Astell & Kern Team Up With Empire Ears For New Odessey IEMs

A&K has collaborated with a few different brands over the years, including Jerry Harvey and Campfire Audio. They become rare items for IEM collectors everywhere, and A&K is looking to continue that tradition with their latest team-up with the acclaimed brand Empire Ears. With this new collaboration, A&K looks to release the Odessey, available for a limited time in November of this year.

The Odyssey features a proprietary Quadbrid system composed of twin W9+ Subwoofers, 5 balanced Armature drivers, dual Electrostatics, and a W10 Bone Conductor driver.  The 7-way synX cross-over network and EIVEC MKII Engine harmonize all 10 drivers of the Quadbrid system, ensuring perfect coherence and timing throughout its remarkable 5Hz – 100KHz frequency response range.

Empire Ears develops and builds several of their drivers rather than outsourcing them from other manufacturers. Designing bespoke high-performance drivers in-house gives them the freedom to develop record-breaking technology unrestricted by industry limitations or compromises. The Odyssey is proof of concept of the incredible engineering at Empire Ears.   The Odyssey boasts four of the latest and most advanced IEM driver technologies available:

• Dual W9+ Drivers – Legendary, unparalleled bass reproduction is made possible by Empire Ears purpose-built, W9+ subwoofers
• Five Balanced Armature Drivers – Custom spec’d Knowles and Sonion balanced armatures are commissioned with a single-minded purpose of reproducing only the purest, breathtaking mid-range frequencies
• Dual Electrostatic Tweeters – Distortion-free, lightning-fast transient response and hyper treble extension from Sonion electrostatic drivers ensure unparalleled transparency
• W10 Drivers – Otherworldly imaging, nuance retrieval, and timbre are achieved via bone conduction from our W10 Bone Conduction Ultra Driver.

Odyssey is bundled with an Effect Audio Ares II cable which boasts a proprietary multi-size stranded 26 AWG UPOCC Litz copper with Ultra FlexiTM Insulation for maximum signal speed transmission, performance, and ergonomics. Each Ares II is terminated with an ultra-premium 4.4 Pentaconn connector.

The Astell & Kern Odessey will be available for $3,399 at Audio46.