Phil's Superpower of Enthusiasm

Phil's Top 10 Albums of 2021

December 31, 2022
It was a pretty weird year in music for me, as I spent a lot of time trying to listen my way through my dad’s vinyl collection but still managed to hit more than 1,200 hours of music streaming along the way. That journey sent me down the rabbit hole pretty frequently on older artists like the Grateful Dead, the Rolling Stones, and even some bands that don’t start with “the.” Nevertheless, I found some time for new music, and here are the ten albums from 2021 that I think you should listen to if you haven’t already:
1. “Screen Violence” – Chvrches (electro-pop): I’m probably always going to put a new Chvrches album on my list anytime they release one, but this is genuinely a great album and shows growth for the band. “Good Girls” is a brutal call to arms, “How not to Drown” a really interesting collaboration with Robert Smith, and Lullabies a nice throwback to their first couple of albums.
2. “Hotel Surrender” – Chet Faker (electro-pop): always been a fan of Nick Murphy, and this was a nice brightening of his sound. I was delighted by the “Get High” EP he dropped early last year, and he did not disappoint with the full LP release in July. “Whatever Tomorrow” and “In Too Far” are highlights.
3. “How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last” – Big Red Machine (alternative rock): if 2020 was the year of Aaron Dessner’s dominance of my playlists, 2021 was not a step back. A great collaboration between Dessner and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, with a star-studded case of features including Sharon Van Etten, Anaïs Mitchell, This is the Kit, and T-Swizzle. I particularly commend to your attention “June’s a River” and “Phoenix”.
4. “Pray for Haiti” – Mach-Hommy (hip-hop): a really interesting album from a Haitian-American taking a serious look at important social issues while also bringing amazing beats and a very distinct flow. Think less-polished, chiller Wyclef, maybe?
5. “In Praise of Shadows” – Puma Blue (ambient/electronica)”: super atmospheric and chill, particularly check out “Opiate” and “Snowflower.”
6. “Mother” – Cleo Sol (R&B, soul): “Promises” popped up on Roon and I fell immediately in love with the soulful groove of Cleo Sol. The whole album is beautiful and a meditation on life, and it’s one of the things I’ve been throwing on to unwind at the end of a long day.
7. “Local Valley” – José González (indie singer/songwriter): I’ve long been a fan of González and his projects (especially Junip), but this is all around a lovely and relaxing album (and an aspirational figure for my guitar playing efforts).
8. “El Alimento” – Cimafunk (Cuban funk/jazz/???): a brilliantly weird album with features from people ranging from George Clinton to Lupe Fiasco. It’s genuinely unique, and something I’ve been throwing on when I need a pick me up.
9. “HEY WHAT” – Low (electronic): this album will not be for everyone; some of the tracks are reminiscent of Portishead’s “Machine Gun” which seems almost designed to sonically assault the listener, but the payoff for making it to the latter half of the album is worth it to me. Picked up based on a recommendation from Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sanborn. Particularly fond of “More.”
10. “Colourgrade” – Tirzah (electronic): “Tectonic” came up on Roon radio and I immediately stopped what I was doing, sat down, and listened to the entire album. It’s definitely a little inconsistent, but it reminds me favorably of some of Tricky’s early albums with Martina Topley-Bird. “Hive Mind”, “Send Me”, and “Tectonic” are my favorite tracks.
EPS:
1. “Builder’s Brew” – All Day Breakfast Club (R&B/Funk/Jazz?): a play on the title of a Miles Davis album, this is an all-women group playing energetic, fun, power jazz/funk. Listen to “Old School Struggling” and tell me that you didn’t feel the urge to dance a little.
2. “the ‘dropped your hand while dancing’ chapter” – Taylor Swift: “coney island” will never not hit me in the feels.
3. “The Other Lover” – Little Dragon & Moses Sumney (R&B): Moses Sumney is one of the most interesting new artists for me in 2020, and he’s only getting better. If you didn’t listen to “Græ” last year, do it now.
4. “Is It Light Where You Are” – Art School Girlfriend (pop? Rock?): this three-track EP is enough to justify keeping Roon just for more recommendations like this.
5. “Forever Presence” – Jelly Cleaver (jazz): I heard Jelly Cleaver on NPR talking about “Builder’s Brew” and fell in love with her voice and sensibility.
Honorable Mentions:
- “Big Sleepover” – Big Boi/Sleepy Brown (hip-hop): so far loving this album, but really only had a couple of days with it. Not long enough to have much perspective.
- “I Don’t Live Here Anymore” – The War on Drugs (alt-rock): same.
- “Blackest Blue” – Morcheeba (trip-hop/electronica): a lovely return to form from a band I feel like I haven’t heard anything from in a long time, but haven’t listened as much as I want to.
- “Seventeen Going Under” – Sam Fender (rock): the title track (with its meditations on anger and youth) is almost good enough to make the list regardless of the album, but the rest of the album doesn’t feel nearly as strong. Going to give it some more listens though.
[Editor’s note: I spend a surprising amount of time looking for these through my FB archive over the years, so I’m dropping these here mostly for my own ease of use.]
Top Ten Albums of 2022

December 25, 2022

It’s that time of year again, so here’s my top ten albums of
2022. As always, curious to hear where you agree or disagree, or what I’ve
missed this year. Rating everything on a scale of 10 possible Denalis this
time.

Phil’s 2022 Top 10 albums

1)
“angel in realtime.” – Gang of Youths. This
album broke my heart and rebuilt it over and over. It’s a beautiful mediation
on loss, grief, parents, and purpose, and the opening track (“You in Everything”)
is on my no-random-shuffle list lest it come on when I’m working or driving or
can’t stop to listen and tear up. I’m sure y’all are tired of hearing me rave
about this album, but it’s truly an exceptional piece of art, and my life is
better for knowing it. 27.5 out of a possible 10 Denalis.

2)
“Midnights” – Taylor Swift. It’s super weird to
me that Taylor Swift makes my list again, but this is a great album. “Anti-hero”
is the track everyone raves about, but honestly I think “Maroon” is the
strongest song on the album. Not nearly as good as “Folklore,” but then very
few albums are (the first album above notwithstanding). 10/10 Denalis.

