I noticed that you published a letter of mine about all of your products.  It s very complimentary, but it doesn t contain enough information about the power cord.  The AC-1 power cord is one of the hidden gems of the audio world.   I never thought that a power cord could make such a difference, when many in the hi-end world do make a difference, a negative one.  After I bought my first AC-1 as a test sample, I purchased four more two months later. They re that good.

What difference do they make?  As Mr. Poon suggests, they lower the background noise level and increase the detail.  It s not a wham bang, shazaam type of change, but it s very audible to anyone who listens critically to music.   I have now tried the AC-1 on five different amps and four pre-amps and have noticed the differences on all of them.
 
I have suggested the purchase of this cord to anyone who has asked me for advice about improving their setup.  To me, it s now a no-brainer, whereas, I used to think that a rose is a rose and a power cord is a power cord.
 

From: Paul  Marciniak <pmarciniak@Omtool.com> 
To: "'monarchy@earthlink.net'" <monarchy@earthlink.net> 
Subject: A missing product in your fine line 
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2001 08:25:06 -0400 

I've auditioned your amplifiers, power cords and digital cable for over two weeks now and think all of them are sensational. I read in your most recent review that you don't make much money from the Monarchy endeaver. I believe it!!! These products cost 1/10 as much as comparable products.
I noticed that you're making a hybrid product. Actually, you can achieve a very 'tubey' sound using softer sounding cable, such as the DHLabs Silver Sonic or the ZuCable OxyFuel. I generally mix these with a Kimber on the front-end to produce the sound that I like the best.
You are missing a product in your line, however, you need a passive, line-stage pre-amp, similar to the Creek OBH-12. You should include a balanced output in your design as you do with the 22C.

Keep up the superior work!!! 

Paul 
 

From: juan.molinaviamonte@ps.ge.com
To: monarchy@earthlink.net
Subject: RE: AC-1
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 10:50:07 -0500
        __________________________
       Juan J. Molina Viamonte
       Business Development Manager
       Southern Cone
       GE Power Systems
       GE International Inc.
       Av. L.N. Alem 619  8th Floor
       Buenos Aires, Argentina    1001
       Tel: (54-11)4317-8721/DC267-2021
       Fax: (54-11)4317-8731/DC267-2031
 

