Review: Empire Ears Valkyrie

Empire Ears Valkyrie

In this review we take a close-up look at Empire Ears’ first ever triple hybrid design – the Valkyrie. It features a dynamic driver, a balanced armature and an electrostatic tweeter.

Disclaimer: Empire Ears provided the Valkyrie free of charge for this review. I only had to pay for importing the product. Headfonia is not affiliated with Empire Ears and they are not a site advertiser. Many thanks for the generosity and opportunity. We have received a prototype for this review. The design of my unit does not represent the final production version.

About Empire Ears:

I’m sure most folks won’t need an introduction to Empire Ears anymore, but for those who do, I shamelessly copied this section from my previous EE reviews.

Empire Ears is an American IEM and custom IEM company, seated in Norcross, Georgia. They are no new face to the audiophile world. The main people behind Empire are Jack Vang, vice president and co-founder, and his father Dean Vang, the main man behind tuning and development of their products. Before the Empire brand was launched, Jack Vang was owner of a very successful company called EarWerkz. In late 2015 Jack joined forces with his father and merged with Dean’s company, who was working on hearing aids and OEM in ears, to form Empire Ears. This step took their business to the next level.

Empire Ears Valkyrie

Empire Ears Valkyrie

Currently Empire Ears has divided their products into two different lines: the EP (Empire Professional) and X line-up. The EP line is aiming for their professional clientèle of musicians, while the X series is purpose built for the audiophile world. That doesn’t mean that an audiophile can’t enjoy the products of the EP series though. Just see how many people have been raving about the Phantom, their five-driver IEM.
All their products are hand-made in their facilities. Returning customers don’t have to send in new impressions each time, as Empire stores them for future events.

Empire Ears is working with a lot of award winning and successful artists such as Flo Rida and Future or producers and engineers like Michael Graves and Jeremiah Atkins. Who both were very much involved in the tuning of Empire’s line-up.

Empire Ears is one of the companies that looks further than just their tuning. They also worked meticulously on finding the best materials to optimize their drivers. Therefore, they have introduced a special driver coating and a highly advanced new crossover network.

They have reached critical acclamation with their flagship monitor of their previous Olympus line, the Zeus. The Zeus is still regarded as one of the best monitors created, and I see many people still raving about their Zeus XIV, Zeus XR or Zeus R monitors. Personally, I own a Zeus XIV and wouldn’t want to miss it for the world.

Like many companies, Empire Ears has invested their R&D time in electrostatic hybrids. We’ve seen the new flagship Wraith and today we’re looking at their first tri-brid – the Valkyrie.

Empire Ears Valkyrie

Empire Ears Valkyrie

About Valkyrie:

The Valkyrie is Empire’s very first monitor to use three different driver technologies in one shell. It uses their proprietary nine millimetre W9 dynamic low end driver, a Balanced Armature for mids and Sonion’s electrostatic tweeter. They’re all put into place by a four way synX crossover system. Empire’s engineers have developed a control system for the electrostatic tweeter called EIVEC. It manipulates the transformer with passive electronics to make the e-stat seamlessly integrate into the spectrum of the other drivers.

Valkyrie’s rated impedance is only three Ohms, measured at 1kHz. Even for an IEM this is ridiculously low. However, I have not encountered any impedance issues when using different sources. The tech-sheet tells me that Valkyrie has a sensitivity of 96dB/mW, which isn’t particularly high. From my experience with Valkyrie I feel it needs not only more juice to get to my preferred listening levels, but also the right power to be handled correctly. It isn’t all about the output power, but about the amp circuit to deliver great sound.

Like all their other monitors, Valkyrie’s drivers are coated with an Anti Resonance Compound (A.R.C.), which suppresses unwanted resonances from the surfaces of the drivers. This Ferrofluid coating is applied on all internals. Empire states that Valkyrie has a frequency response of 4Hz to 100kHz. Which is below and above what humans can hear.

Each pair of Valkyrie’s is hand-made by EE in their Norcross, Georgia facilities. Customers can chose between a custom and universal fit. Valkyrie can be acquired directly from Empire’s online-store or one of their many offline retailers around the globe. Prices start at 1,599 USD. Custom IEMs can be more expensive, depending on the design options.

Empire Ears Valkyrie

Empire Ears Valkyrie – Photo by Empire Ears

Build Quality, Comfort and Isolation:

During the development of Valkyrie, Empire worked to create a new shell-design as well. They have invested their time not only in sound but also ergonomics of their new IEM. I have only handled one other universal monitor of EE, which is the Wraith. Valkyrie is a lot smaller and more compact than Wraith, which is given, as it uses lesser drivers.

Valkyrie fits my ears easily with its small form-factor. Although I hardly ever have fit-issues with universals. When you inspect the acrylic shells of Valkyrie, you’ll notice three holes. These are for pressure relief of the dynamic driver. Because of these holes, isolation isn’t exactly good. Valkyrie leaks more sound coming in than most other monitors I have put in my ears.

When inserting the Valkyrie you will notice a pop on both sides, this is called driver flex. The dynamic driver’s surface reacts to the built-up pressure during insertion. For people that don’t know that’s a normal process, it can be quite alarming. No reason to panic, the drivers aren’t harmed by that.

