Nostalgia Audio Kratos Review: Possess the Power
Despite its younger age as a brand, Nostalgia Audio is no stranger to the audiophile community through their flagship IEM Camelot and Tesseract. The same applies to our case as we’ve been reviewing numerous IEMs and cables from Nostalgia, ever since the beginning of the brand’s first product, the Benbulbin and Olorin.
Today we have Kratos up for review, the latest silver-copper alloy cable by Nostalgia Audio. Kratos falls into the Shielded Series and is priced at $320. The concept and form factors are similar to the previously released Nerwen, yet now even stronger and advanced in many ways. Without further ado, let’s put Kratos to the test and see how it is built, how it sounds, and how it matches with different IEMs.
The “What and How” of this Thicc Boi Cable
Unlike those typical alloy cables, Kratos involves multiple combinations of wires that differ in material and dimensions, which Nostalgia states to be a ton of work to perfect the tuning they’ve been looking for. Kratos is a 2-stranded pure copper cable comprised of a 26AWG silver copper core and a thick 22AWG shielding layer of 6N OCC copper wires.
The name Kratos derives from Greek mythology symbolizing strength and power, hence the apparently thick wires you see. Don’t let the looks have you concerned about its usability, as Kratos has an average level of weight and tension as a custom cable, as well as being just as flexible as other 2-braided cables. Kratos’ outer sleeve is finished with Nostalgia’s SoftFlex PVC skin, allowing quite a decent handling experience despite the thickness. Other than the Kratos cable itself, the nicely designed package offers a leather cable tie, a microfiber cloth pouch, and a warranty card.
The Sound of Kratos
The most significant difference I feel through Kratos is that the bass gets deeper in extension and color. Kratos makes the bass significantly fuller and thicker. The way Kratos makes the sound fuller and thicker is very tidy – perhaps the cleanest sound-thickening cable. I’d like to highlight that the bass boosting Kratos brings is different from simply boosting the bass. Ultra lows keep their clarity yet get prominently thicker and fuller in density. Kratos doesn’t increase the reverbs or slow the decay, hence keeping the bass response tight and agile.
Another feature of Kratos is the liveliness that is added to the sound. The dynamics of the sound feel more punchy and realistic. This is most prominent in the lows and mids. Speaking of vocals, Kratos keeps the vocals original and neutral, yet I must highlight that the vocals don’t step back or hide behind the stronger bass presence. The vocals are meaty and thick in density to back up the strong bass, yet it doesn’t get as bold as you might think. The mid-range thickness is quite neutral, so it’s unlikely for Kratos to dull out your female vocals. It’s more sensible to say that the vocals almost retain the same thickness but now are packed with more density.
Trebles show good crisp and clarity. While it doesn’t particularly stand out or bring significant difference to the IEMs, it does a great job bringing out the refined details from the high frequencies, so that the treble details aren’t disregarded. Trebles also show enough energy and dynamics to match with the dynamics of the low-mid.
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