Disclosure: I’d like to thank iFi for sending me the iDSD Valkyrie for this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own, and iFi had no say or input for the contents of this review.

The iFi iDSD Valkyrie is a balanced USB and Bluetooth DAC/Amp, and is iFi’s latest addition to their portables lineup. Featuring a quad-stack DAC, flagship Bluetooth codec support, and array of digital filters to choose from, including JVCKENWOOD’s K2 and K2HD, and a healthy variety of input and output options, this might be the ultimate portable DAC/Amp. For $1699 USD I would definitely hope so, too.

This will be an incredibly long review as, most of you may know, I love to get into the details of things and to go over as much as I can. For those of you who love the details and to know everything there is to know about a product, I hope you enjoy the wall of text below. For those of you who want the tl;dr, here is a link to take you to the end of the review where I sum up my thoughts. This was a very fun device to test and review, so I hope you enjoy the review.

---

---

• iFi iDSD Valkyrie
• iPower power supply
• DC to USB-C adapter
• USB-C to USB-C cable
• USB-C to Lightning cable
• USB-C to USB-A adapter
• Toslink Optical adapter
• 3.5 to 6.5mm Adapter (not included with my review unit)
• Travel case
• Quickstart guide
• Nordic Engraved Box

iFi includes a healthy amount of cables and accessories, as they usually do, but I think the Nordic wooden box might just top them all. It looks very well done and adds to the character of the iDSD Valkyrie. Also included is a custom-made travel case. What I like about the travel case is that it has openings on both sides to allow cables to pass in and out, allowing you to keep the Valkyrie inside while connecting it.

---

In Norse mythology, a Valkyrie is a female warrior emphasized by a pair of wings (or at least, the role of the Valkyries was represented by a pair of wings). This comes across in the design of the iDSD Valkyrie, with its angular sides and a slight dip in the middle of the device evoking an impression of wings and a battle-ready state. The design language has a slight aggressiveness to it, though nowhere near that of the iDSD Diablo 2.

The Valkyrie is made of machined aluminum and is built like an absolute tank. When you hold it in your hand it feels as if it is one solid piece, with no rattling or parts jiggling. It’s also fairly hefty at 882 grams, almost double that of the Diablo 2, making it not so much portable as transportable. The finish on the Valkyrie is very well done and the device is smooth to the touch. The light gold (champagne?) color looks stunning in person, and I love the contrast of the blacked-out control area on the top.

Controls and I/O

All of the buttons have a sturdy, tactile feel when pressing them. There’s a feeling of quality and attention to detail (something iFi is extremely proficient at) when it comes to the buttons and volume knob, which should be the case on a device as expensive as this. The volume knob does not have defined start and end positions and can be turned infinitely. It has a satisfying audible and tactile click with each turn of the dial, adding to the premium feeling of the Valkyrie.

The top of the Valkyrie has a TFT display for displaying relevant information and accessing the menu. Below it is the XSpace/Mode button and the XBass II/XPresence/Menu button. The front left side of the iDSD Valkyrie is where the 4.4mm balanced and 3.5mm single-ended headphone connections are. The 4.4mm balanced connection also supports xMEMS headphones, which can be toggled on or off in the settings menu.

In the middle is the volume knob that also acts as the power button and multi-function dial. On either side of the volume knob are LEDs to indicate input selection, audio format, and indicators for XSpace and Xbass II/XPresence. On the front right are the Filter/DSD1024 button and the Input Selector/K2 button.

Moving to the back we have, from left to right: USB-C power input (LED indicator above it), USB-C data and power input,  3.5mm S/PDIF (optical and coaxial) input, RCA R/L outputs, 3.5mm SE Line output, 3.5mm SE Line input/output, and 4.4mm Line balanced input/output.

On the bottom is the IEMatch slider for both the 4.4mm balanced and 3.5mm SE headphone connections.

Lastly, here are some pictures of the iDSD Valkyrie with my ZEN DAC V2 to give you an idea of its size and design.

---

The iFi iDSD Valkyrie is packed with a ton of features, filters, and modes. I’ve done my best to test each of them as thoroughly as possible, but ultimately I needed to spend more time on some as opposed to others. If I missed something or you’d like to know more about a specific feature, feel free to leave a comment at the end of the review.

Here’s a chart courtesy of iFi comparing their high-end portable devices:

Bluetooth

The iDSD Valkyrie comes with Qualcomm’s flagship QCC5181 chipset and supports the following codecs: SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless, LDAC, LHDC/HWA

This allows the Valkyrie to use other Bluetooth devices as an audio source. It works very well and I had no issues with pairing any number of devices, including my Samsung Galaxy Fold 5 smartphone, various digital audio players (HiBY R4, Sony NW-ZX707), and even my FiiO DM13 CD player.

