ROCKNA Wavelight DAC

You may have noticed that discrete FPGA solutions have become a hit of the last several years in digital to analogue conversion, instead of OEM DAC chips. Pioneered by dCS, MSB Technology or TotalDAC the R2R and FPGA architecture has – among other advantages – almost endless flexibility in how it is configured. The FPGA (which stands for Field Programmable Gate Array) is what it says – an array of hundreds or thousands of gates that need a software to become functional. The software determines what the FPGA will become, it can be a DAC as well as a mikroprocesor. Rewriting the software changes the purpose of the device. What does it mean for the Rockna Wavelight DAC? It can hardly become obsolete as the gates can be reprogrammed to reflect the latest developments. 

Rockna´s own clock/oscillator is the other important feature of the Wavelight DAC. According to Rockna the clock is often responsible for “digital harshness”. They see the clock distribution architecture as crucial for good sound and say that “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 its 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 an advanced clock system called 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”. I only add that the Wavelight DAC can work with digital signals up to 32bit/384kHz and 1-bit DSD512.

The Wavelight DAC inputs include I2S, USB, AES/EBU, Toslink, S/PDIF, and as a bonus there is an analog input on single-ended RCA cinches for the Wavelight DAC can also work as an preamplifier, The preamplifier, although digitally controlled, is conceived in a completely analog domain and its gain is selectable 0/6/9.5dB. This way the Rockna can be used also as a device to which your phono preamp or tape output is connected to.

The control menu of the Wavelight DAC is pretty simple and can be navigated with the help of 3 buttons on the DAC’s faceplate. There is no remote controller provided (sic!) but with a download of iOS or Android app you can use your smartphone or tablet to control the Rockna. The digital conversion uses 3 selectable filters or no filter at all - this will be discussed later on. My only complaint goes to the nice and big but overly bright display which flooded me with light even at the minimum brightness setting. In the maximum mode the Wavelight DAC is fine as a main light source in your living room after dusk. Less bright next time, please.