Teamwork over individuals. Since I couldn't find any on the interwebs, I asked my contact for some photos of facility and workforce. "We've always kept a relatively low profile to focus on our products rather than put particular individuals in the spotlight. We prefer to let our products speak for themselves and present aune as a unified brand. That said, we understand your intention to present aune in a better light and generate more interest in our brand. So we do have some photos for you. But they don't show headphones. Maybe in the future we will have more relevant photos. I'd also like to share the AR5000 video with you which includes the history of aune. We currently have 42 employees and our factory covers ~1'200m²."

AR9000 x HE1000 Unveiled. At €1'690, Shanling's EM7 all-in-one with a 1TB microSD local library felt price appropriate. At 7wpc/32Ω balanced, it's sufficiently athletic even for Susvara and Raal 1995's Magna. At €2'399, this denuded version of the HE1000 of course rather eclipsed aune's ask. Did this park the HifiMan on a clearly higher floor? For penthouse ancillaries, this same listening station could still escalate to the Cen.Grand twins of DSDAC 1.0 Deluxe and SilverFox amp to check whether the AR9000 would escalate in lockstep. A €10K pack just isn't what most buyers will leash the AR9000 up to. Let's start off reasonable. That, alas, proved quickly harder done than said. Somewhat unreasonably, the aune levelled up—on its own path of ascent so on the far side of the mountain. The HifiMan played it more glossy, shiny and airy. Its staging felt wider, its separation even keener. Yet this same surface gloss, on the close-mic'd violins of Claude Chalhoub's first album for example, betrayed subtle undertones of glassiness; a faint pre-echo of minor stridency. Also, HifiMan's sonic substance clearly trailed aune's. Once my music selections added bass content and wider dynamics, the AR9000 played its other aces. Whilst its imaging seemed more intimate; whilst its textures were undeniably more matte or satin, its aeration lower—the aune's darker earthier ambiance was just as attractive as HifiMan's more exhibitionist brightness. At 20 grams less and decidedly smaller, even on wear the AR9000 ticked off boxes. The HE-1000 Unveiled's focus on resolution and detail was the more obvious, its perceived quickness semi electrostatic. It's a different aesthetic just as valid. It's lighter in both senses: less weighty, more illuminated. The aune turns up black values, heft, dynamic expression and tone density. One prioritizes spaciousness, the other incarnation factor. One is more suspended, the other more grounded. One idealizes chamber music in the nearfield, the other rocks out and delivers heavier more cracking punch. Regardless of your poison, you'll probably agree. Both trade off the same counter in the same upscale boutique. One simply costs quite a bit more; and wants extra care in its denuded state. With HifiMan's magnetized covers a bit of a faff, the AR9000 is clearly the more easy-going of the two.

These observations used both sets of electronics. The far longer signal path below was Shanling ⇒ USB ⇒ DAC ⇒ balanced autoformer volume control with remote ⇒ amp. As shown, most my listening took place at 40dB down from the DAC's fixed 5Vrms XLR output. In practice the HE-1000 Unveiled needed a bit less signal voltage for the same SPL. Off the Shanling's turbo gain mode, the aune sat at ~30/100 on the dial. The step up in ancillaries influenced LF dynamics and resolution the most—just not proportionate to adding €10'000 without yet factoring extra cabling. Blinging out the AR9000 with gear well beyond its neighbourhood really isn't necessary to unleash the lion's share of its potential. It's a very different tale with my OG Susvara. Here too the aune goes easy. At €1'099, the ultra-spec Topping A900 of just the facts actually makes a fine aune partner. The amp's extremely low noise floor and high drive prioritize detail capture and damping whilst the AR9000 still managed to convert this drier diet to impressive body and materialistic immersion. This teamwork played to the attraction of opposites and on price remains realistically balanced.

What about tossing all coin caution to the cold wind of wickedness with Enleum's $6'500 AMP-23R and its 6¼wpc into 32Ω? For that I had to convert aune's cable to its 6.3mm termination. The Enleum is my collection's favourite and costliest headfi amp. This chain started with four series-connected network switches—two in the office plus another two at the tail end of the 20m CAT8a link connecting to this room—a maxed-out 27" iMac with Audirvana Studio, a LHY Audio USB isolator, a Sonnet Pasithea DAC and Hattor Audio ARP-S quad autoformer passive-magnetic preamp. With this hardware assemblage, would I hear anything from the aune I hadn't yet? Truth told, I didn't expect to.