Phil's Superpower of Enthusiasm

 There’s been some super weird discourse the last few weeks about electric vehicles (EVs) on Threads, particularly with regards to charging vs. filling up a gas tank, time-wise.

I love EVs. I love my EV, in particular. It’s my daily driver, and has been for almost two years at this point (bought it in June 2022). BUT,  we do no one any favors when we aren’t honest about the challenges of driving and charging EVs in the current environment. So, here’s my comparison.

I own and regularly drive two vehicles:

1. 2022 Kia EV6 AWD Wind (electric, daily driver)

2. 2021 Subaru WRX STI Base model (internal combustion engine (ICE), mostly weekends and trips)

I love them both. They’re both really good at the things they do well, and marginal at the things they don’t. 

In general, EVs are ideal for people who:

1. Don’t regularly drive more than 100 miles in a day.

2. Have regular access to reliable tier-2 charging for long periods of time at places they routinely spend time (home, work, etc.).

3. Don’t do a lot of unanticipated road trips.

The first one applies to most people (the average American spends about 27 minutes commuting each way; unless someone is driving close to 120 mph, they’re not going more than 100 miles/day). The second one is much less common; around 65% of Americans live in detached homes, but some percentage of people who don’t do have access to chargers either at home or at work. The third … is unpredictable. 

I fit the first two categories neatly. My regular commute to Seattle is about 60 miles each way, but I mostly do them on different days (up one day, down a couple of days later). I have a Tier 2 charger in my driveway at home, which is rarely blocked by another car, and I have free Tier 2 charging at work (and I rarely have a hard time finding one, except during Home weeks). My mom also installed a Tier 2 charger at her house, the place I spend the most time other than my house or work. The third … well, I’m the most-likely caretaker for my mom when she gets sick. This isn’t an issue most of the time, but when it becomes an issue it can be a harsh one. 

So, let’s look at a trip to Hood River from Olympia to see my mom. It’s around 170 miles, door to door, with no detours (and I’m frequently tasked to stop at Costco for her on the way). The last fifty or so miles is through the Columbia River Gorge, which can be pretty dicey in bad weather, is often super windy which impacts range in unpredictable ways, and charging options in the western Gorge are limited to Tier-1 charging, so I mostly try not to enter the Gorge without at least 100 miles of range (in a pinch, I’ve done it and dropped down to around 10 miles of range when I arrived, but man was the range anxiety real when I did that). 

My EV6 has a theoretical range of around 274 miles. (In winter, it’s closer to 240, and in summer closer to 300.) If I want to hit the Gorge with 100 miles of range left for safety, I need to leave Olympia with at least 220 miles of range or so. That’s not bad for planned trips; I can just plug in my car overnight and get a full charge. The challenge comes with unplanned trips. For a lot of reasons, mostly having to do with battery longevity, I try to keep my EV6 charged between 20% and 80% most of the time unless I know that I’m going to be doing a long drive. At 80% battery, my best-case, driving-65-with-minimal-headwind, range is 192 in winter, 240 in summer. You can see the problem here. It gets worse if I need to stop somewhere else in Portland or along the way. And this isn’t an EV6 problems; it’s almost the best non-Tesla option for this exercise, as it’s got a pretty big battery, a high-voltage architecture, and battery preconditioning for Tier-3 charging. As a result, it’s one of the fastest charging EVs on the market. Can a different car avoid having to charge? Maybe. There are a few cars that theoretically have better range than the EV6, but not many (and no, the Tesla Model S doesn’t count as one given what we know about their batteries and how much they lie to you about range), and they’re all a lot more expensive than the EV6 (which ain’t cheap itself). 

Basically, this boils down to a need to charge en-route most of the time when I go see my mom. Which is fine, right? There’s a Tier 3 charger at the Outlet Mall in Troutdale right before I head down the Gorge. The EV6 runs on a high-voltage architecture, which means that it charges pretty quick. Under optimal conditions, it should take me about 15 minutes to go from 20% charge to 80% charge. I mean, it’s happened once in almost two years so it’s totes possible. Usually, though,  it’s more like 30 minutes from the time I plug in.1 But that’s fine too; that’s long enough to let Denali sniff some plants and go to the bathroom, and for me to walk across the street and get a cup of coffee, or maybe do a couple of Duolingo lessons. Is it slower than filling a gasoline engine? Sure. But marginally; I’d still probably let Denali out and stretch my legs anyway.

The problem, of course, is that 15-30 minute timeframe is from *when I plug in.* If, miracle of miracles, there’s an open Tier 3 charger when I pull in, I’m fine. That basically never happens, though. Electrify America, the operator of those chargers (and a lot of the other public ones) has an abysmal maintenance program. I think I’ve seen all four of those chargers in operating order maybe twice in two years. They were all replaced last summer (a fun thing to discover as my car hit 20 miles of remaining range as I pulled in to see the palleted chargers!), and they still haven’t all been up at once since. Between a limited number of functional chargers, and a population of folks either driving up or down the Gorge or spending the afternoon at the Outlets with their car plugged in the whole time, I VERY rarely get to plug in when I pull in. My average wait the last year or so has been between thirty minutes and an hour before I can plug in. Which means that that 15-30 minute charge is now more like a 1:00-1:30 charge. For a three hour drive. 

Contrast that to my Subaru.2 The range is around 300 miles on the freeway, depending on how I’m driving. Because it’s really just a weekend car and there’s no reason not to leave it full, I almost always fill it up on my way home and it’s usually sitting with at least 250 miles of range. I mostly don’t need to stop on the way to Hood River, unless I feel like filling with cheaper gas. The worst case scenario is that I have to stop somewhere and refuel. I happened to fill up at Costco in Portland on Saturday around noon (the nightmare scenario a Threads EV-booster used to question why anyone would choose an ICE car over an EV). I waited in line for ten minutes, and it took me about 5 minutes to fill the car. A total of slightly over 15 minutes for a three hour drive. I could have stopped at a dozen gas stations near Costco with no lines at cut the stop to 5 minutes for slightly more money.

Fueling for a trip to Hood River

Before anyone fights the hypo:

• “That’s silly, Phil. Go somewhere else!” Tried it. Same problem; very few chargers, many non-functional, people leaving their car sitting for long periods of time. The systems that are supposed to tell you if chargers are open are also pretty inconsistent/shaky; I’ve seen Troutdale marked as 0/4 in use and pulled in to see the three functional chargers occupied and two additional cars waiting. 

• “Charge somewhere else along the way!” Tried that too. Haven’t yet found a place between Olympia and Hood River where I can get consistent charging. The earlier I charge, the longer it takes (see previous footnote about non-linear charging rates).

• “Plan better and fully charge before you go!” I do my best. But when you get the call that your mom is being admitted to the hospital, you pretty much have to go and figure it out on the way. 

The super shitty thing is, of course, that while I’m sitting at the Troutdale Tier 3 chargers fuming at the asshole in the Polestar who’s taking 30 minutes to get his battery from 95% to 100% (for example), I can look fifty feet and see a dozen open Tesla chargers that I can’t use because proprietary tech and a closed system. [This is why states need to start regulating EV charging as a utility and bar proprietary charging stations.]

I love my EV. It’s great 95% of the time. But, I bought my STI when I did because I got stuck in Troutdale for almost two hours while my mom was being admitted to the hospital because I couldn’t get a charge in Troutdale and I was sitting at less than 5% of my battery. 

We need to be honest about the downsides of EVs. They don’t outweigh the benefits by any means. But when we pretend they’re not real, and consequential, we do a disservice to everyone.

1 EV batteries don’t charge linearly either; generally they charge much faster when they’re at low charge, and slow down a lot as they get closer to full. This is why anyone charging much above 90% at a public charger where there’s a line is an asshole and should be roundly mocked.

 2 I keep wanting to call it my STI, but that’s just begging for confusion and mockery.

Hawaii: 11/10 Denalis.

It’s been an incredible trip, all around. I woke up this morning excited to go home (and, honestly, mostly excited to see Denali again), but not tired of being here or wishing I was already home. This tells me that I calibrated this trip right–long enough to really get to enjoy the place and the experience, but not so long that it got old or wore on me. I’ve already floated the idea of coming back next March with my hosts. 

I think the greatest gift of this trip has been unstructured time. My life is generally pretty heavily structured, and has been since at least high school, for good reason. That structure has only gotten stronger and more rigid as I’ve made decisions to work on my physical and mental health. I don’t regret that at all, and it’s definitely the right choice for me, most of the time. BUT, it makes it that much more fun when I carve out some time that I leave deliberately unstructured. Some of my best days on island have been the ones where I wake up, make myself a cup of espresso and sit on the patio to decide where I want to head that day. Having time to stop at a random road-side attraction or farm or coffee stand or chocolate vendor or trailhead has been really, really wonderful. Same for days where I finish dinner at 5:45 or 6, and decide to hop in the car and run down to the beach for sunset. Going forward, I’m going to try to carve out some unstructured time on a regular basis.

My strongest recommendations for folks visiting the Big Island:

1. If you can avoid it, don’t stay at the resorts. 

1. They’re perfectly nice, and I have definitely enjoyed some resort stays, but they’re really expensive, AND you’re going to miss out on 95% of what makes Hawaii magical. 

2. If you’re going to stay at a resort, be aware that the ones in Kailua-Kona have pretty mediocre beaches, but access to both the touristy and less-touristy parts of Kailua-Kona. The ones in Waikoloa are absolutely beautiful, but you’re also kind of stuck with their touristy restaurants and shops unless you rent a car (see #2).

2. Rent a car, for some or all of your stay, and explore the island.

1. Every part of the island I’ve explored has been extraordinary. The biggest theme of the trip for me has been that everywhere I go, I think to myself “huh, if I moved to Hawaii THIS is the place that I’d want to live.” An hour later, rinse and repeat.

2. RESPECT THE LIMITATIONS ON YOUR RENTAL. Don’t try to drive up Mauna Kea or to the Green Sand Beach down south in a rental. It will get VERY expensive, very quickly.

3. Gas is expensive, particularly the farther you get away from a Costco. In April 2024, the best I’ve seen is around $4.60/gal and it’s frequently above $5/gal for regular unleaded. See #9.

4. See #3.

3. Before you come, build a chill playlist your entire party will enjoy (or at least tolerate), and bring the range of cables you might potentially need to connect to a car. If you drive on the big island, you’re going to spend a lot of time going much slower than you expected (sunday drivers, constant road construction/maintenance, school buses, etc.). Be ready to crank the music up, open the windows, throw an arm out into the sun, and enjoy the stunning beauty and warm air. 

1. Personally, I listened to a lot of the Traveling Wilbury’s, Tom Petty, The Grateful Dead, and Bonobo cruising around the island.

