Rockna Audio Wavelight WLS & DAC Review by SoundRebels (Translated)

As you can see for yourself, both title devices have the unified form of aluminium ‘armoured pancakes’ with rather rough-hewn solid fronts. At the outset, it is worth mentioning that, in addition to the black anodised finish visible in the photos above, a natural colour of brushed aluminium is also available. The transducer boasts a relatively small, but highly legible white LED (dot matrix) display with the company’s coloured logo on the left and three chrome function/navigation buttons (power/menu; volume/menu down; volume/menu up) on the right. The intensity of the display’s illumination can be adjusted in eight steps, or it can be completely turned off by relying on information displayed on a smartphone via a dedicated Bluetooth app (there is no remote control included, so if you are not an obsessive walking fan it is worth downloading one). The top panel is decorated only with two longitudinal sub-mouldings and an engraving informing that the device belongs to the Wavelight series, and the real fun starts only on the rear panel. This is because, looking from the left, we get, at our disposal, a pair of analogue outputs in RCA and XLR format (both gold-plated), RCA analogue inputs (the DAC can also act as a preamplifier), and digital – optical, AES/EBU, SPDIF coaxial, I²S in HDMI standard and USB. The enumeration closes with a three-pin IEC power socket.

The server, on the other hand, goes even further in its front-end minimalism, boasting only a centrally placed illuminated WLS engraving (the colour of the illumination indicates the operating status), the company logo on the left and a single switch button on the right. The top panel is a repeat of the DAC, but the back tempts with a wealth of connections. There is, of course, a LAN port, three USB sockets (1 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0), the company’s I²S bus in HDMI standard, SPDIF optical and coaxial outputs and AES/EBU. There is also a three-pin IEC power socket.

When it comes to the guts of the DAC, the first thing that catches the eye is the vast array of capacitors, from the confidence-inspiring power supply with two toroids and six 10 000 μF EPCOS + an array of smaller capacitors increasing the energy reserve to over 100 000 μF, to the signal section. As you can easily guess, it is impossible to overlook the heart of the DAC in the form of a proprietary R2R DAC controlled by an FPGA chip, a 7th generation Xilinx working with two ultra-precise CCHD957 clocks. Thanks to the use of memory buffers and a DPLLL phase loop, jitter is minimised to 300fs. The available volume control is done in the analogue domain and only its control is digital. From the menu, which can be accessed from both the aforementioned app and the front panel, we gain access to input selection, balance settings, absolute phase, volume control (which can be deactivated), and one of four digital filters: NOS, Linear, Minimum and Hybrid. As you can easily guess, the first excludes resampling, while the others allow oversampling up to 352.8/384 kHz. The digital inputs also cope, with USB and I²S (LVDS) accepting PCM up to 32bit/384kHz and DSD512, while the ‘conventional’ ones end up at 24bit/192kHz (the exception being the toslink ‘getting off’ at 176kHz).

The WLS, on the other hand, also surprises with an over-engineered power supply based on a pair of robust toroids and a battery of eight EPCOS capacitors with a capacity of 10,000 μF each. In its basic version, the Linux-based server has a 2TB SSD drive, although a version with 16TB of storage for our musical fascinations can also be ordered without any problem. With the help of a dedicated application, it is easy to set upsampling to send a PCM 352.8/384 kHz or DSD512 signal to the DAC, with interformat transcoding done at the hardware level.

Although the Romanian brand’s motto is ‘Simplicity in complexity’, I dare say that its sphere of influence ends with … the transmitter, as at least the initial configuration of the WLS, unless you opt for Roon only, is, to put it mildly, not overpowering in terms of intuitiveness. Not only will the server not appear on its own in the network (we won’t see it in the network environment / network drives), but its address must be entered into the browser ‘by finger’ (by serial number / IP search with the help of the recommended scanner) in order to start configuring it at all. Then, in order to access the implemented memory, you have to do some digging in your own computer’s system, i.e. activate the SMBv1 protocol responsible for file sharing (at this point, people with even the slightest idea of cyber security will have a heart attack). Everything is described in detail in the manual, but the competition seems to be much more generous to its non-IT savvy customers. In addition, there is no need to be fooled and it is fair to say that without Roon or, for example, the Internet, it would not be possible to use a Roon system. WLS’s HQPlayer is as functionally useful in an audio system as the Thixar Eliminator, i.e. it adds weight to the device beneath it and … that’s it. OK, I’m exaggerating a little, because with the help of the Linn Kazoo, it is possible to listen to Internet radio stations with the help of the WLS, provided, of course, that someone is kind enough to ‘upload’ them for us in advance.

