Having recently taken on the Metronome range of CD players, Streamers, CD Transports and DAC’s I felt that now we had the chance to listen to the products we could explain to customers how the products sound.
Bearing in mind how popular streamers are at the moment I wanted to start with the Metronome DSS Network Streamer which retails at £3499. It’s certainly a high end priced streamer especially when there is no DAC in this model. However this is an absolutely stunning sounding streamer and like other Metronome products there is a real musicality to the sound. It’s much less bright and digital sounding that most other streamers that makes everything more realistic. Voices and instruments have a weight and scale akin to the best sounding turntables. There is a big soundstage with pin point imaging and great depth. Detail retrieval is absolutely stunning.
In short this is one of the best sounding streamers we have heard at any price and it certainly one you should shortlist if you are looking for a high quality streamer.
The next two products are the Metronome Le Player 3+ (£6200) and Le DAC (£5800). The reason I am grouping these two together is that they both use a similar DAC and its simply whether you want just a DAC or a complete player.
Again the sound is so natural for a digital product. Like the streamer it simply plays music and both DAC and player can handle PCM and DSD formats so replaying high res sources is absolutely no issue. Like the streamer the reproduction of voices and instruments is stunning and unlike most digital products you have ever heard. There is a musicality and naturalness to everything it reproduces and even poor recordings are handled with much more aplomb than normal whereas better recording are simply handled better than other brands.
If you are looking for a stand alone CD player or upgrading your current DAC make sure you listen to the Metronome products. I can assure you won’t be disappointed. All DAC’s in the Metronome range allow the user to select either valve or solid state output depending on your preference and the sound you prefer.
However if you are looking for a very high end product then Metronome also cater for this market with a Reference range comprising AQWO CD player at £15,000, an AQWO DAC at £20,000, an AQWO CD transport at £20,000 and a complete Streamer/ DAC at £24,000. This range all uses the AQWO DAC which is their most sophisticated analogue to digital converter, however like the less expensive range you can still choose valve or solid state output stages.
We are very excited about this range and hope you get the opportunity to come in and have a listen.