Has anyone had a chance to listen to or read much about the Rockna Wavedream DAC?

[Saleh84]

well, new owner in 2020. last post in 2016, wonder how alive this thread is.

anyway, it's been a bit more than a month with; Rockna Wavedream signature balanced.

all I can say, what an absolute winner of a DAC! I think I have landed my end game here. I got so impressed that I had to register to leave my feedback, as I felt not enough information is available on the forums about this awesome DAC.

I haven't heard every converter out there, but I had a denafrips terminator for a year and a half, heard chord Dave extensively in my setup, and I know two people who own AC kassandra ref ii which is very well regarded as a top dac, and I have heard their system many, many times. I preferred the sound of Rockna over all of these, as it struck a perfect balance to me, and was the most life-like out of all of them. no additional beautification/ euphoric sound, no lack in any aspect, not mechanical nor clinical, not exaggerated, very "musical" and organic yet very detailed and dynamic. just an exteremly pure and truthful rendering of any track you throw at it! the main job of a DAC, executed perfectly nonetheless.

I believe this company deserves much more exposure for such performance/sound. maybe such positive feedback I just wrote would help. yes, I would recommend this DAC to a friend, actually, would highly recommend it!

I've just ordered the accompanying streamer, Wavedream NET, to have a pure I2s source (currently singxer SU-1 and laptop after I sold my Aurender N10), which according to what I read elevates the performance even more. is that even possible lol? anyhow will post an update when I get that. another month of wait...!

[Saleh84]

Just got my Rockna Wavedream NET server 3 days ago, too early to give a detailed and final opinion, but intial impressions are very positive - I'm quiet impressed!

Previously while waiting on NET, I have tried my WD signature dac with aurender N10 and singxer/laptop. Both had their advantages and short comings. N10 sounded somehow flat and boring but quite and well rounded, laptop/singxer/roon combo was more dynamic and alive but you could feel there is noise/jitter in the mix. Enter the wavedream NET!

First day, some hint of harshness was there, guess brand new everything esp in power supply section that needs to settle/break in. As soon as the second day, that was gone and the NET transformed into an awesome musical machine! Dynamics are unbelievable. i could immediately feel improvements everywhere, but bass refinement stood out immediately. Sound stage is bigger, deeper, separation enhanced. texture of instruments like i never heard before - details are there in spades. N10 can never compete with such presentation. It might be more laid back, but i prefer Rockna's more lively yet rounded sound. 

Well, everything matters in play back. I already have an etherregen, @AudioBang, you would love this switch I'm almost sure. It scales well with better power supplies - try to replace the stock brick as soon as you can with a linear PS or a decent switching PS like ifi ipower x.

talking about glare, i just had a friend over who brought 2 x AQ diamond RJ45s with him to replace two AQ vodkas i have as an experiment.

I have actually 3 rj45s in my setup: 1 vodka from wall to ubiquity edgerouter, 1 vodka from edgerouter to etherregen, the a diamond (all silver) to the wavedream NET. My mind got blown with every cable we swapped! I knew diamond was better than vodka already hence i had it as last cable before the server, but didn't expect the effect to go that much upstream! Things got quieter, separation got better, more importantly the disappearance of any hint of glare, dreamy roundness to die for. I'm replacing at least on of those vodkas now.

I believe doesn't matter what equipment you use, even the best ones in the world would still be affected if you introduce better cables or introduce a decent switch etc. Even the well regarded SGM extreme.

 

[Saleh84]

@AudioBang

Thanks. well, I want to point out that I'm no expert by any means to properly review or judge, nor have listened to many dacs, just been lucky to afford buying the WD and try it out then share my personal impressions the best way i could. the humble but worth mentioning list of dacs that i heard, contains denafrips terminator (my dac prior to the WD), heard chord dave many times in my own setup, then Aries cerat behemoth of a dac called kassandra ref ii. I have never even heard of the choices you mentioned above unfortunately.

