the last 15% of the attenuator’s travel is dead, with no perceptible rise in volume. Of course, that travel is beyond its MAX label.

At least for its ostensible targets, the latter issue is of little import. Crossfeed between the IN and OUT ports, however, could present problems and should be looked into.

Sound and more after the jump or the click below:

3.9/5 - (88 votes)
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Back before he became the main photographer for bunches of audio magazines and stuff, Nathan was fiddling with pretty cool audio gear all day long at TouchMyApps. He loves Depeche Mode, trance, colonial hip-hop, and raisins. Sometimes, he gets to listening. Sometimes, he gets to shooting. Usually he's got a smile on his face. Always, he's got a whisky in his prehensile grip.

6 Comments

  • Reply August 11, 2016

    Barun C

    Nice article Nathan. At sub $250 this is really a bargain, pity amps like these were not around when I started my journey in audiophilia. So, this seems like a pretty good pick for your top 10 picks in 2016.

  • Reply March 5, 2017

    Daniel

    Would you suggest getting the Aune S6 over the X1s+X7s combo? I’m looking to jump on to the HiFi world of headphones. But I’ve heard the s6 is too weak on the singled ended output…

  • Reply May 16, 2017

    Kirk

    How does this compare to the Schiit Asgard 2?

  • Reply August 3, 2017

    mark

    Anyone tried LCD-2f Aune X7s, I am thinking of this or Arcam Rhead.

    I can live with neutral, but would like a little bit warm sound.

  • Reply November 12, 2017

    Eddie

    Would it be beneficial to add a linear power supply to this?

  • Reply May 15, 2022

    Indrajit

    Hi. I have recently bought an Aune X7s + Sennheiser HD 650. I used the hd 650 through a 4 pin XLR balanced cable with the X7s. However I feel that on high gain the sound is very loud and overpowered very quickly and becomes too warm and noisy. I have read on internet that the HD 650 needs more voltage swing as opposed to current. So can u tell me whether switching to medium gain or changing gain settings change the voltage swing. Changing gain settings does influence loudness but does it also influence voltage swing which the hd 650 needs more.

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