Rockna Wavedream Reference Signature Review by Headmania – Art Achieved Through Engineering

As you might already know from previous reviews, I am a big fan of Rockna Audio products. I have been very impressed by their first WaveDream implementation 11 years ago.
They have evolved a lot since then and in 2021 I was blown away by their Rockna Wavelight DAC. I borrowed it for a review and I was so blown away. I never gave it back as I have bought it for myself.

In 2023 I managed to take their top of the line DAC for a review, the WaveDream Signature which I concluded to be the best DAC that I have ever heard. It is a technological marvel and I was having problems imagining something sounding much better, but here we are.

Here is a brief history of their first products.

A Brief History of Rockna Audio

Rockna Audio, founded in 1999 by Nicolae Jitariu in Romania, emerged from a passion for crafting audio gear that delivers insightful and inspiring music reproduction. Driven by a team obsessed with technological innovation, Rockna has evolved steadily over the past two decades, refusing to settle for conventional designs. Instead, they build original, high-end products entirely in-house, often from the ground up, free from the constraints of off-the-shelf solutions. Known for their cutting-edge FPGA-based digital systems and custom R2R DACs, Rockna has earned a reputation among audiophiles for pushing the boundaries of sound quality—culminating in flagship offerings like the Wavedream Reference Signature.

As I settle in to review the Rockna Wavedream Reference Signature, I find myself drawn to the story behind it—a tale of passion and innovation that’s as captivating as the sound it produces. Rockna Audio, born from the vision of Nicolae Jitariu, has spent years perfecting the art of digital audio. From their early triumphs with the original Wavedream to their groundbreaking shift to proprietary DAC technology, they’ve carved a path that’s all about pushing boundaries and chasing perfection.

The Wavedream Reference Signature isn’t just a DAC—it’s the beating heart of Rockna’s journey. Every detail, from its custom R2R modules to its whisper-quiet clocking, reflects a company that lives and breathes music, but proves the that they have a wonderful and passionate engineering team behind the products. In the pages ahead, I’ll unpack how this masterpiece delivers a listening experience that’s as thrilling as it is transformative, proving why Rockna continues to steal the hearts of audiophiles like me.

Rockna Audio Factory Visit

After years of anticipation, I finally had the chance to visit Rockna Audio’s factory, and it was an amazing experience to witness where the magic happens.

I was thoroughly impressed by how well-organized, impeccably equipped, and genuinely cool the factory is. They also have an awesome audition room where you can test their products on various other equipment. This is where they build their own motherboards, their own dac chips, etc. This is where the magic happens!

Specs

I would start with mentioning that the Wavedream Reference has a very appealing design, looks great and it looks beautiful from the outside as well as from the inside. The aluminum chassis is very well built and sturdy.

You can find all the specs here and most of them below:

To achieve an elegant internal layout, we designed a 10-layer central core board for the digital front-end processing and the network renderer. A completely new dedicated low noise supply board was developed, as well as new conversion boards placed in a symmetrical configuration, two for each channel. Compared to the classic Wavedream, the design was optimized by shortening the clock and data signal paths and by using higher quality board-to-board connectors. Therefore, signal integrity was significantly improved. Furthermore, the toroid transformers and the display are shielded internally using a copper cage. The analog stages following the D/A conversion modules are hidden on the back of the left and right boards.

The Rockna philosophy for an exceptional DAC is mastering the art of connecting mixed-signal technologies in such a way that the output preserves all the fine nuances of the original recording. Many think the secret is proper digital processing, but that is just one piece of the puzzle. When moving the audio information from digital to analog domain, the clock system plays a critical role in giving a sense of realism, analog sound and creating audio 3D imagery. Most D/A converters take the easy route by relying on the ASRC (acronym for asynchronous sample rate converter) built in the chips they use. While the ASRC may have a sound signature in itself, the quality of the ASRC implemented in DAC chips is affected by cost and silicon real-estate, thus being prone to sound quality degradation.