3)
“Black Radio III” – Robert Glasper. Continued
beauty and funk from the jazz pianist-cum-hip hop producer. “Shine” is a
standout track; it’s on my chill, wind-down playlist. [also, if you have a chance
to see Glasper live, take it.] 10/10 Denalis.

4)
“Palaces” – Flume. I really liked Flume’s 2014 “Skin”,
and I’ve enjoyed a number of random tracks he’s produced since then (particularly
when working with Vera Blue”), but this is simultaneously bizarre and incredibly
well planned. “Go” is the standout for me, particularly if you have speakers or
headphones with good mid-bass (and the music video is … so weird. But also
charming). “Sirens” is also great; Flume is really good at mixing ethereal voices
with technology and synths and producing mesmerizing results. Also his live
performances with Toro Y Moi are hilarious. 10/10 Denalis.

5)
“Dance Fever” – Florence + the Machine. Classic Florence.
“Choreomania” is the single, and doesn’t disappoint. Weirdly, I really fell in
love with “The Bomb” which doesn’t feel nearly as Florence-y as the rest of the
album. 9/10 Denalis.

6)
“Caprisongs” – FKA Twigs. A thoroughly interesting
mix of bubblegum pop and thoughtful lyrics. “tears in the club” is the standout
(and The Weeknd’s best work of 2022, IMO), but “ride the dragon” and “honda”
are great opening tracks and the album feels really cohesive. 9/10 Denalis.

7)
“SOS” – Sza. This dropped two weeks ago and I
haven’t had a chance to listen to it as much as I want to, but it pretty
quickly landed on my frequently-played list. “I Hate U” was a great single
before the album dropped, and it’s interesting to me where it ended up on the album
(pretty late). “Control” was one of my favorite albums of 2017 and this holds
up. 9/10 Denalis.

8)
“World Wide Pop” – Superorganism. This is my
favorite pure pop album of the year. It’s so damned weird but I really dig it.
I mean, who else samples NPR’s Bob Boilen into a pop song? The whole album is great, but “It’s Raining”
has brain-wormed me for almost six months now (and the video is a lesson in
modern music video design). 9/10 Denalis.

9)
“No Rules Sandy” – Sylvan Esso. I’m a huge
Sylvan Esso fan and their self-titled album is on my top-ten all-time list.
This is an interesting and enjoyable departure, but not quite up to “Free Love”
or “Sylvan Esso.” My standout track is “Echo Party.’ 8/10 Denalis.

10 “All for Nothing” – Lauv. Bubble gum pop at its
best. Lauv always makes enjoyable music that is perfect for uplifting
background music. The title track is good, but for my money “Summer Nights” is
the standout. 8/10 Denalis.

Honorable mentions.

These are all albums that suffered due
to getting added into my Apple Music library rather than Tidal/Roon, so they
didn’t get as much play as they probably should have. I’ve rectified that and I
look forward to hearing them more in 2023.

1)
“Motomami” – Rosalia

2)
“Surrender” – Maggie Rogers

3)
“Hideous Bastard” – Oliver Sim

Best EPs of 2022:

1)
“immolation tape” – Gang of Youths. Three live
versions of great tracks from “angel in realtime.”, plus a new (and weirdly
uplifting track) that I commend to you attention: “a shot in the arm” is lovely
and worth a listen. 10/10 Denalis, would really love a full-length live album
(and to see them live).

2)
“graves” – Purity Ring. Purity Ring is one of my
favorite bands, and they’ll always make my lists. 7/10 Denalis, would really
like another full album.
Finally, Network-Attached Storage

November 14, 2022
After more than a decade of losing a couple of days a year to fighting with and backing up crappy (but cheap) external hard drives, I have caved and purchased a good, redundant network-attached storage device. This is a Synology DS920+ (Amazon) with four hard drive bays that accept both 2.5″ and 3.5″ drives, as well as two slots for M.2 formfactor SSD Caches.
I’m currently running:
2 x 4 TB Seagate Ironwolf hard drives in a RAID configuration to automatically back up all of my computers (three macs, two PCs, and the Linux-based Roon ROCK that drives all of the streaming media players around my house).

2 x 16 TB Seagate Exos Enterprise-grade hard drives in a RAID configuration set up as a network share drive so that I can stop e-mailing documents back and forth between machines.

Is this overkill? Probably. But as the keeper of all of my dad’s photos and documents for my family, I feel much better knowing that three different hard drives would have to fail in order to lose anything (the main computer drive, the 4 TB main backup, and the 4 TB RAID mirror). Same for the FLAC files I’ve spent a couple of years ripping from my CD collection (which now includes my dad’s CDs).
I’ll do a full review at some point, but a couple of initial thoughts:

It’s really a relief, after a near miss a few months back when I thought my iMac had died at the same time as my main backup drive, thinking I lost all of Dad’s photos.

This device supports hot-swapping drives, so I may snag another of each of the hard drive types that I have and keep one cold either in my fire safe or at a different location in the event that my century old home (with some original wiring) burns itself down.

The setup is not super intuitive, but both Synology and the larger web have a lot of really helpful tutorials on setup. I think that I’m going to do a deeper dive on the security settings, particularly re: backing up computers that have a greater threat exposure.

I asked my dear friend (and network guru) Robin a few weeks ago what the difference between enterprise-grade (read: commerical) hard drives and consumer-grade hard drives was, and as far as I can tell the biggest noticeable difference is how loud the enterprise grade drives are. I think I’m going to have to build out my AV closet sooner rather than later so I don’t have to listen to the hard drives constantly thunking while backing up.

A giant middle finger to the 10+ Seagate external drives that I’ve had go belly-up over the last decade.
Beats Studio3 Wireless in Midnight Black

November 13, 2022

[MSRP $350, $150 on Amazon as of 11/13/22, paid $180 in August 2022]

[Tl;dr: These headphones are weak in their MSRP range, but if you get them on a substantial sale, they’re great for use cases where you want some noise cancelation and a more durable headset that won’t break your heart if you lose or break them.]

