[harsheel]

went to the dealer to get some mundorf caps and fuses for my musical paradise pre. same dealer who sold me the Rockna Wavelight. there was another customer there who suggested I also try changing fuses on the Wavelight, as he felt it improved the overall sound...

I recently upgraded the fuse for my Server with a Quantum Science Audio fuse, and was stunned by the improvements. I was thinking of dropping one in the Rockna and glad your results were favorable.

 

[alekc]

But half empty

Indeed. For me this is one of biggest Rockna drawbacks. It tries to show you how great it is using size of case. That was the reason why I finally put HTT2 on my office desk while still preferring Rockna WL sound.

 

[alekc]

Thanks to @gancanjam I have been experimenting with Rockna WL how to make sound a bit more sharp and harsh while not loosing its beautiful smoothness that even M Scaler with HTT2 can not beat. Here is a recepcie for your enjoyment:

• Select NOS filter in Rockna
• Select Hybrid volume control in Rockna
• Find dynamic, clear, a bit sterile headamp like Burson Soloist 3XP. In case of Burson just put it in power mode, so Rockna will be your preamp.

and viola! Enjoy! Makes some types of music even more enjoyable.

 

[gancanjam]

Thanks to @gancanjam I have been experimenting with Rockna WL how to make sound a bit more sharp and harsh while not loosing its beautiful smoothness that even M Scaler with HTT2 can not beat. Here is a recepcie for your enjoyment:

• Select NOS filter in Rockna
• Select Hybrid volume control in Rockna
• Find dynamic, clear, a bit sterile headamp like Burson Soloist 3XP. In case of Burson just put it in power mode, so Rockna will be your preamp.

and viola! Enjoy! Makes some types of music even more enjoyable.

Thanks @alekc for the research you did for EDM/Bollywood/Pop music genre. I agree with you that when someone say a particular DAC is good then it depends on the song genre as well and the fit of the DAC to align with the genre. This setup may give more oomph to some of the dance songs I guess.

 

[Paoloz]

has anyone confronted with terminator? what are the differences

 

[EagleWings]

I got to compare my Wavelight at my friend's place against his Terminator 1 (with the revised DSP board) on his speaker system. It was the first time I was hearing his system, so I couldn't draw too many conclusions. Here is what my friend and I felt were the differences between these 2 DACs:

Terminator sounded fuller, warmer, rounded and a bit relaxed/laidback. Relatively, Wavelight was leaner, brighter, sharper and more energetic. Wavelight was better at bass authority, micro-dynamics and texture. It extracted more details and was more transparent. Wavelight would also be the unforgiving between the 2 DACs. Soundstage, depth and layering were fairly similar.

P.S: I should note that, after comparing notes with my friends, who own similar system as I do, I am convinced that my Wavelight sounds a bit on the bright side than most other units out there.

Chain 1: Proceed CDT3 > DAC > CJ CT5 (Pre) > CJ LP70 (Power Amp) > Altec 416/802d
Chain 2: Proceed CDT3 > DAC > CJ CT5 (Pre) > Kraft 250 (Power Amp) > Avalon Ascendant

 

[Paoloz]

qualcuno si è confrontato con terminator? quali sono le differenze

ottime osservazioni. Grazie per l'aiuto

 

[ThanatosVI]

Wavelight was better at bass authority, micro-dynamics and texture

I love it when impressions of others confirm that I made the right choice

 

[mantraone]

I love it when impressions of others confirm that I made the right choice

I fully agree, I made some comparison with Holo May KTE and Spring 3 KTE, the bass of Wavelight is very extended and articulate and also the high freq are a little bit more brilliant, and this is my tubes amplified system is very good.

 

[mantraone]

I think you analisys is condivisible.

I really like the sound presentetion of Rockna Wavelight, with loudspeaker it's very natural, detailed, with large and deep soundstage and a great layering.

I can survive with the small issue, I personally use the Gustard U18 I2S interface and SOtM sMS200 Ultra as Roon endpoint and connection is stable and very reliable, sometime the Gustard Interface reboot when the last track played is samplarate 88.2 and the new track 44.1, but never in the middle of reproduction.

I think that the real competitor is the Holo May L2 / KTE edition for a spaeakers setup.

about Rockna server as wrote months ago, I suppose that the real issue could be the Roon Ready certification.