LDAC worked perfectly for me, with no stability or audio issues. aptX and aptX HD both worked well and sounded great and provided the best amount of range (though it’s unlikely that you won’t have the source device right there beside the Valkyrie anyways). Sadly I don’t have any source devices that support aptX Adaptive/Lossless as support for it is still relatively new in the audio world.

The Valkyrie can remember up to 8 paired devices and auto-connect when it detects one in range. To remove the paired devices from memory you need to factory reset the device, which only takes a minute or so.

Personally, I wish iFi would have added a Bluetooth transmitter to the Valkyrie to allow Bluetooth headphones to be connected, but at this point that is more of a nice to have and isn’t really a deal breaker.

Digital Filters/K2 Technology

The iDSD Valkyrie comes with 8 filter options:

Bit-Perfect: No digital filtering, no pre or post-ringing

GTO (Gibbs Transient-Optimised): Up-sampled to 352.8/384kHz, minimum filtering, no preringing, minimum post-ringing

Apodising: Modest filtering, no pre-ringing, modest post ringing, 128 taps

Transient Aligned: Max filtering, max pre-ringing, maximum post-ringing, 16,384 taps

Standard: Modest filtering, modest pre and post-ringing

DSD Remastering: DSD512, DSD1024. Incoming audio (except DSD512) is converted to either DSD512 or DSD1024 as selected, using the filter selected (including Bit-Perfect, meaning no digital filtering is applied).

All these digital processing options apply to all digital input sources, including USB, Bluetooth, and S/PDIF (Coaxial/Optical) inputs. Inputs other than USB are currently limited to maximum sample rates of 192kHz PCM and DSD64 via DoP.

K2: JVCKENWOOD filter that does not change the sample rate.

K2HD: Only effective when the audio file format is PCM and the sampling frequency needs to be ≤ PCM 192kHz; K2HD mode is not effective when the audio file format it is greater than PCM 192kHz. K2HD mode cannot be enabled and will not work when the audio file format is DSD.

Choosing which filter to use will depend on your own sound preferences and use case. I mostly stuck with bit-perfect, but I did enjoy the DSD remastering for very bright-sounding music and for longer listening sessions as it helped prevent listening fatigue (it works and sounds similar to the DSD remastering feature Sony’s digital audio players, which I also used for the same use case).

The K2 and K2HD filters we have seen before on iFi’s GO Bar Kensei. The goal of the K2 filter, which was developed by JVCKENWOOD, is to “revitalise the studio recording sound, infusing it with life once again” through a process that “revives rich, natural harmonics into the sterile, detached digital sound, adding an organic quality unlike any other.”

The K2 filter I found sounds really good with some rock and acoustic/folk music, but it depends on the recording. It’s one of those features that needs to be used on a case-by-case basis, not something that you just automatically enable and forget about (at least that’s my experience and preference).

The K2HD filter takes things a step further and optionally upscales audio to 24-bit/192kHz and applies “hand-selected K2 parameters for waveform correction – which processes the time-domain, not the frequency domain.” This works in a similar way to Sony’s DSEE upscaling technology. I do find that the K2HD filter does a good job with lower-quality recordings, some CD-quality recordings, as well as MP3 files. As an example, Alice in Chains’ Unplugged live album benefited from this with a slightly more airy soundstage and more lively dynamics. Like the K2 filter, it is not something that you enable and magically everything will sound better. You have to experiment with it on your own to see if you enjoy the resulting audio output you get from it.

One thing to note is that, while the K2 filter can be enabled with any of the digital filters, K2HD can only be enabled when the GTO filter is selected.

USB, Input Selection, and Operation

The iFi iDSD Valkyrie supports USB-C data input from essentially any source with a USB connection, no drivers required (iFi does offer an ASIO driver for Windows though that includes its own control panel for selecting various options). I didn’t encounter any issues when using the Valkyrie with various devices such as my iPad Pro, Samsung Galaxy Fold 5, Sony NW-WM1AM2, HiBy R4, Windows 11 desktop, and my Surface Laptop 7. The Valkyrie supports up to 32-bit/384kHz for PCM audio.

Using the input selection button allows you to toggle through the various inputs: USB, Bluetooth, Coaxial, Optical, and Line in.

Here’s a video going through the menu and operation of the Valkyrie:

XSpace, XBass II, and XPresence

If you know iFi then you have heard of XSpace and XBass, and you know that, generally, iFi tries to do any audio adjustments through analogue circuits instead of DSP in an effort to preserve the audio quality as much as possible.

