Jean Marie Clauzel on Métronome and Kalista: the complete interview

Over two days in October 2017, Jean Marie Clauzel — the man who bought Metronome Technologies and split it into two brands, Métronome and Kalista — sat down for ten short conversations about what actually drives the company. Watched in order, they trace a single arc: why “Le son vrai” (“the true sound”) has guided every Métronome product since the brand’s earliest CD players, why the company chose to stay a digital specialist rather than chase vinyl, and how that philosophy led, a year after Clauzel’s takeover, to splitting the business into Métronome’s classic high-end range and Kalista’s near-luxury tier. The second day turns to Kalista specifically — the Dreamplay CD/DAC’s hand-built construction, why Métronome’s products are voiced with a deliberately analogue character, and where Clauzel sees the brand heading next. Each section below keeps its original video and text side by side, in the order the interview was recorded.

Getting as close as possible to the original recording

Métronome CEO Jean Marie Clauzel explains the philosophy behind the brand’s slogan, “Métronome, the true sound” — in French, “Le son vrai.”

From the beginning, Métronome has tried to make listeners forget they’re hearing a digital device at all, aiming instead for the warmth people associate with analogue and vinyl playback. “Le son vrai” means getting as close as possible to the original recording, whether it was captured in a studio or live — a principle Clauzel says guides every new device Métronome develops, from its earliest digital-focused products through to the luxury designs later folded into the Kalista brand.

Visit the Métronome website.

Choosing to stay a digital specialist

Métronome was born in the mid-1980s, right as the CD was taking off, and started out as a specialist in CD players.

Jean Marie Clauzel explains that the brand gradually expanded into high-resolution and computer-based music, but its roots stayed fundamentally digital — the same commitment to reaching the original recording that defines Métronome’s brand philosophy. Métronome did try building vinyl turntables at one point — an experiment that didn’t work, Clauzel says, because customers already knew the brand as digital specialists. That’s the expertise Métronome has chosen to stay focused on, one that keeps driving its latest innovations.

Visit the Métronome website.

From stagnation to a genuine digital music company

When Jean Marie Clauzel took over Métronome three years before this interview, the brand had gone years without launching anything new — its previous owner had resisted high-resolution audio and computer-based music altogether.

Clauzel’s priority since then has been turning Métronome into a genuine global music-playing company, building on the brand’s digital roots: heavy investment in DAC development, a music server launched at the end of 2016, and now the new Digital Sharing Series — connected, hybrid products, starting with a combined DAC and streamer. The goal, he says, is to make high-resolution music genuinely easy to live with, an approach shaped by the same listening-first philosophy behind every Métronome design decision.

Visit the Métronome website.

Designing by ear, not by spec sheet

Asked about the difference between a high-resolution digital and an analogue vinyl listening experience, Jean Marie Clauzel calls it a genuinely tough question — the underlying principles are simply different.

What sets Métronome apart, he says, is that component choices behind products like its latest DACs and Digital Sharing Series aren’t driven by technical measurements or specifications: the team listens, and chooses parts based on what they hear. That approach brings Métronome closer to vinyl enthusiasts than to engineers chasing the newest technical spec — a listening-first philosophy that also shapes how Clauzel thinks about where personal audio is headed next.

Visit the Métronome website.

Fewer boxes, more streaming

Jean Marie Clauzel opens with a story: a taxi driver on the way to a hi-fi show once asked him whether hi-fi even still exists.

It’s why he believes the future of personal audio lies in simplification — fewer boxes, fewer cables, with streaming and high-resolution formats gradually replacing today’s clutter of separate devices, guided by the same listen-first approach Métronome already applies to product design. The main complication, in his view, is that — unlike the CD, which the industry agreed on 30 years ago — there’s still no single agreed standard for high-resolution audio, with formats like FLAC, WAV, AIFF, MQA and DSD all competing at once. He expects the path forward to combine simplification, more hybrid products, and continued growth of high-resolution audio — the same forward-looking approach that later led to splitting the company into Métronome and Kalista.

Visit the Métronome website.

One company, two brands

When Jean Marie Clauzel bought the company three years before this interview, it operated under a single name: Metronome Technologies.

About a year after the takeover, he split it into two distinct brands. Métronome remained the classic audiophile brand, covering the full high-end range and staying true to the brand philosophy the company was built on, while Kalista — previously just a product name — became a brand in its own right, positioned as the company’s top high-end, near-luxury tier. Both brands, Clauzel is clear to note, still come from the exact same company. It’s a distinction that shows clearly in products like the Kalista Dreamplay CD/DAC.

Visit the Kalista website.

Sound quality meets sculptural design

For Jean Marie Clauzel, the Kalista Dreamplay CD/DAC earns the “art” label through two things at once: sound reproduction quality that comes first and foremost, paired with genuinely outstanding design and manufacturing.

He describes the Dreamplay as unique in combining faithful sound reproduction with looks striking enough that people react to it almost like a sculpture — a deliberate part of what defines the Kalista brand. That same standard of craftsmanship is what Clauzel points to when explaining what turns a source component into a true high-end product.

Visit the Kalista website.

Built by hand, one device at a time

Jean Marie Clauzel admits there’s no single answer to when a source component crosses into true high-end territory — but production quality is the most important factor he points to.

Metronome Technologies stays a small, hand-crafting team on purpose: every device — including products like the Kalista Dreamplay — is built by hand in France, an approach that costs considerably more than mass production. For Clauzel, high-end ultimately comes down to that hand-crafted process — each unit made by one person, start to finish, the same painstaking approach behind Métronome’s distinctly analogue sound.

Visit the Kalista website.

An analogue signature, built by hand

Audiophiles already know Métronome as a brand built around a very analogue sound signature, Jean Marie Clauzel explains — and the Dreamplay CD and Kalista DAC, the brand’s flagship products, are designed specifically around that reputation.

The difference from other brands, he says, isn’t necessarily about raw quality, but about sound reproduction profile: Métronome is, in his own words, one of the most analogue-sounding brands out there — a signature rooted in the same hand-built, one-person-per-device production process that defines the brand’s high-end products, and one Clauzel intends to keep developing as he looks toward the future of Kalista.

Visit the Kalista website.

Toward a complete Kalista system

Streaming is where Jean Marie Clauzel sees Kalista’s future heading, with a dedicated Kalista streamer already in development.

He compares the approach to high-end smartphones: most models share the same core functions, but the exclusive ones stand out through design and presentation — the same distinctive character behind Métronome’s analogue sound signature. Kalista’s ambition goes further than a single product, though — the brand already showed a speaker model at the Munich High End show, and Clauzel confirms amplifiers are in the works too, with the goal of eventually offering a complete Kalista system, built on the same split from Métronome explained earlier in this series.

Visit the Kalista website.

What ties it together

Across all ten parts, the same idea keeps resurfacing in different forms: Métronome and Kalista are built by ear, not by spec sheet. From the brand’s founding commitment to “Le son vrai” through its refusal to chase measurement-driven design, to Clauzel’s insistence that every unit is still assembled by a single person in France — the throughline is a company that treats sound character as a deliberate choice, not a byproduct of engineering. That same instinct explains the Métronome/Kalista split itself: not two companies, but two answers to the same question at different price points. It’s also why Clauzel’s view of the future — simpler, more streaming-based systems, and Kalista’s expansion toward a complete system of source, amplification and speakers — reads less like a pivot and more like the next chapter of a philosophy that hasn’t changed since Métronome’s first CD player.