Hey everyone, @Resolve entrusted me with the task of comparing the Monarch MKII to the Helios, so I thought I’d pop in with some thoughts here. I’ve also shared my general impressions of the Monarch MKII here.
The bass on the Helios, at least in terms of its frequency response profile, is more reminiscent of the OG Monarch which had gobbles of sub-bass and a distinct separation come the lower-midrange. Between the two, I think I prefer the Monarch MKII for its warmer bass curve, even though the Helios is definitely cleaner when it comes to rapid bass lines. For slam, I honestly don’t think the Monarch MKII is a very strong performer. The Helios matches it blow-for-blow in that department despite being BA, even if the bass of the Helios ultimately falls short in timbre.
Midrange wise, I think most listeners would be hard-pressed to choose between the IEMs again. The Helios is cleaner in the lower-midrange where it exhibits a dip at around 200Hz; however, the Monarch MKII perceptively has more clarity at times due to a very forward upper-midrange presentation. I also think that the Monarch MKII’s timbre is generally better in the midrange, sounding more life-like and less compressed than the Helios. However, for extended listening, the Helios’ midrange tuning comes out the winner for me. I find myself having to take breaks from the Monarch MKII when female singers are belting.
There’s a similar pattern at play in the treble. The Monarch MKII has a strong 5kHz plateau that screams “wow, detail!” on first listen, but that becomes fatiguing when I listen more closely. This isn’t helped by 1) a slight recession off of the peak, and 2) the aforementioned upper-midrange. I swear there’s also a slight metallic tinge to the treble at times; it’s not a major coherency issue, but it does sound slightly off. By comparison, the Helios is simply tuned better in the treble and has better extension to boot.
For detail, I think the two generally trade blows. The Monarch MKII’s tuning inherently gives it an edge in the upper-midrange and lower-treble whereas the Helios pulls ahead in the bass and upper-treble. It’s really hard to say which is more detailed, although I will say the Monarch MKII has more texturing whereas the Helios generally doesn’t have much - that’ll mostly be personal preference. The Monarch MKII also actually has really solid imaging, better than I was expecting given the OG Monarch’s imaging performance. Like Resolve said, I do think the Helios edges it out for a holographic presentation, but it’s pretty close. In terms of dynamic contrast, the Helios definitely wins for me. The Monarch MKII still sounds sort of sputtery and dampened when it comes to quite-to-loud gradations in music; better than its predecessor, but still not good.
Overall, I think the Monarch MKII is going to be for listeners who are after a very high-clarity, in-your-face presentation. It has excellent macro-detail for a grand, and it picks up handily where its predecessor left off (quite poorly) in more latent intangibles. It honestly reminds quite a lot of something like the Odin even if they graph differently and the Odin is more technical. On the other hand, the Helios is more palpable for extended listening (assuming you can fit the shells comfortably!) and arguably slightly more technical for the qualities I index for in something like the 64A U12t.