well, new owner in 2020. it's been a bit more than a month with my Rockna Wavedream signature balanced.
all I can say, what an absolute winner of a DAC! I think I have landed my end game here. I got so impressed that I had to register to leave my feedback, as I felt not enough information is available on the forums about this awesome DAC.
I haven't heard every converter out there, but I had a denafrips terminator for a year and a half, heard chord Dave extensively in my setup, and I know two people who own AC kassandra ref ii which is very well regarded as a top DAC. I have heard their system many, many times enough to formulate an opinion.
I preferred the sound of Rockna over all of these, as it struck a perfect balance to me, and was the most life-like out of all of them. no additional beautification/ euphoric sound, no lack in any aspect, not mechanical nor clinical, not exaggerated, very "musical" and organic yet very detailed and dynamic. just an extremely pure and truthful rendering of any track you throw at it! the main job of a DAC, executed perfectly nonetheless.
I believe this company deserves much more exposure for such performance/sound. maybe such positive feedback I just wrote would help. yes, I would recommend this DAC to a friend, actually, would highly recommend it!
I've just ordered the accompanying streamer, Wavedream NET, to have a pure I2s source (currently singxer SU-1 and laptop after I sold my Aurender N10), which according to what I read elevates the performance even more. is that even possible lol? anyhow will post an update when I get that. another month of wait...!