Phil's Superpower of Enthusiasm
A place to write about things I enjoy, for my own edification. Headphones, audio gear, albums, whiskey, wine, golden retrievers etc.
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Lawyer, unabashed nerd and geek. Purveyor and pusher of excellent sci-fi/fantasy, good food, and repartee. He/him. Dog dad/servant to @Goldendenali.
I’m experimenting with Amazon Affiliate status in an attempt to defray some of the costs of headphone reviews; Amazon links may be affiliate links (depending on whether or not I’ve figured out how to use them correctly). Please feel free to buy elsewhere; this is just one way to recoup the costs of this hobby.
Category: Uncategorized
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This is a companion to my post the other day about my philosophy for building a stereo system, aka hi fi rack. I’ve broken it into tiers ranging from $500 to around $3,000. You can certainly spend way more than that on a stereo, but if you’re going to invest that kind of money you…
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I got asked the other day by a coworker about how I go about building an audio system, and I realized that while I’ve been working on this for more than a year, that I never actually posted it. So here it is. A tier list is coming soon. [Caveat 1: go talk to…
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I got a new pair of shoes a few weeks ago. They’re Merrell Nova 3 Trail Shoes* and I love them. They’re super comfy and rainbow colored. Last week someone asked me why I, a cis-het white dude, bought rainbow running shoes. The glib answer is that these happened to be on sale at…
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[MSRP $500] [Tl;dr: great pair of stand mount speakers. No particular complaints or suggestions, but may benefit from an amp with a fair amount of power, or in a smaller room/in near-field.] Scores: Cost-agnostic: 9 out of 10 Denalis Cost-sensitive: 9 out of 10…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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[MSRP $259, $169 on Amazon as of 2/10/24, paid $148 in July 2021] Update September 2025 [Yeah, I fell victim to the “but they’re for studio mixing thing!” that everyone seemed to have fallen for back in 2021/2022. In my defense, this was one of my first pairs of headphones and I genuinely hadn’t heard…
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($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…
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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…
Phil's Superpower of Enthusiasm 