Rockna Wavedream DAC: Awesomesauce

If this is a silly question, feel free to say so. Does the Rockna sound DAVE-like at all? What are your thoughts on FPGA-based DAC implementations generally (understandable if it's not possible to generalize)? I seem to recall you not having a super favorable impression of Hugo 2, or really any Chord gear below DAVE. Wondering what these guys did to get so much fluidity out of an FPGA-based implementation, especially with a relatively modest number of filter taps (4820 per Rockna website).

 

I'm having a little hard time in understanding odd harmonics -- not limited to this specific product.

For amps, even > odd harmonics generally feel better (at least within my auditions/observations).
And for dacs, I still strongly believe decent amount of harmonics sound far superior to near zero harmonics (concurrent chord products showing this character). But some products I really enjoyed (e.g., two ES9038 dacs) had odd > even harmonics -- not as strong as rockna though. I like Schiit multibit dacs (even > odd harmonics) over them but that's too much apple vs orange.

For this uber dac, strong D3 and D5 played a rather beneficial role? Do you have any thoughts?

On the dithering front, my guess is that the bottom one is dithered for two reasons: (1) noise level subtly raised; (2) seemingly higher (measured) dynamic range.

Perception of dithering effects could be controversial. But I always prefer Schiit's recent revisions over early one. This applies to the whole products: Yggdrasil, Gungnir MB, Bifrost MB, and Modi MB. So it's safe to say that dithering DON'T shit. But I really don't know whether I prefer dithering if I can have an option to turn it on and off.

 

Dithering is not just to make measurements look pretty. It has proven audible benefits - that for once happen to be backed by measurements . There's no reason not to implement/use it.

 

Just curious. Could you let me know how the benefits were proven audible?

In my understanding, improved dynamic ranges and bit resolution occur far beyond human threshold. If bits are extremely restricted, it's possible to have tangible gain -- I've seen a 8 bit image reduced to 1 bit image and how dithering really helped visibly. But are't 16 bit audio already too resolving?

EDIT: and all above suppose the situation such as down-converted 16 bit playback from 24 bit files. For 16 bit finished files, and playing them with dithering.. my bet is at best no harm (occurring at too small levels). Can't think of any 'gain' in the latter.

 

Exactly. It's just a measure/tool to achieve an unspecified engineering goal you mentioned. No such thing as FPGA sound.

 

So I'm at @famish99 place right now with a few glasses of rum in me listening to this DAC through my Starlett while the guys are out getting food and... I'm really quite taken with it.

This thing is serious biznezz.

More later.

EDITED for boozy influence.

 

After reading about the rockna for weeks all over including a Russian forum using Google translate, I bit the bullet and placed an order for a signature version XLR to replace my Denafrips Terminator. I believe terminator sounds good for its price. But I'm craving more.

From reading, this model witnessed hardware and software changes since its release. I was thinking its a dac that was released in 2014, and its 2020. Apparently i was wrong. Its even a more mature product in 2020, and hopefully will keep recieving updates to improve its performance.

Recently a friend of mine bought an Aries Cerat kassandra ref2 dac. That 60kg beast is one of the best sounding dacs I have ever heard, but i haven't heard other dacs at this level. So looking forward to compare my rockna sig to this hulk of a dac when it arrives!

Lets hope this month of wait pass quick))

 

I withheld posting my thoughts on this largely because I wasn't sure if I was going to keep this piece of "audio jewelry" and I have a few judgmental and gossipy associates... but the noisepost above has inspired me to add some what I can only hope is meaningful impressions.

tl;dr: Wow, but you may find out your other gear is shit.

I have the Wavedream Edition Balanced (same version as @Thenewerguy009 ). Setup is JRiver/Roon > Rednet 3 (AES) > Wavedream/Gungnir Multibit A1/Bifrost 2 (BF2 courtesy @Joshvar ) > Af/J2 (J2 on loan)> Klipsch Forte 3 (using my modded 6xx and 800S once each). Most of my evaluation was spent with linear filter, dither off, local clock, but I did spend a good amount of time with dither on, and stream clock as well, and a small amount of time with the hybrid filter and NOS mode.

Pinning how this DAC sounds was a bit of a head scratcher because on the surface it has the tonality of nicer DS DACs, like the Prism Atlas, but less warm yet not lean and with the multibit magic in the sustain/decay/microdynamics. As I started digging deeper, I struggled a bit with determining if some things I was hearing were a fault of the DAC or it was revealing faults in the rest of my setup. With the help of @Joshvar (big thanks bud!), we were able to find that the Af was significantly softening the attacks and causing a somewhat plastic timbre. However with the J2, the plastic timbre completely disappeared. I believe this would be my interpretation of what @purr1n was saying when he described the Wavedream as mellow. Especially side by side with the Schiit, the treble presentation on the Wavedream is far more relaxed than the aggressive presentation of the BF2. Having said all this, this is the hardest hitting MB DAC I've heard yet (Gungnir Multibit, Soekris 1321, Pavane).

I largely agree with Marv's TV analogy regarding the dynamics, the BF2 really has an elevated dynamic floor compared to the Wavedream, which gives the BF2 this somewhat exaggerated plankton presentation but the details are all there on the Wavedream as well, usually presented closer to the black level (so to speak).

Staging on the Wavedream is by far my favorite feature of the DAC, it has a row 25-30 presentation with exceptional width (going beyond the speakers), depth and natural placement. The BF2 by comparison tended to sound localized within the speakers, also with great placement, but the sounds off center tend to call more attention to themselves than they did on the Wavedream. The Wavedream never gets congested and you never lose the ability to pick out instruments like I often experienced on the Gungnir Multibit A1.

Misc notes: Wavedream also sounds pretty good from cold, but I largely left it on out of laziness. Digital volume works well, I don't notice any dynamic loss with it connected to the J2 at lower volumes (but it could also be due to the Fortes excelling at low volumes as well).

Would I say it's perfect? Not really, the remote leaves a lot to be desired in terms of switching inputs and since the display is OLED I preferred to leave it off, but it doesn't automatically turn back on when you try to change inputs/volume. Occasionally, I sometimes miss how warm and gooey the Gungnir Multibit A1 sounds with guitars, but I feel this DAC has the fewest compromises in the areas I care about most.

 

[QUOTE = "Saleh84, post: 288492, membre: 8390"] Après avoir lu sur le rockna pendant des semaines, y compris un forum russe utilisant Google translate, j'ai mordu la balle et j'ai passé une commande pour une version signature XLR pour remplacer mon Denafrips Terminator . Je crois que le terminateur sonne bien pour son prix. Mais j'ai envie de plus.

À la lecture, ce modèle a vu des changements matériels et logiciels depuis sa sortie. Je pensais que c'était un dac sorti en 2014 et son 2020. Apparemment j'avais tort. C'est un produit encore plus mature en 2020 et, espérons-le, continuera à recevoir des mises à jour pour améliorer ses performances.

Récemment, un de mes amis a acheté un dass Ceris kassandra ref2. Cette bête de 60 kg est l'un des meilleurs DAC qui sonnent que j'aie jamais entendu, mais je n'ai pas entendu d'autres DAC à ce niveau. Alors j'ai hâte de comparer mon rockna sig à cette carcasse de dac quand il arrivera!

Espérons que ce mois d'attente passe vite)) [/ DEVIS]
salut

You talk about the Rockna édition version or signature ??
Thanks

 

Haha man I think he google translated the other rando's post to French, quoted it in French, but replied in English. Typical frenchman.

Even the closing /QUOTE got translated into DEVIS (estimate)