Closer Examination

The ThieAudio Monarch is not a budget-friendly set of IEMs, so the included cable has to match in quality and aesthetics. It comes pre-attached to the ear buds and uses two 0.78 mm 2-pin plugs for connectivity on that end. It does seem as though a lot of brands are moving away from MMCX for a few reasons, including longevity with use and the lack of a proper manufacturing standard. To indicate which channel the wire goes to (red for right, clear with a blue tip for left), either a red or clear base hosts the gold-plated base, and a transparent plastic sheath covers the aluminium housing and everything up to the memory-wire section of the cable, with the design allowing for an over-the-ear fit before the cable moves on to the back of your head and then ideally all the way back down your shirt, again on the back, and to the audio source, which prevents those microphonics caused by cables getting ruffled on the front.

The cable uses a polyurathane (PUR) insulation rather than the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) that cheaper cables do, with many psychoacoustic beliefs about PUR being better than PVC for headphone and IEM cables. I personally have yet to really encounter that. The insulation used got a silver finish that looks really nice in person, and the actual wiring is litz composed of OCC (Ohno Continuous Cast) copper, which should have much higher purity and larger single crystal size (more on this here if you are interested). The core uses four strands of this thick copper wiring. The strands also get a silver-plating to further reduce contact resistances at the junctions. The four strands, two per channel, are split using a Y-splitter and cable-minder system and braided all the way before entering a nicely sized aluminium housing with a grippy indentation in the middle that has "ThieAudio" written on it. My specific cable ends in a 2.5 mm TRRS connector for the ability of a balanced signal to be delivered to the two channels, and you can use this connector with the two provided adapters as well. There is a protective cover over the 2.5 mm connector for when you store these, and taking the cable off the ear buds will help get a better look at them.


We have had a look or two at the two ear buds of the ThieAudio Monarch already, but it is now finally time to relish in the main event of the review. I thought the Legacy 5 was quite nice with hand-painted resin shells that take up to a day to make. This means only small batches of the L5 are available from time to time, so you may have to wait for those to be finished. The ThieAudio Monarch, on the other hand, takes things to a whole other level. These are so hard to make that the custom IEM option is currently not even available, as the company works towards getting demand under control. These are only available on a made-to-order basis, and there is currently a 2–3 week lead time, too. So what is all that time put towards?


The face plate says it all, really. Forget just the medical-grade resin used for the IEM shells here, the Monarch gets an abalone shell face plate that is polished and matched for the two ear buds. This makes for a splendid, iridescent material that changes colors depending on the viewing angle, as well as the angle of incident light. My set goes through shades of turquoise and pink and looks absolutely stunning in person, but that is only half of the face plate, with the other half decorated with smaller pieces of the abalone shell that doesn't make it to the base of the face plate. This makes for a proper 3D finish to the decorative plate, which is an attention grabber and will prompt questions if you are using them in public. I can thus excuse the ThieAudio branding over a resin pour done to keep things in place, which is also polished to where you can see the shadow of the ThieAudio letters over the abalone shell.

The face plate sits on top of a unibody housing which is, as mentioned before, made out of more standard resin material. It looks opaque in these photos, but directing a light source closer to the top reveals a smokey gray color, and you can get a peek at the hardware inside, too. For all practical purposes, you might as well treat it as a black housing, just one that is more precious and natural than your average IEM. It is designed to ensure the acoustic chamber works as intended with the generated sound spectrum inside, as well as the soft curves throughout the ergonomic design. The 2-pin ports are inset into the housing, and matching red and blue rings on the side identify them as the right and left channels respectively. These rings are on top of the single vent, which actually gets a mesh filter as well in what is definitely a first for me!

This all makes for a relatively large IEM bud, which will be interesting when we get to the fit, but between the resin and the abalone face plate lies a set of IEMs that weigh just over 7 g each, making them one of the least dense IEMs made. At the bottom is a stubbier-than-average nozzle with a relatively large bore at 5.5 mm at the widest point and 4.5 mm at the body, where we see another mesh filter. I wish ThieAudio would make these user-replaceable and include some replacement filter inserts, same as TinHifi with the TinHiFi T5.


Fitting the ear tips is trivial since the nozzle is pretty cylindrical at the contact point, but the larger nozzle diameter means it may be a struggle in the beginning. The process is no different from the usual: simply push in the core of the ear tip you want to use until it catches in place and make sure it is in fully all around. Seen above are one each of the SpinFit CP100 and the memory foam tips that come with the ThieAudio Monarch, both in size M. The silicone SpinFits are a safe bet for those who don't like the squishier feel of foam, which can be more isolating and allows for a more secure fit but may cause some skin allergies to flare up. Notice again how the opening on the foam tips is slightly larger than on the SpinFits, but the latter having that extra pivot point at the case for a more natural articulation of the ear tips into the ear canal means most of the advantages of foam tip are no longer exclusive.


Attaching the cable is trivial since there are only two possible orientations for each connection, and it quickly becomes obvious which is correct as the memory wire design has the cable go over and around your ears when installed properly. Carefully push the pins in as they can bend if inserted at an angle, which is hard to correct. Remember to use the colored base on the cable as well as the colored rings on the shells if you are unsure of which goes where, and once done, you see how the stock cable matches this blingy set quite well. It works nicely with the adapters for when you can't use the 2.5 mm connector as well, which is quickly becoming the case more often than not with vendors recognizing how fragile this connector is and the 4.4 mm TRRS connector gaining more traction. Seen above is the 2.5 mm to 3.5 mm adapter in place, which I used for most of the testing done on the next page. A 90° angled adapter for the 3.5 mm plug would have been nice, but this is not a dealbreaker by any means. I know there are many who prefer to use IEMs throughout, but I like to use over-ear headphones when sitting down and IEMs/TWS earbuds on the go. In the absence of other options at this time, I hence chose to use them primarily with my trusty FiiO E17.


I already had requests for a visual comparison of the ThieAudio Monarch (left) with the ThieAudio Legacy 5 (right), and this further cements how much larger the Monarch ear buds are even compared to the L5, which itself is not a small set by any means. I was thinking of putting the Campfire Satsuma or Ikko OH1S in as well, but that would have been too hilarious to be taken seriously by many. In addition to the size, the Monarch is also far flashier, and prettier to me.