XSpace attempts to recreate a holographic sound field, expanding it to sound more open and airy. I found it to sound excellent when paired with live recordings and classical music. It also sounds good when used with gaming, such as Skyrim and Cyberpunk 2077. It doesn’t open things up too much, just enough to push out the soundstage a bit. Imaging performance remains intact too. I found XSpace to have a greater impact on IEMs than headphones.

XBass II gives you a bit more bass response. As someone who wears glasses, I find that sometimes I lose bass response and impact on closed-back headphones due to the earcup seal being broken by the arms of my glasses. Enabling XBass does add this back, and maybe even a little more, so it’s not something that I always want to enable, but when the mood calls for it then it’s nice to be able to get some added bass impact without having to use EQ. The bass quality improves a little with a slightly tighter and fuller sound, mostly in the mid-bass region. I find this works well for both headphones and IEMs.

XPresence is something new, and I believe the Valkyrie is the first device to have this option. a feature that is also present on the iFi Neo iDSD2. XPresence boosts the upper-midrange slightly to give a more natural sound. I find this works well for lo-fi music, some electronic music, live recorded tracks, orchestral music, and acoustic songs. Depending on the track it can be fatiguing to listen to after a while if you’re sensitive to brightness in the upper-midrange. Overall it’s a solid feature to have in the toolkit.

All of these settings can be enabled one by one, paired together, or all at the same time. I didn’t do too much experimenting, but I did like having XBass II and XPresence enabled together to simulate a V-shaped tuning. I found it brought a certain dynamic quality to tracks such as The Golden Age by Beck, No Good by Depeche Mode, and the entire Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion soundtrack.

Output Power and Gain Options

The iDSD Valkyrie is a powerhouse when it comes to power output. It is able to output more power than dedicated amplifiers like ZEN CAN 3. Hell, it even outputs more power than the iDSD Diablo 2. These are the power numbers that iFi has provided for the Valkyrie:

3.5mm SE Max Output Power: 8.9V / 2475mW @ 32Ω; 9.8V / 160mW @ 600Ω

3.5mm SE RMS Output Power: >8.5V/2,258mW @ 32Ω

4.4mm Balanced Max Output Power: 13.5V / 5700mW @ 32Ω; 19.6V / 640mW @ 600Ω

4.4mm Balanced RMS Output Power: >12.0V/2,250mW @ 64Ω

I do not have the equipment to test if these numbers are accurate in real-world scenarios, I will leave it to experts such as GoldenSound.

The Valkyrie has three gain selections:

Normal: 0dB

Turbo: +8dB

Nitro: +16dB

With all the headphones I have available I never had to use Nitro. For headphones I mostly used Turbo, and this mainly applied to the Sennheiser HD 660 S2 and HIFIMAN Sundara. Otherwise, Normal mode was fine for the rest of my headphones and all of my IEMs. I do not think the Valkyrie will have any issues driving the majority of high-end headphones.

IEMatch

IEMatch is a feature that many other of iFi’s products have, and for good reason, it drastically helps in reducing hiss and background noise when using moderate to high sensitivity IEMs. It can be enabled for either the 4.4mm balanced or 3.5mm SE headphone outputs via the slider on the bottom of the Valkyrie. It reduces the output level by -12dB, and can only be used when the Normal gain mode is selected. It works very well in my experience, and I detected no audible background noise, hiss, or interference of any kind when using IEMs with the Valkyrie.

Battery and Charging

The iDSD Valkyrie has a 20,000 mAh lithium-polymer battery, meaning it can be used portable and without a power source. iFi claims the Valkyrie will give you as much as 18 hours of playback on Normal gain, and as little as 8 hours on Nitro gain.

In my tests, I was able to get very close to these numbers, and in some cases a bit more (such as when you use very easy-to-drive headphones or IEMs). For example, with the InAwaken Dawn-Ms IEM, the Valkyrie lasted for 22 hours.

The Valkyrie is charged via the USB-C connection on the back left side, though both USB-C connections can be used to charge it. There’s an option in the settings menu to enable charging on the data USB-C input, but since it only supports standard power delivery it is recommended to use the dedicated USB-C charging connection. The power-only USB-C connection supports fast charging (PD/QC3.0 at 20V or QC2.0 at 5V/9V/12V) and takes just over 2.5 hours to charge. Using a standard charger iFi says it takes about 8 hours to charge.

What I thought is a nice gesture by iFi is that they include their iPower X power supply to use with charging the Valkyrie. The iPower X uses an ultra-low noise power supply to eliminate unwanted electrical noise, so that you are getting clean and stable power to the device. It connects to the Valkyrie via an included DC to USB-C Cable.

iFi Nexis App

Usually, this is an area where I vent my frustration with iFi over their Gaia app, and how you need to sideload it on Android as it’s not available in the Play Store. Thankfully they have since moved to a new app called iFi Nexis, which is easily found in both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The app itself is a massive upgrade over its predecessor in both speed and UI.

