TOP OF THE LINE DAC SHOOTOUT : ROCKNA vs PLAYBACK DESIGNS

Описание: .........................................Rockna no Pre Rockna with Pre MPD-8 With Pre MPD-8 No Pre

I am the Highway 1:14 7:49 13:47 20:28
(Chris Cornell)

Jazz Sax 2:27 9:07 14:58 21:42

Knopfler 3:38 10:17 16:08 22:57

Firefall DSDx4 4:40 11:38 17:31 24:14



SUMMARY/ REVIEW:

ROCKNA WAVEDREAM SIGNATURE BALANCED = 6.5 out of 10
What you are hearing with Rockna is a DAC with exemplary imaging , this is its strong suit. On this DAC it comes at the expense of stridence. This sonic will fatigue and tire you out. You wont know why you want to leave the listening session but they will be shorter due to this, While on one hand it gives a palpable presence of someone being there, its like a ghost that's there not a live human
How do we cure this issue ? Vacuum tube preamp , one thats slightly lush because some tube linestages sound like Solid State. This is needed to calm it down on the top and smooth it out . Yhis DAC could be a decent amount better if some small steps had been done upon the finish , Its almost as if this DAC was not ready by deadline... imagine that .lol so they finished it off in hasty fashion, leaving a very capable DAC without refinement or final tune.

Pros .
Image Queen - surprisingly good imaging and immediacy
Many Menu options to tweak final sound more than just filter.

Cons.
Likely to be strident on 30% of your listening
Very resonant chassis , the tap test reveals a very thin shelf over the 3 torroids behind the faceplate , its very thin and is like a gong when you tap it .
Runs hot and chassis has no venting
DC offset seems to drift. Could be fixed by newest firmware not sure
Fit and finish should be better for a $16K DAC


Summary.
While this Rockna has some issues all it takes is a little TLC to alleviate most of the issues in the form of modification. If you find this for $9K or less, its fair. Keep in mind it will require a preamp for best sonic.

Next we put the ROCKNA with a NAT AUDIO SYMMETRICAL VACUUM TUBE LINESTAGE

As you can hear the NAT tames and smoothes out the unruly sibilance of the Cornell song Thanks God. The bass is stronger but fat and loose a touch.. Reverb and Echo closely related to Decay has longer trails. Theres some fuller body and better weight . These Preamps are on used market for $3500 or so . New ones are $7500 and an all new one has been released which is fully balanced in addition .

NAT SYMMETRICAL / PLAYBACK DESIGNS MPD-8:

Now we can clearly hear the difference that is MPD-8, first thing is its more REAL sounding and organic. there's just more to the music. small faint parts of the recording are now recovered more fully. BUT, we must take OUT the preamp to realize the MPD-8 has a cleaner output

PLABACK DESIGNS MPD-8 no Preamp 9 out of 10

its noticeably quieter . Vocals pop better off the background and have deeper timber and texture . leading edge is intact and defined. Bass tightens up and tone can be heard bettter within the bass. You can actually hear the speaking character of someone's voice that is singing . More than anything this DAC Connects me to the music like no other DAC ever has. MPD-8 plays native DSD There are zero choices for filter, clock, dither etc. but it does not need it at all. In the weirdest way MPD-8 seemed to "fix everything" , I can not find erven one thing that bugs me Oh yesh... Id like to see a BNC SPDIF as it denotes the Professional bloodline of Playback Designs and Ill take a locker on a jack any day. The second you hear ths DAC you recognize that the DAC search is over,,, totally .... not even a doubt. This is what is called an END GAME piece. The real one. I laugh at how overused that term is .

Pros
Immediate and complete connection to the music. In fact , you realize its impossible to put into words the way you normally describe sound . This is different , its so complete and balanced, finished out and impeccably tuned .
Comes with free software to playback and record to DSD in its native format up to 4x DSD
Has ST digital Professional level glass fiber optic input.
Sounds better without preamp . sp save money there.
Puts an end to the DAC game.

CONS
if you hear it , youll buy it .