4. Ask locals where they’d recommend you eat. Some of my favorite stops around the island have been the result of asking a random person on a coffee farm or striking up a conversation in line with a local. UNSTRUCTURED TIME IS YOUR FRIEND. Seeing an interesting looking sign and pulling over for a cup of coffee or a chocolate sample or a cup of fresh fruit is magical.

5. Bring water shoes. Even the nicest beaches here have some lava rock, both around the edges and often on the ocean floor once you get ten or fifteen feet from the shore. If you want to hike, bring good hiking shoes with sturdy bottoms (bc, again, lava rock).

6. EAT ALL THE FISH. I’m not a particularly big fan of fish, but the amount of fresh ahi, ono, mahi mahi, etc. that I’ve eaten here could stun a small horse.

7. EAT ALL THE PINEAPPLES. For serious. Your call if you want to spend time hunting a $50 white pineapple, but I honestly will 100% do it again.

8. EAT ALL THE APPLE BANANAS. I really, legitimately thought this was a drop bear-type thing when my friend Robin first told me about them a decade ago. They’re real. They’re magical. And they’re good for you, particularly if you’re moving around and sweating a lot.

9. Practice your shaka, especially if you regularly wear any University of Oregon gear.

10. Costco is your friend in Hawaii. Forgot to bring flip-flops (aka slippers)? Costco. Gas? Costco. Bulk sunscreen? Costco. Booze? Costco. Groceries? Costco. Even pineapple? Costco. My friend Jim (general counsel at Costco) used to joke that if it wasn’t sold at Costco, he didn’t need it. He’s … not entirely wrong, especially here.

11. Prepare for almost every possible microclimate. In Olympia, I joke that if you don’t like the weather, wait fifteen minutes and it might change. Here, if I don’t like the weather I drive fifteen minutes in any direction and it WILL change.

1. Bring a light rain shell, and several pairs of shoes if you want to do any hiking (especially on the east side).

2. Especially if you’re staying outside of the major touristy areas, bring a change of warmer clothes. The house I’m in is at 1500 feet, and it gets pleasantly chilly overnight and in the early mornings, and I’m very glad that I brought a pair of sweatpants and a long-sleeve shirt. 

12. Every region has its own personality and characteristics, and their own coffee and chocolate. TRY THEM ALL.

13. Budget more time in the Volcano Park than you think you’ll need. I spent a couple of full days there, and I still didn’t do everything I wanted to.

14. If you can afford it, take a sunset tour to the top of Mauna Kea, especially if you have even a passing interest in the night sky. [note: I would 100% not do this drive myself.]

Phil’s basic mainlander Hawaiian geography for visitors:

• Generally, east side is rainy and cooler, west side is dry and warmer. EXCEPT: elevation REALLY matters. This house is 1500 feet up from the beach (around 5 miles of driving), and I’d guess it’s consistently easily 15-20 degrees cooler up here than at the water. Particularly if you’re in the Kona coffee belt, the pretty consistent pattern is morning sun, afternoon clouds, evening rain (which is why around 6:00 most nights I’ve been running down the hill to the beach for spectacular sunsets). 

• West side seems generally more touristy, east side more locals (but there are plenty of locals on the west side, and tourists in Hilo).

• Roads: 

• The belt road (Hawaii 11, 19, and 190) is a circular road that circumnavigates the island, seems mostly to stick to around 1500-2000 feet in elevation. 

• The saddle road (Hawaii 20, aka the Daniel K. Inouye highway) crosses between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa and connects the western and eastern sides of the island if you don’t want to drive all the way around. It’s … spectacular, going from high desert to moonscape to lush, green jungle. It’s also the highest-speed limit road on Hawaii. 

• My imperfect understanding of the regions:

• Kona coast: most of the western side of the island. Beautiful beaches, couple of cities, most of the resorts, and some of the most expensive coffee real estate in the world.

• Kailua-Kona: the biggest place on the west coast, 15-20 minutes south of the Kona airport. Couple of big resorts, lots of touristy stuff, Costco.

• Waikoloa: resort area and fabulous beaches, 15-20 minutes north of Kona airport. Fancy shops, some good food, and a couple of my favorite beaches on island.

• The Kona coffee belt: if you’re a coffee drinker, you should spend some time here wandering the farms.

• Kohala/Hamakua: the north end of the island. Spectacular vistas/lookouts and beaches, some smaller towns.

• Waimea: twenty minutes north-east of Waikoloa. Mid-sized town in old ranching area. Couple of good restaurants and a killer patissiere. 

• Hawi (pronounced Havi): little town north of Waimea, birthplace of Kamehameha. The Polulu lookout is just passed Hawi, and I’d suggest that the vista is almost as impressive as Waipi’o. The hike is only .6 miles down to the beach, but it’s also a HELL of a climb. I want to come back and do it next time. The mountain road from Waimea to Hawi is one of the prettiest drives I’ve ever done, and I’d recommend it to anyone who has the time.

• Waipi’o valley: one of the most spectacular views on the island. The road down to the valley is closed to non-locals at this point, though I do want to hike it the next time.

• The north Kohala coast is also an extraordinary place to watch the sunset, and I saw humpbacks off the coast both times I went up.

• Hilo: the northeast part of the island.

• Hilo: biggest city on the island, middle of the east coast. Has what I think of as the best farmers market on island, and some really great restaurants and fun activities/locations. Probably 90 minutes from the airport on the belt then saddle roads.

• Puna/Kau: the southern side of the island, home to Volcano National Park, the southernmost point of the United States (not counting territories), and some spectacular beaches. In particular, I’d recommend the southern point park, Punalu’u Bake Shop, Punalu’u Black Sand beach, and the Volcano Park. The drive around the south is also stunning, going from jungle on the eastern side to moonscape on the western side before turning back into the Kona cloud forests.

Biggest surprises:

• Holy hell LASIK is amazing. I didn’t know that people could see a humpback whale’s hump from or spume from shore. And it’s amazing to be in the ocean AND able to see. Turns out it really reduces my unreasoning terror of sharks to be able to see more than four feet while in the water. 

• I no longer float. Which is suuuuuper weird.

• I’d forgotten how much fun just driving can be. My last four cars have all been performance-ish cars, chasing a very particular (and evolving!) profile, but man this trip reminded me how much fun it can be to spend a day cruising around paradise in a solidly-built, perfectly capable car (shout out to Nissan’s Xterra!).

• When I’m well-rested and relaxed, I wake up waaaay earlier than I expect.

• I’m not particularly sensitive to caffeine anymore. One cup of coffee or seven shots of espresso, it all seems roughly the same. Intensely coffee ice cream right before bed? Meh. On a couple of my hiking days I got out early enough that I didn’t make coffee and didn’t realize it until mid-afternoon that I’d never actually caffeinated.

This is just a place to throw down some thoughts on the places I visit on my month-long stay on the Big Island.

Some notes on my scale:

• 10/10 Denalis: among the best I’ve ever had. I will plan entire days (or entire trips) around going to this place and doing the thing there. [very few things end up in this category.]
• 8-9/10 Denalis: really, really good, generally no notes, but not truly exceptional. These are places I will go if I’m nearby or traveling through.
• 6-7 Denalis: solid, but nothing to write home about. Would go back only if it were super convenient, or as an alternative if something better nearby is closed and I don’t have time/inclination to find another option.
• 4-5/10 Denalis: Just fine, or at least wildly inconsistent. I’d mostly avoid these places unless I’m desperate, or someone else really wants to go.
• 1-3/10 Denalis: I won’t write about these unless there’s a really compelling reason. Not here to yuck anyone else’s yum, unless there’s something that folks need to know before going to a place.

Restaurants:

• Willie’s Hot Chicken (Kona). This was recommended to me by three or four different people (one of whom lives here, and one of whom used to live here). First night here, I just wanted something familiar and easy so I decided to check it out. I’m a sucker for a good chicken waffle so I ordered a thigh/leg combo “Nashville hot.” It was really good, juicy, crispy chicken, and the waffle was nicely sweet especially combined with the honey butter. I wasn’t blown away by the heat, but a well-made dish all around. I also ordered a tender on the side for giggles, and ordered it “white hot.” The ‘tender’ was really good; it was an actual piece of chicken with a nice, minimal crust, but I was not impressed by the “white hot.” Tasty, but not particularly hot.  I’d imagine I’ll run down for a sandwich for lunch a couple more times while I’m here. 7/10 Denalis.

[Update: The lava hot chicken is actually hot; not prank hot, but pleasantly hot food hot. Highly recommend.]

Nashville hot leg/thigh combo & waffle, with extra tender (white hot)

• Ken’s House of Pancakes (Hilo). I didn’t realize that Paul’s Place Café in Hilo required reservations, so my day one breakfast ended up being here. I went in sort of expecting a local spin on IHOP, and that wasn’t ENTIRELY wrong. Fun local décor, nice space with a decent breeze, and a wall dedicated to local celebrities (including the Rock). I had the meat lover’s omelet with hashbrowns and buttermilk pancakes. The portion was … excessive, and the pancakes a little undercooked in the middle, but overall a great diner breakfast. I’d be curious to try out their macadamia nut pancakes, so I might stop by at some point this month when I’m over for the farmer’s market. 6/10 Denalis.

Meat-lover’s omelet w/crispy hashbrowns

• Keei Café (Kealakekua, north of Kona, en route to coffee farms): my first real dinner on the island this time around. Eclectic décor, super friendly staff, and a chef who came out to talk to a couple of groups of locals while I was there. I went for the catch of the day (choice of ahi or swordfish, I chose ahi), with a choice of four preparations (I chose the daily special sauce, which was a mango, butter, and white wine reduction). Probably the single best preparation of ahi I’ve ever had; it was perfectly seasoned and cooked, and came with a nice, mellow mashed potato, sauteed asparagus, and a lovely vegetable medley. I finished my meal with a bread pudding made with local sweet bread, pineapple, and bananas, topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and caramel and chocolate sauces. I’ll definitely be going back this trip. Based on how good this meal was, I’m excited to try one of their steaks or maybe another special (the other thing they had on special that night was a stuffed rabbit). For dinner, dessert, and a local beer, it ran me around $50. 9/10 Denalis. [This was pretty close to Mainini Beach; I had an hour to kill between finishing my coffee tasting and Keei Café opening, so I ducked down the hill to the “beach” and walked around.]

[Went back this week with friends and had another delightful meal; I had the massive ribeye in a pan sauce, and my dining companions had a tempura ahi appetizer (delicious!), a nice cippino, and the ahi dish I had last week.]