The WD dac strikes a perfect balance to me. On its own with humble source it still flexes and shows some substantial capabilities. But in my case, owning a server like N10 for long (my previous server) i knew I need a proper server to unlock any dac's full potential and could not fully judge the WD before i do that. Recently and even before i make the WD dac move, i was getting tired from aurender sound, and started to hear its weaknesses more than its advantages. So for a brief moment i considered getting one of the current superstars of today, the SGM extreme or the pink faun 2.16, but their prices were way above what I planned to spend, I didn't want to build a DYI server like some friends of mine did, then I made the move from terminator to WD dac. My initial plan was to wait for wavelight server as I had no need for CD at all, but i could not wait till rockna releases it, got the NET instead. 3 days into using the rockna stack, im short; My feeling was Rockna should push more towards selling them as a package as some told me while i was waiting my NET!

I lived with singxer as source for 2 months, borrowed  my friend's N10 few times, even borrowed an auralic G1 for a couple of days. But once you hear something "better", you get a better understanding of what was missing. In this case with NET, way more of every good trait, amplifying and lifting up the dac performance (the dac on its own is very good but no comparison). what caught my attention after the slightly disappointing day 1, is increased dynamics, increased details, beautiful textures, the perfect amount of body and sweetness was added. My laptop/singer/roon combo was behind aurender in mids/vocals reproduction and sounded thinner, but had better attack, dynamics and the transparency (its laughable but true!). The NET kept those good traits, surpassed them by a good amount, AND gave the sweetness and fullness of aurender beautiful mids. Ah, again, the incredible hard hitting, beautifully textured bass that starts and stop almost instantly (well many other components play a role in that, I'm talking about the streamer part in bass reproduction). Then the bigger, deeper stage with better separation and allocation of instruments in a virtual 3d space, the usual cliche of describing an improvement . Also, the pitch black background quietness that you get only with a decent server design, another cliche which its true here. In all honesty if i had to put in percentage, i would say maybe 40% improvement over something that was already excellent. After hearing the changes I got, some friends are even curious to try the NET in their setups with their Dacs, particularly my friend who owns the kassandra, as he doesn't want to pay 25k euro for an extreme now. If it works fir him and the synergy was better than his aurender N10 (yeah we both had N10s), he will get one. I think it would be easily the case from what I'm hearing now!

I would advise you to try and listen first for yourself, what i might enjoy may not suit you. Rockna sound is lively, dynamic, well timed, pure, and musical. Not focused on emotional traits being "warm" or "dense" type of sound, nor laid back, but its not thin/ brutal or aggressive by any means either. it has the musicality to engage you and the right amount of everything. Its hard to characterise, really. From one track to the other, its colour changes.

It all boils down to what is your preference and must haves in your priority list of expectations from a high end dac. Hope that i have been of help

[Saleh84]

Hi ag3,

 

Glad you are enjoying the dac, its absolutely phenomenal. I have only heard the signature but I'm sure yours is very close. 

 

From the i2s servers you mentioned, I have just heard the NET. However, the discovery I made after experimenting other outputs of the NET (usb and coax), also other servers within my friend's group, such as aurender n10 (my previous server), auralic g1, DCS network bridge, and a custom built server: 

1)the NET literally walked all over those. Its better by a good margin on all aspects.

2)the NET strength is not the I2s. Its the NET itself! I2s is a slightly better, but i would recommend this server with any dac even if it doesn't have an i2s input. Any output on the NET would do, for real. honestly speaking, right now i feel its a better value than the dac. That's how awesome it is.

 

From chatting with Nucu, the wavelight server is very close to NET performance minus the CD memory player section. I would have bought a wavelight, but i just couldn't wait till its available. I have no CDs at all.

 

You wavedream dac will surprise you, how much better it would sound when coupled with NET or wavelight (any dac in fact would). My suggestion, look no further, i firmly believe in this price segment, the rockna servers are superior and will crush anything. I'm surprised they don't have more recognition for the servers, but mostly the dacs. 

