Got the Metro yesterday. It is very similar to the New King. Same body tube, keys and neck. There are some slight alterations...some of this may be due to serial # range, my New King is #31277 and the Metro is #25632. The mechanisms that operate the side octave key vent on the body tube is a little different in design. On the Metro the lucite keyguard has been replaced with Selmer style sheet metal brass key guards and the lacquer is lighter. My New King the lacquer is a very dark gold. Both horns share a similar sound but my New King is more resonant, of course it had been tweaked by my tech and I have not done anything yet to the Metro besides pull it out of the case and play it. Another difference is the Metro has a helper bar on the low Bb that comes in contact with the low B when you depress the low Bb. I will be curious to see if once tweaked if the Metro equals my New King in sonic presence. Even if it doesn't it certainly makes for a great back-up.
Steve and EZ know how much I love the New King, I bought it from them. It is my favorite horn in my current collection. I am mainly a R&B Funkster and this horn has super personality, soul and sings sweet as a church choir or can get gut-bucket nasty in the juke joint and all things in between. It really has such a great voice and compared to most any othe horn I've owned is the most sensitive to mouthpiece selection. What I mean by that is that it is very mouthpiece friendly but I get a larger more pronounced difference when I change set-ups. I own B&S, Huller, Buescher...have owned MKVI's, Martins, Conns, Selmer Supers, Saxophone.com, SML and hands down I really like my New King best thus far.
I would like to try a Couf, the only (and very slight at that) drawback is newer more modern horns have a more ergonomic slightly smoother key action. Considering the sound and performance I get it is worth the small inconvienece to me personally.
It might be in part due to the lucite keyguard but the New King does seem to have a larger, fatter more vibrant tone. Then again I really have not given the Metro a fair shake since I really should have a leak light run through it before considering it to be second string.