Ahi in a mango/butter/white white sauce

Bread pudding made with sweet bread, pineapple and bananas

• Chubby’s Diner (Kona). On my second morning, I tried to go to 808 Grindz for breakfast, only to find that they were closed. I googled breakfast in the area, and Chubby’s came up and it was nearby, so I decided to give it a shot. Turns out, it’s inside KBXtreme, a bowling alley/arcade/Dave & Busters-style entertainment center. I was … very confused, but saw a bunch of folks who looked like locals eating so I decided to give it a shot. It was a really quite nice diner-style breakfast. I ordered a portugese sausage omelet that came with sourdough toast and two scoops of char siu fried rice. The omelet was maybe a little too cheesy (and definitely way too much food), but the fried rice was REALLY good and perfectly paired with the eggs and cheese. I would definitely go back in a pinch, but it’s so close to 808 Grindz and that place is so good … and it’s a little disconcerting to eat breakfast while listening to a zombie blasting video game and people bowling. 6/10 Denalis. [This actually reminded me a lot of the bowling alley near my house in Olympia, which at least pre-pandemic had a weirdly good breakfast menu too. Maybe this is a thing I just don’t know about?]
• Waikaloa Shrimp Company (Waikaloa, in the shopping complex food court). I have very fond memories of garlic shrimp from the trucks on the North Shore of Oahu (thanks, Robin!) so when this popped up with good reviews on Google as I was leaving 49 Black Sands beach, I decided to give it a shot. The shrimp are good, large, and taste fresh, and the garlic butter sauce is really well seasoned. The shrimp are a little larger than I’m used to for this preparation, and I really needed to shell them before I could eat them which was a challenge given how hot they were. Served with sesame-seed rice and the best mac salad I’ve had recently for ~$22. 6/10 Denalis.

• 808 Grindz Café (Kona, a few blocks from main street). CASH ONLY. Perfect breakfast joint for me. French toast made with rainbow bread, three scrambled eggs, and three sausage links for $12. Just good grub. I ordered a side of their seasoned potatoes which were loaded with onions and green onions and I would 100% recommend to anyone. Also the guava juice; no idea if it just comes out of a jug but it was a delightful breakfast drink. 9/10 Denalis. [If I lived here, this would be one of my regular breakfast joints.] 

Went back and had the 808 Grindz Breakfast (meat-lovers omelet, three mini-pancakes with mac-nilla sauce, and starch side) and it was also fabulous. Maybe the best pancakes I’ve ever had, with super crusty edges, fluffy but fully cooked interior, and the MAC-NILLA SAUCE. IT’S MACADAMIA NUT AND VANILLA SAUCE. FOR SERIOUS.

[Update: I’ve been to this place five times in a month, and twice it was randomly closed on a day when it was supposed to be open. This is a super common thing in Hawaii, so just be aware and have a backup plan.] 

• Kona Coffee & Tea. Nice little coffee shop I’ve stopped in a couple of times. The coffee is nicely balanced and they have a variety of options. They’re not the most efficient coffee shop I’ve been in (today I ordered a cold brew because I figured it would be quick and easy, and the five people behind me all got their orders before they got around to adding ice and handing the cold brew to me, but everyone has a bad day from time to time). Also there was a nice, mellow golden retreiver hanging out on the patio waiting for her mom which was sweet. 7/10 Denalis for the coffee, plus a bonus Denali for the golden friend, so 8/10 Denalis.

[Update: the blended mocha is pretty damned delicious. It should be, it’s basically a coffee milkshake. The actual coffee milkshake is also really good, though I think I prefer the blended coffee drinks.]

• The Fish and the Hog (Waimea). A barbecue joint blasting country. I hadn’t really thought about the overlap between barbecue and Hawaiian food, honestly, but it kind of makes sense that this would be a great combination. After a 20-30 minute wait (for a late-ish lunch), we opted to order the fried Brussels sprouts appetizer, a barbecue combination platter (with bonus grilled shrimp) and the pulled pork nachos. The sprouts were exceptional; one of those dishes that you finish and fight an internal battle about ordering another one. The individual leaves that had fallen off into the fryer were particularly delicious. The combo platter was great: really nice pulled pork, delicious brisket (tender, moist, and with a flavorful crust even if the crust was soft by the time it was served), the house-made pork sausage had a delicious, porky and not too hot flavor, and the shrimp were nicely seasoned and cooked. It also came with a little, very nice, kimchi and pickled vegetables. The two sauces (lilikoi aka passionfruit, and paniolo barbecue) were both super tasty if not quite as hot as I might have liked it. The pulled pork nachos weren’t anything to write home about, but the pork was nice, the chips crispy, and more or less exactly what I expect from pulled pork nachos. On the way out I grabbed a slice of their coconut cake to go, and it was delicious; moist, light, and not TOO sweet. Service was really good, though they did forget our nachos for a few minutes so they came out after we’d finished almost everything else. Not unexpected, given how busy they were, and the waitstaff was charming. 9/10 Denalis. I’ll be back on this trip.
• 

  Delicious, delicious deep-fried Brussels’ sprouts.

  Combination platter FTW.

• Patissiere Nanako (Waimea). A nice little patissiere up in Waimea near The Fish & the Hog and the Crack Seed, Etc. store that was on a friend’s list. Really nice desserts, mostly like and not overly sweet. The cream cake was really good, the little tartlets quite nice (with the short crust on the passionfruit tart really exceptional), and the strawberry shortcake a little bland but well-made. The flavor on the madeleines was nice, but I’m guessing they’d been sitting a couple of days based on the texture/dryness. The cream pan (sweet bread stuffed with creme patissiere) was nicely done, just not my favorite dessert. Overall I’d give them 7/10 Denalis, and I’ll update after I try the raspberry ladybug cake tonight.
• Cafe Florian (Kealakekua). Nice little sandwich shop on the way back from the major coffee area. Went in because apparently Wednesdays are the days the Coffee Shack is closed. Pretty good breakfast sandwiches (I had the breakfat panini with bacon instead of ham), with a good garlic aioli, spinach or lettuce, and a nicely fried egg. Food isn’t anything super special, but the view is killer and the iced mac nut mocha really good. 6/10 Denalis. 
• Paul’s Place Cafe (Hilo). Paul’s Place Cafe gets rave reviews all over the internet, but it only has three tables and reservations are strictly required. It’s also in Hilo, so getting over for breakfast isn’t trivial coming from Kona. I walked in on my first day here and got a card so I could get a reservation. When I sat down Paul came over and walked me through the menu (because in his words, nothing is done the regular way. Every item is special in its own way). It all sounded (and smelled) delicious, but he told me (and the next few tables) that his favorite dish to cook is Pasta al Marco. When a chef tells you their favorite dish … you order it. It’s a nest of angel’s hair pasta, tossed with an egg for cohesion sautéed in olive oil until it develops a crust and turns into a pasta patty, served over a nut-free pesto and topped with crispy bacon, two kinds of cheese, a little salmon, olives, capers, and a salad. It … shouldn’t work. It really shouldn’t. It totally does anyway. Spectacularly weird, and just plain spectacular. I also have to go back for the Belgium waffle; it smelled so. damned. good. 10/10 Denalis, absolutely no notes. 

Literally three tables, any two of which could probably be a 3-top if needed.

This shouldn’t work, but instead is spectacular.

Isn’t this WEIRD? But so delicious.

• Puna Chocolate Co. (Hilo). I got to Hilo thirty minutes early for my breakfast at Paul’s, so I decided to walk over here for a cup of coffee while I waited. It’s a chocolate shop, so you get your choice of three or four different kinds of mochas. I opted for a rich dark mocha, which was excellent, and while I drank it I chatted with the staff about their chocolate selections. In particular, their collection of dark single-origin region chocolates caught my eye, and they let me know they do a flight of six of those chocolates. I ran out of time to try them before my breakfast reservation, so I went back after eating to do the tasting. I had wondered how much regional variation there could be on one island … which turns out to be kind of a dumb question. The answer is a lot. If you’ve got time in Hilo, try it. Some of the chocolates are theirs, and some are sourced from other small chocolate producers on the big island. All of them were good, but I definitely figured out which ones I liked the most (Hamakua and Kau). I also had a frozen hot chocolate to drink on my way up to Volcano National Park, and it was really good and surprisingly fruity/maybe a hint malty. A strong 8/10 Denalis experience. 
• Peaberry & Galette (Keauhou). This is a delightful spot in a strip mall near one of the resorts (there’s also a decent farmers’ market there on Saturdays, at least). I had a sausage and asparagus crepe, which was well made and tasty (even if a little heavy on bell peppers). The crepes are delicious and fluffy, and it’s fun to watch a pro use the crepe spreader. I’m sure I’ll go back. Seating is limited though, so either hang out and wait for a seat before ordering, or be prepared to eat standing or in your car. 7/10 Denalis.

Sausage and asparagus crepe

Nice little shop. Order at the counter and hope for an open table!

• Broke da Mouth Grindz (Kona). This one gets recommended by everyone and their brother, and was a particular shout out by my friend Chris. Everyone recommends the garlic furikake chicken, so I ordere a mixed plate of spicy garlic furikake chicken and braised shortribs. I upgraded to adobo pork fried rice, but they forgot and gave me regular white rice. The wait here is appartenlty always long, and it took almost 45 minutes from when I ordered to when I got my food … but I honestly didn’t care. That’s how good it was. The chicken was crispy and flavorful and damned near perfect, the short ribs were fall-apart delicious and perfectly seasoned, and even the rice was perfectly cooked. The chicken skin had been fried separetly and was crispy like a cracker. 9/10 Denalis, will go back next time I’m here (I’ll just go earlier, so I can get food in time to go watch the sunset at Wawaloli Beach Park).

• Hawaiian Style Cafe (Hilo). The classic Hilo breakfast, apparently. I didn’t have much of a wait, but I was pretty early in the morning. I went with the classing Kalua hash, which is basically a patty of mixed mashed potatoes and kalua pork. It’s amazingly smoky and really, really good. The hashbrowns weren’t amazing, the eggs were fine, and the pancake was ENORMOUS and a little cludgey in the middle, but a throwback to the days when I used to use Country Crock on pancakes. 6/10 Denalis, would take people here who haven’t been, but I think I prefered the food at Ken’s House of Pancakes (and I definitely prefer Paul’s Place if you can get a reservation).

