iFi iDSD Valkyrie

iFi Audio is one of those companies that grabs your attention from the moment you see its products. How on earth can the company fit so much technology into such a small space? It’s aim has always been to make hi-end audio available in small boxes, and at relatively small prices.

The iDSD Valkyrie is larger and heavier than many previous Ifi products, but is still overflowing with technology. Made, apparently, for those who seek “musicality and emotional depth” (and who have a larger wallet), this £1699 device is a flagship DAC/headphone amp which sits above the previously range-topping iDSD Diablo 2 and looks rather like the wings of a Valkyrie horse. In Norse mythology, the Valkyrie guides souls of the dead to Odin’s hall Valhalla, and the musicality from this portable unit certainly guides me through music in a way I haven’t heard before from my headphones, taking me closer to Nirvana than Valhalla.

Its press blurb suggests the iDSD Valkyrie is for the “passionate” audiophile over the age of 30 - which must include me, then. But has the company gone a bit too far in terms of facilities and specifications? The technical blurb speaks of massive output from the amplifier; enough to drive even a few loudspeakers, plus it can deal with digital audio resolutions of up to 32bit/768kHz and DSD1024. It also has a ‘Remastering’ feature which can convert lesser resolutions to DSD512 or DSD1024 in an effort to minimise distortion and maximise sound quality. It really does make the music more like the original master!  Rather than the usual ESS chips, the Valkyrie uses a quartet of Burr-Brown digital-to-analogue converters which creates more detail and lower distortion and noise. This is a power-hungry arrangement, though, so four AA-shaped lithium-polymer rechargeable batteries store 20Ah - which is enough to drive this device for up to 18 hours, with recharging taking just two-and-a-half. If you don’t wish to use battery power, the unit comes with a ‘PowerX’ power supply which is relatively quiet thanks to its active noise-cancellation.  

The Valkyrie is not short of facilities on the outside, either. On the front, to the left of the central colour-coded volume control (the LED changes colour to indicate how loud the setting is), there are 4.4mm balanced and 3.5mm S-balanced headphone sockets, and to the right are two buttons. One operates a choice of six digital filters plus the ‘Remastering’ selection, and the other cycles between the five inputs (Bluetooth 5.4, digital coaxial, digital optical, USB and analogue line in) and, with a long press, toggles between ‘K2’ and ‘K2HD’. These last two are JVC-KENWOOD technologies, designed to restore the richness and naturalness of analogue sound. I really found this worked, giving a more natural and human sound to the music. 

At the back are a plethora of sockets, including USB-C charging, USB-C audio, and a coaxial/optical SPDIF input. There are also additional 3.5mm and 4.4mm balanced inputs/outputs. A limit to real-estate means no balanced XLR for your hi-fi, but there are a pair of RCA line-outs and a 3.5mm socket so you can at least connect to your system. Four tiny colour-coded LEDs at the front inform you as to input and audio format, along with information regarding output settings like ‘xSpace’, ‘xBass II’ and ‘xPresence’ if you want special effects (the functions of which are, I hope you agree, all fairly obvious). All this information is replicated on a much more usable small screen on the top of the Valkyrie, for those (like me) with bad colour-coding memories.

Sound Quality

Typically of iFi, the iDSD Valkyrie is crammed with opportunities to resculpt the sound to your personal preference. As well as the ‘K2’ and ‘K2HD’ settings, there are six further traditional DAC filters to create your preferred sound - these include ‘Apodising’, ‘Bit-Perfect’, ‘GTO’, ‘Standard’, ‘Minimum’, and ‘Transient Aligned’. I toggle between ‘Bit-Perfect’ (which means no digital filtering) and ‘Apodising’ (which upsamples to 705.6/768kHz) for much of this review, and use a variety of sound sources, headphones and IEMs. For Bluetooth I mostly use LDAC at 24bit/96kHz from an Astell & Kern DAP. 