Scores:

Cost-agnostic: 5 out of 10 Denalis

Cost-sensitive: 6 out of 10 Denalis

Beats Studio3 Wireless

Beats Studio3 Wireless on a new ME-themed puck

Intro. I bought my first pair of Beats headphones
back in … 2014? I think? I was going on a train trip to Montana, and it was
supposed to take something like eleven hours. I had a pair of Bose QC25s with
really good active noise cancelation (ANC), but I didn’t want to deal with a
cord while I was trying to sleep on a moving train. I’d been coveting the Beats
Studio Wireless for a while (my car at the time had a 10-speaker Beats by Dre sound
system that I’d absolutely fallen in love with), so the train trek was all the
justification I needed. I then used them pretty consistently for the gym and
then dog-walking until March of 2022, when they stopped taking or holding a
charge. The Beats Studio³ Wireless (BSW) came up on sale in August,
and I decided to take another shot. Beats is now an Apple-owned brand, so I particularly
wanted to see how well they played with iPhones, Watches, AppleTVs, etc. given
the struggles the original had with connecting to several of my iPhones over the
years.

Sound. These are a mixed bag, sound-wise. The
soundstage is remarkably wide and distinct, almost to the point of detriment.
The Edge’s guitar riff at the beginning of “Pride (In the Name of Love)” by U2 is
almost distractingly far to the left in the mix, and a few other tracks sounded
… odd during testing because I was used to a less separated mix. Overall, it’s
good sound, and my impression has suffered due to the amount of time I’ve spent
listening to the (truly excellent) AirPods Max and Pro2 lately.

The bass on these is solid, though it starts to feel hollow
the farther down sound goes. By the time you hit things that would normally be
covered by a subwoofer (like the repeated five note bass sequence in Massive Attack’s
“Paradise Circus”), the sound is there but quiet and distant and doesn’t have
any weight behind it. The BSW also struggle a little bit with rapidly changing
or complex bass riffs like Janet Jackson’s “Got ‘Til it’s Gone”; the woofer is
not nearly as nimble as some other headphones in this category like the Bose
700s or the B&O Beoplay H4s. Conversely, the kind of bass you get in mid-90’s
hip hop is almost too forward: the bass in Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin’” is harsh and a
little splattery at moderate volume listening.

Mid-range is pretty good, reproducing vocals reasonably well
though I think the resonance on male vocals is a little clearer.

Treble is generally crisp without being harsh or sibilant,
and generally well balanced with the mid-range/vocals at normal listening
levels. The BSW handles the gamut of sounds on Yo-Yo Ma’s “1B”, from the upper
range all the way down to the lowest notes, and captures the sense of urgency and
acceleration through the last half of that track. It does a good job of
reproducing the slightly-jangly guitar on Vampire Weekend’s “2021”, and even
gets the intentional splatter in the mix right.

These are definitely headphones best used at moderate to
high volumes, and for music like hip hop, EDM, and rock rather than classical,
jazz, or sparser R&B. You’ll lose a little on the very bottom-end, but the
rest will be presented pleasantly.

Standard disclaimer from other Bluetooth reviews: It’s
still Bluetooth so you’re always getting a lossy signal and it gets more complicated
when you start using the on-board mic for phone calls.

Noise canceling. This is why I bought the original Beats
Studio Wireless, and these live up to that legacy. It’s not the best ANC out
there, but it’s also not the worst. I think both pairs of AirPods do better, as
does the Bose 700s, but the BSW don’t generate any overpressure and are much
more comfortable for me to wear for long periods as a result.

The biggest knock on the noise cancellation is that there’s no
way to turn the ANC off or down; if these headphones are turned on, the ANC is
running full-power. This seems like an oversight on a pair of headphones that
retails for $350, especially because most competitors have this capability,
whether hardware (a button on the Bose 700, for example) or software or both
(AirPods let you change this either in your phone settings or by customizing an
external button).

Spatial audio. I don’t really notice any difference
between playing ATMOS tracks and non-ATMOS tracks. The BSW use a W1 chip
instead of the H1 or H2 chips you get in the AirPods Max and Pro2 respectively.
The sound stage is already almost distractingly wide, so I wouldn’t buy these
thinking you’ll get a lot of use out of spatial audio through them.

Controls. They’re really good and can be access
wearing gloves, even thick ones. The left earcup has a large button (labeled
with a “b”) that functions as a play/pause button, can be multi-tapped to skip
forward and back, and a faux rocker switch around it that controls volume. The power
button is on the bottom of the right earcup, and once you know where it is it’s
easily and intuitively accessed.

Connectivity. If you’re in the Apple ecosystem, it is
pretty straightforward. If you turn them on near an Apple device, they’re automatically
recognized and asked to pair. And once they’re paired with something associated
with your iCloud account, they’ll easily connect to everything else that is
(for example, I’ve never used these with my MacBook but they show up in its
Bluetooth list with a charge measurement). If I walk into my kitchen and want
to pull audio to them from my AppleTV, it’s really easy to do so.

They connect to non-Apple Bluetooth devices as easily as any
other Bluetooth headphone.

Comfort. They’re pretty comfortable, even after a
couple of hours. They’re reasonably light, have decent clamping force, and fit well
around my ears. The ear cups definitely get warm after a while, but that’s true
of most headphones.

Construction. They’re light and plastic, with vinyl
ear covers. The band feels more sturdy than things like the Bose 700s, but they
definitely feel like they’d break if you step on them or drop them too far.
Unlike the Bose 700s or the AirPods Max, these do fold for easy transportation
in the provided carrying case.

Beats Studio3 Wireless in Carrying Case

Charging is standard micro-USB, unfortunately. Here’s hoping
that future generations go with the USB-C standard that Apple is going to have
to implement among their branded products. They’re also relatively low-profile
(physically, not style-wise), so they fit easily under a hood for those of us
who live in a rainforest and have a dog that requires many, many walks (though
they do not carry an IPX rating for water or dust).

Appearance. They’re stylish. That’s always been a part
of the Beats aesthetic, and Apple hasn’t changed that. They come in four or
five colors, thought I don’t see their trademark red color which is a little
surprising.

