Comparison between Mojo Mystique X SE VS Rockna Wavedream:
In my audiophile journey these are the two most derailed dacs I have ever heard
When I drove to my friend's home with my Amps and cables to try his Wavedream, my jaw just dropped when I heard the first note of his Wavedream in that it is soooooo much alike to my Mojo Mystique X SE, which is the newly released flagship Dac from Mojo, but here are some difference ab with my Riviera:
1, While both has the best weight of notes in the industry, Mystique X SE has even weightier and tighter mid bass, which could be fatiguing even with bass light system as Stax and HD800s. By contrast, Wavedream has hotter highs which is tad too hot to my ears.
2, These are the two dac that sounds soooo similar but with opposite tuning and goals as Analytical vs Analogue. Wavedream is the most detailed dac I have heard in terms of imaging and microdetails. I think it chases the peak of technical performance that a dac could achieved, while the engineer of Mystique X SE aspire to creat the most analogue sounding and true to life experience. While I may prefer the even higher microdetails from Wavedream, I applaud Benjamin for his chase of chasing both truth of music with technicality. If you once owned Matrum or Sonnet dacs, you may understand the charm of being real and life like sounds. As a matter of a fact, I was awaken by Mystique X SE with the song Piano and River by Hans Zimmer due to the fact I really was waken by the sound real waves, especially I'm living by lakes lol. Listening to the same song from Wavedream, I am mesmerized by the sharper images, but slightly less touched.
3, While Wavedream beats Mystique X SE and all the other dacs I owned and tested in my system ( Chord Dave, DCS Rossini, May KTE, T Plus, Matrix X, Schitt Y) in terms of microdetails, I do feel there is a lack of depth and highs for Wavedream, compared to Mystique X SE which has more organic and equal height and width of the stage. Especially, after listening to Schitt Y, it is really hard to for me to listen to dacs that lacks depth and height of stage, as if it is degrading from 3D to 2D. ( The deal breaker of Schitt Y to me is overly narrow stage width lol)
In conclusion, I really think these are the two best dacs I have heard so far that sound soooooo similar but at the same time sooooo different.
I would be really curious about the sonic difference between Wavedream RCA vs XLR version as I feel the width is already too wide and a tad artificial for RCA version. I am more than intrigued to learn what would be the sonic upgrade to signature versions.
