At long last the Legend has returned to the throne to push the limits of in-ear monitor performance to its highest point ever. Experience a world-class prestige IEM and a new era of uncompromising design and performance. From its arsenal of 7 proprietary drivers (including twin sequential W9 subwoofers) to its industry leading, state-of-the-art 10-way synX crossover network, the Legend X is the culmination of everything extraordinary we do at Empire.

Designer's Notes

“While neutral in tone and a balanced signature throughout, an addictive treble energizes the music, while simultaneously remaining smooth. But our greatest challenge yet was incorporating the low-reaching, impactful bass of the W9 subwoofers, with technical performance rivaling any in-ear monitor on the market; a challenge we can proudly proclaim we have overcome. Offering top-tier levels of transparency and separation, as well as one of the widest sound stages in the industry, our flagship has earned its position at the top of the lineup: a Legend is reborn.”

Proprietary Technologies

Grammy Award Winning Sound

Every aspect of the Legend X was conceived, designed, and crafted to faithfully reproduce what the artist had intended. With the expertise of producers and mix engineers, including 7x GRAMMY Award winner, Jeremiah Adkins, we were able to understand firsthand what they require from in-ear monitors.

synX Crossover Technology

How do crossovers work?

Think of a crossover network as an audio traffic officer, directing highs to your tweeters, midrange to your speakers, and bass to your subwoofers. This is essentially what a crossover does; it takes an input signal and splits it into separate audio bands. Could you imagine having numerous speakers with just a few dedicated audio bands? It would cause a massive audio pile up, forcing the wrong speakers to reproduce the wrong frequencies constantly. We avoid all of this by utilizing specially designed drivers for designated frequency ranges and further maximizing their potential with our latest crossover technology, synX.

Introducing synX

synX is a supercharged crossover design that designates more individual audio bands per driver than any other crossover technology currently in existence. By creating an ultra-wide, multi-channel highway our engineers can manipulate specific parts of the frequency range in order to precision craft the target response and eliminate any signs of phase incoherence between the drivers. Alternatively, mix engineers and audiophiles will have full control of the drivers when equalizing through a mixing console or digital audio player. synX is the industry’s most advanced IEM crossover technology with each model featuring its own uniquely designed synX network.

synX advantages

synX powered in-ear monitors have remarkably high stereo separation and smooth phase response, leading to more dynamic realistic imaging and staging for both live and studio use. synX features a myriad of other advantages including:

Ultra-Wide Frequency Bandwidth: The Legend X produces a super-wide frequency range, offering listeners unparallel sound quality and details that bests even the most high-end headphones on the market.

Best Signal-to-Noise: In order to ensure that all of the industry-leading sound quality is heard in your ears we’ve worked to create a unique combination of handpicked resistors, electrolytic capacitors, and filters in order to ensure the cleanest signal path possible while offering an exceptionally low noise floor.

Low Distortion: Extremely low distortion means that every nuance in your mix will be reproduced faithfully without audible artifacts.

Maximum Signal Transfer: Every driver and crossover is individually wired and insulated with 7-strand, UPOCC Litz wires to eliminate acoustic feedback and further soldered with highly conductive, ultra pure silver and gold Mundorf Supreme for maximum signal transfer.

Hybrid Technology

The Empire X series model features a combination of both proprietary balanced armature speakers and dynamic range W9 subwoofers in order to deliver maximum clarity while achieving a powerful low end response. Each model is further tuned with a specially designed synX crossover network to achieve studio monitor levels of audio reproduction effortlessly and faithfully.

Weapon IX

After nearly 2 years of relentless R&D Empire is proud to announce the Weapon IX (W9), a proprietary 9mm rare-earth magnet subwoofer with the ability to deliver extreme output, accurate dynamics and sublime sound quality all at the same time. The keys to these performance capabilities lie at the very core of its design, where the woofer is enclosed in a tuned bass-reflex system with a front-firing sound port and rear-firing vent for maximum efficiency.

