Rockna Wavedream DAC: Awesomesauce

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by purr1n, Nov 7, 2019.

  1. Clemmaster

    Clemmaster Friend

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    You’re getting a Wavelight?

    [​IMG]
     
  2. GoldenOne

    GoldenOne Friend

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    That would be fantastic. I'd love to hear your (or other's) thoughts on the two.
    Without having MSB money available, Rockna seems by majority opinion to best most of the R2R competition, but the May i've not seen an A/B before so it would be very interesting!
     
  3. richard_crl032

    richard_crl032 New

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    Hi Divertiti,

    Hope dun feel too bad now .. was expecting more than 4 dislikes but guess this can change after this post or all removed though not hopeful ... lol !

    Quite refreshing but also sad to see "dislike" seldoms see in other forums and NEVER with your pretty innocent type of query.

    Superior or otherwise is also not the point ... "not as good" or "less" is not the same as "bad" and hope better choice of words for more convincing sharing and pls pls compare equitable price points.

    Enjoy your euro3.7k Terminator dac but sure, do consider Rockna Wavedream when really to spend euro8-16k (cannot say for sure but think last mentioned was that the euro8k non signature balanced one was being reviewed and compared).

    Cheers.

    Richard
     
    Last edited: Jul 31, 2020
  4. richard_crl032

    richard_crl032 New

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    Hi Purr1,

    Like that you seems to be open on mentioned comparison but 10x ?

    We all spent exponentially for incremental improvement in this diminishing return hobby and this mentioned 10x is measurable ?

    Not sure what is this "staff member" title of yours but believe important .. even kick me out of this forum but do reconsider again choice of words and validate "dislikes" more seriously if you want to be seriously taken especially to new comers or casual readers.

    Cheers.

    Richard
     
    Last edited: Jul 31, 2020
  5. ChaChaRealSmooth

    ChaChaRealSmooth SBAF's Mr. Bean

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    If you've even read the review + measurements of the Terminator, you'd be able to answer your own question.

    And yes, believe it or not, there is a LOT of overpriced garbage in this hobby. I can name a few things I've auditioned out of curiosity that I absolutely hated where the cost was in four figures (USD). Like the Mytek Brooklyn, Headamp GSX-2.
     
  6. ufospls2

    ufospls2 Friend

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    oh lawd. I don't speak for marv, but to me, the last thing SBAF does is take itself seriously. Also, how hard is it to read the rules before you post. Its pretty hard to miss, but I guess you're special? Jesus christ.

    https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/what-is-sbaf-10-articles-for-behavior.5555/
     
  7. atomicbob

    atomicbob dScope Yoda

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    I didn't acquire the Holo May. I went for the Holo Spring2. It suited my preferences at considerably less cost in a single chassis format, which was also a consideration for my lab use.
     
  8. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Dear Mr. Richard,

    You may not be familiar with my writing style, but on occasion I will resort to the use of hyperbole. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that "x10" was a dysphemism for "so far behind as to not be able to touch" (the Wavedream). In this hobby, we all have our opinions and our favorites.

    The Rockna Wavedream was a DAC that I felt was head and shoulders above anything I had heard prior. As far the Denafrips Terminator, or the original version, I didn't feel it was competitive with any of the typical mid to high-fi offerings that have made it through the rounds here including such as the Convert-2, Gungnir A2, B2 Bomber, Holo Spring, etc. I was extremely disappointed with its performance for the price and honestly felt it was on par with or slightly worse than the second to top of the line Soekris DAC. Now we can say that the Terminator DAC has since gone through upgrades. However, never in my lifetime have I heard successive versions, that is without a new design or major re-architecture, provide significant gains. Incremental gains sure, but significant gains never. The original Terminator was so far from the Wavedream that it would have required two steps of significant gains, not incremental, to reach the Wavedreams' level.

    As far as the "staff member" title, that is not important. Even though I am the person who started this site and it's "owner", last time I checked, I bled when I was cut (both physically and figuratively). My existence is ephemeral, and one day I will be gone and this site will be gone. For all we know, I could get run over by a bus or get the Wuhan Pneumonia and die a horrible death this year.

    I agree that I could have more wisely chosen my words so that I could be taken more seriously. However, has it ever occurred to you that I did not wish to be taken seriously by new comers and casual readers? My primary obligation is to the regular readers here. I full well understand the audiophile gentleman's code of conduct, hence it was intention to act "crazy" so that I would not be believed by outsiders. This way I was hoping that fragile audiophiles who are so wrapped up in their gear would not have their egos damaged* on the account that I could simply be dismissed as deranged.

    Best Regards,

    The Merv

    P.S. The Force tells me you are from the land of Denafrips? Might you be Singaporean or have any association with Denafrips or its distributors? Pardon my impudence, but I've been around long enough to see so many vendor sockpuppets that I'm a bit jaded.