In the Wavedream Reference we developed one of the most advanced, ASRC-free digital PLL clock solutions which gives the DAC the ability to perform like an analogic source, with a natural sense pf pace and rhythm. Another key element is that digital signals physically travel as high-speed analog signals and they must be treated accordingly. Bits are bits on an abstract level but on pcb traces, connectors, cables they are a succession of high-speed rectangular analog signals which are not perfect: they have rise-time, fall time and they could be plagued by ringing, spikes, reflections, crosstalk, phase noise(jitter) etc. This is why Rockna has perfected radio-frequency techniques to mitigate these issues which have the potential to ruin the pursued analog sound.

SOFTWARE DEFINED ARCHITECTUR

We always thought that high-end audio should be everything about innovation. Playing around with off-the-shelf available chips is fun and certainly a good and economic way to produce good sound. But once you want to design a cutting-edge product, the off-the-shelf approach doesn’t apply. Naturally, a custom solution, freed from the limitation of the available chipsets, come into place, allowing us to design and build from the scratch an entire digital audio system.

All building blocks of the Wavedream DAC concernig digital processing are built entirely on a single piece of programmable silicon – a FPGA . With a FPGA, it’s internal hardware architecture could be described by a piece of software (actually, a very complex one). When upgrading the Wavedream with new firmware, you actually change it’s hardware. This system allows great flexibility, obsolescence protection and let us improve the sound of your dac by changing it’s internal architecture, or add new cool features, or improve the existing ones.

FEMTOVOX CLOCK SYSTEM

The clock is the heart of a digital reproduction system. It’s accuracy and jitter levels are critical in regard of sound quality. Only a very good clock system can make the way to the analog sound on the output of your DAC. If the clock is flawed, digital harshness will occur and the analog feeling of the music will be severely altered. Apart from the performance of the clock itself, equally critical is the construction of the clock tree (the clock distribution architecture) inside the DAC. The jitter amount that really counts it’s not only the performance of the clock itself – but the clock which actually enters the dac and is used for conversion – let’s call it the conversion clock. The conversion clock that enters the dac section relies on the clock tree, which is usually not just routing, but in most cases conditioning, altering it’s quality. A poorly designed clock tree can degrade significantly the clock quality entering the d/a section, even if the source clock has great performance.

With these facts in mind, we designed for the Wavedream an advanced clock system called the femtovox. With femtovox in place, one is assured that only extremely small amounts of jitter are present at the dac conversion clock input. It’s unique architecture employs that conversion clock is directly synthesised at the dac input, without any conditioning, giving constant jitter performance at any sample rate. The conversion clock is controlled with 1 ppb precision, while exhibiting about 300 fS of jitter. The smallest jitter figure in the world? No. The smallest jitter figure where actually matters? Probably.

CUSTOM DIGITAL FILTERS

The Wavedream upsamples any material with a fixed rate of 16x. The dac modules will decode the digital stream with a rate of 768Khz, or 705.6Khz, respectively, according to input sample rate. We found this rate to be optimal for analog performance of the dac modules. Behind this simple multiplication factor (16x) lies a huge processing power. The digital filters are made with the combined effort of 58 DSP blocks, resulting into a impressive figure of 15 GMACS of processing power.

The developed filters are unique. We avoided standard Nyquist rate filters as not providing the expected performance for the dac. After lots of mathematical simulations and careful listening tests, we have created a custom Parks-McClellan upsampling filter. There are three variations avaialble on current firmware: linear, minimumand hybrid phase. They are highly optimized filters, offering stunning performance with a large number of taps (5k), and they are different in regard of impulse response. For the linear phase, the ringing energy (Gibb’s overshoot) is equally split before and after impulse. Minimum phase type shows all this energy after impulse, while our special hyrid phase filter has a combined response between linear and minimum, exhibing very low overshoot before the impulse.

