Beat Audio Valhalla (15th Anniversary Edition)
It’s been 5 years, and it’s time to update our super-flagship. The Astrolabe and Orbit Saga are basically the same in terms of technicality, so we want to surpass ourselves once again with something that even customers who already own the Astrolabe and Orbit Saga still want to purchase. This cable needs to provide something better, something special, and something irresistible. The Valhalla is now born after three years of design and development.
The Valhalla covers itself in a dark purple hue that continues the legacy of the Astrolabe. The metallic parts, to differentiate Valhalla from other models, are hand-carved with floral designs from the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907 B.C.) that symbolize good health and fortune. Each set of metallic parts takes about one to two days for an experienced craftsman to finish by hand. The result is an astonishingly luxurious look.
From the structural illustration, we can see that in the very middle, there are 7 thin threads of copper alloy that form a bigger thread. Around it, there are 6 bigger threads with 7 thin threads of silver alloy in each. So, you can imagine the structure is balanced with 49 thinthreads in each wire. The green isolating layer is adhered to each wire at high temperature and high velocity, settling onto the surface of each thread, maximizing the conductive surface area.Around the 49 thinthreads, there is a translucent sheath for isolation as well as physical stability. This is very thin and tight, so it doesn’t feel stiff, and this provides a base for the double helix structure to cling on, providing further physical stability. The double helix structure seems to be similar to that of the Orbit Saga, but if one observes carefully, each helix is made up of two tracks, graphene and pure silver, compressed onto each other. The silver spiral ribbon isformed from a thin silver thread (that’s actually a rod), and it is compressed first into a ribbon. The ribbon is then cut into the width that we want, and the ribbon is then sonically polished, giving a very shiny surface and providing better sonic performance. The graphene layer is then attached to the polished silver ribbon, giving the same ribbon another sonic channel. So, there are four tracks rather than two in the double helix structure. As each type of material only conducts signals at a certain speed, and to get balanced sound, the cable needs to conduct signals at different speeds. This idea of the dual-layered double helix comes from the idea of Yin and Yang from Daoism, everything has two sides, which was also borrowed by the scientists in the field of quantum mechanics.
Material-wise, apart from graphene, silver and copper, we also included other rare minerals into the alloy such as Zinc and Bismuth. We tend not to emphasize too much on material because we believe customers should experience our cables in their music, not on paper.
Sound-wise, the Valhalla offers a mesmerizing experience that even surpasses the one offered by Orbit Saga. The background feels completely dark, soundstage is amazingly large, and the speed of each note flies the way they should. All frequencies are enhanced with nuanced details detected. During the summer audio show in Tokyo, many customers tried our Valhalla with their IEMs, and most of them claimed that the cable provided a speaker-like experience that wowed them.
The purple boxes are made with North American Maple wood, hand polished, similar to the finish in guitars and expensive watch boxes. Seven layers of piano lacquer are applied to give a lavish feel. The guy at the box factory is the best we have met in China, and he has a very deep and special understanding of wood. Inside each box, there’s also a laser carved ore as a warranty card. The ore is actually our raw material for the cable. These pieces of ore are leftovers of our raw material, making it meaningful for each user to visualize.
Due to limited production, the Valhalla has a worldwide limit of 100 units. Each unit will have an assigned serial number.
The Valhalla is not available in 4-wire due to the limitations of our hand-carved parts. To place an order, please email us for the options you would like and other necessary customizations.
Here's a comprehensive review of this product: https://theheadphonelist.com/review-beat-audio-valhalla/