I have owned MGD (Michael Green Designs) modified Monarchy Audio Delux
SE-100 solid state single ended mono block amplifiers now for about three
months. The modifications performed by MGD involve incorporating mechanical
grounding technology on the components inside the chassis. The end results
of these modifications are amplifiers which are extremely fast, neutral in
sound, capable of reproducing very natural sounding harmonic structures and
are essentially transparent to source components feeding them. Having
upgraded my digital front end from an already fine source, I found that
these amps were capable of even more outstanding performance and detail than
I was already enjoying up until the point of adding an even better sounding
and more detailed digital front end. All types of music sound good through
these amps, from small ensembles to large orchestral selections. Jazz and
vocals are extremely well reproduced with an incredible amount of realism
spread out over a wide and deep soundstage.<p>I wrote a previous post here
at Audio Review on my system's variable tuning capabilities from the source
components, to the speakers to the acoustics of the room itself using MGD
products. As outstanding as the performance was, after listening for about a
month or so through careful listening, I noticed something about the
mid-bass/lower midrange that I didn't particularly like and could not "tune
out" on certain recordings. These were usually recordings which were not the
greatest in terms of recording quality. What I have found using a variably
tuned system is that even lesser quality recordings can always sound better
on a variably tuned system and that these recordings, more often than not,
have levels of detail that are not only more than acceptable, but whose
sound is actually much better than that reproduced by a nonvariably tunable
system. The only component I could single out as a possible culprit was the
stock power cords on the Monarchy amps.<p>After perusing the Monarchy Audio
web site, I found that they had an upgrade power cord, the AC-1. After
studying the information at the web site and making an inquiry by e-mail of
Mr. C. C. Poon of Monarchy Audio, I was pretty well convinced that the AC-1
upgrade power cords could perhaps alleviate whatever it was I was hearing
that I didn't like. C. C. Poon informed me by e-mail that the AC-1 would
give an immediate and substantial increase in performance. He was right. I
purchased the AC-1 upgrade power cords, installed them and the "problem"
disappeared, with no burn-in time on the power cords. Now that the AC-1s
have had break-in time, the amps are now transparent, to my level of
satisfaction, and I can find no sonic faults with the amps at all on any
program source material. Only better tunable speakers might reveal something
that I currently cannot detect with my current tunable speakers and system.
The preamp that I am using is a MGD modified Monarchy Audio 10A preamp which
has a phono stage added (also by MGD). This preamp has the same level of
transparency and sonic (non) characteristics as the Delux SE-100 mono block
amps. Both the preamp and amps can reproduce dynamics from source material
with incredible realism and impact. Music with very low levels or amounts of
instrumentation (i.e., a vocal with a single or multiple guitars) can be
just as moving and involving as fast paced selections with strong, rhythmic
bass lines. The AC-1 power cords extended and tightened the bass even more
than what was an already excellent bottom end. The AC-1s also extended and
opened up the top end produced by the amps, as well as producing more detail
throughout the entire audible range. The best part about the AC-1 power
cords is that they only cost $75 each (total $150) for this performance
increase! That is more than reasonable, in my experience, for a high quality
power cord. The cheapest upgrade power cord I have ever used that made a
difference over a stock power cord cost $150 (for one!) from Tice Audio.
Anyone owning or considering purchasing the Monarchy Delux-100s should
definitely purchase the AC-1 upgrade power cords in place of the stock power
cords, based on the performance boost I found that I have experienced using
them; especially at such an affordable price. These amps are what I consider
to be my last purchase in amplifiers. That's how pleased I am with their and
the AC-1 upgrade power cords' performance. Up until now, I have been
using Kimber 4TC speaker cable with spade connectors to connect the amps to
my speakers. This is truly outstanding cable for the dollar (or so I
thought). After several conversations with MGD (Michael Green himself and
his hotline staff), I was urged to try some of MGD's solid core speaker
cable. Knowing that I have a pair of MGD's top-of-the-line fully tunable
(including variably tunable external crossovers mounted in their own
ClampRacks) Chameleon speakers on order, I figured that I should consider
the MGD cables, but I had great concern about their cost. Kimber advertises
their cable as costing $7.00 per foot, but if you add the cost of spade plug
termination, the cost balloons to ($140 total retail) $17.50 per foot for an
8 foot pair of 4TC speaker cables. I could only imagine what MGD speaker
cable that goes on their top-of-the-line $15,000 speakers must cost. After a
year (yes, a year!) of avoiding the question, I finally braced myself and
inquired as to how much was the MGD cable cost per foot. The response I got
back was $1.99 (that's one dollar and ninety-nine cents) per foot! How could
a high end manufacturer offer speaker cable of any quality at this price, I
asked myself? But, if this is what Michael Green himself uses in his totally
variable tunable listening room (walls, ceiling, floors including joists)
where he individually voices all his speakers for customers, I had nothing
much to loose considering the fact that I only needed two 6 foot runs for a
total cost of $24. MGD burned in the cable for about two weeks for me prior
to shipment. Well, the solid core MGD cable finally arrived and it
outperforms the Kimber in sound quality, detail, airiness, delicacy in
reproducing harmonic structures, depth of soundstage, and tightness of sound
throughout. To add insult to injury, I was told to use the MGD solid core
cable by connecting it "bare wire" (for a better connection, I was told) to
both the amps and speakers. The MGD speaker cable consists of what appears
to be 3 twisted thin jacketed solid core cables per leg, going to each
speaker, with "tinning" of some sort on the outer surface tips at each end.
The MGD solid core speaker cable, used "bare wire", really works and is
definitely another recommendation for the Monarchy Delux-100 mono blocks and
the Monarchy AC-1 upgrade power cords.  Brian Tracy
Barry audiotruth@hotmail.com System Components: (all components except
turntable, VPI LP cleaner and tuner are clamped and variably tuned) MGD
modified Monarchy Audio Delux SE-100 mono block amps  Monarchy AC-1
upgrade power cords MGD modified Monarchy Audio 10A preamp<br>Tice Power
Block Signature Series 3B Line Conditioner MGD Monitor 5 variably tunable
speakers MGD Hubbell AC Outlet Kimber Silver Streak Interconnect
cables XLO digital cable (for digital recording purposes) MGD
ClampRacks MGD tunable Monitor 5 speakers using MGD solid core speaker
cable MGD modified Marantz CD-67 CD player Oracle Delphi Mk. V
turntable with MGD custom MTDs (brass spikes), SME Series V tonearm
(damping device disengaged) with Benz Micro Glider cartridge 15 MGD
Pressure Zone Controllers (variably tunable acoustical devices) Carver
TX-8 tuner Phillips digital tape recorder VPI 16.5 LP cleaning
machine Last stylus and record cleaner
 

Mr. Hui, 

I have been very impressed with both AC-1 Power Cords I received just over 
a week ago; in my mind the value and performance are outstanding. 

I would like to order one additional cord today and to ask if you could 
have it sent "UPS 3 Day Select" so that I can get into my system this week. 

Thank you, 

Ken Henderson 

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