The Thieaudio Monarch MKII is 36Ω at 108.0 dB (no reference unit printed); the Thieaudio Prestige LTD is 22Ω at 99.0 dB (no reference unit printed). This page covers what they ask of an amplifier, not how they sound.
The Prestige LTD needs 9.0 dB more than the Monarch MKII to reach the same loudness — 1.3 mW against 0.16 mW.
| Specification | Monarch MKII | Prestige LTD |
|---|---|---|
| Impedance | 36 Ω | 22 Ω |
| Sensitivity | 108.0 dB | 99.0 dB |
| Sensitivity (voltage) | 122.4 dB/V | 115.6 dB/V |
| Power for 100 dB | 0.16 mW | 1.3 mW |
| Voltage for 100 dB | 76 mV | 0.17 V |
| Current for 100 dB | 2.1 mA | 7.6 mA |
| Highest source impedance that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule) | 4.50 Ω | 2.75 Ω |
| Sources that reach 100 dB out of 280 | 280 | 280 |
One caution before reading the rows. Thieaudio Monarch MKII and Thieaudio Prestige LTD printed a decibel figure with no reference unit, so this page reads it as per milliwatt. If it is really per volt, each of them needs far more than the table says. Why the two readings differ by so much.
Every source in the database that drives one of them drives the other. On power, the choice between these two changes nothing about what amplifier you need.
2 sources stay below the audible-hiss threshold with the Prestige LTD but cross it with the Monarch MKII (FiiO BTR11, Rupert Neve RNHP).
280 of the 280 sources here reach 100 dB on both.
The Prestige LTD is more demanding than 51% of the 567 non-electrostatic models in this database; the Monarch MKII than 24%.
| dB SPL | Monarch MKII power | Monarch MKII voltage | Prestige LTD power | Prestige LTD voltage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80 | 1.6 µW | 8 mV | 0.01 mW | 17 mV |
| 85 | 5.0 µW | 13 mV | 0.04 mW | 30 mV |
| 90 | 0.02 mW | 24 mV | 0.13 mW | 53 mV |
| 95 | 0.05 mW | 42 mV | 0.40 mW | 94 mV |
| 100 | 0.16 mW | 76 mV | 1.3 mW | 0.17 V |
| 105 | 0.50 mW | 0.13 V | 4.0 mW | 0.30 V |
| Source | Price | Headroom, Monarch MKII | Headroom, Prestige LTD | Output impedance | Noise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JadeAudio JA11 | $20 | 22.3 dB | 12.1 dB | 0.5 Ω | 1.7 µV |
| FiiO KA11 | $29 | 30.5 dB | 22.4 dB | 0.7 Ω | 1.7 µV |
| FiiO BTR13 | $59 | 27.5 dB | 19.3 dB | 0.6 Ω | 1.0 µV |
Of the 280 sources here, 280 reach 100 dB on both. 67 of them also publish an output impedance low enough for both under the one-eighth rule and a noise figure that stays below the audible-hiss threshold with both.
The cheapest of the 67 is the JadeAudio JA11, at $20. It leaves 22.3 dB of headroom on the Monarch MKII and 12.1 dB on the Prestige LTD, its output impedance is 0.5 Ω against a one-eighth limit of 4.50 Ω and 2.75 Ω, and its noise figure puts the hiss floor 13 dB and 20 dB below the 20 dB SPL this site treats as the point where a quiet room stops hiding it.
| Model | As printed | Tolerance | Standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monarch MKII | nothing printed | — | — |
| Prestige LTD | nothing printed | — | — |
Thieaudio prints the same thing for both the Monarch MKII and the Prestige LTD: nothing at all.
Monarch MKII: Thieaudio publishes a measured frequency-response graph for this model on the same page. What it does not publish is a range: there is no row of numbers to read the graph against.
There is nothing here to compare, and that is worth saying plainly rather than filling the gap with somebody else’s measurement. Of the 578 models checked against a maker document so far, 490 carry a printed range and only 58 of those print the ±dB tolerance that would make a range mean anything.
Not a measurement; maker by maker.
Both have a page of their own. In full: Thieaudio Monarch MKII and Thieaudio Prestige LTD. Each figure on this page is labelled on those pages with where it came from, including the ones Thieaudio never published — what that maker publishes, counted.