pinseeker,

I do not necessarily think I would say the Cascades would surpass the Monarchs. With optics everything is a series of tradeoffs. At any given price point one binocular might have a wider field of view with a slightly softer overall level of sharpness. Another might have excellent sharpness levels at the center of the field of view but at a cost to the level of distortion at the edges or at a cost to actual width of the field of view itself. From another standpoint a company may choose to utilize certain chemical coatings on the lenses which will enhance certain colors of the light spectrum while inhibiting others. Another company may chose to utilize coatings that result in totally neutral color representation. Which is superior? That is entirely up to the consumer.

As for the Olympics, in my opinion I think the Olympics aren't much above the Monarchs in terms of performance. Had you asked me this a year ago I would have said the Olympics and Monarchs are at about the same performance level...and they still pretty much are. I think the Leupold lineup tends to have some redundancies in it. The Olympics claim to fame over the Cascades was always that they had phase coating on the roof prisms and the Cascades did not. Now that the Cascades do utilize phase coating I don't think the Olympics have any significant advantage other than possibly field of view.

If you are just looking for some suggestions in general, also consider the new Cabelas XT series of roof prism bins. They offer an exceptionally sharp image for the price...they are made in Japan instead of China and they sell for around $250. Great bins when I had a chance to evaluate them on a few occasions.

Second, if you are looking for the best prices, as Jason made mention to above, there are several places that offer superb prices on optics both new and used. You may cringe at the latter but there are a few places where you can buy "demo/refurbished" bins with a full warranty for substantially less than their new price at most retailers. My favorite place to buy from in this regard is www.cameralandny.com . I have nothing but good things to say about their owner "Doug". He is intelligent, articulate and honest with you as a consumer and his prices are the best I have seen anywhere..and I have looked around extensively. Head to his website and check out the prices on regular products as well as the demos. You may be amazed.

..and for what it is worth I have no affiliation with Doug or his business whatsoever other than having purchased several optical devices from him over the last year or two.

Hope this helps.