[ajyagle]

Question: (It's not Empire Ears specific, but the Legend X happens to be a particularly egregious example of it, and I'm not looking forward to seeing a similar situation with the Valkyrie/Wraith.)

If an audio company has distributor(s) overseas, who sets the prices for the product in that country? Is it the manufacturer? The distributor? Does the manufacturer set the minimum price and the distributor the maximum/actual price?

I understand that the local distributor is on the hook for any warranty issues, import processes, etc. and that they also need to make money off of their services, so it's normal for some/most products to be pricier here. However, I do have some trouble wrapping my head around the fact that the $2300 Legend X, which is $2200 in Japan, $2300 in Canada, and $2600 in Singapore (still within reason, in my opinion), was somehow $3400 at the time of release in Korea. ($3100 now, since KRW fell a bit this past month.)

It wouldn't prevent me from buying an Empire Ears product if I wanted one, but I'd just take a weekend trip to Tokyo to do it (or two, if it was a CIEM). Not only do they have their fancy limited edition versions (White EVR, Red Burl LX, Gold LX), but I'd be coming out on top even if I were to spend the night at the Conrad and grab dinner at Jiro. Never really made sense to me how there could be such a price discrepancy, and I hope the Valkyrie/Wraith don't come in at $2300/$5000 respectively.



Nope, you shouldn't do 3.5mm to 2.5mm/4.4mm.

We do not directly control the pricing set by Dealers in other countries, and many of our international dealers have to factor in shipping, custom service, and import taxes as well.

$3,400 sounds awfully high.. $3,100 as well..
I'm going to be bringing that to attention. Will have to update on this at another time.

 

[boblauer]

@Watagump Eric i would say your assistance in booth prep would have been a complete hit if there was candy there too! BTW someone had milkduds now that's a win!

@ajyagle pleasure meeting you this trip, another stellar EE employee.

@Jack Vang always a pleasure my friend, say hi to Dean for me. I know he's tinkering with something all the time.

IMO the Valkyrie hits a homerun and I'm sure EE will sell a ton of these. As far as a comparison LX to Valkyrie the LX still has that rumble not to be denied, it's signature is based on those WIX drivers. Valkyrie is bit more balanced and tuned to be a bit more linear across the entire spectrum to my ears. If you want ultimate bass/sub bass LX, an all arounder Valkyrie, both keep the bass reference just which signature is most prominent.

No comment on pricing, everything in this hobby is pricey if you want to play at the top end. Good thing and across most vendors is there's plenty of stuff in the 1K to 1.5K range to keep people happy. Heck I am thrilled with my CIEM Bravado still but Valkyrie did call to me, good thing I'm broke right now so the temptation dwindled quickly.

 

[mwhals]

The higher cost on the 64 Audio Fourte is because it takes as long to build as a bunch of other IEMs combined and this information came directly from 64 Audio. So every time they build one it is opportunity lost on building a bunch of others. I do not know if this is the reason for the Wraith, but I am willing to bet it is the reason too.

 

[Watagump]

@Watagump Eric i would say your assistance in booth prep would have been a complete hit if there was candy there too! BTW someone had milkduds now that's a win!

@ajyagle pleasure meeting you this trip, another stellar EE employee.

@Jack Vang always a pleasure my friend, say hi to Dean for me. I know he's tinkering with something all the time.

IMO the Valkyrie hits a homerun and I'm sure EE will sell a ton of these. As far as a comparison LX to Valkyrie the LX still has that rumble not to be denied, it's signature is based on those WIX drivers. Valkyrie is bit more balanced and tuned to be a bit more linear across the entire spectrum to my ears. If you want ultimate bass/sub bass LX, an all arounder Valkyrie, both keep the bass reference just which signature is most prominent.

No comment on pricing, everything in this hobby is pricey if you want to play at the top end. Good thing and across most vendors is there's plenty of stuff in the 1K to 1.5K range to keep people happy. Heck I am thrilled with my CIEM Bravado still but Valkyrie did call to me, good thing I'm broke right now so the temptation dwindled quickly.

The periodic guys had Milkduds, I went and snagged one and put a Twizzler in their jar, so more of a candy trade. At the end on Sunday, I took what was left of the candy and put it on the EE table. People were hanging out, so it got gobble up rather quickly.

 

[PreguntoZombi]

Would the Sony ZX300 be able to drive Valkyrie to a satisfactory level? For reference the ZX300 can deliver 200mW + 200mW (@16ohm) in balanced mode.

