Rockna Wavelight thoughts?

I already own a great sounding DAC, the Lindemann Musicbook DSD. And now Lindemann offers an upgrade which entirely replaces the contents within in skin for less than $2K.

But, mental illness has me wishing for a new dac. It happens in audio. And mental illness along with age has me grappling at various types of dacs. 

I thought first about the Doge Audio Doge7. But those guys didn't respond to my last email as they are so busy selling product - a good thing no problemo. Love to see success in this tough competitive industry.

Then I thought about a Terminator. Then the Holo May KTE. Then the Rockna Wavelight after Terry's review. Now I'm on to the Audiobyte stack. And that got confusing as I go through reviews of such confusing Hydra Vox with Hydra Zap, Wave this Wave that, Hydra this Hydra that, Vox Rockna, Byte, heck, I just want a great sounding DAC :)

 OCDguy has got some great videos comparing some nice DAC's. That APL through YouTube then my computer headphones made me want the APL. Then I searched the price. No APL for me :( The Audiobyte sounded great and with the coming of the server streamer clocked to the DAC, should be a very good sound.

I'm trying to glean differences between the Wavelight and the Audiobyte Hydra Zap stack, all 3 boxes which gives me a FPGA based DAC, clean power and a server streamer.

Thanks for your help.

I have tried for a few years to get a DAC that sounds "right", to my ears. Conservative estimate I tried nearly a dozen including; two Schitts, IFI, Phison, Mytek and a Cambridge. I'm sure I'm missing a few from my trials.... ranging in price from $1000 - +$6000. On the recommendation of a friend, I tried a Wavelight and am hooked. It is the first DAC that I can actually sit down and listen to music to, while all the others were at best background music. I'm still in awe of how good it sounds after 6 months. 

Hey jimpittsburgh would love to know more about your impressions of the wavelight and also a bit about your system (music server, digital cable connection... are you using the wavelight as a premap etc.). If you get time... thanks! :)

@jimpittsburgh , Please tell us some more details, especially if you used the Wavelight as a preamp driving an amp directly, and its soundstage performance.

I owned the Rockna Wavedream Signature (top model) for a while along with the matching Wavedream Net server.  Excellent dac that was a very close with the Mola Mola Tamaqui dac I had at the same time.  There were plusses and minuses to each.  That being said, they are both gone.  I recently acquired a Jeff Rowland Aeris with Super Cap PSU (amazing) for system 2. 

However, the heavy hitter right now in my books that handily beat both the top level Rockna and Mola Mola dacs is from Aries-Cerat.  It is the Helene dac- we did close A-B comparison's at a buddies place and no contest- There was more sparkle; life; and openness to the top end of the Aeries-Cerat dac that the Rockna and Mola Mola simply couldn't match.  One day I hope to be able to get the Helene's 'big sister' dac the Kasandra II.  Check the feedback on the Kasandra dac over at WBF.  This thing is insane- it's a 135-lb dac.  I have seen it at a local buddie's place, but have yet to hear it.  Yes it's the price of a nice used BMW, but if you truly want to hear the next level in digital and just end the chase, this is it IMO.