Metrum Acoustics Sonnet Kratos

Price per pair

Our Kratos mono block amplifier differs in many respects compared to normal transistor power amps. When looking at contemporary hybrid designs where tubes drive the power output stage, soundwise, the Kratos will have lots of similarities. Like them, Kratos has an airy and spacious sound but with the control and grip of a transistor amplifier. A disadvantage of these hybrids however is the problem of aging of the triodes. To avoid this problem for our Kratos a front end with high voltage FET transistors was designed. As a result, the measurable properties are completely identical compared to triodes, but having the advantage that no aging occurs. A similarity is the high operating voltage to get these circuits working. The result is a high degree of linearity. From this point on, the circuit drives a class A/B MOSFET output stage. Only a small amount of feedback is needed to get the correct gain while also improving the damping factor. A dedicated circuit for the high voltage is used, where the output stage is powered using a heavy 400 Watts power supply.
In addition to manual control of the amplifier, it can also be controlled via a remote cable to our Morpheus or Pasithea DAC. Another switchable option is the so-called "music sense" that checks the input for the presence of music and turns the power amplifier on. After half an hour of silence, the music sense circuit will put the amplifier back into standby mode.
Protections are of course part of this design such as overcurrent, offset and overheating and are monitored in real time. All relevant information is visualized on the front display, which can also be turned off from the menu so it will not distract from your listening experience.