Product page: https://empireears.com/products/valkyrie-universal

MSRP: $1,600

Driver configuration: 1DD + 1BA + 1EST

First, let’s address the whole “baby Legend X” thing.

I would describe the Legend X as “sinful” or even a “guilty pleasure”. It’s no secret that it’s probably one of the most imbalanced IEMs in the TOTL-sphere, and its reputation as a high-level basshead ‘phone is not unwarranted in my opinion. And yet despite this imbalance, I don’t think it sounds unnatural, it simply lacks the finesse and control in the bass regions like other similarly priced IEMs, and I think that really hurts its ability to be taken seriously in the hifi audiophile world.

Now taking all that into context, the Valkyrie leans even further into the Legend X’s imbalance and firmly plants itself into the realm of the “extreme V-shape”. You get a lot of upper midrange and treble, and a lot of sub-bass. Thankfully the bass is pretty well-controlled even in comparison to the Legend X, but there really is a lot of it here. The upper midrange borders on shoutiness but I think it’s pretty nicely counterbalanced by the massive bass boost at the very least, so it’s not harsh for my ears. So in that regard, I kind of get it. The Valkyrie is a baby Legend X.

But god, the midrange. If you’re a stickler for mids, stay far far away from the Valkyrie. The tonal balance isn’t bad by any means, but this is easily one of the thinnest mids I have ever heard in an IEM. I find myself instinctively squinting when listening to these since they sound like the music is being squeezed through a tiny pinhole.

Give me a break, these are cliffnotes. I’ll abuse my right to make stupid analogies here.

I think the most surprising thing about the Valkyrie is that it actually has a decent amount of treble. As stated before, my experience with EST hybrids have been mostly disappointing with regards to their treble presentation so this was a nice breath of fresh air.

Not a bad entry by Empire Ears and it could’ve been great too, if it didn’t come with the Empire Ears pricing as well.