Conventional dynamic drivers and passive radiators (a speaker without the magnet and coil) often suffer in low octave frequencies and are heavily dependent on internal shell enclosures for volume, limiting form factor and vastly reducing efficiency with limited extension. The W9 is superior in its custom port tuned design, reaching frequencies even lower than its target response while mitigating distortion as the woofer isn’t required to move as far near resonance frequency.

Every W9 subwoofer is hand assembled to our exacting quality standards in our Norcross, Georgia laboratory

Proprietary Drivers

The Legend X utilizes a number proprietary balanced armature drivers by Knowles and Sonion, each one purpose built for a specific target response. Our drivers feature specialized reeds and low-mass diaphragms to reproduce incredible detailed, true-to-recording sound while remaining efficient enough to be powered by everyday devices.

Furthermore each Empire driver utilizes a NASA-born ferromagnetic liquid technology, Ferrofluid, to dampen acoustics peaks and reduce vibrations in combination with our A.R.C. technology. The end result is extraordinary clarity and increased shock durability.

Bespoke Handcrafted Cables

Every Legend X in-ear monitor includes a bespoke, handcrafted Ares II cable by Effect Audio. The Ares II boasts a proprietary blend of 26 AWG UPOCC Litz copper with ultra-flexible insulation for maximum signal speed transmission, performance, and ergonomics. Each cable is terminated in an ultra durable 3.5mm, 24k Oyaide gold plated right angle plug.

Effect Audio’s extensive engineering and manufacturing background gives them the edge over all other cables. After extensive testing with numerous other cable manufacturers we’re proud to announce our official partnership with Effect Audio to bring you some of the finest cables in the industry and to ultimately defeat the weak link in IEMs.

A.R.C. Technology

Balanced Armature (BA) drivers are vastly used in the IEM industry due to their small footprint and ultra efficient designs however they suffer from resonant behaviors that may cause peaks, unwanted vibrations, and distortion. To help mitigate this our drivers utilize Ferrofluid between the magnets and armature to provide a wide range of damping values, eliminating the need for a damping screen in the port tube.

Despite this a secondary peak can still occur from the other components interacting with the drivers. Driver peaks can cause fatigue, distortion, and ultimately affect the way music sounds. We sought out to create a remedy for this and after years of relentless R&D we’re proud to announce A.R.C. (Anti-Resonance Compound), a proprietary coating that virtually eliminates unwanted vibrations and resonance from within IEMs.

A.R.C. effectively increases the mass of the components it’s applied to: every driver, crossover, and sound tube. This gives the internals more solidity while serving as a dampener to absorb the unwanted resonance instead of reflecting them out of phase. With A.R.C. clarity is increased substantially, bass is deeper, and the IEM becomes more efficient overall.

Proudly Handcrafted In The USA

Empire Ears has long prided itself for home-grown craftsmanship, with artisans donning lab coats and honing years of OEM factory experience before being entrusted to handle the Empire lineage. While several of our competitors have taken their manufacturing overseas or have turned to automation we’ve remained true to our handcrafted, made-in-USA roots to not only provide jobs to our local community but to ensure that quality is never compromised.

Every Empire Ears in-ear monitor is proudly designed, engineered, and manufactured in Norcross, Georgia USA.

What's In The Box

Included at no additional charge with each order.

In Ear Monitor
Empire Aegis Case
Empire Dust Bag
Empire IEM Pouch
Empire Cleaning Cloth
Empire Cleaning Tool

Technical Specifications

7 Proprietary Drivers, Hybrid Design
2 W9 Subwoofers, 2 Mid, 1 Mid-High, 1 High, 1 Super High
10-Way synX Crossover System
A.R.C. Resonance Mitigation Technology
26AWG UPOCC Litz Copper Cable, Handcrafted by Effect Audio
Impedance: 14 Ω @ 1 kHz Frequency Response: 5 Hz - 40 kHz Sensitivity: 102 dB @ 1 kHz, 1mW

Empire Ears Legend X Universal Fit In-Ear Monitors (Open Box)

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