Value. These are a terrible value at their MSRP of $350.
For that price, I want substantially better sound quality and much better passive
and active noise cancelation, particularly with such strong other offerings in this
market. It’s a broad category that includes the Bose 700 ($379), Bose QC35
($360), B&O Beoplay H4s ($300), Sony WH-1000XM4 ($250), and the AirPodsPro2
($240), all of which I think crush the BSW on sound quality and noise cancelation.

That said, at the $150 price range they’re at now, these are
really competitive. They’re easy to use and durable, and if I lose or break
them they’re pretty easy to replace. They’re my go-to gym and dog walking
headphones for a reason.

Overall. These are fine headphones, and I use them
daily for very specific things. I wear them for three of Denali’s four daily
walks, and they’re perfect for going to the gym because they attenuate external
noise without totally blocking it out. I will probably never grab them outside
those specific use cases because I’ve got better pairs for almost everything, but
they’re perfect for those kinds of applications and they will continue to hang
by my back door for ease and convenience.

Carrying case

#reviews #headphones #apple #anc #bluetooth #spatialaudio
#overear #cans #beats #meh
Quick Biscuits

November 12, 2022
Sometimes you don’t have a lot of time or energy, but want to get a quick, tasty dinner ready. If you’re like me, your go-to quick dinner at home might well be breakfast for dinner.

When I was in my early twenties, I discovered the joy of a good, quick scrambled egg (bonus points if you have farm fresh eggs, which I often due thanks to my lovely neighbors). Add in a frozen sausage patty (this is a Tyson patty from the local restaurant supply store, and I just leave a bag of these in the freezer most of the time), and you’ve got a quick, protein-rich and low-carb meal that only takes a couple of minutes.

But sometimes you just really want a flaky, salty, fluffy biscuit. You can go with a canned biscuit and I won’t think any less of you. I just find that as I get older, I taste the preservatives more and more, and I wanted to see if I could find a quick, scratch-made biscuit that wouldn’t take a lot longer than opening a can of Pilsbury (or more realistically, the bougie Trader Joe’s version). I’ve now found that recipe.
These take maybe ten minutes to prep, and about twenty to bake. I want to try them in cast iron, and with fresher baking powder to try to get a little more lift in the biscuit. I’m lazy, so I do almost all of this in a food processor, and I cut the sugar. In this case, I used heavy cream because I had a Costco-sized carton that I need to use up (and because I generally don’t keep milk and buttermilk in my house).

Ingredients (Shamelessly stolen from King Arthur)*
- 3 cups (360g) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ~~1 tablespoon granulated sugar~~
- 6 tablespoons (85g) butter~~, at room temperature~~ cold
- 1 to 1 1/4 cups (227g to 255g) ~~cold milk or cold buttermilk, (use whole milk for the most tender biscuits)~~ heavy cream
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 425℉, and line a baking sheet with parchment.
2. Mix flour, salt, and baking powder in a food processor using pulses.
3. Cut the cold butter into roughly 1-inch cubes and add to the food processor.
4. Pulse roughly 10 1-second pulses. The mixture should look like coarse sand.
5. Add 1 c of cream to the bowl and pulse five times.
6. Add remaining cream and pulse five more times.
7. If the dough isn’t sticking together yet, add additional liquid (cream, milk, or water) a few tablespoons at a time.
8. When the dough starts to coalesce, turn out onto a lightly-floured surface and form into a ball with your hands or a spatula.**
9. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out until it’s 1-1.5″ thick.
10. Using a dough cutter or an inverted pint glass, cut individual biscuits out and place on the parchment-lined sheet tray. Continue until you cannot cut any more biscuits.
11. Either discard the scraps, or roll them into a ball, roll out to 1-1.5″ thick, cut out biscuits, and repeat. [each successive iteration of this will produce tougher biscuits, as the dough warms from handling and additional gluten form in the dough. I generally set aside scrap biscuits and keep in mind that they’re going to be less delicious.]
12. Brush the top of the biscuits with cream or melted butter. [Optional, but pretty.]
13. Put the biscuit-filled sheet tray into the oven. You’re aiming for 18-25 minutes of cooking, depending on your oven, and I like to rotate them after 12 minutes or so.
14. Serve and enjoy while warm.
15. If you have a heart, share with your canine companion. [Denali managed a drive-by snaccing on Wednesday, taking a cake donut out of my hand while I was distractedly talking election results. She attempted to replicate her success with biscuits tonight; I’ll have to be wary of this tactic going forward. But honestly, she’s so cute she still got a piece of biscuit at the end of dinner.]
Tips:

If you have a scale, use weights for baking (especially dry ingredients like flour, because who has time to sift?!?).

Cold butter and cold milk/cream/etc. is ideal.

The faster you work, and the less you handle the dough, the better they’ll generally turn out.

If you don’t know how old your baking powder is, you should probably replace it.

* Strikethroughs show things I removed from the recipe, and underlines things I added.

** The faster you do steps 8-11, the better the biscuits will be as they will remain cold until they hit the hot oven.

#recipes #breakfast #dinner #breakfastfordinner #kingarthur #quickdinners #gratuitousgoldenpics #biscuits
My Favorites/Current setup (as of March 2025)

November 7, 2022
For posterity (and so I can remember in six months), here’s my current favorites in a number of categories:

