[Listening Test] Métronome Technologie Le Dac

Product: Métronome Technologie Le Dac
Manufacturer: Métronome Technologie - France
Test sample kindly supplied by: Wynn Audio - Canada
Cost: ±Can$8000
Reviewer: Henry Venema - TNT-Audio Canada
Published: may, 2026

Introduction

I'm a tinkerer, a DIY man, I love to play with my gear once the warranty is over. My problem is that I have just enough knowledge to make huge mistakes. I've built many pairs of speakers from kits which turned out to be really good. I've ruined several CD players and amps. These hard lessons taught me my limitations. Now its just component replacement, plug and play with boutique parts to hear improvements, and the benefits have been tremendous.

My latest obsession has been my Line Magnetic DAC LM 502CA. Over the past 10 years I've changed many of the parts, and each time it only gets better (most of the time). However, I spent a lot of money on upgrades, and I often wondered if my money would be better spent on a new DAC rather than fiddling with what I have. Towards this end I borrowed a Metronome Le DAC from Wynn Audio. Wynn was gracious and let me audition his DAC for several months. At $8,000 and change, this is a really expensive DAC that I could never afford, but for a point of comparison with my own its perfect.

At first, I thought the Metronome would blow my DAC out of the water. After all I only spent $1000 on my used Line Magnetic, plus another $2500 in upgrades. But this was not the case. In the end I preferred my DAC. Perhaps this just owner's pride, or what I was used to hearing. It wasn't so much of one being better than other. They just have different presentations of sound. You could prefer one over the other depending on your system and sound preferences. I have DIY speakers made with AER drivers. At over 100db efficient, these speakers reveal everything and are very sensitive to what is upstream. They can sound bright and need careful component matching. With every step of the upgrade to my DAC, the sound of my speakers came closer and closer to audio perfection. So, introducing another DAC into my system could be a disaster if it is aggressive sounding.

How I udpgraded my Line Magnetic DAC

So here is what I did to my DAC. My first upgrade was a pair of Telefunken ECC82 tubes. I tried many different tubes brands, and the Telefunken were vastly superior to the rest. Then I upgraded the clock to a NewClassD Neutron Star with its own separate power supply. That made a huge difference in precision and clarity of imagining and sound stage depth and width. This was one of the costliest upgrades at $700, but worth every penny. Next came discreet opamps. At first, I tried Sparko opamps, but I found them too lean and dry. I went through four different brands of opamps (review coming soon). I settled on the Staccato opamps which were so much better than the rest: rich full tone, just the right amount of warmth, great upper end extension without brightness, a massive sound stage, and detailed bass tonality. After that I replaced the voltage regulators with discreet Sparko regulators: even more soundstage expansion and steadiness of tone. Next came some Duelund silver bi-pass caps on the output capacitors. The caps that were originally installed were a cheap no name brand, and the bi-pass caps elevated the entire sound. My last upgrade was to the coupling caps themselves. I tried some Duelund caps. Unfortunately, they sounded dull and closed in. Got rid of those and replaced them with some Mundorf caps for a $100 each. Wow! This was a huge jump in performance. I should have replaced these as the first DIY step. If I still want to improve the sound, I would like to try the top-of-the-line Mondorf caps, but that is another $600. I also added an external rectifier: the Space-Tech-Lab -STR-104-Mk2 Super Rectifier that replaces the 6X4 rectifier tube in the LM DAC. At $1000 this improved everything. (see my previous review on the Super Rectifier). This was lot of tinkering, but every step has been worth it.

Let's compare!

This comparison has been an eye opener. Two different DACs with excellent but different sound. The Le DAC has more power output than the LM, it plays louder at lower volumes. Once the output levels were matched, I let the Le DAC burning in for 200 hours. It really needed the time. To my surprise the Le DAC had less bass extension and slam. Bass was tight and controlled, but a little too tight. This was particularly noticeable on a recording of Japanese Koto drums, The Drums of Jiangzhou. The LM would shake the house and punch me in the chest in perfect balance without bass blot. The Le DAC played loud enough but left the neighbours happy with a polite and constrained bass, and no house shaking. While on some over produced recordings less bass is preferred, the Le Dac worked wonders with its bass control.

The LM's sound is more open, less constrained than the Le DAC which can sound a little too digital, too controlled but that is diminished with time. LM has better musical flow. It came with a slight halo; notes are a little more rounded. It could be the Telefunken tubes are giving a smoothness that the solid state Le DAC couldn't quite reproduce. It comes close to but can't quite match the LM. However, the Le DAC excels in speed and precision of attack. Leading transient edges are sharp and well sculpted. Playing Rush's 2112, the Le DAC lays everything out with clarity and focus without confusing the complexity and density of the composition. In fact, while I'm not a huge Rush fan, the Le DAC made the disk so enjoyable that I had it on auto repeat for hours.

Both DACs present a wide soundstage, beautifully revealing the place of each instrument. The LM had the advantage of the Le DAC when it came to the height of the soundstage. The Le DAC embedded the sound deep into the soundstage, layered front to back. Equally so with the LM. Both give special cues to the place and space of the instruments and opened the soundstage to fill the room with their presence. This I believe is due to wonderfully extended treble of both DACs: sweet and detailed. This for me is the make-or-break criteria for any DAC. Bright treble will drill holes in my ears with my AER drivers. Both DACs get it right and make for long listening sessions without fatigue.

The midrange is where differences are most apparent. The LM sounds more natural and organic (forgive me for this over used term). I simply get the “being-there” or “being-in-the-music” with the LM. Whereas the Le DAC is more like listening with less involvement. Yet both have a rich midrange tone and fullness, but it is the LM that draws me into the music. Should I say the LM is more musical? I have no other audiophile term to explain what I mean. The LM lets the music flow over and through me. The Le DAC is more controlled. The difference is minimal but noticeable.

Conclusions

All in all, I could live with either DAC, both are wonderful. One is not better than the other, they are just different in sound presentation. This evaluation is meant as encouragement to be a tinkerer and a DIY audiophile. The hours of fiddling with the LM have paid off handsomely. The $3500 spent for the LM and upgrades easily competes with the $8000 Le DAC. If you want a great DAC and don't want the fuss of replacing and upgrading parts buy the Le DAC or something similar. But if you like to hear how each replaced part takes you on a journey of audio nirvana, buy a used DAC and see what you can do with. In hindsight, I could have saved up my money to buy a new $3-4K DAC. That would have taken years. I tried several other well reviewed DACs at $4000. My LM easily out performed them. Slowly upgrading has been a proven route to tailoring my audio system to near perfection. Go ahead and DIY!

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Métronome Technologie Le Dac

French Finesse

Introduction

How I udpgraded my Line Magnetic DAC

Let's compare!

Conclusions