• Lava Lava Beach Club (Waikoloa). My rule when I travel solo is that I have one nice dinner out, where I mostly try to stay off my phone and do some quality people watching. This was my choice for this trip, on the strength of recommendations from a couple of friends including my boss. This restauarant is in a stellar location next to the resorts, and the people watching was excellent. I started with a Sandy Toes cocktail (swapped gin for bourbon at the recommendation of the bartender); had their fresh catch special, mahi mahi in a delicious spicy passionfruit sauce; the finished with a kona mocha cheesecake paried with a sage mojito for dessert. The mahi was perfectly cooked, the sauce actually spicy, and the cheesecake had a strong but not overwhelming coffee flavor. Genuinely excellent meal with a spectacular sunset view. Seems like a lot of people had pretty long waits, but one advantage of dining solo is there’s often a bar or rail spot available for one. Fun live music and hula dancing, too. 9/10 Denalis.

Sandy Toes, subbing bourbon for gin

Fresh mahi mahi in a spicy mango and passionfruit sauce

Mojito. They were out of mint so subbed sage. Really nice; will make at home

Sunset is the perfect time to eat here.

Really nice kona mocha cheesecake

• Huggo’s (Kona). This restaurant is literally on the rocks on the shore, and my table was located on pylons over the crashing waves. It was pretty amazing, but did require a wait of almost an hour (when they thought it would be 25 minutes). I ended up having a delicious passionfruit and vodka cocktail (with fresh pineapple juice), then their signature Hook, Line, and Sinker; in this case, fresh seared ono (wahoo) with an ube beurre blanc and sautéed asparagus. The dinner was really, really good, the cocktail perfectly balanced, and the views were epic (pretty sure there was a dolphin out playing in the bay while I ate). 9/10 Denalis, would recommend, particularly if you’re staying in one of the resorts in Kailua-Kona. This appears to be owned by the same person as the Lava Lava Beach Club, and there’s a (slightly downscale?) version of Huggo’s directly adjacent to this one that looks like more normal bar fare instead of more fine-dining.

• Original Big Island Shave Ice Company (OBISIC) (Waikoloa). This apparently used to be a food truck, but has since relocated to the schmancy King’s Shops in Waikoloa. Their signature is a scoop of super premium ice cream covered with shave ice, syrup, and then toppings. It’s also easily a 60-90 minute wait, half of which will be outside in the sun. I started setting limits on how long I would wait, and then kept seeing people walking out with magical-looking desserts and kept extending how long I was willing to give it, and then at some point I was pretty much pot-committed. And honestly … it was 100% worth it. Recommend going with a friend so you can trade off in line and send someone to get sustenance at some point (like the family in front of me), but it’s really, really good. I went with the Mana’s Chantilly which is a scoop of mac nut icecream, shave ice with condensed milk, chocolate syrup, a Chantilly drizzle, whipped cream, and crushed mac nuts. 10/10 Denalis, hit the spot perfectly after a day running around and then body surfing.

Mana’s Chantilly

The line that never ends

The specialities

• Foster’s Kitchen (Waikoloa, also a location in Kona on the water). Nice little spot for sandwiches in the King’s Shop. Stopped by after golfing because the clubhouse restaurant had closed. I had a great barbecue sauce and pulled pork cheeseburger. The host was also a fellow Duck from Parkedale, which always cracks me up. 7/10 Denalis; they had a couple of other burgers that I’d definitely go back to try.
• Fish Hopper (Kona). Basic breakfast joint near the resorts in Kailua-Kona. Decent breakfast, great view. Particularly recommend the breakfast potatoes cooked with onions and peppers; I’m a sucker for a good breakfast potato and this was an excellent example. 6/10 Denalis.
• Island Lava Java (Kona). Another basic breakfast joint near the resorts in Kailua-Kona. Similar to the Fish Hopper, decent breakfast with a great view. The espresso machine was broken when I was in, but the cold brew was good, and the kalua pork and pineapple scramble was pretty good. 6/10 Denalis.

A nice pork & pineapple scramble

Attractions

• Hala Tree Coffee. This is a bit of a drive from Kona, but to me totally worth it. It’s a lovely, working coffee farm and roaster. I didn’t know when the tours were (I was just wandering around that part of the island) so I didn’t get to experience that, though I think I’ll go back for it. I did get to do a coffee tasting where I got to pick three of their eight or ten options and get a half mini-french press of each to experience sitting in their lovely environs. The young woman behind the counter was incredibly knowledgeable about coffee in general and their offerings, specifically, and helped me figure out which of the offerings I wanted to try.  All of the coffees I tried were exceptional, and I ended up getting their espresso roasted SL28 varietal. It was … VERY expensive but I’ve really been enjoying making espresso with it the last couple of mornings. OH, and they have five farm dogs (aka the welcoming committee), none of which I stole while I was there. Personal growth! 8/10 Denalis. I’ll definitely go back for the tour, and probably to buy some more coffee in a couple of weeks to tide me through the rest of my stay.

Hard to argue with the view. The was a lovely seating area, but it was occupied while I was there.

This is a “half-flight” of coffees.

[Update: Went back today with friends to do the actual tour as well as additional tasting. The tour was not as long or complex as the one at Heavenly, and Sally, the guide, was only in her second month of workstay so hadn’t yet accumulated the range of knowledge as the other tour guide, but she was charming and reasonably knowledgeable and enthusiastic about her subject. Also got more detail about the different types of coffee they make. In particular, the “natural” coffees are made by drying out the coffee inside the coffee cherry and then dry-milling and roasting (as opposed to most coffee, where it’s wet-milled, washed, dried, roasted), and it adds a really interesting note that Robin described as “funk, not in a bad way.” Overall, I think the tour at Heavenly is better, but both the coffee and the tasting experience are better at Hala (and it was recommended by a couple of other coffee businesses in the area that I asked).
The five dogs (the welcoming committee) were much more awake an active this morning than last week, but are a little nervous and skittish and mostly not much interested in associating with or being pet by guests. They are very cute, and were very barky as we parked (though they were wagging their tails the whole time; they’re not aggressive or angry.]

• Mainini Beach. Really lovely little bay, but no sand and no easy water access. It looked like there may have been a better way to access it or some kind of local park, but honestly all of the property owners around it have their property so heavily marked that I was a little reluctant to do much wandering right around sunset. 4/10 Denalis.

The walk down to Manini

It’s quite a view

• 49 Black Sands Beach. Close your eyes and picture a idealized black sand beach; congratulations, you’ve pictured 49 Black Sands Beach! Semi-private, adjacent to some really nice houses and what looked like either a private community center or maybe part of a resort? They have a small number of parking passes available for the public, so you need to drive to the gate and see if they have any available. It’s a beautiful black sand beach with limited traffic; at least on the day I was there, there were maybe 20 people at any given time. Limited shade so if you’re going to spend the day there I’d think about bringing some. The sand in the water is also a bit rocky and the surf a little rough; probably not a great place for small kiddos, and I’d 100% wear water shoes rather than going barefoot. I was also there on an absolutely whippingly windy day, and it felt a little like standing in a sand blaster (and my ears, hair, etc. were all full of sand by the time I left), but it’s absolutely worth it and I think I’ll go back several times. 9/10 Denalis, with an option to upgrade to a 10/10 at some point.

[Update 3/16/24: went back today for the “brew your best cup” class ($60, three times daily, online reservations recommended). Today it was led by the manager of the coffee shop on-site. The class is taught at the little work area under cover next to the roaster. The roaster wasn’t operating today, but I’m going to guess if you do the class on a roasting day you get to appreciate a lot of roasting coffee smells. As part of the class, the instructor walks you through the entire coffee making process from bean selection to drinking, and you get to make both a mini-french press and a V60 pour over cup of the coffee of the day. Today, it was a medium roast big berry coffee which was really quite nice. 

I’ve done a lot of “research” (aka reading) on making good quality pour-over ever since I caught the Chemex bug in 2021 or 2022, so most of the class was a good confirmation about the things I’ve already been doing, but I did learn a few things: 1) I’ve been using water that’s a little too hot for the darker roasts I tend to favor, 2) darker roasts tend to burn away some of the coffee complexity and flavor (a confirmation of something we heard from Liz last week), 3) I’m grinding a little too fine for pour-over, 4) I should give the beans a quick spritz before grinding (both to cut down on static and apparently also to increase flavor development?!?!), and 5) I definitely prefer pour-over to french press, a nice confirmation.

Also Charlie doesn’t work Saturdays. If you can, visit on a non-Saturday.]

Charlie the coffee dog.

Rick, the midwestern tour guide, telling us about coffee varietals

Robin, smelling the coffee flowers (aka Kona snow)

Drying sheds

Liz, the roaster

More Charlie the coffee dog

The “brew your best cup” class instructor, the manager of the on-site coffee shop

The deets!

Coffee carnage, and the pour over coffee

Forgot to get the shot facing the opposite direction, but the roaster is to the left, and the pool & tables are behind the camera.

• Hilo Farmer’s Market (Hilo). Go to this, but bring cash. Big market days are Wednesdays and Saturdays, which means a lot more crafts and local goods, as well as a third row of foodstuffs in the produce market (mostly appeared to be prepared foods like baked goods and mac nuts/granola/etc.). The tents on the south side of the street (next to the open-air restaraunt/shaved ice place) are mostly goods and crafts (ranging from hand made to regularly touristy stuff), and at least the first day I was there, pretty good hand-crafted coffee and cold brew. The large covered space on the north side of the street was the produce market. Great fruit and veggies, good looking baked goods, a stand selling a variety of macademia nuts and granolas (the granola isn’t super crisp, but the flavor is nice, and the chili macademia nuts are EXCELLENT). I spent $100 here before I realized it, but got to try a handful of fruits I’d never heard of or tried before (ice cream bean, longan, rambutan, milky fruit/star apple), as well as some of my favorites (pineapple, apple banana, etc.). No fish or meat at this market, unfortunately, and not a lot of prepared food for meals except for the permanent building. Next time I want to try one of the fresh fruit juice stands. 10/10 Denalis, exactly what I want from a Hawaiian farmers’ market, and I’ll be driving over to Hilo more to get more fruit.
• Volcano National Park. I mean, there’s not a lot to say here. It’s an amazing, starkly beautiful place that you’ll either love (in which case you’ll already know everything about it) or isn’t for you (in which case I’m not going to change your mind). So far I’ve just done the Kīlauea Iki crater hike (4 miles) and then the Nāhuku (formerly Thurston) lava tube (.5 miles round trip from that parking lot). I plan on going back at least a couple of times, though hopefully not in the middle of a heavy downpour and maybe even on a day when you see across the caldera. It’s changed a lot since I was there in 2015, but I couldn’t really see enough to tell that without looking at the exhibits. Went to a great talk at Uēkahuna about the history of eruptions in the caldera. 10/10 Denalis; this is one of the most spectacular natural environments I’ve ever been able to explore, and I’m delighted that it’s a national park open to everyone.

Retired mining engineer volunteer giving a talk about the park.

So many hikes.

Kīlauea Iki crater.

Hiking out of the crater.

