Nudies of my new amp

[jimfet]

Here are the insides of my new Monarchy amp. I'm uping all the fuses by 1 amp per CC Poon. I did this with my other Monarchy last year. He now puts a paper in with his amps requesting it.

The amp will be replacing a Nad 2100. I will have nudies of it later, with a small story. Right now they (Monarchys) will both be running in stereo mode. But I will soon be putting them in mono mode with a constant 3 ohm or less rating and that will give me 130+ wpc class A. Poon says the amps should be able to handle that. He should know, he designed the amps. I also use a Parasound Zbreeze on the top of each amp to keep them cool. It fits perfect. Only an inch of heat sink sticks out each side. That front plate is 3/4 of an inch thick, it doubles as a heat sink.

Heads up. Monarchy has these amps on sale right now for 40% off. Great service too. If you email Mr. Poon, you will have a reply from him very soon.
You should check out his site.

 

[jimfet]

Well I'll be damned. Mr. Poon upgraded the fuses for me. I see 2 differences from this amp to my old one. This one has silver hex heads on the front and my old one has gold.

Plus this one uses regular size glass fuses where the old one uses mini's.

 

[Mister Pig]

Mr. Poon is one of the great guys in audio! His products offer a lot of value and are reasonably priced. If you ever need speaker wire, that Monarchy speaker wire is suprisngly good for the money.

Mr Poon had sent me a pair of Monarchy SM70PRO amps that I used for a good long time. June finally asked for them back, and I regretfully sent them off to California.

I ran them bridged, and they sure sounded nice. We not the equal of my Rowland Model 5, but it sure sounded sweet.

Congrats on a nice pair of amps, I have fond memories of them.

Once again Mr. Poon is awesome! One of my favorite guys in hi fi.

Regards
Mister Pig

 

[rifftrax]

That is one helluva amp.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Jim - thanks for sharing this. I didn't know about Monarchy, and am always interested in high quality US made gear. The manufacturing quality of these is obvious, really fantastic.

So, how do they sound? Do they live up to their looks? Any experience with their other amps?

 

[clydeselsor]

Nice! Looks to be very well made!

 

[sebrof]

Heads up. Monarchy has these amps on sale right now for 40% off. Great service too. If you email Mr. Poon, you will have a reply from him very soon.
You should check out his site.

jimfet - What model?
I went to the Monarchy site and didn't see the sale mentioned.

Thanks!

 

[Uncle Paul]

Just checked it out. From the main page click the "limited time only internet special link". Jim's amp is the only model on sale.

 

[Glen B]

Very nice looking amp. Wow, that is some front panel -- looks more like an inch thick in the pics.

 

[Glen B]

I've always heard of Monarchy but never really investigated the products. There's lots of good looking stuff and the prices are very affordable as high end goes. I've bookmarked the site for future reference.

 

[austi15]

Thanks for the heads up, beautiful amp! I think I'm going to buy one if the sale is still up in a few days.

 

[jimfet]

jimfet - What model?
I went to the Monarchy site and didn't see the sale mentioned.

Thanks!

http://www.highendatlowcost.com/

Their sight will direct you here. I bought my first one last year. These really are world class amps. I bought my first one when they were on sale last year for the same price. He was selling them on Audiogon then. The speakers they push are 94db 1 watt. So they have more than enuf power. 25 wpc 8 ohm, 4 ohm 40 wpc. Get 2 in mono and they are 120 watts each at 4 ohm.

Ella sure is sounding good right now.

 

[stereocuuple]

Nice looking amp. How do they sound?

Erin

 

[jimfet]

Nice looking amp. How do they sound?

Erin

The reviews on the sight just about cover it. These amps have been around for years and have gone through a constant upgrade from Mr. Poon. As I said, my two Monarchy's were purchased just a year apart and I found a couple upgrades. Nothing sonicly though.

Plus the SM70 PRO has major upgrades from the original SM 70.

I'll put it this way. Back in the late 70's I ran a Series 20, 30 wpc class A amp on my Altec 19's and it sounded great. I still sold my 19's. I may have kept them with this amp. The Monarchy is a much more refined amp than the Series 20 was and more practical. I don't understand why some one would spend close to a grand for a 30 year old amp, when they can get a brand new one with better ratings, sound, headroom, more practcal, can run in mono, stereo, balanced, etc..... for around $600 new, with warrenty.

 

[jimfet]

Mr. Poon is one of the great guys in audio! His products offer a lot of value and are reasonably priced. If you ever need speaker wire, that Monarchy speaker wire is suprisngly good for the money.