 

[ngd3]

Now I am wondering how Valkyrie sounds compared to Legend X, which I have heard. @ajyagle @Devon Higgins

I heard the Wraith and Valkyrie at Canjam and have owned the LX for a while

Valkyrie I liked, it was a bit airier and leaner than the LX while keeping a fun V signature. I still prefer the LX though by a pretty good margin

Wraith wasn't my style so I didn't listen very long

 

[singleended5863]

Valkyrie I liked, it was a bit airier and leaner than the LX while keeping a fun V signature. I still prefer the LX though by a pretty good margin

However, the Valkyrie has reasonable cost. I can afford to have it besides my Phantoms.
Somehow Wraith wasn’t my taste though.

 

[bvng3540]

Would the Sony ZX300 be able to drive Valkyrie to a satisfactory level? For reference the ZX300 can deliver 200mW + 200mW (@16ohm) in balanced mode.

I tried the Valkyrie with my zx300 at CanJam and it has plenty of power

 

[PreguntoZombi]

Thank you for your feedback. I plan on going to CanJam London at the end of July and the Valkyrie is currently top of my interest list.

From what people have been saying, it defiantly sounds like it could carry the sort of sound signature that I generally go for.

 

[olddude]

3.5 k USD? I'll just get the Drop XIV in that case. Even Trinity costs less.

If you gotta ask..........

 

[KuroKitsu]

If you gotta ask..........

Sell someone's kidneys to finance it? Preferably not my own.

 

[BananaOoyoo]

Sell someone's kidneys to finance it? Preferably not my own.

Can we sell 1% of our kidney
Gotta save the other 99% for when the next new best thing rolls around.

 

[Vitaly2017]

LoL for me its quiet simpler I just need to drive a couple more miles to buy my precious audio gear ) a d those while listening to music haha

 

[pstickne]

Thanks for the insight. Hey pictures would be appreciated ) ) )



Dang valkyrie goes from 4 to 100k in frequency range wiow!
I wonder if my 1z dap can even cover that range?

I really wish people would stop going bonkers over the 100kHz theoretical e-stat frequency range. Even a really cheap IEM can boast such - says zero about final sound quality.

20kHz is approximately effective human top, so say we imagine that 2x (at 40kHz) max frequency range allows for “lower distortion” or whatever (I’ll just accept this without argument) then 40+kHz is some larger number of no realistic use or meaning..

Similar holds for extreme low, although I’ll let that slide over ‘100kHz must be better because it’s so large’.

And no, DAPs don’t put out anywhere near that range because it is simply NOT covered by human-consumed recordings. Those numbers are the (theoretical) maximum range of the drivers. The data is simply not presented. A CD recording has a maximum of 22kHz .. not heard anyone complain about treble roll-off due to this.

 

[Vitaly2017]

I really wish people would stop going bonkers over the 100kHz theoretical e-stat frequency range. Even a really cheap IEM can boast such - says zero about final sound quality.

20kHz is approximately effective human top, so say we imagine that 2x (at 40kHz) max frequency range allows for “lower distortion” or whatever (I’ll just accept this without argument) then 40+kHz is some larger number of no realistic use or meaning..

Similar holds for extreme low, although I’ll let that slide over ‘100kHz must be better because it’s so large’.

And no, DAPs don’t put out anywhere near that range because it is simply NOT covered by human-consumed recordings. Those numbers are the (theoretical) maximum range of the drivers. The data is simply not presented A CD recording has a maximum of 22kHz .. not heard anyone complain about treble roll-off due to this.

Yes You are right saying this, it is true that we humans only have a hearing range from 20hz to 20 khz. My self I did a test and barely hear the 17k hz note anything over that I was just pretending lol.

But for an instance when I had my tia fourte I could feel more sub bass and tia has a range from 5 to 22 000. My phantom are rated at 10 to 45 000. So I am guessing I can hear the difference between 5hz and 10hz ???
If so also my 1z is capable of delivering some low hz notes I guess. Hence even sonny relesed ier-z1r rated at 3hz to 100 000hz lol.

It is also probably a marketing thing about all this high res nonsense in music files, but they claim there is beyond hearing feelings. Like in those ranges that you cant hear alas you can feel ! So they try to replicate it as truthful as possible with sonic waves. Then its all converted by your brain and you experience unique feeling and emotions

But I dont know how that would work for me since I listen to spotify which is a compress 320 kbps mp3 and probably stop at 17k hz