THIEAUDIO Monarch MKIII

I bought monarch mk3 a few weeks ago - my first step into the audiophile world. It has been praised by many with just a few recommendations for improvements, concerning either its size, which nevertheless heavily depends on users' ears and so is rather a subjective matter, or the musicality, less so and a subjective matter too. I unfortunately have very tight ear canals, it seems, so I struggle with these iems a little and will probably need to try tips smaller than the standard small size. But most people have no problem with that, that's what I had read prior to getting the monarchs, so it is a bit bad luck on my side. Regarding the music side, of course, this is my own opinion, an opinion of an average person, not a professional studio sound master, or an expert on audio equipment, I, for instance, don't have many other audio equipment to compare it to, so what I write might perhaps be taken with some tolerance. What I usually read is that the product gives you clear sound with lots of details and great bass, wide soundstage, some even talk about some holographic experience, some say the mk3 might be one of the best or the best in the world, and that they don't see how anything else could sound even better in this category. I will be just a tiny little bit more reserved avoiding being too ecstatic. Firstly, we are not in the category of top professional external earphones or some justifiedly high-end audio setup sitting appropriately in a room, creating true holography. Being in the category of in-ear monitors, one has to ask the question what we can possibly achieve in such a product category. I can say mk3 is quite an achievement musically, above average, no doubt about that. It really does give us an open sound, close to being neutral in tonality, but this will also depend on the dac/amp used, it has plenty of details, it has a very good bass indeed, mids and treble too, in summary open and detailed. The sound lingers in the air long enough to be regarded as coming from a physically existing instrument (hopefully not simulated by a computer), fading away with greater continuity than what many other earbuds offer, the sound stage is wide (more wide than deep), but I am not sure I would talk about some holography. I don't hear it that way, but frankly I don't see how this could be properly done with an in-ear listening device, but may be that's possible too in theory. What I would also add is that, although many people don't hear treble the least bit as punchy, I do hear it, but I can assume this can be solved with a music player that has an equalizer, and it will probably also depend to some extent on how the original recording was done. In any case, an undisputed and unsurprising fact is that the mk3 performance will depend a lot on the sound source. It needs a dac and a high-res sound source to show its potential. And I say here that when the source is higher high-res., the mk3 is pretty incredible it terms of all the things you can hear with them. It then competes with professional external earphones. If the source is average, what can you do with it? No one can, no product can, the rest are math-based predictions, but the info is not there, as simple as that, so major miracle will not manifest itself. This means that while CD quality is good enough, and not bad at all, it will be played well, but since it is not a high-res. source, your audiophile jaw will not drop, not even with mk3.
Overall, I definitely recommend mk3, it is always possible to improve things, true, e.g. musically I would just by default reduced a touch the treble intensity, but other then that, it is a serious engineering achievement. P.S. for the nozzle size, I am taking one star off.

these are my first pair of iems since i started in the audio scene. i can’t even believe how they sound. the imaging, depth, texture, soundstage, separation… its perfect. paired with a neutral source, the sound is balanced but really full and with a lot of body. it’s really impressive what this iems can achieve. absolutely recommend them

I have done my research and also with the help of chatGPT to have a broader understanding of the audiophile world. You need a dac, and an iem? Get this. I listen to ALL THE HIT songs of drake, kendrick, j. Cole, pac, biggie, Jay-Z, Eminem, NWA, Ne-Yo, Usher, Chris Brown, Outkast, Michael Jackson, Eagles, Journey, Air supply, Bryan Adams, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Guns&Roses, Metallica, Led zeppelin, Linkinpark, Redhot, ac/dc, paramore, my chem, greenday, kiss, and all the popular EDM from david guetta, zeds, daft punk, kygo, avicii, illenium, marshmello, thefatrat. I have a very broad playlist bro. They all sound amazing!! 🤩🤩🤩🤩

If you listen to any of the mentioned artists above, or maybe if you could relate to some genre? Then they all sound amazing using the monarch mk3. I’m currently using a hip dac 3 that has a burr-brown chip, and idk how to differentiate a tube amp, solidstate burson dac, or any feliks-audio dac/amp. Thats why I just decided to buy a hip dac 3 instead. But I’m soon to be upgrading to an ifi gryphon for my dac and buy a meze empyrian 2 for my endgame headset. Im sick and tired of chasing the new bluetooth headset or earbuds that cant even listen to a 💿 44.1khz CD - Quality 🤦🏻‍♂️ what more for buying a $400 sony/bose earbuds that cant listen to 96khz Hi-res? I feel like its a waste of money and people are missing out. You coulda bought a moondrop or a hype 4 with that $400. I lost the case tho and the 2.5mm jack and 3.5mm jack within a week. It would be nice if they sell the case on the website or maybe get me a free one since this is a pretty good glaze and shill 😂 but overall bro, this is a solid 9.5/10🔥

I love everything about how they sound. Sounds amazing with music and gives perfect footsteps positions in games like sonar(I know that's probably not the intended use but its the best at it I've heard from my headphone collection). My only complaint is that occasionally the glue will wear out and you will have to glue the seam back together, which is easy but annoying(especially if you let it come all the way off as it may rattle if you don't put it back together perfectly). I know the plastic is the lightest option and these are very comfortable and durable but I wouldn't mind having a aluminum case with screws as an option.

Idk, I just don't see 1000$ of value here. As some people say on forums, single driver is more coherent then any multi driver, and I have to agree. Coherency is important for imaging accuracy, and I can't justify going multi driver for like a small barely tangible increase in details.

Are these good? Yeah sure. But I could see this as more of a 300$ iem then 1000$. Kiwi Ears is close to eating this market even with their Quartet.