With so many resampling possibilities, you need to be careful about how much processing you deploy in order to get the ideal sound. If anything, having so much digital emphasis within the technology can make the sound a little too detailed and fast, and lose a bit of the naturalness that my analogue ears demand. Everything is transparent, fast and very accurate, and even on some of the less-able headphones and IEMs I use, all those options allow me to tailor the sound to get the very best out of them. My Sennheiser HD660 can sound clinical and tiring after lots of listening - but with the Valkyrie set at its best, I get a both very detailed and very musical presentation that just keeps me plugged in thanks to excellent decays and plenty of bite at the top frequencies. Even the inefficient 13-ohm MrSpeakers Aeon Flow get enough grunt from the amplifier and produce excellent soundstaging and imaging. For those low-level cans you can add 8dB or even 16dB, by turbo- and nitro-charging the sound level - which means I can boost the output up to 19.6V (though there is more background noise, of course). The Valkyrie also has xMEMS (Micro-Electromechanical System) compatibility, meaning I can play the latest piezo silicon IEMs. 

Ultimately I don’t use most of the Valkyrie’s available features (such as ‘xPresence’), and I only use ‘xBass’ with my bass-light Audio Technica ATH-W1000X closed headphones and Kinera Freya IEMs. Fed correctly this winged monster is tame, though the detail and speed at higher frequencies can make it sound a little bass-light on all headphones - and especially so when using the RCA line-out to your hi-fi. The JVCKENWOOD filters are very useful, though, and bring a human aspect to the sound.

Living with

iFi products have their own distinctive visible DNA that really make them stand out in looks and technology (with iFi you never quite know what a product will look like whenever they release a new one!) The iDSD Valkyrie is designed to perform, of course, but it’s also designed to look original and spectacular - the latest iFi product to bear the iDSD name, is nothing like the Diablo or Diablo 2 that came before. The iDSD Valkyrie even arrives in a beautiful Nordic-carved hinged wooden box so you can store it away in style when you’re not listening to music. And if you want to take it on the road there’s even an accompanying travel case. Despite the complexity of its design, looks and function, the Valkyrie is certainly no trouble in operation. Everything about it is logical, and the accompanying folded-A4 quick-start guide lets you know exactly how to get this animal suitably fed and watered. And just like my cat, after a few hours of purring away it gets warm too. Those 20Ah batteries will certainly heat things up inside!

‍Conclusion

At £1699 the Valkyrie is undoubtedly for the serious solo audiophile, and whether used in the home or on the road you will eat up those 18 hours of battery life with some memorable musical performances. iFi is always setting the trend for fashionable miniature audio with performance and facilities that others find it hard to keep up with, and I can only wonder what the shape of the company’s next offspring will look like. Though the motto for the Valkyrie is “Finite size. Infinite possibility”, whether or not you’ll need all its technical possibilities is your choice - the features and possibilities are approaching infinite, but be careful that you spend time to set it up to sound musical and lifelike (especially if you are to listen for long periods), otherwise it can sound a bit top-heavy. But if you want the latest technology that ticks every box, make sure to get your hands on this winged wonder before it flies off the shelves.

Listening notes

Lady Gaga Mayhem
Providing excellent initial transients from the digital drums, this tune gives me a chance to really test out the DAC filtering to select what I feel is a choice between speed and musicality. Similarly, the phased spoken vocals improve with the ‘xSpace’ function, though ‘xBass’ and ‘xPresence’ just give me a headache - not surprising given the song’s title.

Yes Close to the Edge (extended 5-CD Super Deluxe 2025 version)
A bit of prog rock music and musique concrète to really test out this latest iDSD with my choice of different headphones/IEMs. The birds and water-flowing sounds at the very start are crisp and well positioned, the excellent bass guitar lines and drums are particularly fast and musical. But the amount of detail available from the Valkyrie won’t hide any distortion or over-recording, such as in Six Wives of Henry VIII from Rick Wakeman on keyboard.

Chasing the Dragon Binaural recordings Espana – A Tribute to Spain
Here’s a chance to really test out the 3D performance from IEMs thanks to the master recording using a Neumann dummy-head microphone array. With ‘xSpace’, that detail is extended further: the detail and dynamics from this excellent recording give an exciting and accurate performance, as if I am standing where conductor Debbie Wiseman is waving her baton. 

This device is for the serious audiophile (though don’t tell iFi if you are under 30 years of age). Musically and in terms of detail, precision and timing, this is truly excellent and works with every type of headphone/IEM I have at my disposal (except my electrostatics, obviously) - which can’t be said of all players. The Valkyrie looks like nothing else, does an awful lot, and is very powerful - so even owners of power-thirsty planar cans will be very happy.