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

vgrubb would love to hear your impressions now that the unit has settled in as well as what you may have found experimenting with connecting in your system feeding your integrated amp vs using the pre-amp function of the wavelight to drive the amp directly. Your impressions of any experimentation with digital connections etc. would also be appreciated (and what music server are you using ahead of the wavelight?). Thanks! 

So here is my final setup for the wavelight.....
>Matrix USB 3.0 powered by a Deep cycle marine battery 12v, to 20 gauge flat Neotech Legenburg cables, into a pure Copper (Gold Plated) DC connector.
>Hooked up with 16 gauge Mundorf Silver Gold Foil USB cable (DIY)
> wavelight with HiFi Tuning Supreme SILVER/GOLD 6.3 amp fuse ( power cable 12 gauge Litz Cable (DIY)/ Furutech GTX Gold outlet)
> Mundorf Copper foil XLR cables (DIY)
> Modified/Rebuilt Bryston 7B3 monoblock amplifiers (Duelund Cast capacitors) (Litz power cables/Furutech GTX Outlet) DIY
>Modified/Rebuilt MAGNEPANS (Crossover/frame internal cables/crossover Mundorf Supreme evo oil /Duelund cast) DIY

After a few weeks of tinkering, the Rockna sounds nothing like it did when I first took it out of the box. It is a highly sensitive DAC that responds to every part of the audio chain. Fuses, like I already said are easily identifiable in Blind A/B tests.
Power cables, outlets all impart their own tonality and resolution changes.

At the end of the all the work all I can say is that this DAC is just special... Tonality of instruments is just spot on, I find myself being startled watching movies, I actually thought someone was breaking into my house...Turned out they were just banging noises that were part of the soundtrack. It is that convincing. Every instrument is just spot on, stage never gets crowded. String instruments, pianos, Brass instruments are faithfully recreated.

Resolution is only limited by what the DAC is being Fed upstream, so the people waiting for the Rockna Server are really in for a treat. If Rockna's earlier work is anything to go by, it'll be worth the wait.

Stage has become extremely 3 Dimensional to the point where with my 2 channel setup I hear sounds coming from behind my head, and way outside of the speaker plane, I can't hear any distortion whatsoever, even on very Bass heavy tracks.

Treble is extremely Liquid, it just hangs in the air, sparkles that don't cause any fatigue. For me this DAC in this setup just hits the perfect sweet spot.

Mids are very expressive, singers emotions are conveyed very convincingly, again the DAC just presents what it is being fed upstream, garbage in garbage out....... So your audio chain has a lot to do with what you are hearing. Both Male and Female Voices are accounted for, High Res Vocal music is just a treat to listen to.

For me as it is, this is pretty much an end game DAC, I couldn't be happier with it's performance, yes it took a bit of work to get it all figured out, but the work was worth the effort. All my listening at this point is done with the NOS filter, it sounds the most balanced and natural option to my ears.

P.S. Got an email from Nicolae at Rockna, The new firmware should be out soon, and I just cannot wait to hear what they have in store for the wavelight.

Nice new review
https://headmania.org/2021/03/22/rockna-wavelight-dac-review/

Please remember with latest firmware upgrade on another still just out In June -21

Another update: Swapped some capacitors in my modified monoblock amplifiers, changed out some Duelund JDM Copper foils for some Duelund Cast Tin Plated foils, the upgrade was very substantial. Timbre of instruments is breathtaking, and the stage opened up front to back quite a bit. If you know how to modify your equipment, use these capacitors every where along your audio path, and then thank me later. 

And then Firmware 1.23 came out for the wavelight: The biggest improvement here is the Hybrid Volume. THD is audibly lower, analogue volume has in comparison a certain grittiness, noise that is especially present in the vocals. with Hybrid volume enabled, the Rockna can compete with any chip based DAC on the market in terms of clarity, it still holds on to all it’s R2R characteristics. So it is now the best of both worlds to put it mildly. Listening to music  with this thing is just an absolute delight. 
Rockna has a Hybrid Ladder mode in development, and if it’s anything like the Hybrid Volume mode, I just cannot wait :)
Almost a year in, and still immensely satisfied with my purchase