D/A CONVERSION

For the effective D/A conversion stage we developed dedicated dac modules called RD-0 (used in Signature – 27 bit structure) and RD-1 (used in Edition – 26 bit structure). Modules themselves are complex pieces of technology, sharing a discrete sign-magnitude hybrid ladder topology, driven by a complex algorithm which is embedded into their own FPGA. Therefore the dac modules firmware is updatable both performance and feature-wise. Currently RD-0/1 can sustain a maximum sample rate of 6 MHz, which is the industry’s maximum sample rate specified for a audio dac. The output of the dac modules is un-buffered, allowing maximum transparency and natural sound reproduction.
OUTPUT STAGE

Finally, the last stage of the signal path is the analog output stage. It’s contribution to final sound is of extreme importance. Designed from the scratch to work with converter modules RD-0 & RD-1, the output stage is totally discrete and acts as a high-speed buffer. Made entirely with through-hole components (non-smd), we combined j-fet & bipolar devices into a class A design, with a closed-loop output impedance of under 1 ohm and equivalent input noise as low as 1nV, as a perfect match for the converter overall performance.
THE POWER SUPPLY

Naturally we have dedicated sections for digital and analog areas. There are 3 separate transformers, and all power supplies are low noise linear – no switchmode power supplies are used whatsoever. There are a total of 20 linear regulators inside the dac. We dedicated our attention to the dac modules regulators – which are designed from the scratch for low impedance and ultra-low noise.

NETWORK RENDERER

The network renderer built inside Reference is unique not only because is our proprietary approach, but because it is seamlessly integrated into the DAC digital front-end. There is no separate “streamer section” or extra board, which removes the need for a dedicated external connection and unnecessary obstacles into the digital signal path. Natively integrated inside the Rockna ZYNQ SoC, the renderer can truly shine, allowing perfect sonic performance when selected.

EXTRA MENU FEATURES

On the dac menu can be found a series of useful features. Let’s take a short walkthrough.

• The filter select feature – discussed above. The filters can be switched off for NOS operation.
• The preamp feature – The Wavedream has a 256 steps volume control which allows direct connection of a power amplifier. The volume control has 0.5 dB steps for a fine resolution setting.
• The phase select feature – the user can change the absolute phase of the output signal.
• The clock setting – there are 2 modes of the digital PLL response, stream and local. Please reffer to the clock technical document under the technology section for more information.
• Dither – to improve R2R ladder linearity, ultrasonic dither is applied on the last 4 bits from the digital 24-bit word.

THD+N (at -6dB)	0.0008% or -102 dB
S/N ratio (0 dB)	132 dB
Dynamic range	132 dB
Output impedance	0.5 ohms
Max. voltage	10Vpp (SE); 20Vpp (XLR)

Video Review

Listening Impressions and Tests

Before getting into more details, let’s give a few details of the system that stole my heart. My setup was: PC-> Matrix Element H powered by the Keces P8 linear power supply -> Audioquest Diamond USB -> Denafrips Gaia -> (i2s Audioquest Diamond) || Or directly Network Cable-> Rockna Wavedream Reference Signature -> Holo Bliss KTE- > stock T+A Cable -> T+A Solitaire P Headphones.

I also tested the dac on my speaker system : Wavedream Reference Signature -> Holo Bliss KTE as PRE -> Chord Ultima 5 Power -> Martin Logan ESL 11A Speakers.

I have played along with the filters and I seem to have the same preferences that I had with Rockna Wavelight and Wavedream Signature. I still prefer the Hybrid filter that sounds the most natural while retaining dynamics and the fun factor. I sometimes use linear if I want a bit faster / more precise sound, but I surely prefer Hybrid overall, as it brings a bit more dynamism(explosion in attack) and weight to the notes.
I also tested the inputs. As you can see above, I have gone through a lot of trouble to make sure that my usb pc output has very good sound.

The USB->Denafrips Gaia -> i2s input on Wavedream Reference Signature is indeed still a very good option, but network renderer from within Wavedream Reference Signature does an amazing job, showing even cleaner sound. In my case I have used Audirvana UPNP and it worked great. The configuration was almost effortless.

There are still a few bugs, as sometimes the wavedream reference is removed from audirvana as output option and I have to switch in Rockna’s menu from upnp to anything else and back, but I am sure this will get in the following updates.