Coming to the essence, however, i.e. the sonic qualities of the eponymous duo, I cannot but say that it is worth spending some time on their optimal configuration, as they repay with a surprisingly high quality sound. They offer an extremely addictive combination of unobtrusive resolution and captivating musicality, so if only our preferences are closer to the hedonistic-melodic, rather than analytical-audiophile profile, we can safely give up looking for the target source. I deliberately did not specify digital source in the previous sentence, as one could say anything about both the WLS and the DAC but not that they play ‘digitally’, as they do not do that, relying instead on strictly analogue coherence of the transfer. In fact, I dare say that on my audiophile path I have encountered several cartridges/recorders and phonostages operating with dramatically more analytical, angular or even stereotypically ‘digital’ sound. To confirm the above thesis, let me use a rather extreme example in the form of the album ‘Hymns in Dissonance’ by the deathcore band Whitechapel, which, to say the least, takes no prisoners. Brandon Zackey’s percussion blasts, animalistic roars and Phil Bozeman’s gurgling growl are capable of shattering reinforced concrete walls, while Gabea Crisp’s three guitars and powerful bass give no respite to the nerves shattered by the daily grind. It is infernally fast, brutal and dense, yet surprisingly resolving for this type of material. This is why I reached for such an infernal batch with innate curiosity, as any softening, loss of resolution, or toning down of the transmission immediately reveals in this case a total gush and loss of legibility. Meanwhile, the aforementioned musicality of the Romanian duo not only did not harm this metal cacophony, but in a way increased its power of destruction, weighing it down and intensifying the brutality and intensity of the message. However, instead of hardening and boosting the edges of the reproduced band, the Rockny focused on rendering colours and emotions, emphasising the cohesion of the composition on the one hand, and, on the other, tempting with intriguing resolution and the possibility of immersing oneself in a fiery structure. Exclusive qualities? I do not exclude such an option, but it is worth mentioning that it was possible to achieve such an apparent contradiction precisely by not trying to win the listeners’ attention by forcibly pushing out individual components or hardening the contours, but only by allowing the listeners to freely penetrate the tangle of blasts, riffs and growls. That is to say, instead of playing everything forward – in your face, Rockny build the stage on the line of speakers and behind them and, while retaining the ability to convey the native resolution of the material, they open the way for the audience to go deep into each composition and explore it fully freely. Another issue is the smoothness and delicate sweetness whose mark is audible both in the DAC and the server, which, although not very cumulative when playing in duo, although a comparison of the WLS with my ‘buried’ (retrofitted with an external Farad Super3 line power supply) Lumïn U2 Mini showed, The comparison with my Lumïn U2 Mini showed, however, that the title file player draws a slightly thicker line between phantom images than its Asian sparring partner and prefers to emphasise their dimensions rather than accentuate the reverberant aura that surrounds them.

However, I will immediately reassure all those who suspect the eponymous duo, or even the server itself, of playing impressionistic blunders, as they are far from doing such an unholy deed both together and solo, and my above was only intended to demonstrate the differences noted during listening with the reference device. Therefore, even reaching for the impressively sized San Francisco Symphony-style performance apparatus playing ‘Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique’ you can be assured that even distant plans will not resemble unreadable smears and only the message as such will be slightly denser, with more intense texture than from the aforementioned baby. To be more specific, the WLS goes more for juiciness and meatiness of presentation, while the DAC, on the other hand, tries to limit its rather discrete signature to ‘natural organicness’, preferably pretending that it is not present in the track at all. What can we do, however, is that this striving for ‘not being’ seems to work out quite well, but against the background of more transparent designs, it is the DAC that seems closer to our sensitivity and the desire to spend time in pleasant company and with sounds pleasing to the ears. This is why we do not have to prove to him and ourselves how sophisticated audiophile samplers are, when, as innocent pleasures, we can add the pulsating street rhythm track from ‘Godfather of Harlem’ to our playlist and take a break from the daily chase with a glass of amber distillate in hand.

