The Monarchy 10A line stage preamplifier, $990. Solid state line stage with passive input option. Six line level inputs, two outputs. 380 Swift, South San Francisco, CA. 94080. Ph: 650.872.3055.***

The high-end has, and rightfully so, a reputation for building good sounding gear that costs too much. Or, at least the price of much high-end gear seems to cost too much when compared to electronics mass produced by a fortune 500 company. There is a reason for that, it being the fact that meet high-end gear is produced in small quantities too small to take advantage of bulk buying, or high tech in house production. So we have grown accustomed to paying a little more in the hopes of receiving big dividends in terms of sonics, reliability and resale value. Somehow Monarchy Audio has produced a line stage preamp that can be called affordable, while performing at an extremely high level sonically. This preamp has the quality of a hand built device at a mass market price.

If you doubt me in any way, simply take a look under the hood. The silver cabling is from Bear Labs, and yes, that is a copper sheath over the insulated silver wire. The volume attenuator was new to me the first time I saw it. Expecting something not too expensive from Alps, or maybe a slightly upscale Noble pot to be standard equipment, I was surprised to see a huge shielded attenuator with the name Shalco on it. A call to the Texas Parts Man Extraordinaire revealed the volume control to be a very expensive one, and one of the best sonically. The TPME told me that inside the solid metal tube are discrete resistors hand soldered. The control has a very solid feel to it, feeling rich and somewhat industrial at the same time. The whole preamp is built that way. It's what one expects from a high-end company.

Whether it's the silver wire, or whatever the silly thing takes forever to break-in. And in part, it's the lengthy break-in time that made this review so slow in coming. Oh, I'm not late with this review because the preamp took a year to break-in. I'm late because I literally gave up on the preamp and put it aside for a number of months. I gave the 10A almost three months in the Big Rig to get its act together, and it didn't. So on to a shelf it went for almost a year waiting for a second audition. When one has dream machines like the Symfonia Opus 8 and the Metaxas Opulence (with all Sheker mods) on hand, a $990 pre from Monarchy takes a back seat. It's human nature when first impressions aren't the best. I feel kind of funny now. For while the Monarchy isn't the equal of the Symfonia or the Metaxas, it's so close it's pathetic.

In a three-way A/B/C comparison between the aforesaid preamps, there were only three areas by which I could tell that it was the Monarchy and not one of the other two playing (and then I wasn't always so sure, making false identifications four times out of 15). The highs on the Monarchy seem not to be as sweet, airy, articulate, and if need be, etched as on the two other preamps. Instead of providing a banquet of high frequency colors and configurations, the Monarchy makes things either this or that. Instead of having a rainbow of high frequency distinctions, one has high and clear, or cymbal swish. Recorders and flutes have the proper fundamentals with the Monarchy, but lack some of the ambient air and purity that I was able to hear in the much higher priced Metaxas and Symfonia. It's an ultra micro-dynamic finesse kind of thing. The second area where I heard the big guys to be superior was in the way the music could wrap around a performer or instrument. The Monarchy has great instrumental outlines, and locations upon the sonic stage are dealt with precisely. It's just that the Metaxas and the Symfonia have a slightly better sense of dimensionality about them, allowing the natural glow of a vocal or instrument to better develop and wrap around the performer. Once again, I perceived the more expensive preamps being slightly better at reproducing ultra low level micro dynamic information. Which is not to say that the Monarchy lacks significantly in that regard; it's simply not as revealing.

Lastly, the Monarchy is a little darker than the Metaxas or the Symfonia, and its upper midrange is back in the soundfield in comparison; particularly when compared to the Metaxas. After going through a myriad of CD's, I have concluded that the Metaxas is right in the upper midrange, and that the Monarchy is wrong.

But how does it rate when compared to preamps at its own price level? There are only a few thousand dollar preamps that I would recommend, the best of which would probably be the impressive Musical Designs SP 2B, or the RE Designs LNLS1 (Who am I missing?). Due to one being a tube design and the other being solid stain it's difficult to recommend one over the other if only because they will work beat with different power amps with different input impedances. I don't care what anybody says, the more I think about it, comparing a tube preamplifier to a transistor one is apples and oranges. I just know a good one when I see it whether it be an apple or an orange.

In spite of listening to many preamps over the last ten years, I don't know of one at, or near, a thousand dollars that sounds better. Different? Yes. Better? No. In terms of sonics, I would be more likely to make the Monarchy 10A the solid state equivalent of the Audible Illusions Modulus 3A, the Audio Research LS3B, and the Audio Prism Mantissa; all preamps that are considered overachievers at or around $2,000. The Monarchy does as much as or more than they for under a grand!

On the solid state front, the natural comparison is to the RE Designs reviewed last month. The Monarchy is clearly a more finished product with far fewer soldered connections and a cleaner internal appearance. Sonically, these guys are very, very close, the Monarchy seeming to have the deeper more taut bass response and slightly better detailing (and I'm not exactly sure about the bass so close was it). The Monarchy is a darker sounding preamplifier than the RE, and as was the case with the Metaxas above regarding the upper midrange, the RE is closer to “right" than is the Monarchy.

When mating the Monarchy to a power amplifier the normal impedance qualifications (reservations) about matching a solid state pre to a high input impedance (tube) power amplifier apply, this is not a universal preamp perfect for all power amps. I would be very cautious about putting it with a power amp with an input impedance of more than 76 kOhms. Power cords didn't make a lot of difference with the 10A, though I thought it responded well to the TG Audio HSR and the Audience Power Chord. The TG made the Monarchy faster and cleaner, the Audience added some solidity to the bottom end. Choose your poison.

About AC polarity. My unit measured best with the AC power cord in the standard wall polarity. It sounded best with the polarity reversed, however. That was until the unit had been running for about five months total, where a re-examination of the cord polarity prompted a return to standard polarity. I have told some that the unit should be AC reversed - well I've changed my mind now that it has more than a thousand hours of playing time on it. But that's what long term equipment loans and break-in are all about: Getting it right in the long run.

The Monarchy preamp isn't actually built by Monarchy USA, per se. Like many companies today, C.C. Poon, the owner and founder of Monarchy went out in search of a design team that could deliver on the ideal that he envisioned for his flagship preamp. And while I'm not exactly sure what OEM company is responsible for the final design and production work, it certainly didn't come from a back room/basement electronics manufacturer. This is the work of a high-tech, EE based design group that can basically R&D, design and fabricate anything that they want to, at about any price that they want to. Monarchy's digital processors have long been appreciated for some of the more professional work to be found at anywhere near the price point, now the same goes for their preamp - I only wish that it hadn't taken so long to get the word out.
 

2/97    Bound For Sound