Entrance to Nāhuku, a lava tube.

• Kona Farmer’s Market (Kailua-Kona). This farmer’s market is in one of the (paid) “public” parking lots in Kailua-Kona. It’s $15/hour for parking, so I’d recommend either making it quick (it’s not easy to do, but you can actually just pay for 15 minutes of parking) or try to find actual public parking on the street or in the city lot a few blocks away. The selection was … fine. It’s not as big or extensive as the Hilo market, and it seems to primarily focus on knick-knacks and touristy goods/clothing rather than fruits/produce, though there are two pretty good-sized produce stands anchoring either side of the market. Prices seem pretty comparable ($6 for a pineapple, $2 for a bundle of green onions, etc.). I will continue to go over to Hilo for most of my big produce runs, but it’s nice to know it’s there if I’m desperate for some fruit. 6/10 Denalis.

• Keauhou Farmer’s Market. This market is in the parking lot of a shopping center and happens to be right across the lot from Peaberry & Galette. It’s much smaller than either Kona or Hilo’s farmers’ markets, and seems to focus more on prepared foods than prodcue or touristy goods. The chocolate guy had some samples and I liked his chocolates, and there are a few things that I would have tried if I’d not just finished breakfast. I’ll probably go back at some point, especially if I’m going back to P&G or visiting the movie theater next door. 6/10 Denalis.

($150/year billed annually, $14.99/month billed monthly, $829 lifetime, plus costs of a server, controllers, and endpoints)

[Tl;dr: This system is not without its flaws, and there are certainly cheaper/free options in the market that accomplish at least some of the same functionality, but for someone like me that values the ability to quickly and easily stream music to different rooms (or transfer an active stream from one room to another), the convenience factor is real. I can’t imagine not re-upping this service, and if Roon ever goes out of business I’m going to be really bummed. Particularly, I love the Roon Radio functionality and the recommendations it makes for new tracks and albums, and how seamless it makes moving around my house while listening to music.]

Scores:

Cost-agnostic: 9 out of 10 Denalis

Cost-sensitive: 8 out of 10 Denalis

[Caveats/tech details: This is probably the most niche and bougie review I’ve done (or will likely do). Please keep in mind that I’ve been seriously collecting audiophile-grade hi-fi gear for five or six years now, and I’m a HUGE music nerd, so I’m coming to this from a place of already having a closet full of unused speakers, amps, etc. just waiting to get slapped into a system. Your mileage (and costs!) may vary.

I’ve tested this through my own personal implementation of Roon, which consists of a server in my office (a ROCK built with an Intel NUC 8) hardwired to my router, with external hard drives for local music storage, around a dozen endpoints (ranging from the expensive Devialet Expert 140 Pro super-integrated amp driving KEF LS50 speakers in my office, to the Apple TV at the heart of my living room 7.4.2 ATMOS system, to the cheap paired Sonos Ones in my basement, etc.), and controller apps on most of the computers and all of the tablets/iOS devices around my house. I have Roon endpoints in every room in my house, and my back porch. (Full setup details below.)

Early on I had some difficulty with wifi connectivity in my (plaster-walled) house when I was using a Google Mesh network, but since I switched to an enterprise-grade Ubiquiti router it hasn’t been an issue. I also owned most of this equipment before I played with Roon, and as a result my system investment is MUCH more than the minimum to have an effective implementation. ]

Intro: Roon is a music system designed to provide music across an entire space connected by a single network ¹ (either wifi or ethernet). The system consists of three pieces: 

1. A server/hub (the device that talks to the internet, catches streams, and forwards them to endpoints);

2. One or more endpoints (amps/speakers/etc.); and 

3. One or more controllers (devices that let you select music, adjust volume, etc.). 

Within that broad framework, there’s a lot of variability and flexibility. The basic idea is this: you should be able to listen to any music or audio content in any room you’ve set up with a Roon endpoint with essentially no friction, logging in, or messing about. You can seamlessly move streams from room to room as you move around your space, and you can sync audio playback across multiple rooms so that you’re getting the same content perfectly in time across those systems.² The streams are not reliant on the device you use to start the stream; the server feeds the audio directly to the endpoint and removes your controller from the loop, meaning that watching a video or getting a call on your phone won’t disrupt playback on another system.

Server/hub: This can be as simple as a computer running a modern version of Windows or MacOS with the Roon software running in the OS, or as expensive as the truly elegant but extravagant Nucleus device that Roon manufactures itself and which runs a custom operating system (RoonOS). The middle ground is a custom built mini-PC aka a “Roon Optimized Core Kit” (“ROCK”).3 

I started with my server running on the old iMac that’s now in my guest room, and pretty quickly decided to upgrade to a dedicated ROCK. I bought the recommended components and put it together following Roon’s instructions in about an hour with no special tools or pre-existing skills.4 I built mine at the peak of computer component price gouging during COVID, but with current prices and supply chains it’d run you a little less than $400. Unless you’re super picky about fan noise (or you relish the idea of assembling a mini-PC), you might be better off starting with either an existing PC or snagging a cheap Mac Mini for $100 or $150 off of Craigslist.

If you’re running a dedicated server (a Nucleus or a ROCK), all it will do is run Roon; you can’t use that machine for anything else. If you’re running the software on a machine running Windows or MacOS, it uses only a small fraction of the computer’s processing power and you can use the machine for anything else you might want to (though anything that affects system resources can potentially interfere with music playback).

[My honest read is that unless you’re super finicky about sound, or a giant nerd like me, run it on an existing machine. The NUC is cool, but well past the point of diminishing returns for sound quality.]

Endpoints: Man, I could do a dissertation on this topic. At heart, an endpoint is just a speaker or pair of speakers, an amplifier, and a streaming device transmitting Roon’s audio signals to the amplifer (these can be separates like a traditional hi-fi system, or all built into one device like a powered smart speaker). You can spend literally as much money as you want on endpoints (any hi-fi system can be used as an endpoint), or you can go really inexpensive and build a Raspberry Pi streamer or buy a $30 Chromecast stick and connect it to a cheap Lepai amp and speakers from Goodwill. 5

Roon connects pretty easily with anything using the following protocols: 1) RoonReady (duh); 2) Airplay and Airplay 2; 3) Tidal Connect; 4) Chromecast; 5) universal plug ‘n’ play (via ethernet or wifi); or 6) BluOS. They can also be physically connected to any computer on your network; I currently have a PS Audio Sprout100 (driving passive monitors on my desk) and two different headphone amp/DAC combos connected to my Mac Studio; each is individually considered a separately-selectable endpoint for Roon (and the computer shows up in Roon as an additional endpoint which streams to whatever happens to be the computer’s default audio output at any given moment—handy for A/B testing):

Because of its compatibility, Roon plays nicely with anything made by a number of consumer brands like Sonos, prosumer brands like Bluesound, and high-end audiophile brands like Cambridge Audio and Devialet. When you add in Chromecast and Airplay, the universe of potential endpoints is pretty extensive and varied in price and quality. For me and my (admittedly bougie) ears, the sweet spot is in the Bluesound category (the Node or Powernode Edge, though I also have used a cheap-ish Arylic amp for my bathroom/back porch and I like the old Sonos Ones all-in-ones in my basement). Also any computer, tablet, or phone with the Roon app can be used as an endpoint via audio outputs, and there’s a way to rig any Alexa device or Homepod to work as an endpoint.

Many of the endpoints I’ve used have been things that were already sitting around my house gathering dust, because I’m a packrat who has a hard time getting rid of anything.

Controllers: All of the computers in my house (save my Foundation-issued one) have the Roon client running most of the time. So do both of my phones, and a couple of old iPads I have rigged in my house for media controllers or for recipe lookup. As of about a year ago, the Roon iOS app added Apple Watch connectivity, so once Roon is playing something in any given room I can use my watch to control volume and playback. I mostly use the app on my gaming PC in my office, and my phone everywhere else in the house. [Some day I want to rig a RoonDial for my bathroom, but that ends up being weirdly complicated and requires a dedicated computer.]

Setup: Depending on how you are handling the server requirement, setup can vary a lot. All will require largely the same set of configurations for the software, though the interface for the Roon client running on an existing machine is much more intuitive than installing and configuring a dedicated server.

Roon client on an existing computer: When I was just running the Roon client on a Mac in my office, setup was maybe ten minutes of installation, configuration, logging into various streaming services, and connecting endpoints via the native app. 

Nucleus: If you are buying a Nucleus, I’ve heard the setup is incredibly simple: just a little bit of configuration, but I have no first-hand experience.

ROCK: If you’re building a ROCK, you need to assemble the device (which really just consists of opening up the NUC case, snapping in the RAM and the hard drive, screwing a couple of screws, and then closing the case), and flash the operating system (which just involves loading it on an SD card like the ones digital cameras use and pressing a couple of the right buttons in sequence). 

[Note: the ROCK doesn’t need any output (monitors) or input (keyboards/mice) devices once they’re set up, 6 but you’ll 100% want a monitor and keyboard/mouse connected just for the setup process. I unplugged all inputs and outputs shortly after I was satisfied things were running smoothly.]

[Installation suggestions: given the relative costs of NVMe SSDs and spinning hard drives, I’d strongly recommend not trying to use an internal hard drive for the NUC to store local music files. I have a couple of 1TB external spinning drives attached to the NUC for local storage and backup. Internal hard drives for the NUC seem like overkill to me.]

Playback Connectivity: The biggest advantage of a system like Roon over directly streaming from your devices is the data path. When I start playing music on one of the endpoints in my house, I select it on any of my controller devices, the server reaches out to the internet to grab the stream, and directs that stream to the appropriate end point. Once the stream has started, the controller is removed from the process unless and until you want to change what you’re listening to, change volumes (assuming that your endpoint is set up to give Roon volume control), etc. This means that unlike using, say, Airplay, my phone isn’t a conduit between the internet and the server. I can do other things on it, put it away, charge it, turn it off, etc. without affecting my ability to stream. And if I leave my phone in the basement and want to change tracks in my office, I can just open up any of my computers or other devices and make the changes that I want to. This also means that music isn’t interrupted by notifications from other apps, text dings, volume attenuation when a new e-mail comes in, etc.; all of the potential flaws of playback on a cellular-connected device. 

Options: Roon supports a limited number of streaming music services (Tidal, Qboz, and KKBOX, as well as a number of internet radio stations) and will both organize and play locally stored files in a variety of formats and qualities. There has been talk over the years of bringing some more common services (like Amazon or Apple) to the system, but I’m not holding my breath. Apple has been pretty vocal about not allowing any services access to their APIs/playback (other than SONOS, a legacy system), and because Roon is focused on the higher-end market they’ve tended to focus on the streaming services that did higher-quality streaming early on. I happen to really like Tidal, though I am annoyed about paying for two different streaming services: Tidal for my home, and Apple Music for everywhere else. 

