[wolfstar76]

i mean........the IER-Z1R exists now, so.......

I think eventually I will buy Z1R. BTW, I notice that you sold so many IEM/HP, including all of your hifiman HP, actually almost all of your audiophine HP.

 

[ThomasHK]

Got the Monarch mk2 last week. Man... I'm in love with this iem. Great tuning and timbre, huge potential for scaling (listened with TT2 for a few hours today and was absolutely blown away), strong on technicalities.

A very easy recommendation. Top spot for me.

 

[feverfive]

I'm *finally* getting some hours on my MKII's this weekend. Been crazy busy since receiving them on December 2nd.

Got my cable from Plussound a couple days ago and trying various ear tips. Giving Spiral Dot++ another whirl today. The MKII nozzles are thiccccc...so be careful out there, you tip rollers! LOL

 

[jamesofla80]

How is the nozzle width of the monarch mk2? I have small ear canals and want to make sure it will fit my ear comfortable. For example I can't do any Moondrop IEMs due to their nozzle width.

Also has anyone compared them to the Andromeda 2020, how would they compare sound and comfort-wise?

 

[MardukSonofEa]

How is the nozzle width of the monarch mk2? I have small ear canals and want to make sure it will fit my ear comfortable. For example I can't do any Moondrop IEMs due to their nozzle width.

Also has anyone compared them to the Andromeda 2020, how would they compare sound and comfort-wise?

It's on the larger side but not crazy like the Blessing 2 / Dusk - 5.4mm vs 6.8 I believe.

 

[hlee227]

I'm *finally* getting some hours on my MKII's this weekend. Been crazy busy since receiving them on December 2nd.

Got my cable from Plussound a couple days ago and trying various ear tips. Giving Spiral Dot++ another whirl today. The MKII nozzles are thiccccc...so be careful out there, you tip rollers! LOL

Love how the cable can cost more than MK2 now a day (damn you pw audio), but those look pretty dang premium

 

[erockg]

If I listen to a lot of hard rock, heavy metal and rock, would I be better off with the Clairvoyance or MK2?

 

[conceptcar3]

I had both and listen to that- I would say if you prefer more mid bass and don’t want to eq- then clairvoyance. If you don’t mind doing eq I highly recommend the Qudelix 5k and the monarch mk2. Eq up the midbass and monarch mk2 is simply a better clairvoyance with more details -better mids especially.

 

[erockg]

I had both and listen to that- I would say if you prefer more mid bass and don’t want to eq- then clairvoyance. If you don’t mind doing eq I highly recommend the Qudelix 5k and the monarch mk2. Eq up the midbass and monarch mk2 is simply a better clairvoyance with more details -better mids especially.

Thanks for the response. Right now I have the Variations and I’m really digging them. I never do much EQ if anything with my IEMs. So if I’m not going to EQ much should I just saved a 300 and go with the Clairvoyance? Or am I gonna kick myself in the butt and regret not going all in and getting those MK2?

 

[conceptcar3]

Thanks for the response. Right now I have the Variations and I’m really digging them. I never do much EQ if anything with my IEMs. So if I’m not going to EQ much should I just saved a 300 and go with the Clairvoyance? Or am I gonna kick myself in the butt and regret not going all in and getting those MK2?

I think for the genres you listed, you may find mk2 a little midbass light but extreme details. Clairvoyance doesn’t lack detail either, but has thicker midbass that you feel more (without eq in mk2). So if you don’t intend to eq I think you would like clairvoyance better- still extremely detailed but more bass. But if you want maximum details then get mk2 and get a way to eq up the bass (Qudelix 5k). Would you regret it? I can say as a former clairvoyance owner I loved that set for a long time but after getting mk2 I sold it and kept mk2 bc I can eq up the bass and have essentially a better clair. I have not heard variations so can’t comment on how they compare.

 

[jlemaster1957]

I think for the genres you listed, you may find mk2 a little midbass light but extreme details. Clairvoyance doesn’t lack detail either, but has thicker midbass that you feel more (without eq in mk2). So if you don’t intend to eq I think you would like clairvoyance better- still extremely detailed but more bass. But if you want maximum details then get mk2 and get a way to eq up the bass (Qudelix 5k). Would you regret it? I can say as a former clairvoyance owner I loved that set for a long time but after getting mk2 I sold it and kept mk2 bc I can eq up the bass and have essentially a better clair. I have not heard variations so can’t comment on how they compare.

Below is an EQ profile @drummguy26 suggested earlier on post #3655 in this thread to make the MK2 sound awesome. Myself, I just subtract -1.5 db at 2 k, -2db at 5 k, both with narrow (high) Q value to deal with a couple of peaks at those frequencies and add a 2DB bass shelf below 64 Hz. This removes the slightly over bright edge in the
treble and adds in more ‘punch and slam’ in the bass without sacrificing detail down there, which I enjoy.

