Rockna Wavedream DAC - SE or Balanced...did you hear it yet?

No one?

Perhaps Bob  /  @worldwidewholesales can comment?

Lalitk Mike Powel of Verastarr Audio out of Georgia is the US rep for Rockna and as David _Ten mentioned Bob Neill of Worldwide being the Canadian Rockna rep .
Both great guys and most important to me anyway is a comfort factor knowing if any warranty repair or updates can be done without sending your component half way across the planet to get it done , especially if it’s any significant weight and size .

I have the $6000.00 entry level Rockna dac and like it Very much , I really like its volume control and it’s other flexible options that goes beyond other dacs that I have owned . 
Currently my system is going through major updates and I’ve only listened to the Rockna dac for a short period , I’ll have more to add hopefully later this month.
In the meantime check out Mike Powels YouTube videos on various dacs and components which include top offerings by Metrum , Denafrips , Rockna and more .

funny, I was last week with a dealer of Aqua, Metrum and Rockna. I was very time pressed and knowing I can't afford most of them I rejected  listen them to avoid hifi-depression. Well, talking to him he mentioned that all these dacs are modular, he took apart an Aqua Scala in seconds, explaining to me that if something goes wrong the only thing he has to do is to ship a module to the factory, no the full DAC. 

Well I did not know that , Cortes you don’t mention who the dealer was you visited however I’m not saying this about the dealer you visited but I’ve heard salesman exaggerat claims before , everything is beautiful with no worries,  

If something did go wrong would you know by looking at the module boards which one needs to be sent back or would you need test equipment to find which one went bad .
Maybe you would have to send it back to the dealer to access the problem , 

I think anyone that ever had to deal with a problematic component and they bought it with no regional representation can appreciate what I pointed out above .

My dealer is 60 miles away and it’s comforting to me knowing if any thing did need repaired or updated I’m not footing a hefty round trip  shipping bill that’s all.

Hi,

 

I thought I would give my opinion because my company, Worldwide Wholesales, is the North Americian distributor for Rockna. Personally I have A/B over 70 different digital front ends. We decided to distribute Rockna products because they sound better than our previous reference dac and server that cost 3 times as much as the Rockna dac and server. We also found that the Rockna WD Net server plays at a different level than other servers we have A/B. Tidal sounds like a SSD on the WD Net server and although I have always enjoyed Tidal, I did not think is sounded great compared to a SSD until I heard Tidal on the WD Net server. Another reason we decided to distribute Rockna was because the designer and owner of Rockna is among the most knowledgeable digital designers in the world and has designed several digital products for some of the top digital companies in the world. The parts and build quality are exceptional and comparable with dacs costing 2-5 times as much. We should also mention that we have repair depots in the USA and Canada but we have done zero repairs.

 

My suggestion is you contact Bob at Rhapsody Audio in NY who is one of our resellers because he has compared the Rockna Signature dac to the 33K CEC dac and the 150K MSB Stack 2. I think you would be shocked at his conclusion. He has also compared the Rockna WD Net to other servers costing twice as much.

 

Bob Visintainer
Rhapsody Music and Cinema/Goldmund New York
27 West 24th Street, Suite 506
New York, NY 10010
Website- Rhapsody.audio

212-229-1842

 

If I had to fault the Rockna for anything, it is the build time. They are built like a tank with quality parts and Rockna takes their time building their dacs and servers, just like you would when building a high end, limited production automobile. My thoughts are that you will not see many people posting because there is limited quantity due to build time.

 

Cheers,

Does anyone know if the Rockna DAC will be at the Capital Audiofest in November?

Hi Lance, I wont be up there,  possibly the distributor. I'm not sure what he has planned for shows, but he would be in charge of that.
If you're anywhere around ATL, you can demo here anytime.Cheers !
Mike

f you are in the United States, feel free to contact me, the official North America service and upgrade center as well as one of the USA Dealers. Nobody knows these DACS inside and out more than I do here in USA. Also, with us, you get a VIP warranty that for the first year includes us picking the item up from your home and paying for shipping both ways to and from us for any warranty issues. We currently offer the Wavedream Signature Balanced with a Verastarr Grand Illusion power cord as this unit is very responsive to power cables Therefore at no additional charge you will hear 100% of what the DAC is doing versus a stock power cable where you maybe hear 80%. We prove this on the YouTube channel "OCD Hi-Fi Guy" where we do actual comparisons with and without Grand Illusion power cable, we also do recordings and analysis of the playback using software and microphones, This way you are not just taking our word for it.

I know allot of guys compare gear till the cows come home but I truly believe the signal feed is the start of all good or bad regardless of  equipment in the chain.I also believe that everything is relative to personal experience, budget constraints , synergy of components and so on.Moving on to my experience with first the Audiobyte dac which was a great upgrade from my other dacs. My next purchase will be the Rockna Edition balanced dac. Combine any dac with the Rockna WD net server and you will be in position to hear things you have never heard from your system.Currently Im using the Rockna WD net server with the Audiobyte dac via i2S connection.
I did have in the past a very fine CD player , the Ayon CD 3, which I believe was their top of the line at one time. The music was resolved and powerful but I wanted to move to a server based system.My first purchase was a Lumin D1 , which was good but not world class , I then purchased the Sonore Ultra Rendu with signature power supply and an I 7 server which sounds really good especially with the Audiobyte dac in the chain.   I could have actually lived with this set up but I love this hobby and love trying new things in hope to squeeze a bit more out of my stereo system.I will keep the Sonore gear for my office set up but for my main rig its the Rockna WD net server.
I love this server and its a huge step up from the Ayon CD player and any other server I have owned.The music sounds really open, detailed and live.
The bass I find extremely articulate and fast in my set up.Using it as a CD player is also a bonus because this unit is so versatile and to date no hiccups in connecting to Roon.In my opinion this is a world class server and cant wait to marry it in the very near future with the Rockna balanced dac.

I will be listening to the Rockna Wavedream DAC sometime next week.

@ricred1  Looking forward to hearing your impressions.