It’s also worth noting that most Roon endpoints can double as Airplay and/or Chromecast endpoints. So if you really want to listen to something on Apple Music or another non-supported streaming service, you can do an end run around Roon and stream directly to endpoints. But that sort of defeats the purpose of having Roon. 

Connection: Connecting these systems is pretty easy to set up, though Tidal occasionally prompts me to re-log-in to the system (probably every three to six months). Local storage is also pretty easy; you just point the server to your locally-attached storage (or theoretically, to network storage on your own network), and through the miracle of universal plug ‘n’ play, it’s pretty good about importing and sorting automatically (and it constantly checks the targeted folders to see if anything new has been added). 

Imports: Roon has a nifty feature built it; if you plug a CD-R or DVD-R drive into your server, it will automatically rip CD-quality files from any music CD you insert into the drive, and it does a pretty good job of finding and applying the appropriate metadata (track lists, credits, art, etc.). I spent a couple of weeks ripping most of my CDs and those I inherited from my dad. [Note: if you do this, make sure to read some of the forums to get some pro-tips on how to make it most efficient. By default Roon rips to a single folder and doesn’t name the files helpfully, and it’s worth taking some time to export files to individual artist and album folders; it’s mostly easy and intuitive, but does require a few manual processes.]

Bougie info: Roon gives you a lot of information about signal path, audio quality, and where transformations/conversions are being made. This won’t matter for 99% of users (including, mostly, me), but Roon is really good at showing you where issues are cropping up or where your signal is being degraded:

Useability: The interface is really quite intuitive. You select which speaker or zone you want in the lower right, and then pick the media you want to listen to:

You can get pretty detailed information about file path and quality, and automatically provides a list of all versions of a particular piece of media (for example, if I look at Massive Attack’s “Mezzanine,” I’m offered at least three versions: the high-quality .FLAC version I ripped from a CD, the low quality .mp4 version that has somehow migrated itself into my Roon server, and the high-quality MQA .FLAC version streaming from Tidal: 

Roon Radio: Roon Radio is honestly my favorite thing about Roon. Unless you turn the functionality off, by default when your current queue (album, playlist, artist, etc.) completes, Roon will pull something it thinks is similar out of your library. This includes both local files as well as the full catalog of streaming services you have connected. 

I have a fair amount of experience with recommendation algorithms, from Pandora’s early implementation of the Music Genome project, to Youtube Music’s strange and aggressive algorithm, to Amazon Music HD’s recommendations, to Apple Music (nee iTunes)’s version. For me, Roon stands head and shoulders above the rest. There’s an option to skip a track, which triggers a simple question about why you’re skipping it. The algorithm learns from what you listen to, what you skip, and what you repeat, and I have been really impressed by how good it is. I almost never skip recommended tracks, and while some of the recommendations are somewhat baffling (not sure how it goes from a Portland-based prog rock artist to mid-century French jazz), I almost always enjoy them. I’d guess about half of the new albums I added to my system in 2023 were Roon recommendations. It’s particularly strong with ambient and electronica recommendations, but it also does a great job of introducing me to albums that I’ve missed over the last couple of decades that I really enjoy. 

Updates: The software gets updated pretty regularly (and it automatically asks you if want to update all of your upgradable endpoints each time). None of the updates have broken the system (something I wish I could say about Apple or Microsoft), and they’ve got a long list of new functionalities they want to add. Right now they’re working on a way to essentially build your own streaming service based off of your local and streaming libraries, but I haven’t spent much time with it because I don’t love the idea of having a perpetually open connection between my network and the internet. It’s been more stable than I expected; currently my ROCK has been running for 172 days, and I haven’t restarted in seven days (since the last update).

Pricing: It ain’t cheap. It’s $150 a year,7 plus whatever you need to pay to get access to the streaming services you want to add. For example, the version of Tidal I use (the individual Hi-Fi plan) costs me $10.99/month on top of the effectively $12.50 month I pay for Roon itself.8 I spent around $500 on building my ROCK music server, but that was at the peak of COVID price-gouging for tech. I think you could build one for around $400 now  or just use an old existing computer for free; also, Facebook Marketplace is full of old iMacs and Mac Mini’s for less than $200 and they’d do perfectly well running a Roon server as well as functioning like a normal PC). 

Endpoints are as cheap or expensive as you want them to be. One of the endpoints I’m running in my house cost me less than $100 (cheap Goodwill speakers, a $20 Lepai amp), and an old iPhone that was collecting dust on my shelves). If you have an existing hi-fi system you want to integrate, you can do it for less than $100, or spend as much as you want on an audiophile-grade streamer. One of the fun things about being an audiophile is that there are a lot of people (especially techbruhs in Seattle) that always have to have the new hotness, which means that there’s a lot of good audiophile equipment available at decent used prices most of the time, if you know what to look for or find a shop that’s willing to work with you. 

All in, you could set up a good system for substantially less than $1000, or you could spend tens of thousands of dollars if you’re bougie like that. (While I am bougie as hell, I am not *that* bougie).

I really wish I’d bought the lifetime subscription back when I first set up the system, and it was less than $500.

Competitors: There are a lot of these kinds of systems in place, though few are as well developed or supported. Squeezebox was the first one that I became aware of, and while I don’t think they’ve made hardware supporting it in at least a few decades, the software is freely accessible and community supported. I know a number of people who use Plex (which I dabbled with briefly), but I find the endpoint support lacking for anything other than a full Windows or MacOS machine. Before I upgraded to Roon, I used Foobar2000 running on my computer with cables hardwired to an integrated amplifier, and it was … fine, but limiting. All of these options are either free or close to.

There are also a number of streaming protocols (many of them free) that will let you send music from a device like a phone, tablet, or computer to an appropriately connected speaker system. Airplay, Chromecast, Spotify Connect, now Tidal Connect, etc., are all systems that are pretty widely available on relatively inexpensive devices (Chromecast dongles start around $30, and virtually all Apple devices have one or both of the Airplay protocols built in). They do, however, require using the intermediary device to catch the streams and direct them to the endpoint, instead of passing off the stream directly to the device, which means your music is subject to interference from the controlling device. I have my phone set up to give me notifications when they come in, which makes this a much less appealing choice. 

I’ve also dabbled quite a bit with Sonos and BluOS as multi-room systems. Both require using only their hardware, with limited or no compatibility with anything else, which is fine if you’re starting from scratch but annoying if you have existing systems you’d like to integrate, or if you like shopping used. Personally, I generally find Sonos’ sound to be a little lacking, though more affordable, and while I like most of the BluOS hardware I’ve listened to (Node, Node 2, Powernode N150, Powernode Edge, Pulse, etc.), their all-in-ones are relatively expensive for what you get. I’d rather use BlueSound’s streaming devices to connect to amplifiers and speakers that I have selected based on my preferred profile. Both have the distinct advantage of being free, and of being more broadly compatible with streaming services outside Tidal and Qboz. 

Finally, a number of companies make decent smart speaker systems that can provide reasonable quality music with a single device in each space9 and minimal setup. Amazon’s Echo/Alexa line offers some reasonably compelling, reasonably inexpensive options. The basic Amazon Echo Dot (the old puck, not the globe) has middling sound quality, but for the size and price they’re not bad (I’ve setup a half dozen in my mom’s house). The original Amazon Echo (which is no longer available from Amazon, but cheap second-hand) provided a much better audio experience in a not-a-lot-larger footprint, and I’m genuinely pretty impressed by the quality of sound from the Echo Show 8 I bought my mom for Christmas last year (mostly so it could display photos that I upload). I have a lot less experience with the Google range of products (only used the basic one long enough to figure out I preferred the Apple Siri experience enough to justify the much higher price tag of the HomePod), but some of the higher end options have pretty good reputations. And I’m an unabashed fan of both the HomePod and HomePod Mini (I really ought to do a joint review of them at some point); I have two HomePods and a couple of Minis in my house to fill gaps in my Roon system where I either didn’t want to do a full hi-fi system or where I had a use for a non-phone Siri device to control lights or locks. All of these systems, however, lock you into the amplifier and speaker choices that their manufacturers have made, and give you no room for upgrades and minimal ability to customize the sound. For a person like me with a closet full of unused hi-fi gear, they weren’t really a good fit. Your mileage may vary, and at least with the Apple system, you can do some interesting and sophisticated things with multi-room Homepod (mini or otherwise) systems. I think if I were to move to a house with a substantially larger number of rooms, I would probably throw Homepod Minis (Homepods Mini?) into any room I didn’t want a full hi-fi system in, because they can be integrated with Roon via Airplay.

Conclusion: Roon is a well-thought through system with decent support and an active user community. It serves my particular purpose much better than any of the alternatives I’ve explored, but it isn’t the cheapest or simplest way to get sound in multiple rooms in a particular location.  I love the way it works and it’s super weird to me when I’m in a location where I can’t casually kick music on in any given room with little effort. 

Is it overkill? Yeah, probably. But that’s half the fun of it!

[Full setup as of January 2024:

1. Server: Intel NUC 8 running ROCK, with a 2TB external SSD attached for local storage with a 1TB backup, and a cheap Samsung CD-R drive for ripping new physical media. 

2. Controllers: Various PCs and iOS devices scattered around my house.

3. Endpoints:

1. Office main (streaming via Roon-Ready Devialet): 

1. Devialet Expert 140 Pro (super-integrated amplifer)

2. Kef LS50 (not Meta) stand mount speakers

2. Office secondary (hardwired to Mac Studio): 

1. PS Audio Sprout100

2. Dali Spektor 2 standmount speakers

3. Schiit Hel2 Gaming DAC/amp

3. Office tertiary (hardwired to gaming PC):

1. Schiit Bifrost DAC

2. Schiit Asgard 2 headphone amplifier

4. Office quaternary (hardwired to gaming PC):

1. Schiit Modius DAC

2. Schiit Magnius headphone amplifier

5. Master Bedroom (streaming via Bluesound Node):

1. NAD 3020 integrated amplifier

2. Bluesound Node 2

3. Pioneer Andrew Jones tower speakers

4. Apple HomePod

6. Back deck/Master bath (streaming via Powernode Edge):

1. Bluesound Powernode Edge super-integrated

2. Mirage outdoor speakers from Goodwill (bathroom)

3. Klipsch KHO-7 outdoor speakers (deck)

7. Living room (streaming via Airplay, either via receiver or Apple TV): 

1. Onkyo TX-RZ50 Receiver

2. Canton Ergo 90 DC Tower speakers

3. 4 x KEF T-301 flatmount speakers

4. 4 x KEF Q50a ATMOS speakers

5. Apple TV 4K

6. Apple HomePod

8. Basement: 2 x Sonos ONE speakers (shadow edition)

9. Guest room: Amazon Echo

10. Kitchen: 

1. Bluesound Powernode N150

2. Boston Acoustics bar speakers

3. HomePod Mini

4. Apple TV 4k

11. Roaming system in a box (whenever I want a temp system, particularly where I’m doing a project in a location not covered by an existing zone).