 

For I2s cable, I'm an audioquest fan. They have a pure solid silver HDMI, called diamond. Its also available in 60 cm length. The shorter the better I believe with i2s. I'm quite happy with it, sound is perfectly balanced. I got 1m length, but 60cm also would work and will save you some $$$. 

 

topping all that off, just started powering my ubiquity router and etherregen with a paul hynes sr5 dual rail instead of ifi dc bricks. All i can say it was worth the 4 months wait! I can't really believe the sound that I'm getting right now. I doubt I'm touching my digital end for a very very long time. I might try at some point to source an amp which is matching my cube speaker even more (the tube LM845 amp i have right now is great, but it has some small amount of negative feedback which is not ideal). The cube speakers are quite sensitive to the specifications of amplification, and if curiosity gets me again, that's the only thing i might tinker with. Besides that, consider me retired ))

[Saleh84]

Agree about streamer role.

I have had the wavedream NET server for months now. Its literally "half" the sound of the whole digital front end! I honestly also think its a better overall value than the dac itself among rockna offerings. It crushes the performance of the aurender n10, and many other servers that i tried to compare to, including dcs network bridge and auralic g1/g2. 

[Saleh84]

Hi,

 

I do have wavedream signature dac and NET.

I can tell you the difference between USB and I2s is not massive. But the difference between not having the NET in your chain is.

NET is just a great server. And also a CD player (i don't use that bit much).

The I2s gives you a bit more of everything. But USB is not at all far behind. And some other people found that USB input from a server like SGM extreme was better than NET with I2s, so to have you relax, I2s is not a must, its the preferred connection method for rockna servers to get the last bit of performance.

 

By the way, if you are not already listening to DSD and favouring it, don't start, there is not advantage in my opinion. Most DSD tracks are just taken from a PCM source. We don't really need more that 16 bit 44.1 khz to enjoy. So if that's what's holding you from the pink faun card, i advise you not to. I used to have this format anxiety few years back when i was buying my first dac. Its all gimmicks))

 

Lastely, I get in touch at times with Rockna to ask questions, they are great people, just unbelievably extremely busy. Also, they are perfectionists. the wavelight server won't be released until its perfected, lets hope its the upcoming couple of months!

 

 

[Saleh84]

I always hope everyone could listen before they buy. I bought its blind, but ended up liking it A LOT.

Let it break and don't really judge before a lottt of hours. I noticed r2r dacs take time to break in. First with denafrips terminator, then with wavedream.

Rockna have a unique method with clocks. They can get better timing without resorting to something expensive and extreme like OCXO. I know that cause my NET replaced my aurender n10 with such fancy clock, and its a much better sounding server.

According to Nucu (you can find him of FB btw, and he replies!) If you are not sure about source clock, use "stream" clock. It keeps refreshing the dac internal clock more often for better timing. If you are connected to a good source, i.e NET or wavelight server, use local. It will "lock" on the server clock. 

My advice, wait for the dac, break it in, use your pink faun with AQ carbon (i have AQ diamond and just ordered a dargon 48, that hurt financially but I'm super curious to try it). You will be happy. When the next Audiophile upgrade wish hits you, hopefully the wavelight server would be ready, and i assure you, it will blow your mind )) 

 

[Saleh84]

One last advice, the shorter the hdmi cable, the better according to Nucu and also other people on the internet. I2s is not meant to travel long distances. 60cm is perfect, 1m is acceptable too. Don't go longer!

[Saleh84]

A month is actually good )) mine arrived in 6 weeks!

Rockna do not keep stocks, They only build to order and in batches. Hence the wait! Its not about shipping by any means as far as I know

[Saleh84]

28 minutes ago, Zurv said:

i did ask. They only told me the size. 

I have SR orange in both wavedream dac and NET. They are 3.15 A slow blow both, as per what rockna told me. I think you can also read the value on stock fuse metal cap, it tiny but the value should be there.

