Rockna Wavedream DAC: Awesomesauce

All,


I just contacted Rockna about how to adjust volume control of Wavedream for matching output voltage ( Vrms ) like 2V ( RCA ) and 4V ( XLR ) . Andrei from Rockna answered me as below


" You have to only lower the volume by three 0.5dB steps for the desired max voltage

level.


These are my calculations:

Edition: Vmax RMS SE = 2.33v, Vmax RMS XLR = 4.66v

dB=20*log10(2/2.33) = -1.32dB => -1.5 dB(3 steps)

dB=20*log10(4/4.66) = -1.32dB => -1.5 dB(3 steps)


Signature: Vmax RMS SE = 3.53v, Vmax RMS XLR = 7.07

dB=20*log10(2/3.53) = -4.93dB => -5.0 dB(10 steps)

dB=20*log10(4/7.07) = -4.94dB => -5.0 dB(10 steps) "

 

I concur. I run mine at -1.5 when comparing with other DACs.

 

Next week I will place an advertisement for my Rockna Wavedream Edition SE.
If anyone might be interested... please ping me.
I live in Germany...so only in Europe.

 

Nicolae seems so shy on camera, it's kinda cute.

 

I had a chat with Nicolae in Munich last month and I confirm he is Indeed shy.
Very nerd type and extremely prepared technically.
He is a nice person!

 

Hi all, I'm considering upgrading my current DAC (Esoteric N-05XD) to a Wavedream Signature. From everything I've read about it including here i'm sure it'll be great, however one thing I can't really decide is if it's also worth getting the Wavedream Net at the same time. Im know that people who have it love it but I'm just not really clear what it brings to the table sound wise. If I were to hook it up to my NAS or my PC to access my music, would it have any sonic benefits versus connecting my PC/NAS directly to the Wavedream?

I'm sure it's a wonderful piece of kit, just want to make sure i don't spend thousands on something that brings no sound improvement in my setup. Any Net users here who could explain the use case to me would be greatly appreciated.

 

Did anyone try Audio-GD DI-20HE as DDC for Wavedream? Does it work with Wavedream? Thank you.

 

Yes I have and it does, just have to flip through the settings on the DI-20

 

I am considering upgrading my Wavelight to the Wavedream... My question is the Signature version worth the price? The cost difference between normal and upgrade version is quite significant. I tested a friend Signature edition (single ended) and found it really impressive but I have not heard the standard Wavedream edition before...

 

The Edition is already a big step up from the Wavelight. Maybe you could start there?

 

@animus did a detailed comparison here. Or if you are going to be giving fat bucks to a dealer, may as well make them work for their dollarydoos and ask them if you can do a comparison yourself. (Tho maybe it's like in Aus, the "dealer" here is just a guy who imports them and doesn't have a wood panelled shopfront with a rack of Diana Krall records)

 

Just to add more fog to the situation, Wavedreams with yellow light screens have much older internals than Wavedreams with white light screens. Two separate sets of firmwares are needed for the different generations of hardware so maybe that lovely comparison animus did back in the day isn't so fair.

 

That's not necessarily true, as I own a yellow screened Wavedream Signature and I asked Rockna the following question in June of 2021:

And they answered:

As for @JeremiahS' question:

I had quite a long home demo with my friend's Wavedream Edition before I purchased my current Signature Balanced and I feel animus' comparison of the two devices is absolute spot on - could have not said it better myself.

 

Huh, thanks for clarification. When I registered my WD on Rockna’s support site it first asked for the color of my screen. Thought that meant I’d be served a file for that color.

I stand corrected, sorry for adding noise.

 

I might need a little advice here… I found a used Wavedream from around 2014/2015 but when I asked the seller to take some photos the device seems to have MSB modules. I tried to do some searching online but there is little info comparing old and new versions, just that supposedly the MSB version has no output stage. Does anyone in SBAF ever compare both versions before?

 

Unsure if anyone here has heard both Wavedreams, but I know some members have heard ORFAS-priced MSB DAC’s and thought they were the real deal — see below quoted post by @Xecuter (which places Wavedream XLR second):

https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...-wavedream-signature.12197/page-2#post-380111

I’d say it depends on price. If it’s single-ended, I’ve seen new-ish Wavedreams lately at about $5k USD on HifiShark. The seller shouldn’t be asking for more than that for a unit that old, hopefully less. Balanced new-ish Wavedreams seem to be going for 8k and above.

 

Thanks for the reply, it is really helpful. If so I think based on what you say if the price is right then it’s worth exploring.

I think the DAC offered is the balanced, Signature version and seller is asking around 6900 EUR.

 

Seems high-ish of a price to me for what is the first editions of the DAC. I was wrong, there are (not Signature Edition, but "Edition") XLR Wavedreams that have sold for 4500 to 7500 USD recently, and that is for the newer Rockna-manufactured modules. You can check for yourself by searching on HifiShark and filtering for Sold/Expired. It's kind of all over the place though, depending on country. Still, given the age of the unit, I would try and talk them down to 5000EUR territory.

 

I agree with @internethandle I probably wouldn't buy it unless it was steeply discounted. These older MSB rocknas are much harder to sell. Not to mention Rockna has been threatening the rockna ultra release for over a year now. When it is finally released I think these old MSB module rockna will be worth Yggdrasil money.