1. Lepai amp

2. Pioneer Andrew Jones standmount speakers

3. Old iPhone 6

4. Dragonfly Red USB DAC/amp]

___________________________________


1 There’s a caveat here with some kinds of wifi systems that allow multiple networks through a single router; because of the way my server is set up, my ROCK can see my main network, my guest network, and my limited IoT network. I don’t actually want this to happen, but I haven’t bothered to dig into the Unify app to fix it.

When I was 19 or 20, Subaru brought its rally team to the Gorge Games. This meant that there were a number of the new 2002 “bug-eye” Impreza WRXs running around Hood River, all in the World Rally Classic Blue (what I think of as Subaru blue):

I … fell in love. This was the first car that I really, truly coveted. A colleague at the restaurant I was working at went out and bought one that summer, and I got to ride around in it when we went shooting. Man, I loved that car. The color. The power. The cool. [Eds note: I stand by my position that the gold wheels are dumb. It’s my only note on the whole car.]

I’ve wanted one ever since. Every time I’ve gone to buy a car, I’ve looked at and test driven and seriously considered a WRX (and later, an STI). Each time, I’ve talked myself out of it. (I don’t always make the BEST financial choices, but when it comes to big things like cars, I’m more pragmatic and practical than y’all might expect.) 

See, the thing is, it’s not a great daily driver for a person like me. The hatchback version was pretty small, and once they shifted over fully to the sedan body in 2015, the day-to-day utility dropped off a lot. I wanted a manual transmission, and driving a stick in regular traffic (*cough* Seattle *cough*) or on steep hills (*cough* Hood River *cough*) sucks, even in a car without the short clutch and somewhat temperamental transmission that comes with a turbo Subaru engine. 

• The first car I helped purchase in 2005 was a ‘98 Subaru Outback Legacy, aka “Serenity”. I was a poor law student, and only could afford a car at all because of help from my parents. A WRX was absolutely NOT an option.

• I eventually traded my Outback legacy to my dad for his 2001 Outback, because it was a manual (which I loved and did not like). I never named that car, weirdly enough. I didn’t pick it out, though I loved it dearly until dad blew the headgasket on it. 

• In 2012, I decided it was time for my first real, adult, grown up car, and I decided I wanted a little bit of luxury. I drove the WRX and was really unimpressed with that generation; it was loud, and uncomfortable, the stereo was bad (and you couldn’t really hear it anyway over the engine), and the fuel economy sucked. This was also the era in which most non-sedan body Subarus looked unfortunately similar to a minivan (no minivan hate; it’s just not what 30 year old Phil was at all interested in). I ended up with a land-yacht 2012 Chrysler 300S aka “Big Government,” as named by my friends, or “Iris” as named by me (it was the first car I had with a voice assistant, which was essentially a terrible, ass-backwards imitation of Apple’s Siri). 

• After a terrible sprint down the Gorge in a December 2018 rainstorm to see Dad when he wasn’t doing well that left me white-knuckled and required a stop at Andrew’s Pizza for a beer before I could go home, I realized I needed all-wheel drive, particularly with my dad not in great health. I also knew I was going to be getting a golden retriever puppy in March, and I wasn’t keen on trying to manage a large dog in the back of a sedan. There are really two options when it comes to good all-wheel drive for Hood River-type weather: Subaru and Audi. I was used to a luxury car (thanks, Big Government!) and I was really unimpressed with that generation of Subarus (road noise, style, etc.), so I ended up with a used Audi Q5 aka “Denali’s Ride.” [In retrospect, I should have looked at a used high-level trim of the Forester, which fixes most of the road noise and ride issues of Subarus. I helped my folks buy one in 2019, which I’ve driven a lot and REALLY enjoy for a substantially underpowered vehicle.]

• In 2022, I got my job with the Foundation and I knew I’d be driving to Seattle a couple days a week for the foreseeable future. The Audi required premium gas, and it was stupidly expensive (like $5-6/gallon). It was time for an electric car. Elon Musk is a jackass and I didn’t want to support him, Subaru didn’t make an electric vehicle at the time (and they sort of still don’t; the Solterra is effectively a Toyota except for the badging), and everyone and their brother was raving about how good the Kia EV6/Ioniq 5 were (and they were right; the EV6 is a great car). I wanted an electric car, so no WRX/STI for Phil (though I took the opportunity to go drive a couple of them just in case). 

The EV6 is a great commuter car. It’s comfortable, fuel- and cost-efficient (yay electricity in a state with a lot of hydropower), has a good single-pedal mode for traffic, and is easy to charge at home and at my office. Unfortunately, the way in which it’s fun to drive (read: bat-out-of-hell acceleration) is not the safest or most socially-acceptable way to drive, especially in the I-5 corridor. I like driving, but I started finding it a little frustrating to drive it when 90% of my driving is on I-5, with people using the left lane as a HOV slow lane.

This brings us to 2023. A year in which I made a lot of changes to my life, and a lot of commitments to myself in terms of my health, my priorities, and unabashedly seeking joy where I find it. In May and June, I had a series of conversations with a couple of friends about the fact that I was starting to feel less motivated to keep on my healthy path and that I was looking for something to help keep me focused on maintaining the changes I’d made (a “little treat,” if you will). A good friend of mine had also just bought her dream car; a mostly impractical-in-regular-life-but-super-fun-to-do-Raptor-runs-in Ford F-150 Raptor, and she’d kept her older Honda for daily commuting. Another friend of mine showed up to my house to pick up a bottle of bourbon I’d bought for him in his fun car, a 2019 Subaru WRX STI that he only drives on the weekends (he’s a contractor and been driving a full-sized work pickup every time I’d seen him out in the world). It was … a revelation. It hadn’t really occurred to me, but I am privileged enough to live a life where I can afford to have two reasonable cars to fit my two very different use cases. I don’t need to compromise on one. 

So I set myself some goals. If I hit my weight goal,¹ some financial goals, and proved to myself that it wouldn’t be a financial issue, I’d get to buy myself a fun car based on some criteria. I set a couple of interim rewards (the half-day Dirtfish Rally class I took in September, a full-day one that I can take at some point). I wrote up a contract with myself, roped my friend Robin into being my accountabili-buddy, and got to work.

And it worked. 

There were days I wanted to blow off my diet and bake a cake. Days when I really didn’t want to work out, or wanted to ignore my intermittent fasting and have a bowl of ice cream or a beer at 10:00. But, for the most part, I didn’t do those things. I lived within the framework I’d defined. I stuck with those goals. And two weeks ago Friday, I hit that goal weight. I hit it again this Friday, despite some real temptation in the last week to indulge myself. 

So yesterday, I got to go to Subaru of Puyallup, test drive a car that checked all of my mandatory boxes and all but two of my desirable boxes,² and after a couple of hours of negotiation, paperwork, and detailing, I drove away in my beautiful new (to me) 2021 Subaru WRX STI. 

Some details:

• 2021 Subaru WRX STI Base

• Stock condition and with no meaningful damage (which are surprisingly rare; this is a car that encourages owners to make dumb choices, both in terms of modifications and how they drive it). 

• 24,003 miles

• Two owners, in Hawaii and Washington (and it’s been in a garage most of the last two years)

• Magnetite grey (WRC blue was my preferred color, but 1) they’re often thousands of dollars more, 2) there aren’t any available within 150 miles that aren’t heavily modified), and 3) this may be less likely to stand out to State Patrol Troopers on the freeway).

• The only modifications two this car are cosmetic; the prior owner swapped out all the pink external STI badging for yellow. I like the yellow, but I’m thinking about going back to the original pink. 

I’ve named her Kaylee, because she’s shiny, slightly unrefined, and hopefully going to teach me a lot about the care and maintenance of high-performance engines. I took her for a shakedown cruise this morning up to Port Gamble for lunch at Baker & Butcher Provisions, and I had a shit-eating grin on my face pretty much the whole time. 

So here’s to unbridled joy and making questionable decisions in 2024.

1 Yes, weight is a stupid metric for most people. For me, it is a convenient quick measure of progress, but I also do body mass analysis and track a bunch of other things that I care a lot more about; this is just something I can check in 30 seconds every week and get a macro view of how I’m doing with my diet and my activity level. ^↩

2 No WRC blue, and no sunroof.^↩

Introduction

 [Editor’s note: this is something I drafted in 2023, reflecting on my 2022 listening habits after seeing a bunch of my friends uploading their Spotify Wrapped packages. I built my own. I’m not sure I ever posted it anywhere, particularly based on the missing information re: Roon which I can’t really access after the fact (Roon’s interface gives you pretty robust information for the last year, and all time, but not for defined periods beyond a year). I’m uploading these here as part of my effort to get the things I occasionally have to spend time scouring FB for in a single place.]

No narrative, just data for this one apparently.

[Editor’s note: this is something I wrote in 2022, reflecting on my 2021 listening habits after seeing a bunch of my friends uploading their Spotify Wrapped packages. I built my own. I’m uploading these here as part of my effort to get the things I occasionally have to spend time scouring FB for in a single place.]

I’ve been really enjoying the 2021 Spotify recaps, but I don’t use Spotify,* and my usage is split across three apps:

• Roon (for use around the house)
• Apple Music (for lossy streaming: walking the dog, driving, anytime I don’t have wifi or I’m using Bluetooth for playback)
• Tidal (for lossless and HD streaming/local playback, i.e. whenever I have wifi + good headphones, no cell service, or I’m at my office)

Tidal doesn’t track statistics beyond top tracks, but between Roon and Apple Music I have more than 1280 hours of listening in 2021. Which means I’m listening to music more than 14% of the time, and almost 44% of the time I’m awake. This doesn’t count any time listening to Tidal or vinyl, which is a substantially-non-zero amount of my time too. And in that time, I haven’t listened to any one artist for more than 14 hours, which tells you how eclectic and varied my taste is!

Weird to see how my usage varies between services, too. Roon is mostly stuff I really like; Apple is a combination of things I hear on TV, Shazam out in the world, or think of randomly and tell Siri to play; and Tidal is mostly stuff I like and happen to have downloaded on my phone when I get stuck somewhere without cell service or wifi. And it’s HILARIOUS to me that Taylor Swift is the only artist on all three lists. Super weird too that Massive Attack and the xx don’t appear on the list … apparently I mostly listen to them on vinyl at this point?

