Review on the Rockna Audio Wavelight Pre/DAC just went up on Stereo Times

Ditto to what Jimmy said. I've got the Wavedream Edition SE - it's the one piece I never worry about playing with in my set up.

I don't use mine as a preamp so no comment on the user friendliness. I think the sound qualities of Rockna have been well documented in this thread. Pin point imaging, dense, great layering, detailed yet fluid and organic. It bested both the Yggy and Spring 2 KTE in my set up (as it should for the price delta). 

Have not heard the Wavelight but would imagine many of the characteristics are quite similar. Great company. 

Hi There,

I have owned the Wavelight for a little over a month, and I think Terry’s review is spot on. Only item I would differ on opinion is that in my system, this DAC sounds dead neutral, not sure I would call it warm sounding. I also would not call it cold (it is goldylocks - just right!). Worldwidewholesales has been great to deal with, and I wanted to provide my input after using this DAC for roughly a month.

In my system it has bettered a PS Audio Direct Stream DAC and Denafrips Pontis, all being fed from an SOTM 200Ultra --> Matrix Audio X-SPDIF2 --> I2S. There is a compatibility issue with the Wavelight and Matrix Audio that Rockna is aware of and are working on a firmware update that will resolve. With the Rockna connected to the Matrix XSDIF2 I can only send DSD data. No biggy, since I am using Roon, so I set everything to up-sample to 4X DSD. Then set the Rockna filter to NOS. I have tried, USB direct from the SOTM, and SPDIF out of the Matrix, all of the Wavelights inputs sound great, but even with up- sampling everything to DSD I feel I2S has the edge.

Unfortunately, I was not able to directly compare to my PS Direct Stream because I sold it prior to taking ownership of the Wavelight. What I can say is that the Wavelight presents music in a most natural way, Music has separated itself from the speakers. The two most noticeable improvements in my system were the following:
1) Soundstage width and depth.
2) Top end extension without any sense of nervousness or anxiety

The streamer is important, I work in the tech industry and my Roon server is a custom built beast, that sits in another part of my home, and is connected via a Ubiquity commercial switch. The network into my audio room is via both single-mode fiber and multi-mode fiber (yes they both sound a little different). The Fiber connects into an Ether-Regen (on a linear power supply) which then sends copper Ethernet to the SOTM 200 Ultra. The SOTM is on a linear power supply, and so is the Matrix.

I also have everything connected into the Inakoustic power conditioner, on a dedicated 20 amp 10 ga, cryo-treated AC.

With the Wavelight, I can listen to music for hours, and recently, have been brought to tears with certain music, female vocals have a realism to them that I have not heard with either PS or Denafrips DACs. This DAC is also refined, in my system. As mentioned above, this DAC is neutral in my room as it balances out the Von Schweikert VR5 Anniversary MK2 very well.

I did several tests using various inputs on the DAC, as I mention, I think they are all very good, but I keep going back to the I2S input, which in my system provides just a bit more space and separation between notes / instruments. Not a night & day difference, but it is noticeable.

I am anxiously waiting for the firmware upgrade to see what the Wavelight sounds like without using Roon’s up-sampling engine (probably even better), then, will look to possibly adding a wavelight streamer (once they are available), so that I can remove all the little boxes and outboard power supplies).

I also play LPs in my system and have a very capable analog front end. I am not going to proclaim that I will be dumping my analog front-end any time soon, but I will say that in the past month that I have had the Wavelight in my system, I have listened to an LP only once or twice... This DAC portrays music with a sense of tangibility and presence not unlike a good MC cart on a well optimized analog front end.

Put a good after-market power cord on the DAC, and performance notches up even more. This DAC with a Lessloss CMARC and Firewall 64, gets even better. Instruments play far out past each speaker, with some recordings it can sound spooky. I do think this dac is more correct, in that if you play a less than stellar recording, you will know so, but it still presents the content in a very enjoyable way, so not analytical by any means.

I am happy to answer any additional questions for potential buyers. For me, this DAC is a keeper! With its FPGA software defined platform, it will get even better over time.

Lou

Hi

I have been reading this thread and thought I would chyme in as I took possession of the Rockna Wavelight dac this week. Keep in mind this dac is not fully broken in and these are just my initial thoughts on its performance. Out of the box its sonic signature is great bass , midrange density and a non-fatiguing top end (lots of meat on the bones).Other words that keep popping up are great imaging , openness and balance. It's one of those pieces, that is just doing everything in a way that I'm not analyzing the gear but rather enjoying the terrific over all sound . At this point I have not used any reference power cords or upgraded digital connections and I'm looking forward to see if I can squeeze a bit more out of it.. I think it is amazing what you can buy in a dac at this price point these days! What really impresses me is I currently own a Japanese dac north of 40 grand that is 8-10 years old and the Rockna is a very respectable competitor. I also had a chance to compare it to my Rockna flagship Signature dac and I must say the Wavelight gets you pretty far into that territory but at a much more reasonable price point. The Rockna Signature has been my reference for the past 2 years and I have not had anything better it in my system but if you only have 5 grand and are on the fence of which dac to go for, the Wavelight will put a smile on your face. I can't wait to get my hands on the matching server but that will be another story. Is the Rockna Signature still my reference, yes and it should be at 3 times the money.

 

@911renoguy

What would you say are the main differences between the Signature and the Wavelight ? 

Detail, dynamics, tone ? 

Terry - were you able to the compare the Audio Mirror DAC to the Rockna Audio Wavelight?  I know you thought very highly of the AM, so I'm curious about the benefits of Wavelight at 2x the price of Toubaor SE. Thanks.