Thieaudio Monarch MKII, In-Ear Monitors: 1 DD + 6 BA + 2 EST Tribrid Earphones IEM (Monarch MK2)
The King, Retuned and Refined
More than one and half years after its initial release, the most popular and praised Thieaudio Signature series IEM is ready to make a comeback! The Monarch has been completely redefined with driver overhauls and an enhanced tuning. The Monarch was a monumental milestone for both Thieaudio and the global audio community, hallmarking not only one of the first IEM’s to properly integrate the EST driver technology, but also firmly establishing Thieaudio’s place in the world of Hi-Fi audio. Our R&D team has been following up with the reviews and comments from the audiophile community to refine that which was already one of the most revered monitors of its class and present the ultimate form of the Monarch: Monarch Mark II.
A New Engine to Set New Limits
Our goal for the Monarch MKII was to enhance its technical performance and introduce a more balanced tuning, while staying true to the original spirit of this monitor. We took this opportunity to update all of the internal drivers, swapping them out for their latest counterparts and rearranging their configurations to achieve an even more optimal performance.
The 10mm dynamic driver has been upgraded to a brand new composite diaphragm driver. With a tremendous increase in membrane tension and magnet strength, the new driver allows extreme responsiveness. And when engineered to specifically reproduce only the sub-bass frequencies, this dynamic driver becomes a subwoofer, producing even tighter and more impactful kick drum and bass line punches. Additionally, two dedicated subwoofer balanced armature drivers were paired with the dynamic driver, bringing about an immaculate coherency between the lows and the rest of the frequency spectrum.
The heart of the Monarch has always been its extremely precise and neutral mids that make it such a capable studio monitor. To emphasize this trait, we reconfigured the balanced armature drivers, reinforcing this core range with four mid-frequency drivers. Doubling the midrange drivers from the original Monarch presented incredible advances in technical performance. Distortion was reduced, while the resolution, clarity, and articulation of the mid and treble sections were significantly enhanced. This single change was enough to make the Monarch MKII feel like a completely new beast compared to its predecessor, all the while still maintaining the characteristic studio-neutral midrange.
The latest electrostatic drivers are incorporated into the Monarch MKII, and rearrangement of driver location has minimized unwanted tubing resonance and extended its high frequency rolloff compared to the original Monarch. This means that the treble range is more even and detailed, and our innovative incorporation of the EST drivers into the setup allows for a greater sense of sparkly, airy, and high-resolution atmosphere in your music. The Monarch MKII continues the Thieaudio legacy of being one of the few in-ear monitors in the world to properly u