It’s not a schmancy, animated, social media-friendly analysis, but it tickled me to do it.

*They pay artists very poorly, and I don’t think they have a viable long-term business model, so I’m reluctant to give them my data or rely on their service.

 M2 Macbook Air 13” Review [$1100 MSRP, always $1049.99 at Costco, occasionally on sale around $900 or $950]

[Tl;dr: This laptop is nuts. It’s the first computer I’ve ever owned where I have essentially no notes other than a slight complaint about USB-C ports and reliance on Bluetooth. And the fact that it’s surprisingly affordable, especially for a Mac … yeah, I’m a fan. I have genuine concerns about how this computer is going to undercut Apple sales of higher-end models going forward. When on sale, it’s also roughly the price point of some of Microsoft’s Surface models, and … this is a MUCH better machine.

At long last, Apple’s remade a fanboi out of me.]

Scores:

Cost-agnostic: 10 out of 10 Denalis

Cost-sensitive: 11 out of 10 Denalis

[Caveats: the model reviewed is the July 2022 MacBook M2 Air 13” with 8 GB unified memory, and a 256 GB SSD hard disk, in midnight. This is the lowest-priced model generally available wit the M2 (a number of retailers still have the M1 generation available, albeit sometimes at a higher price point). Purchased at Costco in April 2023 for $1150, and price matched down to $950 in June 2023, recently seen there at $899.99.]

Intro. Back in May of 2023 I wrote about my no-good, very bad technology day in September 2022 that resulted in me buying a beautiful, but ultimately poorly-suited MacBook Pro, my first Mac laptop in a decade and a half. In April 2023, having figured out how few times the Pro had left my house (twice? Maybe three times?), with a bunch of travel coming up for work and personal business and having watched a couple of stellar reviews of the new M2 MacBook Air, I decided to grab one at Costco on my way back from Hood River. I’ve carried it in my work bag basically since that first week, and I’ve taken it on a half dozen trips including two weeks in Europe in December 2023.

The machine: I probably wouldn’t use this machine if I were trying to edit or render 4k video, but not because it couldn’t handle it. I primarily use this machine as a word processor and internet browser, but I’ve also used it to play some reasonably demanding video games (Borderlands 2, Baldur’s Gate 2, etc.) and it’s both worked perfectly and not gotten particularly warm. It’s never hung up or struggled to do anything I’ve asked it to do, but to be fair I also have both a dedicated gaming machine and a M2 Ultra Mac Studio that I would use for anything particularly intensive; this machine is definitely primarily intended for use case 2.

The battery is really impressive. Running in airplane mode with just music and a word processor running, I got about 8 hours of work done on like … a third of the battery? I’ve had to plug it in while working on it maybe twice in a little less than a year. The one challenge has been leaving it in my bag sleeping rather than shut down—if I do that for a couple of weeks, my battery will be pretty low when I open it back up but that may be an artifact of my settings (generally I don’t have laptops set to sleep when I close the lid because I expect to use them docked a lot. I really should change that setting for this machine given how little I use it docked …).

The keyboard is a full-sized QWERTY keyboard. I do miss having a ten-key but it’s mostly not important for the kinds of things I do on this machine, and I can always get an external one if it becomes a problem.

TouchID is also surprisingly nice; I’d gotten used to my work laptop recognizing my face and unlocking, and this is basically as easy; I just press the upper right key with the correct finger and the laptop unlocks.

Monitor: The current generation Liquid Retina display is gorgeous. Mac figured laptop and all-in-one screens out years ago and this is a worthy successor. The screen on my MacBook Pro was a little brighter and richer than this, but it definitely will get painfully bright even in a well-lit room. It’s bright enough and shiny enough to make me uncomfortably aware of how dirty my screen gets, and maybe the one knock against it is that it looks like it *should* be a touch screen, but is *not* actually a touchscreen.

The one downside is the size; compared to a 15” laptop screen like my work laptop or the 49”/27” monitors I use for desktops, it’s definitely a bit small. It took some getting used to; for example, I have had to change my workflow for using Gmail on it because I can’t have the sidebar, inbox, and reading pane side-by-side-by-side without losing the ability read a lot of e-mail. If you’re someone who needs more than a 13” monitor, this machine is probably not for you (though Apple is now offering a 15” version of this machine starting at $1299). The bezel at the top of the screen may also be disruptive for some people; you end up losing 2” by .5” of your menu bar to the forward-facing camera. I don’t currently use any software that has enough menu bars to be affected, but other people’s mileage may vary.  

That said, I used it as my only machine for several weeks over the holidays and I got used to the size really quickly. And the smaller size translates to a lighter weight and ease of carrying/using it out and about in the world.

Audio: Headphone jack. This is one of the more surprising aspects of current Mac models. Apple has long been pretty dedicated to not accommodating audiophiles with their gear.[1] Because of that, I was stunned when I learned that Apple has built high-impedance, low-noise amplifiers into all of their modern models. This laptop drives high impedance headphones like the Drop x Sennheiser 6XX (300 ohms) (review planned for last week, but coming eventually) and Beyerdynamic DT 990 (250 ohms) (review here) really beautifully, but also is able to drive really sensitive IEMs like my Chi-fi Campfire Audio knockoffs without a ton of noise. Even some pretty decent desktop headphone amplifiers struggle with one or the other; most amps that I like with high-impedance headphones are super noisy for sensitive IEMs and amps that are good with sensitive IEMs often struggle to drive high-impedance cans at reasonable volumes.

Do I have desktop amps that I think provide better, clearer sound? Sure. But they’re not the cheap ones, nor the transportable ones. I end up relying on the on-board sound instead of plugging in the Dragonfly Red dongle DAC I carry most of the time, which tells me that I really like the sound profile.

Bluetooth. Bluetooth sucks for music, as always, but it’s a pretty decent implementation that plays well with other devices in the Apple ecosystem. It automatically detects AirPods and Beats associated with my Apple account and asks me if I want to connect them, and provides information about battery charge etc. The .alac codec is fine, and the laptop does a good job of converting everything into it to pipe to Apple-capable headphones.

Speakers: They’re reasonably loud. They’re fine. I don’t really use them much, as the universe of situations where I am working on a laptop AND want/can courteously play music out loud is pretty damned small.

Airplay: This is one of the weirder things about this laptop, just because I haven’t really encountered it before: the MacBook Air automatically lists active Airplay speakers on your wifi network as options for audio out. I can’t imagine I’d ever deliberately use this because I have an entire Roon network set up around my house using a music protocol that’s a lot better than Airplay, but it is kind of cool especially when you have HomePods in several rooms in your house (and Airplay-capable Bluesound amplifiers in most of the others).

Connectivity: The ports are limited, which has been true of almost all of the Macs I’ve owned other than the Mac Studio. One modern Magsafe port and two Thunderbolt/USB-4 ports on the left side of the keyboard, and one 1/8” audio jack on the right side, and that’s it. No USB-A, no HDMI (mini or otherwise) or any other video out. As someone who dislikes Bluetooth (especially for mice) it’s a little annoying, and I end up carrying a USB-A hub and a few USB-C to A adapters in my bag all of the time. It’ll get less annoying over time as more and more of my devices end up being USB-C (my iPhone and new AirPods case are both USB-C finally, and I’m gradually cutting over all of my peripherals). In a pinch, you can charge via the USB-C ports too, if you damage, lose, or forget the Magsafe adapter.  It charges fine with the 65W USB-C charger for my Lenovo Carbon X1; it doesn’t require the expensive, bespoke Apple charger, fortunately.

[Also the Magsafe is amazing and I’m so glad Apple brought them back. Anyone who lives with a large dog with an active tail can appreciate how important they are, and it’s legitimately one of the reasons I didn’t buy any of the Apple models that didn’t include them.]

Wifi is good. Bluetooth is as good as Bluetooth gets. Airdop is actually REALLY well implemented and useful for moving files back and forth.

Design/Aesthetics: It’s pretty. It’s an Apple product. I appreciate that they’re giving us more options than white and brushed aluminum. I’ve long been a fan of Apple’s version of Space Grey, but for this one the midnight called to me. It’s a very clean looking device, though I’ve (for the first time) gone and covered it in stickers. I’ve also thrown on a case, just because I’d read enough reviews about people inadvertently scratching them, or realizing how many fingerprints ended up on the aluminum case.

Upgradability: Upgradability? What upgradability? You think you should get to question what Apple has so generously provided to you?!?!

Macs are all now system-on-chip[2], which means that whatever configuration you pick, you will forever be stuck with it. No ability to upgrade the processor, memory, hard drive, etc. So make your decision wisely! (Seriously though, this is the base model and it’s perfect for everything I want to use it for so I doubt I’ll have any regret about the configuration I chose. Also I have different machines for other uses.)

Pricing: It’s not cheap-cheap, but by computer standards (and particularly by Apple standards) it’s an absolute steal at MSRP, let alone at $899.99 I saw it for at Costco last weekend. It’s about the same price as a comparable Microsoft Surface and cheaper than the Carbon X1 line from Lenovo. It’s the kind of price where it would really suck to have to replace it, but it’s also totally doable. And that means that I’m willing to carry it with me and actually use it, something I couldn’t or wouldn’t do with the $2400 MacBook pro.

Conclusion: Apple is running into an issue where their new line of machines (with Apple silicon instead of Intel chips) are so good that people aren’t bothering to upgrade to the new hotness each year, and this machine seems like it will inevitably cause the same problem. They could announce the M3 version of the MacBook Air tomorrow and I wouldn’t even bother to look because this machine is so perfect for what I need it to do. With the introduction of the 15” version of the Air, I can’t imagine recommending the M3 MacBook Pro (either 14” or 16”) to anyone but a true power user (*waves at Robin*), and even most of them would probably benefit more from one of the other models unless they’re doing their power-user work primarily out and about in the world.

Apple may have screwed themselves with this one; when you’ve lost even me from the MOAR POWER crew ….

 

It’s a great device. I recommend it without any reservations to anyone who needs a new machine for anything less than serious video editing or similarly intensive work (or anyone who wants a gaming machine; you don’t buy a Mac for gaming at this point. Ever.). Get it on sale. Use it. Love it. Replace it if it breaks or gets stolen.

[1] See e.g. removal of the headphone jack on iPhones, no USB ports and a questionable implementation of Bluetooth and no support for actual lossless codecs on most iOS devices, stripping the optical audio out of 4k Apple TVs, the way Airplay 2 handles streams, etc.

[2] Except the $7k+ MacPro/Cheese Grater, and even that is mostly system-on-chip.