Favorite Dogs:
1. Denali
2. Bodhi
3. Nika
4. All other dogs.
Favorite Audio Stuff
- Overall headphone: Meze 109 Pro
- Noise-canceling headphones: Apple AirPods Max (for airplanes), Apple AirPodsPro Gen2 (for everything else) [and that irritates me to say]
- Closed-backed headphones: ZMF Bokeh Closed (review forthcoming)
- IEM: Campfire Audio Holocene (review forthcoming)
- Audio calls: Status Audio Between ANC (from computers), AirPodsPro Gen2 (everything else)
- Spatial audio: AirPodsPro Gen 2
- Dog walking: Moondrop Chu II (review forthcoming)
- DAC/Amp: Schiit Jotunheim 2/Modius (balanced), Schiit Bifrost/Asgard 2 (single-ended) [honorable mention: Apos Gremlin]
- Mobile DAC: ALO Pilot Dongle DAC/Amp
Audio Setups [as of 3/14/25]
- Main:
- Mac Studio:
- Gaming Computer
- Deck/Bathroom:
Living Room ATMOS system
- Onkyo RZ50 AV Reciever
- 2 x Canton Ergo 92 DC towers
- Klipsch wireless subwoofer
- 4 x KEF T301 slim surround speakers
- 4 x KEF Q50a ATMOS elevation speakers
- 2024 Apple TV 4k
- U-turn Orbit Turntable
- Xbox Series X
- PS5
- Nintendo Switch
- Steambox
- Sennheiser RS175 wireless headphones
Misc Audio Gear
- Bluesound Powernode 150
- Arylic A50 streaming amplifier
- NAD D3020 integrated amplifier
- 2 x Pioneer Andrew Jones towers
- 2 x Pioneer Andrew Jones ATMOS bookshelf speakers
- Pioneer Andrew Jones subwoofer
- 2 x 1981 Allison Six bookshelf speakers
- Peachtree Nova 150 Integrated Amplifier
- Bluesound Node 2
- Schiit Fulla amp/DAC
- Schiit Rekkr power amp
- Kef LSX
Random headphones:
Open-backed wired: Hifiman Arya Stealth, Meze 109 Pro, Old sony, Drop x Sennheiser 6XX, Bose QC 25, Focal x Drop Elex, Sony Pulse, PS4 headset, Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro (250 ohms), Razer Kraken

Closed-backed wired: Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro (250 ohms), Meze x Drop 99 Noir

Wireless: Bose 700, Sennheiser HD800, B&O Beoplay H4, Astro A40

Xbox Headsets: Series X Headset, Turtle Beach, Astro A20

True wireless: Plantronics water headphones, Bragi Dash (second pair somewhere), Sennheiser Presence, Bose Soundsport Pulse, Jabra Elite 65t, Beats Studio Buds, Apple Airpods Pro Gen 2, Campfire Audio Orbit, Status Audio Between ANC, Anker Soundcore A40

Wired earbuds: Bose Soundsport x 3 (my favorite open-backed wired earbuds, bought on closeout), Monster iBeats by Dre, Klipsch K1

IEMs: KZ ZSN Hybrid Driver IEM, ME X1 x 4, Moondrop Chu, Moondrop Chu II, Dunu Titan S, CCA CRA, Truthear Hexa

Network Attached Storage: Synology DS220+ running:

2 x Seagate Ironwolf 4TB drives

2 x Seagate Exos 16GB drives

Favorite Rye: Jack Daniels’ Heritage Barrel Proof Rye
Favorite Bourbon: Stagg Jr. Batch 13
Favorite Affordable Rye: Redwood Empire Emerald Giant
Favorite Affordable Bourbon: Redwood Empire Lost Monarch (yes, I know it’s actually a bourye. Deal with it)

Albums (constantly shifting, but these mostly stay on there)

Mezzanine by Massive Attack

Boxer by The National

The Bones of What You Believe — Chvrches

XX — The xx

American Beauty — The Grateful Dead

angel in realtime — Gang of Youths

EDC Knives (no particular order)

Benchmade Griptilian

Benchmade Mini Griptilian

Spyderco Delica 4

Spyderco Tenacious (daily carry)

Kershaw 8700BLK

#topxlist
2010 Chateau Pre La Lande (Bordeaux)

November 7, 2022

The 2010 Chateau Pre La Lande Bordeaux (originally $13, I believe?). Opened and decanted immediately before dinner.

Nose: Red fruits, a little pencil eraser, and acetone on the nose (but not in an unpleasant way). If I hadn’t looked at the bottle, I’d probably have assumed this was 2018 or 2019. Still very dark purple in color, good legs.

Palate: Good fruit-forward flavors, pronounced but mellowing tanins. Had an interestingly minty note on the palate when first opened, but that appears to have disappated over the last hour or two and mellowed into … stone fruits, I think? Particularly into slightly underripe nectarine. Very pleasant, particularly for the price. I’ll look for more of these in future Garagiste offerings.

Pairing: Served (excellently) with a prime ribeye, garlic mashed potatoes, and well-roasted beets; held up to the fattiness and richness of the beef and the garlic mashed potatoes and the sharpness of the beets, and is growing ever more pleasant as it’s remained open.

Takeaway: I think I might mark the rest of the case as a wait until the middle of 2023 to try again, and would probably open and decant an hour before I start drinking it.

Phil’s wine disclaimer: I’ll offer this on wine going forward: Dad’s wines were stored in near-perfect conditions since they were acquired, in a well-insulated and dark basement cellar where they were rarely moved or exposed to light. Anything from 2005 and after was almost certainly purchased from Garagiste in Seattle (garagiste.com), so they almost certainly came with excellent provenance and were stored in ideal conditions in the Garagiste warehouses before we picked them up. I also grew up drinking well-aged red wines, particularly Bordeaux and New World variations on the noble grapes, so YMMV. Particularly if you didn’t store them properly or don’t know much about the chain of custody on your bottle.

Score: 7 out of 10 Denalis.

#wine #bordeaux #chateauprelalande
What the Hell Am I Even Doing Here?

November 6, 2022

My dad died in December of 2019.

Way to start on a down note, amiright?

December of 2019 and January of 2020 were a crazy time in the world. We were just starting to hear about this thing called COVID-19, and trying to figure out how it was going to impact our world and our lives. We set up a wake for Dad for the first week of March of 2020. We arranged food, a location, and invited a bunch of people. And on the morning of the wake, we got a call from a dear friend asking us to cancel, because the first cases had been detected in our county (and the wake would have been a pretty broad cross-section of the elderly folks in the community, include a whole bunch of teachers and school employees). We canceled.

