Review on the Rockna Audio Wavelight Pre/DAC just went up on Stereo Times

Hey tonnesen & rja,

1) If your system is single ended and you don’t have any desire to eliminate your preamplifier, then the Audio Mirror DAC saves you a lot of money and still competes regarding it’s overall sonic performance.

2) I have heard the Sonnet DAC in another system and agree, it’s an excellent piece of gear. Enjoy your M3, it’s another great sounding DAC along with providing a reference level volume control. It’s also the first Sigma Delta single chip DAC that I would want to own because of its musicality. Hope you feel the upswing in price was worth it regarding your purchase of the M3 in your system’s performance. I have two more DACs to write reviews on, the Mhdt lab’s Balanced Pagoda and the Audio Note (England) Balanced 3.1, so I’m still continuing the process of reviewing DACs at different price points.

I've had a Wavelight in my system for a little over a week now, after trying a Mytek and a Phison, .... and I liked it, but didn't love it when using a laptop.  I purchased a Roon Nucleus along with a Teddy Pardo power supply and the difference was startling. It's now just about perfect... the sound is finally almost on par with my turntable and phono pre-amp... and to my ears that's saying alot! 

My dear friend and fellow staff reviewer, Micheal Wright, just had his follow-up review on the Wavelight posted on the website Stereo Times tonight. Very well written, and another listener with a very different system, who comes to very positive conclusions regarding it's  performance.

Terry - thanks for the comment on the Audio Mirro DAC, and I'm looking forward to your upcoming DAC reviews.   I'll be using an Accustic Arts CDP as the transport (both S/P-DIF and AES/EBU digital outputs), but I will be using a single ended preamp. 

The AA CDP has the Burr Brown PCM 1728 chip, 24/96Khz, 8x oversampling, so I'm eager to to hear if newer DACs or R2R would be a significant improvement.

I have been considering trying another DAC in the $5-$7K range and both the Wavelight and Bricasti M3 are on my list, along with Denafrips and Holo May KTE.  Not being able to hear these different DACs makes the decision a bit of a crapshoot and has resulted in my reading the reviews closely and somewhat critically.
I currently have the Metrum Adagio, which I feed from an Antipodes DX L3 into a Metrum Ambre (Roon endpoint) then I2S into the DAC.  I use the internal volume control in the Adagio and then output that through an SMc buffer (very similar to the VRE-1 preamp but without a VC) but I can reengage the VC in the preamp/buffer if needed so I having a VC in my DAC is not a necessity. 
I was very close to pulling the trigger on the Bricasti but am a little worried about getting a delta-sigma converter since, like Terry, I have come to be very fond of R2R DACs running in NOS mode.  The Bricasti seems to be a little better reviewed than the Wavelight, which some say is great in the bass and pretty good overall but maybe a little less special through the midrange and up.  The May is also well reviewed and measures very well but the reviewers seem to stop a little short of an all our rave.  Hearing the comments about the Sonnet Morpheus on this thread and that it may be on par or close to the Bricasti makes me wonder whether the DACs I am looking at are mostly a sideways move, since I suspect the Adagio is every bit as good as the Morpheus (based on several conversations I have had with people who have owned both).   Terry, you are lucky to be a reviewer - I wish I could spend a week with all four of these DACs!