Build, well their beautiful for sure. Maybe the best looking IEM’ I ‘ve had except for the Tequila. But definitely close.
Fit, these are very big, especially for my small ears. But I did find the best fit using spiral dots “small”. The nozzle is large on these so I had to stretch the small a bit to get them to fit but once on there “stretched” size proved to be the best fit.
Still I would not be able to do much in the way of activities wearing these, just walking up and down the stairs in my house with a cup of coffee they the right one would start to fall out. I had to stay somewhat still while listening to these. Would that deter me from telling you these are the best sounding IEM’s I have heard to date? NO.
The package I loved. The case is excellent, it’s one of my favorite cases so far. The cable is fantastic, I bought one separately for anther set I have because I liked it so much. The even included a 4.4 and 3.5 adapter for the 2.5 end on the cable. No matter how many times I pulled it out it never tangled, it always just “unfolded” without issue.
These were incredible, from the moment I put them in. I did still leave them playing on my desk to “break-in” the drivers for about an hour. But that’s it and I didn’t hear any difference.
How do these compare to others?
Crazy detail that was very smooth and not grainy at all. Treble was the same, airiness to spare. Mid’s were very smooth and in the right place, not forward at all or spikey highs. The bas, man the bass was incredible. It seemed that it fell off in exactly the right place, that is it did not bleed at all but yet had very impactful and rumbly bass. I threw a lot of music at these trying to find a fault but couldn’t do it. Except maybe bad recordings, those were amplified a bit but yet still sounded good. There is something very “epic” about the tuning of these.
The sound stage was just as large as I have ever heard it from an IEM. It was just as large and in some cases larger than my Focal Clear’s.
If you get the chance to listen to these try an album by a band called “Bastille” the album is “Bad Blood”, listed to the first track on the Monarch’s. I honestly have listened to the album several time and never was really impressed with it but when I heard it on the Monarch’s it was like hearing it for the first time. I was blown away and have now relistened to it several time to be sure and each time I am impressed.
Timbre was fantastic, the best I have heard to date. I could imaging instruments and the people playing them without any difficulty or effort at all. Horns, drums, guitars just sounded 3D and incredibly realistic immediately. Almost to the point it was stunning.
Robin Trower “Bridge of Sighs” the bells being played at the beginning just kept circling my head, the guitar was so “perfect” then the bass, which is notoriously hard for IEM’s I have tried to get right was so impressive. Then “About to begin” again bass and guitar was so good, then the symbols!! They melded with the drum hits so well I thought I was right there next to the drummer. Drums were so realistic, Snare hits, Symbol strikes, it’s as if I could hear the impact of the stick in with the sound made by the instrument being hit. Another song on that album “Lady love” has a cow bell being hit as it opens up, holy shit! I was shocked for a minute by how realistic it was, I replayed a half dozen times just to experience it again.
Rodrigo y Gabriella “Tamacun remastered” was unbelievable. Gabriella is striking the body of the guitar with her thumb in that song constantly and you can hear it in such a way I felt like I was there watching her. Guitar picks were so 3D, I could hear the buzz of the string as they plucked them.
Dianna Krall, her voice was so clear and clean in “Live from Paris” I could easily hear her tongue smacking the roof of her mouth on almost every song. The crowd clapping was so real it was like being there.
One of the best aspects of these was I could turn these up, way up and I never had the experience of spikey knives in my ears with highs. They were so detailed and so smooth all the time.
I will say the detail or realism was a bit much sometimes and some albums I needed to take a break after a few songs so my brain didn’t melt 🙂 but I loved it..
Look if I am gushing about these it’s because it really is an experience I have not had yet with IEM’s. I could even say, cause I was definitely thinking it, that these could be “end game” for me.
The problem is this, I want to recommend these highly and I do. But Thieaudio has had consistency problems. The Legacy 3, mine was ok but not great, many others say they were the best thing they have heard. Yet others had lots of different issues with them. The “Legacy 5” I received did not work at all. So for $729.00 and a 1 month wait while they build yours, you should think seriously about it. If you have that money to spend easily then yes go for it, if you get the same build and tuning I did, well if I had heard these at a show and they said you can have them for $1500.00 I wouldn’t have taken a second thought I would have opened the wallet right there.
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