Just a short update about my experience with Gustard interface and Wavelight....

first of all sorry in this old message I wrote U18 but was U16.... sorry for that (too many numbers in my Job... eheheh)

Now I got the U18 for test, sound amazing, better than U16, great silent and dinamics, best 3D soundstage ever in my system.

but.... I found a not small issue:

when I try to play or Hi-res Audio file with sample rate 96 Khz/24 bits and more as 192/24 the interface looks receive the correct sample rate but on Wavelight I can see only the 2 "- -" on display and no sound out.

I tried 2 pinout, Gustard (Mode 3 on Wavelight and Mode1 on U18 interface) and PsAudio (Mode 2 on Wavelight and MODE1 on U18 interface) and the problem is exattely the same.

Rockna Firmware v1.10,01.36

Any suggestion or ideas?

Night

 

[sennheiserguy]

I recently upgraded the fuse for my Server with a Quantum Science Audio fuse, and was stunned by the improvements. I was thinking of dropping one in the Rockna and glad your results were favorable.

Hi There,

I've had a Rockna Wavelight for 1.5y now, and have been reading this thread. I wanted to chime in on the differences a fuse upgrade will make in the Rockna. I had a Synergetic Orange, which was a nice improvement over the stock fuse, but nothing would prepare me for the QSA fuse in the Rockna. I sprung for the violet fuse which is so crazy expensive, but OMG, after 3-4 days of it in the improvement of the DACs ability to portray the natural flow of music was amazing. The fuses are directional, and if after 2-3 days the change brings on brightness, the fuse is in the wrong direction. I find that the Rockna is sensitive to power cords. Back in Oct I got a great deal on a Synergetic Research Galileo UEF power cord. OMG - pardon the profanity, but I nearly fell off my listening chair. The room grew in size, and the soundstage widened well past the boundaries of the speakers. More importantly, the Galileo on the Rockna allows the DAC to scale up the size of the music hall, also very accurately placing instruments within their own space within the larger sound stage. the QSA is a nice upgrade for the wavelight. I was half temped to go all the way to the top of the QSA line, but cant justify that much money for a fuse. I dont think you will be disappointed with a QSA fuse, I would recommend either a yellow or violet, but some have mentioned the improvements are more drastic as you go up the line of QSA fuses.

 

[harsheel]

Hi There,

I've had a Rockna Wavelight for 1.5y now, and have been reading this thread. I wanted to chime in on the differences a fuse upgrade will make in the Rockna. I had a Synergetic Orange, which was a nice improvement over the stock fuse, but nothing would prepare me for the QSA fuse in the Rockna. I sprung for the violet fuse which is so crazy expensive, but OMG, after 3-4 days of it in the improvement of the DACs ability to portray the natural flow of music was amazing. The fuses are directional, and if after 2-3 days the change brings on brightness, the fuse is in the wrong direction. I find that the Rockna is sensitive to power cords. Back in Oct I got a great deal on a Synergetic Research Galileo UEF power cord. OMG - pardon the profanity, but I nearly fell off my listening chair. The room grew in size, and the soundstage widened well past the boundaries of the speakers. More importantly, the Galileo on the Rockna allows the DAC to scale up the size of the music hall, also very accurately placing instruments within their own space within the larger sound stage. the QSA is a nice upgrade for the wavelight. I was half temped to go all the way to the top of the QSA line, but cant justify that much money for a fuse. I dont think you will be disappointed with a QSA fuse, I would recommend either a yellow or violet, but some have mentioned the improvements are more drastic as you go up the line of QSA fuses.

Excellent news! I too have found the WaveLight react favorably to a good power chord. As far as fuses, I was looking at the Synergistic Research Purple fuse, as some folks have said it sounded better to them than the QSA Yellow, which was better than the SR Orange. I too have a hard time justifying the price of a single fuse at the top end of the QSA line.

 

[sennheiserguy]

Excellent news! I too have found the WaveLight react favorably to a good power chord. As far as fuses, I was looking at the Synergistic Research Purple fuse, as some folks have said it sounded better to them than the QSA Yellow, which was better than the SR Orange. I too have a hard time justifying the price of a single fuse at the top end of the QSA line.