And while we are talking about this chapter, I have to say that the firmware update experience is amazing! You just go into Wavedream’s menu, use the touchscreen to get to the firmware version information and press the “Check for Updates” button. That is it. It will automatically do the rest.

Rockna also has a mobile app that has the same menu you can find on the device, giving you the option to control the volume and device settings in general from your phone.

You also get a very sturdy aluminum remote control, so you can control the unit from the embedded touschreen, the app or the remote control.

Let’s get into how the unit actually behaves on different songs.

Gojira – Drum Solo

The drums kicks from the first second and it wiped the floor with me. The impact is breath taking, but on top of that, the detail of the drum being hit is amazing. You can hear the material of the drum, you can feel it. It was so energetic, so realistic that I became the drum :)). Also, this is recording of a live show. The people shouting from the crowd were incredibly real and very well put into space. Combined with everything else, I felt like I was there. Life like, live experience. Goosebumps and tears of pure joy!

Chris Jones, Stave Baker – Smoke and noise – Set’em Up, Joe

The guitar plucks instantly gave me goosebumps. Why? Because they are incredibly tactile and superbly detailed. The attack tickles your ears, but the decay is amazingly natural, detailed and well presented. Combined with a an excellent timing and precision, it creates an incredible experience through a bliss of musicality and life like reproduction. When the vocal and harmonica entered, I was already in the 7th heaven, but they came with so much presence, lively and lifelike texture that it was like an ointment for the soul.

Babylon – Voodoo Mama

This was a feast for the audiophile senses, as this song has rich and complex instrumental arrangement that combines traditional jazz band elements with unique percussion and experimental sounds. The percussion section includes unconventional elements like sticks slamming on wooden floorboards and various “circus instruments” including calliope, accordion, wind-up toy monkey cymbals, kazoos, slide whistles, and party horns. The song actually starts with that unconventional percussion with all of the unconventional elements and the experience was immediately stunning, as the Wavedream Reference Signature managed to capture all of that complexity, separate all of that into their own layers, giving them textures, vibration, in short bringing them to life in hypnotizing way. All of that happened in a very well separated, holographic soundstage as each element was in its own very well defined layer. I was immediately transported into the song. When the saxophone entered it managed to bring all of the above and the other instruments into an incredible musical, dynamic, energetic, exciting, lively experience. Oh man, at the end of the song I was sweating.

Hanne Boel – Outtakes – After Midnight

The bass and drums establish a profound foundation that penetrates deep into the soul, showcasing exceptional control while revealing the intricate textures of the percussion work. Hanne’s voice enters with a remarkable holographical presence that fills the sonic space with dimension and clarity. The interplay of guitars, drums and bass creates an immersive 360-degree sound field where instruments snap with stunning dynamics and tactile detail, delivering an unprecedented level of musical articulation.

Dedicated – 2 Cellos – Wherever I Go

The sonic landscape of “Wherever I Go” by 2Cellos unfolds with remarkable depth and precision. The piece begins with a gentle, chill introduction at low volume, yet even in these quieter moments, the cellos display incredible liveliness and textural detail that showcases the exceptional recording quality. As the song builds momentum, it transforms into a dynamic interplay between ballad-like passages and more energetic sections, with unconventional percussion created by striking the cellos themselves. The performance creates an immersive soundstage where every note vibrates with energy and incredible detail, demonstrating the duo’s masterful control over their instruments while maintaining both power and delicacy.

Vivaldi – Concerti per due violini – Allegro

The concertos are structured as “double concertos” where the two violins engage in a musical dialogue, trading melodic phrases and harmonizing together while supported by the ensemble. The format resembles a musical joust between the two solo violinists, with the ensemble providing the foundational accompaniment.

I was immediately stunned by the violins, as they sounded incredibly life like. For me, violins and cellos are the most expressive instruments out there as they can transmit an incredible amount of emotion. The Wavedream Reference Signature breathed life into them. They were so crisp, so detailed, so well textured and natural, managing to capture the magic of the song. The whole orchestra sounded stunning, showing an amazingly natural, holographic and precise soundstage.

