King Melody Nautilus Review: Experience The Vastness
Numerous cheap or budget Chi-Fi brands appear almost every week, though it’s not so often for high-end or premium IEM brands to make their debut nowadays. Today we not only have a new IEM to introduce but also a new high-end in-ear brand to introduce – King Melody.
While this brand may be a complete stranger if you aren’t familiar with the Chinese audiophile market (unless you’re a constant Weibo and Taobao lurker like me…), King Melody has been in the in-ear industry just about for a decade now. King Melody isn’t a simple OEM brand company but an actual in-ear manufacturer that designs and produces by themselves.
Who is King Melody?
King Melody (previously known as KM Audio) was established in 2014 and has been crafting high-end IEMs that sport interesting and unique elements. Just recently renaming their brand name and logo, they’ve now slowly started to reach out to overseas.
Their first official debut IEM for reaching the international market is the Nautilus, which is also their newest and most (relatively) affordable IEM, priced at $999. The word “affordable” is a very flexible and deceiving word to use yet considering the price of their usual products ranging between $2k~$4k, so far Nautilus is their most budget-friendly IEM.
Packaging & Accessories
King Melody’s efforts for a product extend to the packaging and accessories too. Unboxing the black packaging reveals a gorgeous walnut earphone case with two division areas, with the inner layer finished with a smooth velvety fabric. The pocket and holders placed on the inner side of the case lid allow storage of various capabilities, such as spare eartips, cleaning tools, etc. The two divided areas within the case are roomy enough to store two earphones but if not, Nautilus will stay well protected even stored alone as the included earpiece mesh bag protects the earpieces from ratting around the walnut carrying case.
Nautilus comes with a surprisingly diverse set of eartips and below are the details for each eartip series:
- 3 Pairs of Brown Oval tips (Ideal for Pop)
- 3 Pairs of Grey, Double-flanged Oval tips (Offers a CIEM-like fitting/sound)
- 3 pairs of Transparent tips (Ideal for female vocals)
- 3 pairs of Black tips (Ideal for classical)
- 1 Pair of Foam tips (Balanced sound)
Each eartips is provided a purpose, and these different eartips offer evident and specific sounds, which are as intended by King Melody. The changes are quite fun to play around with, and to even try foam tips although I usually steer away from using foams. These proprietary and various eartips, as well as the specific description listed out by King Melody already reflect the good efforts they’ve put into these. But still, the actual sound and listening experience are all that matters – so let’s soon figure out how they’d sound after all.
Jewelry-Etched, Luxurious Earpieces
Nautilus sports 7BA drivers per side with a 5-way network (2 lows, 1 mid, 1 mid-high, 1 high, and 2 ultra-highs). As the higher-end products of King Melody are shown from the introductory page, these guys also made sure for Nautilus to have a unique, luxury look just as much as their higher-end IEMs.
Nautilus uses a full metal chassis for the earpieces with aero-grade CNC aluminum shells with titanium-alloy faceplates. The aluminum body portion is smoothly finished with line engravings across the surface. The faceplates are applied with fish scale patterns often found in luxury watches, giving a spatial and in-depth feature to the appearance.
King Melody also went extra far with their efforts for luxury by applying Srirankan gems on the faceplate to indicate left/right earpieces – blue sapphire for the left, and red ruby for the right. Lastly, the nozzles are also applied with a special structural design, using horn-shaped titanium nozzles. This benefits the mid-high transparency and natural resonance of instrumental sounds.
Quality & Modular Stock Cable
The stock cable comprises a silver-gold metal chassis and 4-braided silver-plated copper wires. The cable is very pliable and soft, which doesn’t cause any microphonics or bother the user experience. The plug is interchangeable between 2.5/3.5/4.4mm. As I’ve said sometime before… props to another great brand for not abandoning the 2.5mm!
Next Page: Listening Experience: How Does the Nautilus Sound?