Because our extended family was already on the way, we opted to give them the option of coming to our house for a very small gathering where we could talk about and remember Dad. As part of that, my brother and I prepared brief remarks. Mine was, I am quite sure, poignant and heart-spoken and and great. But, my brother’s was simple, and charming. To paraphrase, he reminded us that Dad’s true superpower was the ability to be unabashadly, openly and wildly ENTHUSIASTIC about things, either things that were important to him, or to his family, or his students, or his friends. This is a man who picked up Magic: The Gathering and comic books in his forties because his kids and students thought they were fun. A man who learned to play video games in his fifties just so he could beat his kids at Ambrosia Studio’s Barrack. A man who dragged his 8 and 10 year old kids to see the Grateful Dead for the first time, who taught me to love music and food and wine, and who wholeheartedly embraced the new music I brought home in college and developed a love of whiskey and bourbon when I was in my 30s. Who would have long conversations with me about the intersection of environmental regulation and intellectual property law, or my brother about the implications of Chinese transportation policy on nationalism and a sense of identity, who learned to make bead jewelry because my mom enjoyed it, and who embraced slumped glass art in his sixties because why not?

One thing I’ve tried to do over the last few years, in his honor, is to lean into the things that I love and to try to share them with my friends and family. So this is part of that effort.

What will I review? Whatever I’m feeling great about in any given moment. I’d guess a lot of that will be audio gear, albums I love, whiskeys or wines that I’m excited about, causes that strike me as important, etc. I’ll probably try to steer clear of politics, but who knows if I’ll keep to it.

Questions? Concerns? Comments? Angry diatribes about my distate for Bluetooth as a protocol (and face it, it’s a pretty shitty protocol)? Shoot.

#why
Apple AirPodsPro (Generation 2)

November 6, 2022
[Tl;dr: I really like the AirPodsPro Gen 2. I didn’t want to. But damn, Apple figured some things out.]

Scores:

Cost-agnostic: 10 out of 10 Denalis
Cost-sensitive: 9 out of 10 Denalis.
1. Scores:
2. [Update 1/20/24:
[Update 1/20/24:

after more than a year, I thought it was worth briefly revisiting the AirPods Pro 2. They’re … still great. They more or less live in my pants pocket, and when I recently thought that I’d finally misplaced them, I immediately went to Costco and bought another pair (in my defense, they were like $80 off on sale). I found my original pair, but I’m holding on to the second as a backup. The new version is identical in almost every way to the version that I originally reviewed, with the exception of having swapped the Lightning charging port on the case to a USB-C port to match the new generation of iPhones (and apparently they added some support for the new Apple VR device which will mean nothing to me).

The sound is still really, really good. To the point where I’ve stopped carrying wired headphones to my office, and I haven’t plugged into the headphone amp on my desk in probably six months. These are so well-designed, and both the ANC and pass-through systems so well adapted to an office environment, that they’ve become my go-to for work. Also, to my great surprise, I used them for part of a flight to Europe in December and the ANC is just damned impressive.

No change to the scoring; they continue to be a damned near perfect device, and while the price is a lot lower now on sale ($180), I just can’t give a $180 pair of earbuds a price-sensitive 10/10 Denalis). I still don’t particularly want to like them, but I just can’t help it. I do. I really do.]

I … have a lot of headphones. These are the ones I found in my house in a five minute sweep, and doesn’t include the dozen pairs at my office or all the ones scattered throughout various backpacks and bags in my house, or the drawer full of the free headphones that have come with various devices over the years.
Like most people who take music pretty seriously, I have spent a lot of time trying out new makes, models, styles, etc., and have upgraded a lot over the years. Over the years, my tastes have changed and I’ve moved from valuing convenience to valuing transparency and feel, and as such I’ve mostly left behind wireless (especially Bluetooth) headphones. As anyone who has talked to me about this knows, I’ve been pretty down on Bluetooth as a protocol for music (can’t run lossless signals, can’t run stereo and use a microphone at the same time, etc.), and have been pretty contempuous of Apple headphones in particular (except the original, white wired headphones with the old 1/8″ jack, which remain one of my all-time favorite cheap headphones and I wish I could buy a half-dozen to stash).

Well, things have changed. I’d watched a couple of reviews of the Airpods Pro Gen. 2 from serious audio reviewers, and I’d found the Beats Studio Buds (another Apple product) on super sale and had been enjoying them for a few weeks, so I decided to give the Airpods Pro a shot. And holy hell, Apple has figured true wireless out.

Sound.

The sound is great, both listening to music and taking calls. The sound on earbuds is probably never going to really compete with a pair of serious open-backed cans (the entire top row), particularly when driven by a decent DAC/amp, but honestly these beat all of my other Bluetooth-based headphones pretty handily. The bass is surprisingly good and nimble, even on tracks like “Teardrop” by Massive Attack or “Got ‘Til its Gone” by Janet Jackson, and even manages to really get the almost-nauseating sub-bass wobble on “Limit to your Love” by James Blake. “Wow” by Post Malone absolutely pops. Treble is crisp, and vocals hold up. The dynamics are a bit compressed compared to most of my other headphones; you don’t get the same incredible build up and crescendo in “It’s All So Incredibly Loud” by Glass Animals as you do on a more transparent system, but it’s still quite servicable.

It’s still Bluetooth, and it’s locked to Apple’s proprietary AAC file format so you’re always getting a lossy signal, but Apple designed the system from the ground-up and the on-board chip is pretty impressive, so you’re getting probably the best version of Bluetooth possible.

Noise canceling.

The noise cancelling is about as good as you’re going to get in an earbud, which is to say no where near as good as the Bose 700s (second row, far left) or even Beats Studio Wireless (second row, fourth from left), but they crush the Bragi Dash (third row, far left) and the Jabra Elite 65t (third row, second from the left). Transparency mode is also pretty well done; the sound feels a little more natural and you’re able to hear everything around you (like right now, for instance, I can hear Denali scratching in my living room and my keyboard taps) which is nice when you’re in an environment where you need to be aware of your surroundings. I live alone and don’t really need ANC most of the time, and I’d want a better system for airplanes, but I’m sure it will be convenient in the office when I don’t want to take the time to set up my dongle DAC.

Spatial audio.