@harsheel - I have read the same, Yellow QSA vs SR Purple are similar in performance albeit focus on different areas of performance. QSA violet was on a different level, but I am not sure how much better it will get going up the QSA fuse line. I would be interested to know what interconnects people are using? I have been a huge fan of Grover Huffman cables and have been running balanced Grover Pharaoh interconnects both from Rockna to PS BHK Pre and balanced from BHK Pre to NuPrime Evolution One Monos. I have a dealer-demo Cardas Clear XLR coming later this week that I think may better suit the Rockna - but always fascinated to hear what other people are running. I suppose I am in the DAC optimization phase right now. One of the things that I like about the Rockna is that the R2R dac is implemented in an FPGA which provides the designer some room for enhancements / changes down the road.

 

[harsheel]

@harsheel - I have read the same, Yellow QSA vs SR Purple are similar in performance albeit focus on different areas of performance. QSA violet was on a different level, but I am not sure how much better it will get going up the QSA fuse line. I would be interested to know what interconnects people are using? I have been a huge fan of Grover Huffman cables and have been running balanced Grover Pharaoh interconnects both from Rockna to PS BHK Pre and balanced from BHK Pre to NuPrime Evolution One Monos. I have a dealer-demo Cardas Clear XLR coming later this week that I think may better suit the Rockna - but always fascinated to hear what other people are running. I suppose I am in the DAC optimization phase right now. One of the things that I like about the Rockna is that the R2R dac is implemented in an FPGA which provides the designer some room for enhancements / changes down the road.

I will gladly go down the cable rabbit hole with you! Currently, I have the Analysis Plus Silver Apex cables throughout the system. I have found that using the 'full loom' gives you the best idea of what is possible. Also, I have tried using different cables at each connection, and sometimes its great, othertimes it's a nightmare so YMMV. I have had the Cardas Clear in another system and found them to be a bit too 'bouncy and rubbery' for lack of better terms. Let me know your thoughts once you have tried them.

 

[sennheiserguy]

I will gladly go down the cable rabbit hole with you! Currently, I have the Analysis Plus Silver Apex cables throughout the system. I have found that using the 'full loom' gives you the best idea of what is possible. Also, I have tried using different cables at each connection, and sometimes its great, othertimes it's a nightmare so YMMV. I have had the Cardas Clear in another system and found them to be a bit too 'bouncy and rubbery' for lack of better terms. Let me know your thoughts once you have tried them.

Interesting - I have had an entire loom of Grover Huffman for sometime. I recently upgraded speaker cables to two runs of silversmith audio, stunning improvements, and I have tried (but did not like) the High Fidelity line going between the Rockna and Pre as well as from Pre to power amp. The detail retrieval of the high Fidelity was amazing, but it was at the expense of musicality. I feel that the Rockna is already just forward enough, the high fidelity pushed it over the top, to the point that it just wasn't listenable. The High Fidelity CT2 fared much better between my Phono Stage and Pre amp. I sold off the 16-foot Reveal that I had between pre and power. I still find, that the Rockna could benefit from an interconnect with just a small amount of "meat on the bones" in my system, and so that is why I am thinking / experimenting with Cardas. My NuPrime Mono Blocks are class D - but dont have a harsh or brash sound at all. They have a fast, tight and articulate base, mid-range that approaches the best tube amps, and a very nice extended top end. I think that they too could use just a slight (ever so) more mid base meat on the bones. This is in fact the speaker cables. Going back to my Grover Speaker Cables (they are much older than my interconnects), the sound stage shrunk, speed / dynamics decreased, but I had more warmth. The Silversmith are extended, fast, dynamic, but not bright at all. If I could take the mid base of the Grover's and combine it with the space and dynamics of the Silversmith, I would have the ideal speaker cable. To date the Silversmith are the best speaker cables I have owned. Beat out MIT M1.2, Analysis Plus, Anti-Cables, and Grover Huffman's). I hear what you are saying about same loom of wire, I just dont think with the cost of wire, that this is always feasible. I do have all components power corded up with Lessloss CMARC, (other than the Synergetic Research Galileo on my DAC), and combined this is a very nice combo. I am hoping the Cardas does the trick wrt the DAC, if it doesn't, then I need to re-think my approach.