Scooter – God save the rave

This is not a good recording, but it can be incredibly fun on systems that don’t sound harsh. Oh, and also, somehow it reminds me of high school. The female vocals emerge with stunning holographic presence, creating an expansive 3D soundstage that immediately establishes a sense of space and dimension. When the bass drops and synthesizers enter, they deliver an energetic punch that transforms the track into a dynamic, full-bodied experience.

I was in high school, raving again. In this case, the Wavedream Reference became a time machine for me.

ACDC – Highway to Hell

I was already in heaven because of this DAC. I said, let’s take a trip to hell, so I took the highway to hell. I still have a dumb smile on my face while writing this passage here. The electric guitar and drums were the first to enter the scene and of course with an incredible attack, texture and abundance of detail. Bon Scott’s vocals was incredibly powerful and raw. Angus Young’s lead guitar was recorded through a Marshall 2203/2204 amp, with special attention to neck pickup positioning for the main riff, creating this raw, vibrating lively experience that the Wavedream Reference Signature managed to take to the ultimate level. Phil Rudd’s drums showed amazingly precise timing and addictively powerful impact. Cliff Williams’ bass work, while subtle, added crucial low-end foundation to the mix. Yes, this baby can rock the soul out of you, or into you.

Renaud Garcia – Rock Wandering

“Rock Wandering” by Renaud Garcia-Fons is performed entirely on a single 5-string double bass, though the artist creates multiple layers of sound through various techniques. The remarkable aspect is that all sounds in the piece, including the percussive elements and harmonies, are created solely by Garcia-Fons on his double bass through various techniques.

The DAC’s exceptional transparency and dynamic capabilities bring forth the full harmonic richness of the instrument, presenting each note with such natural tonality and lifelike presence that you can feel the vibrations of the strings and wood resonating in your body.

Summary

Bass

The bass on the Wavedream Reference Signature is capable of legendary performance. If your system is capable of delivering it, you will get an almost religious experience out of it. It hits with immense power, it goes deep into your soul and presents an incredible amount of control and detail in that beautiful decay. It can wipe the floor with you, throw you around, it can pat you on the back or gently massage you, depending on the song.

Midrange

The midrange is stunning. It breathes life into the music, showing layers and layers of details, but in a very natural way. It has amazing textures. Have you ever seen a texture upgrade of an older game? let’s take the Witcher 3 for example, where 2 years ago they added an update with high detail 4k textures. The difference is night and day and this is what the Wavedream Reference Signature does automatically to any song. Somehow the textures it manages to upscale the textures from any song and takes “the game” to an ultimate experience. This applies to anything from instruments to vocals.

Treble

The treble is detailed, natural, a breath of fresh air, compared to most other dacs on the market that sound harsh in comparison. It has body, it can be tactile on the right headphones/speakers and it gives air to the soundstage.

Vocals

This is another area that is noticeable from the very first moments with Wavedream Reference. The vocals are very intimate, present, incredibly detailed and the level of texture they bring is stunning. You know the saying “I’m hearing voices in my head”? Well… the voices are there in the room with you, but not in a creepy way, in a beautiful, intimate manner that improves the connection between you and your music.

Timing – Dynamics – Prat

The Wavedream Reference Signature plays in a league of its own. I don’t think I have ever heard such a thin in my life. It manages to infuse energy in instrument, sound, voice, even at lower volumes, when you can still feel the energy and dynamics of that particular sound. It can explode in dynamism, showing stunning dynamic range and a superb transition in timing from one note to the other. The precision of the transients is stunning, showing also an incredible powerful attack, but also a natural and detailed decay.

Detail

The abundance of detail presented by the Wavedream Reference Signature is ridiculously good. The interesting part is Rockna managed to do something magical here. Nothing is thrown at you or shouting at you like “hey..look at me…look at me!”. No, the detail is distributed evenly wherever you “look”.