This was the part that most surprised me. ATMOS/spatial audio is different for music than for movies, and different on headphones than on speakers (you don’t get the same sense of things moving in space around you, for example), but you do get a pretty impressive soundstage, both horizontally and vertically. I might turn off the auto adjusting that shifts sounds when you move your head around; while it’s entertaining, I mostly want to hear things the way they were mastered. It’s pretty cool to hear the synths/organ on “Riders on the Storm” by The Doors sitting waaaay to the left, and the guitar riffs far to the right, and the way the storm moves around is an interesting experience. And if you haven’t heard Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled album or “Tusk” mastered in ATMOS, they’re a treat and worth finding someone who’s made the investment. I don’t think any headphone setup is ever going to match a real speaker-based ATMOS system (and certainly earbuds won’t), but it’s a really clever and interesting implementation and the ATMOS catalog is only growing. (And it’s free for anyone who subscribes to Apple Music; lossless and ATMOS are free on any track they have mastered in that format!)

Connectivity.

If you’re an Apple person, these will just work. They seamlessly connect to both of my iPhones (work and personal), it’s really easy to connect them to my MacBook and iMac, and it’s trivial to connect any of my AppleTVs to them. In fact, one of my favorite use cases right now is using them for music or YouTube while I’m cooking, as the HomePod mini in my kitchen is a little hit or miss these days. I haven’t tried connecting them to a Windows machine yet, but everything I’ve read makes me think it’s not particularly difficult. And I don’t own any Android devices to test them on.

Value.

It’s Apple. They’re expensive. They’re always expensive. Costco has them for $239, but that’s more than MSRP on all but maybe five or six of the headphones I own (to be fair, I haven’t payed MSRP for most of this collection). That said, as almost anyone with other Apple products knows, you do mostly get what you pay for with Apple stuff.

Overall.

I’ll throw these in my pocket on my way out of my house most days, along with my wallet/keys/pocketknife/etc. I’m sure I’ll get a chance to test out the integrated “Find my X” and noise-making system soon enough, as the earpieces are slippery little buggers and I’ve already dropped them four or five times. I think I’m going to get out one of my extra watch chargers and rig it by the door so I can just drop them on it when I come in (they accept standard Apple Lightning charging cables, Apple Watch charging fobs, and Qi near-field magnetic charging).

This is the first time I’ve liked an Apple headphone since that original, cheap wired freebie, and I really didn’t want to like them. They’re just THAT good.

#reviews #headphones #apple #anc #bluetooth #spatialaudio #earbuds #iem #damnit
Apple AirPods Max (2022 Edition)

November 6, 2022

[Tl;dr: The Apple AirPods Max are a really good set of headphones with a rich feature set, broad utility, and all-around good sound. They do have a few flaws, and they’re REALLY expensive. I probably wouldn’t pay MSRP for them right now given the other options out there, but they’re still a really well-designed and built piece of hardware that are easy for people already in the Apple ecosystem.

Scores:
Cost-agnostic: 8 out of 10 Denalis
Cost-sensitive: 6 out of 10 Denalis.]

Sound. The sound is deep and rich, with really impressive bass and sub-bass response for a headphone. It’s still weird to hear the low bass rumble clearly without feeling it in my chest, but the response is nimble and crisp, with very little lagging or blurring even during sections with rapid movement (like Massive Attack’s “Paradise Circus”). It even does a pretty good job of reproducing some intentionally-mastered splatter (like in Robert Glasper’s “Treal” (ft. Yasiin Bey)). That said, the bass is a little punchy in some hip hop and EDM. It’s not enough to bother me, but YMMV and there’s no real EQ options (beyond Apple’s general accessibility settings).

Treble is very clear without being harsh, and generally well balanced with the mid-range/vocals at normal listening levels. At very low volumes the treble is a little more forward and the vocals get a little muddled, and at high volumes the vocals on tracks like Young Father’s “Holy Ghost” get a bit washed out by the treble. I’m generally pretty happy with the vocal reproduction on everyone from The National’s Matt Berninger baritone to Jonsi’s ethereal upper register. It’s crispy with acoustic music like Iron & Wine’s “Woman King” or Jose Gonzalez’ “Crosses”, and I swear I’m hearing subtle background noises like hands sliding on guitar bodies in the backround that I haven’t heard before. Same with Yo-Yo Ma’s cello on Goat Rodeo Sessions; I feel like I’m getting more of the music than I have before, which I appreciate.

Stereo separation is very clear with a distinct sound stage (i.e. you can tell where instruments were relative to microphones during recording), and like the AirPodsPro, spatially-mastered audio gives an incredible boost to the breadth and depth of the sound stage.

The only real criticism I’d offer is that the dynamics aren’t particularly great—on a track like “It’s All So Incredibly Loud” by Glass Animals, I want to hear a slow crescendo throughout the song, and I don’t feel like I get that very much out of the AirPods Max. The entire dynamic range feels compressed. This problem seems to be exacerbated with noise canceling on, and reduced a bit with transparency mode active. Overall, I’d say that these headphones are not the best at quiet or very loud listening, though I don’t think I’ve ever heard a pair of ANC or Bluetooth headphones that I thought were, other than the Pro2. Which sort of makes sense, right? These kinds of headphones are designed to separate you from the world.

Overall take on the sound quality: the Max make well-mastered songs sound great, and punish ones that aren’t so well mastered. There are definitely some songs that I would not listen to on them (August Alsina’s “Hip Hop”, Born Gold’s Bodysongs album, almost anything by RHCP, etc.). They also punish non-lossless audio.

Pro-tip: fit matters. If they’re riding on your ears instead of around them, they can sound tinny and distorted, so it’s worth making sure that they’re properly sitting on your head.

Disclaimer from the AirPodsPro Gen 2 review: It’s still Bluetooth, and it’s locked to Apple’s proprietary AAC file format so you’re always getting a lossy signal, but Apple designed the system from the ground-up and the on-board chip is pretty impressive, so you’re getting probably the best version of Bluetooth possible.

Noise canceling. This is a standout for these headphones. The passive noise canceling (with ANC/transparency turned off) is pretty good; the cups form a decent seal on their own, and when you turn the ANC on, it’s like stepping into a quiet room from a noisy one. Even sitting at my desk with my KEF LSXs playing at reasonable volume, I can feel the bass from the speakers but can’t hear them at all with the Max at less than half volume.

