Fun at the local B&M


For the first time in awhile I managed a few hours at one of the long standing local B&M shops yesterday just to look around and hear a few new things.  

Armed with imy new IPhone 6s  I spent an hour or so auditioning a few things using my home music library streaming at high resolution via Plex as the source.  What a great way to audition new gear remotely!

This is was first time I've used the IPhone analog output with a high res digital source to audiog gear.  It was great.   Sound was top notch and I was able to audition using any of over 2000 CDs on my music server back home. 

I spent most of of my time auditioning new speaker models mostly from B&W and Monitor Audio.   Both lines sounded very good!   I did not have time to hear the top of the line models but what I did hear  impressed me for the cost.  My iPhone actually sounded better than a fairly recent vintage Denon CD player that we tried as well.   

I reached the conclusion that portable devices like newer IPhones make viable sources for a quality system when the software and source material resolution is up to the task as well. 


128x128mapman
Javant yes I've bought a lot of gear from Don at Listening Room over the years.  His grandson runs the business these days last I heard out of a room in his home out Falls Road in Baltimore County.   Don has retired and I think his grandson mentioned his health has not been good of late.  Good guy!

Sco Plex streams MP3 over the internet where bandwidth is often limited.  That's likely what I got at Soundscape. It still sounded very good though if there was any loss to my Cd resolution files streaming remotely there it was not noticeable.  

At at home over wifi Plex streams flac files at original resolution.  I cannot tell a difference between Plex and my Squeezebox touch devices there playing through same Dacs and gear at home.  I do not stream iTunes similarly so can't really compare. 
Jafant,
Schneiders of Capitol Hill is probably the best store in DC, MacArthur Beverage, and Calvert-Woodley are also good stores. Those are all big stores with large selections. Good pricing as well, DC tends to have low prices due partly to low import taxes on alcohol. Cheers!
Jafant that's Owings Mills actually Baltimore boy here but living in DC now. Spent a fair amount of time around Owings Mills as a kid.
Interesting experience. Do you know if plex has better sound than streaming iTunes or Apple Music? 
Mapman , 

As I was reading your your post about your visit to your local B&M store , I was thinking that sounds like you were describing Soundscape in Baltimore.  Sure enough it was!
I like Ed and Justin at Soundscape, they are good guys!
Yes, I have visited that shop. Ed is a great host and offers great gear at great prices.

Another shop in the Baltimore area is, The Listening Room, closer to Ownings Mills. Don is the owner and offers weekend only hours of operation.
Baltimore MD area.   B&M here was Soundscape on Cold Spring Ave.   They've been around these parts longer than me.