Mr Poon had sent me a pair of Monarchy SM70PRO amps that I used for a good long time. June finally asked for them back, and I regretfully sent them off to California.

I ran them bridged, and they sure sounded nice. We not the equal of my Rowland Model 5, but it sure sounded sweet.

Congrats on a nice pair of amps, I have fond memories of them.

Once again Mr. Poon is awesome! One of my favorite guys in hi fi.

Regards
Mister Pig

I would guess the Rowland model 5 was better. But at a list of $5500 and 150lbs each, it should. Plus 150wpc, thats alot of class A juice.

I saw where you had one for sale a couple of years ago for $1500. Did you ever sell it?

 

[Mister Pig]

I would guess the Rowland model 5 was better. But at a list of $5500 and 150lbs each, it should. Plus 150wpc, thats alot of class A juice.

I saw where you had one for sale a couple of years ago for $1500. Did you ever sell it?

The Rowland amp is right around 100 lbs without crating, but that number is about right when its boxed up to ship. The amp is Class A/B, although I am not sure how far into Class A it is biased. The Model 5 is big, does run a bit warm, was expensive, and sounds very very nice.

Yes I did sell mine, although that was a hard piece to let go. I have determined that my preference for speakers is full range drivers, or large wood horn speakers. High efficiency speakers are really not well suited to be run with 150 wpc SS amplifiers. So I sold my Rowland Model 5 and Consummate pre-amp to help finance my purchase of an Electra Print 300B Custom and PVA passive pre amp. I ended up using a pair of Sachiko Double Horn speakers with Fostex first generation 208 Sigma drivers. While the Rowland is excellent, I find that SET amplification and HE speakers is what I am drawn to.

But the Rowland was a fine amp which I would love to own again. The Monarchy were extremely nice too, and if I hadn't had the Model 5 in the house, I could have lived with the pair of SM70 PRO amps.

Regards
Mister Pig

 

[jimfet]

I probably saw a sight that was in your livingroom. Can't remember all the details, or how I got there. But there were some nice amps feeding some large wood horn speakers with fullrangers. There were tiny pigs every where. One was sitting inside a folded horn. Was that you? There was some reviewing going on.

I have my Monarchy's pushing fullrangers too. One set of my speakers is rated at 96db 1 watt at 8 ohm and the other is 94 db 1 watt at 4 ohm. Puts both amps at around the same volume, being 4 ohms on the 1 amp is 40 wpc.

I do use a Marsh Hybrid pre contoling the amps.

 

[Mister Pig]

I probably saw a sight that was in your livingroom. Can't remember all the details, or how I got there. But there were some nice amps feeding some large wood horn speakers with fullrangers. There were tiny pigs every where. One was sitting inside a folded horn. Was that you? There was some reviewing going on.

I have my Monarchy's pushing fullrangers too. One set of my speakers is rated at 96db 1 watt at 8 ohm and the other is 94 db 1 watt at 4 ohm. Puts both amps at around the same volume, being 4 ohms on the 1 amp is 40 wpc.

I do use a Marsh Hybrid pre contoling the amps.

I just snapped a different pic of the speaker, hopefully this one comes out better. Been using the camera on my Droid X lately, but it doesn't seem to like adjust well for the light in the window next to my speakers. Gives them a soft out of focus look to the pictures. But maybe this one is better.

These are 6 foot horns, 13" wide and 18" deep.

The SM70PRO are a lot of power for speakers of that efficiency, but I bet it still works nicely. The dynamics of having that much power on tap should work well. I found that the SM70PRO worked really nicely with the Electra Print PVA transformer based pre-amp. They aren't terribly expensive to build, you might want to trying one if you can do a bit of soldering.


Regards
Mister Pig

 

[Mister Pig]

Here is a pair I Would Love to Have

Friend of mine built these horns. Took him a year, and they are so nice to listen too. He has a horn sub that complements them, its a huge thing that covers half the ceiling of his shop.

Regards
Mister Pig

 

[jimfet]

Friend of mine built these horns. Took him a year, and they are so nice to listen too. He has a horn sub that complements them, its a huge thing that covers half the ceiling of his shop.

Regards
Mister Pig

Those look like Audio Nirvana speakers on those horns. I just replaced a set of Fe 167e's with a set of 6.5 inch cast frame AN's. The fostex were in a set of Fritz speaker cabs. Fixing to post it on the AK members systems forum. As far as pre's, I am very happy with the Marsh.

Your speakers look like a double Ben type from Cain & Cain.