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


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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 

image.thumb.png.4aea7a51a062a00830f846624c2f2ffd.png

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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 

image.thumb.png.4aea7a51a062a00830f846624c2f2ffd.png

 

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.

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Just a small technical note
1. I played Rockna for about 500 hours before the sound completely settled
2. I don't use any resampling on the streamer side, when using HQPlayer resampling I didn't like the sound, so I play in the native resolution of the recording via OS Euphony Stylus

3. I use SOTM tx USBexp PCie card

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Good to know. Are you sure your brain didn't settle in over 500 hours? :)  the core issue with any burn in.  (well.. other than speakers... those have moving parts.) (Not questioning you.. but all of us.)

speakers... i'm super suck trying to burn them in.  It isn't like i can keep them playing music when i'm working or sleeping :) Focal says 100+ hours.. and i think i put like 5 hours on them... from watching TV...

Maybe i can't hear as well as i think i can. Age shouldn't have hit me too bad. (I'm in my mid 40s.. never played loud music via headphones when younger.. and in hate loud music. I'm the dummy at weddings that has the ear plugs in too.

On not hearing differences, all the filters seem to same to me. Are you guys noticing changes? I've only been testing with hi res stuff.

I do notice the difference going via HQplayer. So i notice something :)  

 

side note, PinkFaun's support was great. They are going to replace my i2s card with the channels flipped.

 

 

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18 minutes ago, louawalters said:

For WL the I2S mode is in the menu  - I2S mode 1, 2 or 3.   But strangely enough, there is no option for local or remote clock.

I built a custom end-point with PF 12S no fan, no HD, and it runs Euphony Endpoint.  It is a new generation low power AMD, so uses a big ass copper heat sink to cool CPU (no CPU fan).  6 cores so no issues running HQPlayer.  ROON server sits on the other side of the house, network is fiber single mode into the audio room, where it terminates to ether regen.   I am finding that I actually prefer the sound of USB straight off of the motherboard.  To me it sounds more organic.  I2S to me sounds slightly more lively but can sound forced on some recordings.   I am using an external power supply (FARAD) to power the pink faun.   I have a JCAT USB XE on order, and will try that (with the Farad external power supply).   I am not expecting much of a change.   I am currently using HQPLAYER, and find that it does make a subtle improvement.  I do not use RAAT streaming protocol at all, even without HQ up-sampling on the endpoint, Euphony allows to stream using NAA protocol from ROON and that sounds significantly better.  In my system, moving ROON server out of the stereo room, as well as the spinning hard drive, made the biggest improvement.      I am contemplating upgrading to either the Wavedream Balanced or Holo May.   I am not sure how much of an improvement I will actually realize though.    I upgraded from a PS Audio Direct Stream, and yes the Wavelight was better, but it wasn't night and day.   Upgrading the streamer, IMHO made a more significant improvement.   BUT - the rest of my system is fully balanced, and I wonder if a fully balanced R2R is the way to go.   Still very much unsure.  @zurv, is your WD the Standard Balanced version or the Signature?

 

 

 

Thanks for your input on the USB and HQplayer.

I'm using the standard balanced edition. It also shows version RD-1.1 when the unit boots up. I wonder if the .1 upgrade is something new or happened a while ago.

It is my understanding that Rockna when thru a few upgrades. MSB.. then custom chips.. then new custom chips? *shrug*

I think a bunch of us are wondering how the DW holds up to the May. I have a feeling i'll likely get one by the end of the year - sadly i don't have the ears or equipment to test which is "better"

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4 hours ago, PavelDosko said:

... without comment ...

 

what OS uses your streamer ? PF I2S is not for linux based streamers with Intel processors 

Most I2S (pinkfaun.com)

Yup - I learnt that the hard way.  Although I knew there was a possibility that it wouldn't work with my initial Intel Board.   I now have AMD board and using Euphony Stylus.  No issues whatsoever....  Just not sure I prefer it to MB USB....

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10 hours ago, louawalters said:

Yup - I learnt that the hard way.  Although I knew there was a possibility that it wouldn't work with my initial Intel Board.   I now have AMD board and using Euphony Stylus.  No issues whatsoever....  Just not sure I prefer it to MB USB....

I prefer SOTM tx USBexp card to connect Rockna Wavedream

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5 hours ago, PavelDosko said:

I prefer SOTM tx USBexp card to connect Rockna Wavedream

Thanks Pavel!   Is there anyone here in North America who has replaced the fuse in the Wavelight DAC?   I have sent a couple emails to Rockna on this topic and they go unanswered.     Its typical with 1/2 the voltage the current value doubles, but I am not sure that is the case with this fuse?

 

Was there a significant improvement?   When I switched to SR Blues in my DS DAC there was a noticeable bump up in sound quality.

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In firmware 480 Rockna added the ability to change the i2s mode.  (The effect being channel swapping)

 

Hitting the RPT button on the remote switched between between Rockna mode (HDlink1r) and PS Audio mode (HDlink1p)
The setting applies per i2s interface. ie, you can have different settings for each of the i2s inputs.


Also note that firmware 481 should be out tomorrow.
change log:
Under some (rare) circumstances hi-res material (over 192k) would not sync properly in previous versions

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19 hours ago, Fife said:

What is the fuse spec for WaveDream and Net? Thx

When I started experiencing fuse upgrade few years ago I really cared about fuse type (fast/slow blow…) and fuse rating (how many ampere…)

 

Now I no longer care about exactly match of fuse rating. Just make sure it is high enough. 

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2 hours ago, ds2k said:

When I started experiencing fuse upgrade few years ago I really cared about fuse type (fast/slow blow…) and fuse rating (how many ampere…)

 

Now I no longer care about exactly match of fuse rating. Just make sure it is high enough. 

That in lies the problem  SR Orange fuses are expensive, too low, and it blows, too high and circuit boards get fried :-)

 

SR Orange in WaveLight should make a noticeable difference, just not sure what value to purchase for North America.

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