My 3-metre custom Forza AudioWorks cable with extra-long 3.5mm plugs could service all the cans in this round. To suss out voltage-gain sufficiency, the lot ran off the 6.3mm output whilst the amp saw a 2Vrms RCA signal to mock up buyers without balanced sources or 4.4mm headphone wiring. When my ears called it loud, the entire quad of aune AR5000, Final D8000, FiiO FT7 and Meze 109 Pro sat at or below 20 on the dial and within 5 clicks of one another. My book thus called the N7's voltage gain in unbalanced mode just right for the type over-ears which shoppers in this league are likely to plug in. Of course we'd assume that aune did their homework but a reviewer's job is to check regardless. Signed, Oscar Kirby¹. To check on humdingers off standard 2V sources, I still waited on this 4.4mm/XLR4 adapter to tap aune's 6.5 watts at 32Ω with my XLR4-wired Susvara, Magna and Immanis.
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¹ Just as few audio reviewers hear ear to ear so are the origins of 'okay' debated. Some say the term goes back to quality controller Oscar Kirby at General Motors whose initials signed off on successful inspections. Others invoke military slang for zero killed; or the initials of 8th US president Martin Van Buren whose nickname was Old Kinderhook for the place of his birth; or an abbreviation of the jocular 'oll korrekt' which looks like regional German for 'all correct'. Some linguistic experts call OK or okay the most popular word in any language. Not bad for two initials no matter their origin.

Once my adapter landed, Susvara hit my high levels at 24/30 off the Laiv DAC's 2Vrms feed. That ran non-stop but well vented for two hours in high gain/bias modes to again level out at 37°C. Though this is an extremely unlikely pairing, if there are price-appropriate N7 headphone mates as bone-headed on inefficiency as Susvara, this created a useful data point. Enter XLR for a bit more headroom. Typically a source's XLR feed doubles the signal voltage over RCA. My top-resolution HifiMan detour including the Magna/Immanis ribbons reiterated that despite automatic class A buyer bias, the N7 doesn't conform to notions of lush, warm, bodacious or cuddly. Here high colour temperatures for tone saturation hold hands with energetic pace, rhythm and timing and apparently very high damping. Those aspects reach far deeper into the steep-feedback class D drawer than discrete class A lore might suggest. That's no criticism, just an observation for correct expectation management. Think class D for damped control, snap and clarity, class A for deep tone colours. Or leave class of operation entirely out of it and just focus on the actual qualities.

If you run cans with built-in tone sophistication like the golden voice coils of Susvara or the hybrid gold/silver traces of FiiO's €749 FT7, you already enjoy a form of the lush life. Now this amp will boost the proposition with a youthful adrenaline injection of quick reflexes and pert stoppages. If you want softness and laissez-faire, the S17 Evo will give you a small dose. On that score the N7 pretty much abstains. It does wetness but not softness. Once again I couldn't really track aune's hi/lo-bias feature. I thought it more of a talking than listening point. It reminded me of that convertible headphone from Mallorca. Its rotating end plates either open perforations or seal them off. It sounds the same either way.

Having covered the what-can-it-drive question and basic personality, my concluding comments used its stablemates AR5000 [below] and SR7000 as stand-ins for the most likely date types. Coming on heroic song below 15 on the 4.4mm high-gain dial, the N7's halved volume steps over Evo showed their limits. Where 15 means max to not clip our ears, that's narrow range from full mute. Selecting the right combo of source voltage, lo/hi gain and 6.3/4.4mm port maximizes our attenuation clicks on less demanding loads. Just because 6.5wpc, higher gain or 4Vrms+ XLR connections are available doesn't mean we must use them (all) if our cans already sing on far lower gain. Whilst some swear by premium IEM over big over-ears even in stationary use, I'm no fan of clogged-up ear canals nor see why a deliberately powerful amp should pair with ultra-efficient in-ears. A little old lady doesn't need an Escalade to go grocery shopping. Hence no such silliness from me.

With neither aune headphone of the deliberately coloured persuasion, the primary attraction atop the basics of linearity, bandwidth and resolution—the latter served by the N7's absentee noise—was the already covered intensity gradient. By combining the crisp diction and taut stoppages of Ncore-type speaker amps with the radiance of high colour temps one hopes for from single-ended specimens, the N7's calling card was terrific rhythmic propulsion from adroit timing plus high timbre saturation. For someone fluent in nerdy hifi terminology, I'd abbreviate this as a hybrid of zero-NFB class A + high-NFB class D. It's not classic class A sound. It's not mellow, thick or earthy. For that matter, neither does it run hot, weigh much or cost a lot. For the other matter, it runs off a declassé wall-wart brickie. That could be a turnoff if the sell price was thrice. Here it's ideal enabler for a brilliant S/NR and small chassis. The cigarillo metal remote simply goes beyond. Whilst the display is too dim and small to remain legible in classic preamp mode a few metres from the chair, the RCA/XLR line-outs and remote volume do serve such double duty. Just use a light finger on those ± volume buttons to not loud up too rapidly; unless you want a pseudo mute function in the other direction. Finally the N7 styles and finishes cleanly to sidestep anything plasticky; and is available through the below Amazon US link with all the benefits this incurs. If you live in Ireland, that adds $114 in shipping and import fees. European reseller Audiophonics in France only bill our kind €429 with VAT; or €529 for the N7 DAC Edition with rear-mounted USB-C input.

To return to my opening gambit on the cheap, it's not as forbidden a word as really loaded foul insults. Still, makers don't like the 'c' word. To them it isn't a vital vitamin but sour pill. They prefer 'affordable' because it's close to 'affable'. So let's call aune's N7 precisely that: a very affable chap with what in this context is hulking power and all necessary functionality plus distinctive 'hybrid' sound performance which to adrenaline fans of superb cardio should be a high dose of vitamin C. Thanks go to aune's Shelly Chen who proposed this assignment. Without her I'd not have known about their new N7 to here present it to you.