I certainly don't recommend an 8A or 10A! If anything goes south, your fuse won't blow before the the precious internals get fried.

On a dac/ streamer, you don't need to even increase the amps value slightly. On an amplifier, a little of an increase is fine. But my experience is they keep blowing on amps. So I don't use Audiophile fuses there ))

[Saleh84]

Oh yeah i forgot that i live in s 230V Country.

Better to check with rockna or examine stock fuse upclose

[Saleh84]

On rockna wavedream, you set the volume to max, that's 0db. This is the full output (no pre), no button on sitting just keep the volume at max.

[Saleh84]

Hi Zurv,

 

Sorry to hear about the issues you faced with your unit! But trust that Rockna will be on top of it till its resolved. My personal experience was nothing short of sublime! Just make sure they are well informed and watch them take action.

[Saleh84]

@Zurv Just a couple of days ago i watched a review for holo may ketsune edition or whatever that is called. I got intrigued to be honest! But i kind of stopped drooling over reviewers words without hearing things myself. We need someone who heard them both next to each other and is no biased )) 

 

[Saleh84]

Yes its that video review )) i also liked his video about MQA. It Confirmed my personal feeling and experience!

Well all my cabling is AQ, hehe. Psc+ or pss where i can afford it. Quiet some investment. They are very dynamic and transparent, so they will expose any issues/flaws. So i can understand where you are coming from not liking them much.

If you stream as your main source (tidal/qobuz), a good streamer + ethernet treatment is a must. Else stick to CD and you will be fine. Streaming from whatever source can totally suck, especially if your equipment and cables are very revealing, like your focal or AQ cables. They don't add any sweetness (colour) unless its there! 

Its the first time i hear about I2S in rockna not being bit perfect!! Who said so? To update firmware, you have to play a special file in bit perfect file and I have done that two times already. You sure you didn't get the information wrong? 

And yeah, use a good streamer )) NET is a perfect match for the WD, I had the dac for a month before I got it, so i know from first hand experience.

[Saleh84]

I just checked with Nucu to be sure. I2S is 100% bit perfect! ))

[Saleh84]

Yeah Nucu in his email meant there are different I2S protocols with different pins assigned for each. I think your pink faun one is same as PS audio and Rockna I2S. Just give it a try ))

Strange about the USB issue. WD USB implementation is a fine one. Could be software, i suggest you ask Rockna about that. 

I tried both USB and I2S out of the NET. I liked I2S more. Ended up with AQ diamond hdmi then recently a dragon 48 Hdmi, and it is certainly an improvement.

[Saleh84]

The cable is one thing, what its plugged in between is something else )

I used to doubt that the higher you go up in a cable manufacturer ladder can do much. But as I changed gear I noticed some equipment were unleashed by a good cable and shined through, lesser gear not so much. so there is a bit of truth to such statements (not by any means trying to justifying crazy high end cable prices by the way).

If you would take my advice, sell the PF cards, the pi, and get one solid streamer. It all works together in combination: the ethernet, the cpu, the power supply (that's a big one), the clock, the output section, and in case of NET there is even an fpga board. If you don't want the NET, get any other proper streamer. It will shock you the difference that makes.

[Saleh84]

If you are already happy, then do not try the NET or any other good streamer. You can't un-hear that ;)

[Saleh84]

For me, you and anyone who is already happy with the current performance of a system they have!

[Saleh84]

8 hours ago, Zurv said:

flipping thru the options i don't see an option for different modes. hrmm.. there are 2 inputs on the back. Maybe they are different.. but..  no documents came with the unit. The manual online is from 2014...

How would you change it on the WL?

 

On the plus side, the popping i was getting from the PF USB bridge is gone. Disconnecting the battery pack on the AQ diamond cables did the job. It was still only an issue related to the PF, but i feel a little bit better that something is working. :)

I'm still loving the unit, but i think this is the last time i'm getting costly gear from out of the way places/vendors. RE: Rockna 

 

Are you finding any change when switching clocks on your wavelight? local/streaming? I don't. (i only have the OCXO clock on the PF - but i didn't expect it to. I wanted to make sure i wasn't missing something. Now i know.)