I mentioned it in the disclaimer, I received a prototype for this review. Thus my unit does not reflect the final production design. Valkyrie will come with a black shell and a dragonhide face plate. The developer of the design currently holds 2 patents in polymer science for high solids coating chemistry and the process itself was developed over the past 17 years. Dragonhide features a unique Dichoric optical core within each lamination, resulting in dramatic color shifts as the viewing angle changes.

Comfort-wise I don’t have any issues with the Valkyrie. It’s light and sits snug in my ears. With the supplied ear-tips I can get a good seal.

More about Valkyrie on the next page!

4.6/5 - (180 votes)
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A daytime code monkey with a passion for audio and his kids, Linus tends to look at gear with a technical approach, trying to understand why certain things sound the way they do. When there is no music around, Linus goes the extra mile and annoys the hell out of his colleagues with low level beatboxing.

11 Comments

  • Reply August 27, 2019

    Logan

    Great writeup. Do you think the A&K SR15 will have enough power to drive these adequately with the balanced output? A&K doesn’t provide power output specs in mW, just Vrms. Looks like the SR15 output (4.0 Vrms balanced) is in line with SP1000M (4.2 Vrms). Thank you!

    • Reply August 27, 2019

      Linus

      Hi Logan,
      many thanks for your comment. Much appreciated.

      Well, AK gives their numbers in condition no load, so they’re not really saying much in the end how much output power they’re supplying.

      I find AK DAPs to not be the best when working with hybrids. Not even the SP1000 does a great job at that. The SP1000M so far is the best in that regard from A&K to me.

      It’s been too long since I had the SR15 (lovely device!). If the Valkyrie is underpowered, you won’t get as much top end. This is a common thing amongst estat hybrids, but Valkyrie is easier going than Wraith for example. I suspect this is due to EE using only a single estat driver. The transformer can give more load to one driver, than to two. That’s purely speculations on my side, but to me that sounds reasonable… So I guess chances are good for the SR15 delivering enough power for the Valkyrie.

  • Reply September 17, 2019

    Steven Zore

    I just auditioned the Valkyrie this past weekend on my WM-1a and Ares II cable. I instantly loved it. It has a big, bold, lush, wonderful sound.

    • Reply September 17, 2019

      Linus

      Hi Steven,

      thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
      Yeah, the Valkyrie is very nice. I heard with the WM-1A/Z it’s a bit thicker and lusher as you say. I’m getting a custom Valkyrie soon and can’t wait to play with it. 🙂

      • Reply December 2, 2019

        Steven Zore

        Hey Linus so I picked up a new Valkyrie for Black Friday. Using it with my A&K SE100 and it sounds fantastic!

        • Reply December 2, 2019

          Linus

          Hi Steven,
          thanks so much for letting me know!
          The Valkyrie really is something. Glad you like it with the SE100. 🙂
          Hope you’ll have a blast with them.
          Enjoy!

        • Reply April 2, 2020

          Luis André Ferreira

          How does the Valkyrie tuning blends with the se100 tuning? I heard se100 can be a bit cold and analytical but, with iems who can throw a decent bass punch it can sound amazing!
          Thanks!

  • Reply October 21, 2019

    Tim

    I am struggling for choosing between aaw x shozy pola and empire valkyrie. Looking for earphone to listen various genre of music. Do u have any comment for that?

    • Reply October 21, 2019

      Linus

      Hi Tim,

      I haven’t heard the original Pola or the Pola39 myself (yet), but I hear very positive things about them. I’ll probably get to listen to the Pola39 this weekend when a friend visits.
      For versatility: Valkyrie has a lot of bass. Which might not be best suited for some genres. Still, it’s a very good performer, so if you can audition it, that would be best.

      Cheers!

    • Reply July 10, 2021

      Steve

      Sorry I just saw your message…The SE 100 is a great mid-tier dap, even if it is a little passe’ in the summer of 21…It has a detailed neutral tuning with great clarity and a proper soundstage. Nowadays I am using a M8, which is slightly warm and wonderful, and I find that my custom Valkyries sound their best with anything close to neutral as possible. I find that the Valkyrie is doing a balancing act between the bass (W9), and the electrtostaic tweeter. If DAP and cable is too bright, the treble becomes fatiguing and the bass thin. If to far warm, the bass gets thumpy and the treble is unremarkable in some way. My current favorite cable for Valklyrie is my Forzaworks silver/copper hybrid. Balanced; the copper captures and preserves the bass, in a clean, detailed, layered way, and the treble is allowed to shine because of the silver. When I use my other cable, a PWAudio 1% gold alloy, which really shines the spotlight on the bass, suddenly becomes thumpy and boomy. So to answer you question, yes the SE100 is perfect.

  • Reply August 10, 2020

    gemme sebastien

    Hey, I’m very curious about pairing the Legend X with the Woo Wa11. I will use a Lotoo Paw Gold Touch as source with the balanced cable. I’ve try with the Burson Fun and it was a very good pairing. Thank you

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