Rockna Wavedream DAC: Awesomesauce

Hm, and I guess my Lynx card would be put me on the better end of the AES spectrum.

 

I 'thought' the Metrum Ambre feeding the Wavelight AES was slightly smoother and more liquid than USB, but the difference really isn't much and I can vouch for the USB implementation being one of the few good ones!

I have my second Pi2AES coming this week (hopefully) and hope that the I2S works fine this time around.

 

remind me again what the issue was? If there’s a defect with the board I certainly would like to know and take care of it ASAP.

 

I have an early version (the one that accepts 12V power) and could never get the HDMI/I2S output working with either the DirectStream Jr or the Wavelight. The latter recognizes DSD128 when I play 44.1 content, which obviously sounds horrendous.
I seem to recall you said these old boards would need to be exchanged to get HDMI/I2S working. I just bought a new board instead.

 

it sounds like what is happening is one of the pins on the HDMI connector is being used to detect DSD versus PCM. If you send me the specifications for the DAC input I might be able to figure out which pin. We have some jumpers that provide I2C as well as 5V to the HDMI connector. It’s possible one of these could be used to change that signal detection.

Also send me a picture of the board you have. That way I can figure out what revision you have and what we can do about it.

 

According to the Pi2AES reference manual, pin 15 is SDA (I2C data) and pin 16 is SCL (I2C clock). On the Rockna / Gustard, it's the opposite. Could that be a problem?

I tried with and without the I2C jumpers on W1, to no avail.

 

If you remove the jumpers didn’t they won’t have an impact. But are there other signals that are being interpreted as DSD by the DAC?

 

Not according to https://www.computeraudiophile.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=29238 ?

 

It appears for your DAC there is no signal to indicate DSD versus PCM. So how is the DAC deciding this? Is there a setting in the menus?

 

There's probably I2C signals setting the DAC. I hope it's not the case, otherwise it would only be compatible with their own Wavelight Server...

 

That would really be sucky but not unheard of.
Anything on their manual about it?

 

@AdvanTech has had some success emailing the company directly with questions. Maybe one if the owners can do so and report back.

 

I just did ask them.

They usually respond quickly (I dealt with them twice already).

 

Please keep us posted. I looked at their manual and there’s nothing in it that tells you how to force DSD or PCM mode. It would appear that the built-in DSP is doing some type of auto detection. Have you tried other sample rates or bit depths?

 

Will do.

I didn't try anything because that Pi2AES had the same problem with the DirectStream Jr back when I owned one. I can try sending DSD 128 right now and see if it sounds as expected.

 

The raspberry pi does not support DSD so that won’t work unfortunately.

 

Got a response from Nicolae: "on the next firmware update we will extend the I2S input compatibility, including Gustard."

Bummer... Anyone want a brand new Pi2AES?

 

He's pretty quick about updates, I would hold off on selling it. Especially since he has the feature in the Wavedream already.

 

But maybe my old Pi2AES will work fine, too.

In the meantime, USB or AES (Metrum Ambre) both sound mighty fine.