It’s so much detail, that the experience is similar to real life, in the sense that you can’t look at something and perceive all the detail at once. No, you need to focus your attention object by object to perceive the details. This is happening here as well. You focus on the drums, you hear the superb detail of the percussion, extension. You focus on a guitar, you can hear the hands literally touching the strings before the pluck, you can hear the strings vibrate at full force, moving the air around it. It’s almost like you can zoom in the air near the string and see the particles and dust being energetically moved by the strings. When you focus on the vocals, you need to look around the room, as it’s like the singers are there in the room with you or singing intimately in your ears. I can go on and on, but I think I made my point.

Life Like Experience

There is NO sign of digital harshness anywhere. I wanted to talk about tonality, but this is life like experience. I can’t tell you how many times I got startled and looked around the room, because I had the impression that the sound was originating near me. Not to say in some songs I was startled by some vocals. They were so real that I had the impression they were right there near me. This is beyond the usual “natural or not” sound discussion/analysis. This is life like.

Soundstage

The soundstage is HUGE and and in a very natural way. It captures the room / hall the music was recorded in with incredible precision. It’s like being there. It also manages to place everything in space within layers and layers, leaving a lot of space between the instruments, however crowded the scene is.

Transparency

The Wavedream Reference Signature is like a window or like a portal into the music. It removes anything between you and the music. Hell, it’s not even a window, its’ like a time machine. Some songs transported me directly into high school, because of the memories I had on those songs from that time.
How does it sound compare to Wavelight and Wavedream Signature?

I was already in love with my Rockna Wavelight for the balance that it brought between natural sound, musicality, technicalities and really fun macro dynamics. I was already floored by the Rockna Wavedream Signature. I was actually very curious how something can sound better than the Wavedream Signature, but I surely found out. First of all, I would quote my comparison between Wavedream Signature and Wavelight

How does it sound compare to Wavelight?

The Wavelight occupies a different league, but I still respect its capabilities and commend Rockna for what they have achieved with this model. Although it doesn’t offer the same level of detail, precision, astounding soundstage, or overall realism as the WaveDream, the Wavelight still boasts excellent dynamics (particularly in macro aspects), a slightly smoother sound, and a touch more romantic character. By smooth, I mean that the sound is somewhat rounder, more intimate, and less revealing. However, don’t mistake the Wavelight for lacking punch, as it remains among the top DACs I know in this area. In fact, it hits so hard that often, I have to double-check to make sure my speakers are not on while listening with headphones.The vocals are a bit closer to the listener and have more weight, but they don’t possess the same level of detail.

Furthermore, the Wavelight exhibits delightful textures and tonality. In terms of realism, while it’s not on the WaveDream level, it still performs remarkably in this regard. Though it doesn’t possess such a holographic or expansive soundstage, or the same level of detail, the tonality, placement of instruments, and intimacy of the vocals make it a top-tier experience in this respect.

Wavelight is amazing, I still love it, and for me, it remains one of the best DACs I have ever heard. However, in this comparison, it is the little brother.

Why am I quoting this? As you can see in the review from above, there were a few differences in the sound character between the two, as Wavelight was incredibly strong on macro dynamics and was a bit more romantic in the sense explained above.

Wavedream Reference Signature effectively takes the best from both and combines them beautifully into a blissful experience. It’s just better than both, because it keeps the amazing macro punch from the wavelight, it also manages to sound incredibly musical through realism, incredible vocals that touch your soul with their presence, but also improving on all the things the Wavedream Signature does as well, from precision, soundstage, details timing, transparency, etc.

Conclusion

I think I have said it many times already, but it needs mentioning again.

Rockna Audio managed to achieve the level of art done through engineering.

Yes, this is not by any means a product that is accessible to everyone from a price perspective, but I don’t think I have ever heard something better at any price.
I have done a lot of amazing additions to my system in the past years: Chord Ultima 5 Speaker amplifier (used with Martin Logan ESL-11A Speakers) , Holo Bliss KTE Headphone amp, T+A Solitaire P Headphones. Both the speaker and the headphone systems already sounded amazing, but the Rockna Wavedream Reference Signature took both systems to completely new levels of pure joyful, jaw dropping listening experience. I just can’t get enough.

END GAME Product!

Get the Rockna Wavedream Reference Signature from Chameleon Audio!