So far my fav sound is going thru HQplayer.. but I have one album on my PC. :D 

 

There is no way the the AQ battery pack was causing pops! Full loom here including digital cable, never happened! It was probably that you haven't installed the audio driver earlier. Installing the drivers for Windows pc is a must, even though you could have audio without it.

Wavedream has only one I2S configuration. So its a bummer your PF card is not configured for it. Can it be reconfigured?

LPS on the cards is 100% better than using on board PC power! You don't that by any means )) if you manage to make PC power to work, you will find out for yourself.

Are you using an S-booster? I tried that LPS once, didn't like it much. A bit on the slow side. I have a paul hynes SR5 T now. Just awesome! And yes the LPS affect the SQ heavily.

Lastly, about clock modes, Nucu explained that to me once; 

Use stream is you are not sure about your source clock quality, i.e your case, keep it on stream. The dac will keep refreshing its clock for better overall results. If you are sure about source, like using a NET / aurender or any other "good" streamer, set the clock to Local.

Hope this helps, I have been thorough your phase, so just be patient ))

Something else to keep in mind, these R2R dacs take ages to fully break in. Give it a 500 hrs at least. So many freah resistors /caps /circuitry to break in and allow the SQ to be consistent. At least that's my personal experience if you don't believe in break in yourself.

[Saleh84]

Hi Prinz,

 

If new unit, from my personal experience give it at least 500 hours of play time for sound to settle/stop changing and finish break in. It can sound relatively harsh in its early days, just like any other audio component breaking in.

Try linear filter or NOS, more R2R sound than hybrid which has speed but more delta sigma like sound vs linear.

And yes your source plays a big role in sound signature. Try it with different servers if you can, the sound will change. I have the NET and i like it, but its not the only option out there.

 

[Saleh84]

Hi Prinz,

 

That's definitely interesting having all these dacs at once to play with! Would be looking forward to hear what you find out.

 

Its been a long time relatively since i got my WD. Generally speaking, I have came to notice while trying many audio devices over the past years, that when you plug a new device in, for the first few hours or a day/two, sound signature usually tend to be real close to what the final sound will be but lacking some details/refinement, maybe even some dynamis. Then somehow things go south, north and the sound keeps on changing for a while. I attribute this to breaking in the internals, caps, resistors, etc. With R2R dac which i owned two of them so far, I noticed its usually a longer process than other equipment. I could be wrong, could be placebo, but that's my own finding. Some people don't believe in break in, and yeah it could be simply imaginations or AC fluctuations. But i do believe in break in. I can't remember the stages I've been through with the wavedream signature, but there was a time in like a week/two weeks in, where it became a bit sharper, lost some mids/body, then came back to balance. 500 hrs should show u what it would be like really, the rest is tweaks in the settings up to your liking and a proper source. Its sensitive to that esp with clock setting on local. If unsure of source, use stream.

Its a great capable dac, but after all it boils down to your preference. Just make sure to give it proper play time before you decide if its your cup of tea or not.

[Saleh84]

Completely the opposite of this interpretation from what Nucu/rockna told me, even yours makes sense based on clock profile names. Here is what what i have been told:

Local will "lock" the dac clock on the better streamer clock, like in case with NET. It will follow the better clock.

Stream is when you are doubt the source quality, the dac clock will keep refreshing itself to maintain best sound possible instead of following the source clock.

[Saleh84]

Good choice Prinz! Had an aurender N10 earlier, the NET bested it in every aspect. 

Now get yourself a decent short HDMI to connect I2s))

My choice was AQ 48 dragon 60cm (replacing an AQ diamond). Its expensive but that's me, i have a full AQ loom and love thier PSS cables