The original Empire Ears Odin remains one of the most influential flagship IEMs of all time. Its tribrid design, reference tuning, and incredibly technical performance made it a standout – and they’re still highly sought after IEMs. Empire Ears continued pushing new technology revolving around bone conduction drivers and quadbrid designs with sounds that moved further away from Odin’s pristine detail and technical prowess. Odin MK2 arrives with an attempt to be the best of both worlds. It takes the technological advances and learning that Empire Ears has gained from their work on Odyssey, Raven, and Novus, but brings a sound closer to the classic detailed precision of the original Odin. Is the end result worthy to take up its title as the true successor to Odin?
Build & Design
Probably the biggest deviation from the original Odin is Odin MK2’s bold new look. While the original had a simple but beautiful resin design and almost holographic looking faceplate, Odin MK2 instead features a CNC-milled aluminum shell and a 24K gold plated faceplate with nordic runes engraved on its surface. Odin MK2 has a lot more drivers inside, so the size has certainly increased, making it similar to other Empire Ears releases like Raven or Triton in terms of fit.
The cable is a uniquely designed gold, silver, and copper hybrid called KVASIR. The cable’s cloth wrap evokes past Empire Ears custom cables going back to the original Odin’s. You’ll also get the standard case, eartips, and other accessories and case candy in the package.
Internally, Odin MK2 has 11 drivers:
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Dual W9+ Subwoofers
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Two Precision Balanced-Armature Midrange Drivers
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Three High-Frequency Balanced-Armature Drivers
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Dual Electrostatic Drivers (EIVEC MKII)
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Dual Bone Conduction Drivers
With a 24K gold faceplate and all that technology inside, Odin looks great on paper, but how does it sound?
Sound
First and foremost, Odin MK2 sounds like Odin. While Odin’s successor in the Empire Ears lineup, Raven, may have had more in common sonically with Empire Ear’s Legend EVO and Legend X basshead IEMs than the original Odin, Odin MK2 harkens back to the original tuning that so many fell in love with.
Odin MK2 features some of the best balanced bass that I’ve ever heard in an IEM. While it’s not as elevated as many of my preferred tunings, it never feels bass-lite or that you’re missing anything at all in the low-end. There’s impact, depth, rumble, texture, and a sense of realism in the representation of bass instruments.
The midrange is clean and well-layered. There’s excellent clarity and separation, and a slightly forward vocal presentation. There’s a subtlety to the detail Odin MK2 presents, but the more you listen, the more you’ll appreciate the intricate layers it provides.
Odin MK2’s treble is very much of a refined version of what the original Odin did. It’s well extended, and it feels fast and resolving, but MK2 seems to soften it just the slightest bit and remove any harshness from the upper end without losing the bite and energy.
The soundstage and imaging is another area that Odin MK2 is a noticeable step up from its predecessor. The bone conduction drivers provide a sense of width and depth to the sound that far exceeds the original’s soundstage, and with clarity and separation that matches the original Odin, and Odin MK2 delivers a wider, more spacious version of the original.
I found Odin MK2 to be one of the most source sensitive IEMs that I’ve heard in a while. Listening to high-resolution tracks with upper tier DACs and DAPs – including desktop gear – delivered the best results, unlocking the real potential of Odin MK2. I was initially underwhelmed listening from the FiiO M23, but switching to the Astell&Kern PD10 unlocked a whole new dimension in the IEMs. The RME ADI-2 DAC proved a great pairing as well, with the EQ options adding some fun in dialing in some massive bass.
On “Let Love Rule” by Lenny Kravitz, the lead vocals feel up front and honest, and the bass guitar has a great physical feeling of pluck along with incredible realism in the texture. Odin MK2 really puts you in the room with this sort of stripped down recording, placing the instruments cleanly around the room while delivering physical impact in the bass and just a little bit of edge that you can feel at the top of the cymbals. This sort of track demonstrates just how well balanced Odin MK2 is: whatever instrument you focus on feels up front and forward in the mix, but will also effortlessly sit back in the mix if you focus on something else.
“Raining Vengeance” from the original score for “The Batman” is a great test of layering and also subbass. The deepest bass hits provide an unsettling undertone that’s easily lost in sets that can’t provide the full range accurately, and the dynamic range of the song is perfectly captured by Odin MK2. If there were ever a time for shrill highs to make you uncomfortable, it’s tracks like this. Everything from the soft plucks of the harp and the swells of strings, to the impact of the timpani and powerful horns is brilliantly captured layered.
Cocteau Twins delivered an ahead-of-their-time performance with the deliberately incomprehensible lyrics and spacey tones of “Cherry-colored Funk” and Odin MK2 offers vocal clarity that almost makes you believe that you can make out the lyrics, along with a spacious expanse that matches perfectly with the music. From the warbly guitars to the padded synth, each element of the music rings clear and accurate, with a level of detail that perfectly represents the band’s atmospheric tones.
Comparison: Empire Ears Raven
One of the most important things that Odin MK2 needs to do is differentiate itself from Empire Ears previous flagship: Raven. On paper the two have very similar driver complements with Raven actually having one more driver than MK2. So can Odin MK2 provide something that Ravn doesn’t?
One element where Odin MK2 has an immediate advantage is the build. While the gold faceplate is bound to create differing opinions, the aluminum shell feels more impressive the the resin shell on Raven. It’s similar in feel to the Astell&Kern Empire Ears collaboration, Novus, but Odin MK2 is much more comfortable than Novus. Other elements of the package and accessories are largely on the same level.
The difference is sound is also surprising – given the general similarities in the technology. While the general driver configuration is close – Odin MK2 has an extra Bone Conduction driver, while Raven has two additional EST – the sound actually goes against what you’d expect based on the tech. Odin MK2 feels slightly brighter, with better air and upper end extension, while Raven has a warmer, bassier tuning that delivers more emphasis in the low end. Odin MK2 has a sense of being cleaner and more resolving, offering stronger definition and separation, while Raven hits harder and offers a greater sense of scale than Odin MK2.
That’s not to say Odin MK2 doesn’t hit hard in the bass, but it lacks the emphasis there that Raven provides. Raven would still be my pick for more bass focused genres, like pop, hip-hop, and most electronic music, while Odin MK2 has the edge for more anything more layered or technical – even a lot of metal and more progressive type music sounded better to me with Odin MK2. I did have a slight preference for female vocals on Raven, but that was also dependent on the source. In the end, despite some surface level similarities, there’s definitely space for both IEMs in Empire Ears lineup.
The Bottom Line
Odin MK2 walks a difficult line: one one side, taking a step back by reviving the tuning style of the original Odin, and on the other, moving forward with new technology to deliver that classic tuning in a new way. If you loved the technical advancements that Empire Ears made with Legend EVO, their collaborations with Astell&Kern, and Raven, but wanted something with a cleaner, more reference style presentation, Odin MK2 delivers an incredible musicality through its combination of accurate reference tonality and top-notch tech.