Once you open the app and pair your phone with the iDSD Valkyrie you are given options to update the firmware from either online or a file on your device, Bluetooth codec selection, renaming the Bluetooth device name, and initiating a factory reset. The app worked flawlessly and selecting/deselecting codecs is extremely easy. Note that both SBC and AAC eill always stay enabled, even if you try to disable AAC manually.

---

The iFi iDSD Valkyrie features a quad-stack DAC setup using the tried and true Burr-Brown DAC found in most of iFi’s products. This means the sound profile of the Valkyrie should lean slightly warm, with a little softness in the upper midrange and treble. I would classify this as iFi’s “house sound”, and it comes through here too. What I also found though is that the Valkyrie has an extra level of clarity and detail retrieval, especially in the midrange. There’s a smoothness to the overall presentation that allows you to easily engage with the music you’re listening to.

When you’re listening to music using the Valkyrie, it’s clear you’re listening to something that is very high-end. The Valkyrie maintains a cohesiveness throughout the frequency spectrum, giving you balance. As a result of this I did find the sub-bass and mid-bass have been toned down just ever so slightly, possibly to balance out the upper-midrange and treble. It’s not very noticeable unless you are really looking for it. These are the times when I enabled XBass and enjoyed the additional presence there.

The soundstage is the largest of any iFi device I have listened to. It doesn’t drastically change the holographics, but instruments and vocals are ever so slightly pushed away from you creating space. It does make for a slightly less intimate sound, but enabling XPresence gives back some intimacy. The Valkyrie doesn’t change the sound profile of the headphones or IEMs you’re using if you’re worried about that. Instead, it enhances those properties slightly in one direction or another. It’s subtle but noticeable if you’re looking for it.

Imaging performance is excellent, the Valkyrie accurately reproduces instruments and vocals from left to right and they are placed correctly in the soundscape, thanks to the also excellent soundstage performance.

One of my favorite pairings with the Valkyrie is listening to the Simgot SuperMix 4 IEM, with the FiiO DM13 CD player as the source via optical. In this setup, I have access to all the filters, and I found the K2 filter to generally sound very good here with most of the CDs I have. The SuperMix 4 is a very capable IEM and it reproduces details well, with excellent bass and a satisfying treble. This is all enhanced by the Valkyrie’s detail-focused sound and the slight warmth of the Burr-Brown DACs gives you a very smooth yet clean and detailed sound.

I did test the Valkyrie for gaming, and like most other iFi products it excels as a gaming DAC due to its technical proficiency and accurate audio reproduction. The soundstage properties make it perfect for playing all types of games, even competitive shooters, which is also helped by how well the Valkyrie handles imaging. The Valkyrie’s XPresence and XSpace modes complement open-world RPGs and battle royale shooters.

I kept the Sound Quality section as observational as possible so I could leave things until the end to give you my subjective impressions. Personally, I think this is the best-sounding device that iFi has made and one of the best-sounding DAC/Amps that I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. The detail retrieval is exceptional, the presentation is smooth and clear, and all of the technicalities are excellent. The Valkyrie is suitable for all genres, and with all of the available filters (especially K2 and K2HD) and analog modes (XBass, XPresence, and XSpace) you have so many options to fine-tune the sound to something that sounds good to you, or suitable for specific use cases. On top of that, the flexibility of the 4.4mm balanced and 3.5mm SE connections, xMEMS support, and IEMatch for using IEMs. Maybe the Valkyrie is the ultimate portable DAC/Amp?

There are a few things to address here though. One of which is the size and weight of this “portable” device. It’s fairly heavy for a DAC/Amp and also pretty large. It’s definitely not as portable as a dongle DAC, or even something like iFi’s hip-dac 3, but it is still portable in the sense that it can be moved and doesn’t require external power. The second thing is the price, $1699 USD. It’s a lot of money for a portable DAC/Amp, and there are much cheaper options out there to accomplish the same thing.

That being said, none of those options sound this good or have all of these features, and maybe only a few can even come close to the iDSD Valkyrie’s build quality. For value I really can’t make that decision for you, that’s something you will need to decide yourself. What I can say though is that for sound quality, features, and build quality, I can’t think of anything that comes close to the Valkyrie.

---

I’m not always able to cover all the details of a product, both hardware and software, in our reviews. If you have any specific questions you’d like answered about this product please feel free to leave a comment or contact me directly.

Be sure to check out our excellent Buyer’s Guides, as well as our other Reviews.