One plug here for EQ in Roon- especially if you plan to listen to the MK2 at home. The DSP in Roon includes PEQ. IMHO the addition of Roon to my audio life was the single biggest and best jump in my overall experience- opening up not just the easy ability to ‘tune’ each and every IEM and HP I have -using the Roon parametric EQ in its DSP functionality-, but (more) to make all my audio library available throughout my home (I use a Bluesound Node streaming to 3 Flex 2i speakers and also a Sonore MicroRendu in my listening room for HPs). Each of the speakers has a headphone/IEM se jack so I can plug in the iems or HPs wherever they are in the house, or directly plugin to the Node. This greatly increases the flexibility I have for tailoring my listening experience anywhere in the house. TIDAL and Qubuz are fully integrated. It unfolds MQA or upsamples PCM files and plays DSD if you are into any of that (I am). It is a bit of a palaver to set up the Roon Core (I used an old MacBook rather than a new dedicated Roon Nucleus or equivalent), and not every DAC plays well with Roon- Roon has certain products (mostly streamers) that it has certified as ‘Roon ready’ that are set up to work with it and others that are ‘Roon tested’ including some HPs (not the MK2s, but they work fine out of my DAC, the IFI micro iDSD, which is Roon tested). Once you have it set up and going there is no looking back. Is it expensive?- for slightly more than $100/year you could say so, but I assert that it gives me at least as much enjoyment as a $4 Starbucks latte once a week.
Here is @Resolve’s vid on EQ and here is Darko’s introduction to Roon. BTW I don’t work for Roon, or get anything from them at all except good service- I’m just a satisfied user.

 

[drummguy26]

Below is an EQ profile @drummguy26 suggested earlier on post #3655 in this thread to make the MK2 sound awesome. Myself, I just subtract -1.5 db at 2 k, -2db at 5 k, both with narrow (high) Q value to deal with a couple of peaks at those frequencies and add a 2DB bass shelf below 64 Hz. This removes the slightly over bright edge in the
treble and adds in more ‘punch and slam’ in the bass without sacrificing detail down there, which I enjoy.


One plug here for EQ in Roon- especially if you plan to listen to the MK2 at home. The DSP in Roon includes PEQ. IMHO the addition of Roon to my audio life was the single biggest and best jump in my overall experience- opening up not just the easy ability to ‘tune’ each and every IEM and HP I have -using the Roon parametric EQ in its DSP functionality-, but (more) to make all my audio library available throughout my home (I use a Bluesound Node streaming to 3 Flex 2i speakers and also a Sonore MicroRendu in my listening room for HPs). Each of the speakers has a headphone/IEM se jack so I can plug in the iems or HPs wherever they are in the house, or directly plugin to the Node. This greatly increases the flexibility I have for tailoring my listening experience anywhere in the house. TIDAL and Qubuz are fully integrated. It unfolds MQA or upsamples PCM files and plays DSD if you are into any of that (I am). It is a bit of a palaver to set up the Roon Core (I used an old MacBook rather than a new dedicated Roon Nucleus or equivalent), and not every DAC plays well with Roon- Roon has certain products (mostly streamers) that it has certified as ‘Roon ready’ that are set up to work with it and others that are ‘Roon tested’ including some HPs (not the MK2s). Once you have it set up and going tho there is no looking back. Is it expensive?- for slightly more than $100/year you could say so, but I assert that it gives me at least as much enjoyment as a $4 Starbucks latte once a week.
Here is @Resolve’s vid on EQ and here is Darko’s introduction to Roon. BTW I don’t work for Roon, or get anything from them at all except good service- I’m just a satisfied user.

Very nice modification to that EQ! I've actually since strayed away from using my Qudelix 5k for the MKII. Yes it's true the Qudelix has a great 10band PEQ, but compared to something like my E1DA PowerDAC, The sound is just too thin and almost anemic with little note weight and "snappiness". But glad people are utilizing that EQ and making modifications of their own. Very cool.

Your post almost makes me want to look into Roon as well. I'll be checking that out.

 

[conceptcar3]

Very nice modification to that EQ! I've actually since strayed away from using my Qudelix 5k for the MKII. Yes it's true the Qudelix has a great 10band PEQ, but compared to something like my E1DA PowerDAC, The sound is just too thin and almost anemic with little note weight and "snappiness". But glad people are utilizing that EQ and making modifications of their own. Very cool.

Your post almost makes me want to look into Roon as well. I'll be checking that out.

How did you develop that eq? It’s awesome! You have annihilator as well? With this eq, how does mk2 compare with it?

 

[drummguy26]

How did you develop that eq? It’s awesome! You have annihilator as well? With this eq, how does mk2 compare with it?

I don't do anything too crazy honestly. I use a program called AutoEQ. Basically what I do is analyze the frequency response graphs from something like Crinacle's online database and put it through an online program that plots out the graph values in numeric format. I then take those files and put them into AutoEQ with some varying parameters (including a 1dB bass boost) and it does it's thing and gives me the EQ values. Instead of setting the Harman curve or Oratory1990 as the compensation, I just plug in the IEM I want it to sound like as the compensation curve.

Once I've done that and listen to the EQ, I then make minor adjustments to it of my own to cater to my own liking.

Oh and also, I don't actually own the annihilator. I just took the frequency curve for the Annihilator 2021 and used that as my compensation curve.

 

[conceptcar3]

I really love the electronic eq profile built into Qudelix, I turn the pre gain to -2.2 like your curve, and it is just perfection