Maybe my favorite things about these headphones (and the Pro2) is the really excellent transparency mode. I work in the office a couple of days a week in a pretty-high traffic area (I back up to a hallway that leads to a coworking area and a number of conference rooms), and I really like being able to hear my colleagues when they’re moving around and trying to talk to me. Same when walking Denali; I’d like to know if someone is coming up to us, or if one of my neighbors wants to talk EVs. And being able to wear a pair of headphones where I can transition from being aware of my environment to being acoustically isolated at the press of a button is really, really nice.

Spatial audio. I think the implementation of spatial audio on the Max actually lags the Pro2; it’s really well done, but the sense of space just isn’t quite as pronounced. That may be a result of the new H2 chip in the Pro2 just being better than the H1 in the Max, and I’ll be curious to see if Apple announces a new Max2 with the upgrades included in the Pro2 soon. [Side note: Apple’s current method of rolling out updated versions across their entire products line is … weird. Selling an M2-driven Macbook Air but not a MacBook Pro was … a choice.]

The quality of spatial mastering is, as always, widely varying. This sound great with well-mastered spatial music (in particular, Rumours by Fleetwood Mac is one of the very best, but Apple Music has an entire playlist of mostly-well mastered spatial music that’s worth checking out).

Controls. They’re really good. Apple’s figured this piece out. The headphones have two controls built in: a crown dial (which you’ll recognize if you have an Apple Watch) behind the right yoke and an oblong button in front of the right yoke. By default the crown controls play/pause/skip (with the same press combinations as any Apple-compatible headphone) and volume (by spinning, and you can pick which direction raises the volume), and the button controls audio mode (default toggles between ANC and transparency, though you can change that). The mic in the headphones also listens for Siri commands by default, and it’s a really slick implementation that lets you pick music/make calls/control smart devices without having to take a phone out of your pocket, press a button, or raise a watch. It’s pretty great when your hands are full or otherwise being used, and the Siri implementation can use a connection to an unlocked Apple Watch to activate secure devices through HomeKit (like August door locks).

Some people might miss touch connectivity, but I find those kinds of controls not so great, especially in a place that rains as much as Olympia. The headphones also pause by default when you take off one earphone, which I may end up disabling.

The one thing it’s lacking that I really miss is an off switch. These turn off when you put them into the provided Smart Case, and if there’s a way to turn them off otherwise I haven’t found it yet. That’s fine as long as you don’t throw the headphones on and forget to bring the case with you … but it just feels like a strange omission for a premium pair of headphones.

Connectivity. This is the other thing that Apple’s just figured out. As long as you’re in the Apple ecosystem, it’s slick. I regularly carry two iPhones and an AppleWatch, and it’s pretty seamless connecting to any of those devices (or one of my Macs or Apple TVs). The connectivity to Windows is a little shakier and less consistent, and I had a weird issue this morning where the Max weren’t recognized by my iPhone when I took them out of the Smart Case, but I did run a software update last night on my phone.

Comfort. They’re pretty comfortable, even after four or five hours. They’re definitely heavier than most headphones I’ve owned, but the weight is pretty well distributed and the clamping force works for my head size/shape.

Construction. These headphones are SOLID. They’re very heavy, and the yoke feels quite durable. I was really skeptical about the Smart Case at first because it leaves the yoke exposed (and my experience has been that that’s the second-most likely candidate for breakage, after cables), but once you’ve spent a day with them you really stop worrying about damaging that. Initially I figured I’d have to go buy an aftermarket case, but I’ve been throwing the Max in their case in my bag for a couple of weeks with zero concern.

Like the Bose 700s, these don’t fold for easy transportation which seems like a silly choice for a headphone in this price range, but the included case does at least make them flat and easy to drop in a bag.

Charging is standard Apple lightning (though I’d imagine they’ll have to switch to standard USB-C to accommodate the EU’s rule change soon), and it looks like it supports the faster PD charging standard when plugged in via a high-power USB-C charging brick.

Appearance. They’re Apple products. They’re pretty. They don’t stand out quite as much as the original white earbuds did, but they’re not particularly subtle either. Mine are the sky-blue color and I really dig it. The ear cups are held in place via magnets and easy to swap out if you want something else, and there are cheaper after market options if you’re not worried about degrading audio/ANC quality.

Value. Apple products are never cheap. Usually what you get is pretty close to actual comparable products though, once you get into the specs. Here’s the real rub with the Max: these are $550 headphones at MSRP (though it looks like Amazon is selling them for $479, or $380 renewed as of 11/6/22). I don’t own any headphones in that price range, and that’s not an accident. That’s a lot. There are a few other models in this general price range now (Focal makes the Bathys, Mark Levinson makes the No.5909, etc.), but I’m not going to be buying any of them to compare.

Compared to what I do have (or have had): are they better headphones than the Bose 700 ($379), Beats Studio3 Wireless ($220), Bose QC35 ($360), B&O Beoplay H4s ($300), Sony WH-1000XM4 ($250), or AirPodPro2 ($240)? Yes. Yes they are. And it’s particularly close. But are they $100-310 better? I … don’t really think so. I got mine used from Mercari for ~$300 and I’d pay that again when I either lose or break these. I don’t think I’d be able to justify paying MSRP for them, but I guess we’ll see how used I get to having them around!

Overall. They’re great headphones, and I’m glad that I have them. I’ve been wearing them at work and I think I’ll continue to do so on days when I don’t want to mess with my desktop DAC/amp, and they’re particularly good for walking Denali in the rain or working around my house when I’m moving around a lot. The ease of connectivity makes them helpful when I’m around other people that might be disturbed by loud music, and that’s a value-add.

My takeaway from the Pro2 was that while I have headphones that are better than them for any specific situation, the Pro2 gets me to 80% on all situations, and they fit easily in my change/watch pocket so I’m pretty much always carrying them these days. I think the Max is the inverse; while none of my other ANC Bluetooth headphones are better for any specific situation, a couple of them get me 80% of the way there (for around half the price) and are more easily transportable. The Max are quite large and heavy, and I have to plan around taking them with me. That said, I don’t think any of my existing headphones beats them for uses where noise canceling matters, and I think they will displace the Bose 700s as my go to travel headphones.

#reviews #headphones #apple #anc #bluetooth #spatialaudio #overear #cans