Maybe the Rockna Audio Wavelight WLS & DAC are not Siamese twins, where one cannot live without the other, but in all honesty one has to admit that in a duo they come off very convincingly. Fortunately, as a test/good start one may first be interested in a more versatile DAC that does not require additional financial outlays (I assume that the appropriate cabling is available) and then, as part of the next upgrade of the laboriously built system, reach for the WLS and would like/would not like to invest in the Roon, which will allow it not so much to spread its wings as to provide a satisfactory level of service and full functionality.

System used during the test
– CD/DAC: Vitus Audio SCD-025 Mk.II + 2 x Quantum Science Audio (QSA) Blue fuse
– File player: Lumïn U2 Mini + Farad Super3 + Farad DC Level 2 copper cable + Omicron Magic Dream Classic; I-O Data Soundgenic HDL-RA4TB
– Turntable: Denon DP-3000NE + Denon DL-103R
– Phono preamp: Tellurium Q Iridium MM/MC Phono Pre Amp
– Digital source selector: Audio Authority 1177
– Integrated amplifier: Vitus Audio RI-101 MkII + Quantum Science Audio (QSA) Violet fuse
– Columns: AudioSolutions Figaro L2 + Solid Tech Feet of Balance
– RCA IC: Furutech FA-13S; phono NEO d+ RCA Class B Stereo + Ground (1m)
– XLR IC: Vermöuth Audio Reference; Furutech DAS-4.1
– Digital ICs: Fadel art DigiLitz; Harmonic Technology Cyberlink Copper; Apogee Wyde Eye; Monster Cable Interlink LightSpeed 200
– USB cables: Wireworld Starlight; Vermöuth Audio Reference USB; ZenSati Zorro
– Speaker cables: WK Audio TheRay Speakers + SHUBI Custom Acoustic Stands MMS-1
– Power Cables: Esprit Audio Alpha; Furutech FP-3TS762 / FI-28R / FI-E38R; Organic Audio Power + Furutech CF-080 Damping Ring; Acoustic Zen Gargantua II; Furutech Nanoflux Power NCF
– Power strip: Furutech e-TP60ER + Furutech FP-3TS762 / Fi-50 NCF(R) /FI-50M NCF(R)
– Wall power socket: Furutech FT-SWS-D (R) NCF
– Switch: QSA Red + Silent Angel S28 feet + Farad Super6 power supply + Farad DC Level 2 copper cable
– Ethernet cables: In-akustik CAT6 Premium II; Audiomica Laboratory Anort Consequence, Artoc Ultra Reference, Arago Excellence; Furutech LAN-8 NCF; Next Level Tech NxLT Lan Flame
– Anti-vibration platform: Franc Audio Accessories Wood Block Slim Platform
– Table: Solid Tech Radius Duo 3
– Acoustic Panels: Vicoustic Flat Panel VMT

Opinion 2 by Jacek Pazio

As reported by the portal search engine, today’s meeting with the eponymous brand is not trailblazing, as I am referring to the test of the Wavedream R2R DAC Signature conducted three years ago, which showed that the beauty of music can be nicely presented without forceful compression of the musical material. It is simply enough not to cross the line of good taste in lightness of music presentation and it is possible to enchant the listener with pleasantly airy and at the same time grandiose playing. This, let’s add, successful way of music, which is the reason for this test, was once propagated by the Romanian brand. And how is it now? As you can guess from the title, we will verify this on the basis of the Rockna Audio Wavelight WLS & DAC network streamer and digital-to-analogue converter set supplied by Sopot-based Premium Sound.