    As far as dislikes, this is one of the few forms of democratic protest that we allow here. It is not my role to validate them. Dislikes are the right of the members. Dislikes also serve as reminder for me as benevolent dictator not to turn into a tyrant. I believe I rank in the top ten in terms of dislikes received.

    *or boutique audiophile manufacturers who depend on a few sales per year won't have their business negatively affected
     
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2020
  9. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    I believe Rockna has agreed to it. It's the timing which I don't know much about. Now you know why I'm more strongly pushing donations. Folks like @ChaChaRealSmooth need to get paid or get nice gifts. We lose our gearmasters as often as drummers in Spinal Tap.
     
  10. ChaChaRealSmooth

    ChaChaRealSmooth SBAF's Mr. Bean

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    Yes, Rockna has agreed to send us a Wavelight. Not sure if it's been shipped out yet; I haven't received any notification from them about it. It's possible that it's been shipped out but it's stuck in the customs gloryhole.

    (the reason for customs; USA dealers were epically unhelpful in a loaner. Rockna themselves are very easy to work with)
     
  11. DEATHxMACHINE

    DEATHxMACHINE Friend

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    I don't know what I am more eager to hear, the Rockna or the gearmaster being involved in a bizarre gardening accident.


    To be clear this is a joke and I wish no harm comes to ChaCha.
     
  12. famish99

    famish99 Friend

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    Yeah I've reached out to Nicolae a few times for general support and feature requests, he's always been pretty responsive and good about adding features.
     
  13. etherealsound

    etherealsound New

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    Out of curiosity, do you find that dealers are usually reluctant to send out loaner units in your experience? I seem to rarely get any luck in that regards (or any form of cordiality, for that matter).
     
  14. Failed Engineer

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    I talked to a few of the Rockna dealers when I was trying to finalize my Wavelight purchase, and it appears there is a real inventory short. They are moving what they get in quickly so I'm guessing that accounts for why the dealers were reticent for loaners. That does not absolve them of poor/non-existent communication and customer relations which I did see signs of in my discussions.
     
  15. exocer

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    In case you haven't seen this thread with some good impressions thus far.

    https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...ckna-wavelight-dac-thoughts-experiences.9369/
     
  16. neo_the_one

    neo_the_one Acquaintance

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    Would it be possible to comment on the difference between the SQ of xlr and single-ended outputs of wavedream, if someone has heard it? The price difference between the 2 is about 2k$. If the single ended is 95% there, it might be the better option.
     
  17. famish99

    famish99 Friend

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    I have the balanced version, it is not worth the price difference.
     
  18. Saleh84

    Saleh84 New

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    I have the signature balanced, i discovered recently that I have been using it in single ended output without realising, as my integrated tube amp is single ended. The xlr input was for convenience, where the whole negative signal in the balanced xlr gets dumped at amp side. I'm switching my AQ fire xlr to RCA, as its better to drop the whole wrong connection in my case. I also want to use the dac pre section (superior to my LM845 integrated pre section) and the only way to use that amp in power only mode, is through an RCA input.
    I tried the dac in a friend's system which is fully balanced, didn't hear a difference i could catch.
    Unless your system is full balanced (pre and power), i suggest get the signature single ended.

    The cash you have saved, you can add some on top and get a streamer from rockna. I should have wrote about this earlier, but I guess i was just a bit lazy. I have been using the wavedream NET server for about a month and half now. Simply put, its phenomenal!! I was very happy with the dac/singxer combo. I could not believe the difference that the NET did to the presentation, tonality, noise floor, bass control. Just about everything improved, substantially that even my non Audiophile brother noticed. I now firmly believe its a higher value item than the dac itself! And even if you have any other dac, not rockna, this streamer would Unleash its capabilities without doubt, from any output. I thought at first its the I2s thing, nah. Its the streamer design/power supply and all that is what makes it special. Also, It doesn't break the bank like an SGM extreme server for example, yet it bested by a good margin many servers that i heard in its price range, like my previous aurender n10 server, and many others that my friend's own, such as auralic g1, and dcs network bridge, even a custom made server with external LPS and top notch silver cables etc.
    Well for those who don't believe what a good server can do to a dac, please never mind. But if you already know that a good server is probably 40-50% of the sound SQ in a digital setup, i highly recommend the NET, or the upcoming wavelight server. Nucu told me its not very far off its big brother, missing the CD memory player however.
     
  19. AdvanTech

    AdvanTech Friend

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    Do you remember if you tried the USB and it was any good? The designer emailed me back about the best inputs, and he said their own implementation of USB is behind only i2s. AES trails behind in 3rd.

    I’d give it a shot but I don’t have a good cable like PYST or Belkin Gold on me at the moment.
     
  20. Xecuter

    Xecuter Brush and floss your amp twice a day

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    I really like the USB implementation and would say it's definitely on par with my AES. I would not say better than my AES but my AES source is a cd-t and my usb source is a PC which speaks volumes for the USB implementation of the Rockna.
    haven't got an i2s source, maybe later this year..
     

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