Phil's Superpower of Enthusiasm

[ MSRP $249.99, purchased at full price in May from Campfire.com)] [ Tl;dr:  These are fanstastic headphones. Period. For me, their use case is a little more limited but that’s more a function of how unexpectedly great the AirPods Pro 2 is, and the number of niche headphones I have for specific use cases. I commend these to the attention of anyone looking for a premium pair of true wireless ear buds, especially if they’re not already locked into the Apple ecosystem.] Scores: Cost-agnostic: 9 out of 10 Denalis Cost-sensitive: 8 out of 10 Denalis   Intro.  I’ve been intrigued by Campfire Audio for a long time. They’re a Portland-based manufacturer that is best known for pretty universally-acclaimed wired in-ear monitors (IEMs). I’ve never owned a pair, mostly because I’m not the biggest fan of IEMs for most of my use cases (preferring open-backed cans or speakers where usable, and preferring the convenience of wireless where not). When I heard that Campfire was releasing a...

One day in September of 2022, I had a remarkably bad technology day. I went into my home office and tried to turn on my PC and it would not start. At all. I had a few things I needed to take care of that morning so I immediately started my 27” 2012 iMac … and it would barely turn on. Opening a webpage was a five-minute exercise, and opening a Finder window locked up MacOS every time I tried it. I turned to my Microsoft Surface tablet, and discovered that while it was technically running, it was not capable of handling a reasonably large spreadsheet and wasn’t properly charging anyway.   After a couple of hours of troubleshooting, I was still unable to get any of them running, and I needed to get some things done. I needed a new computer, stat. I had just gotten my mom a new Apple laptop and I was doing a fair amount of troubleshooting for her, so I figured I should just get another Mac. Apple wasn’t making the 27” iMac anymore, and the 21” iMacs available at the time seemed … under...

13" M2 MacBook Air (particularly vs. 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro) Senneiser x Drop 6XX (how have I not reviewed these yet?!?) Ubiquti Dream Router Campfire Audio Orbit (done) Bose 700 (done) Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro Drop x Focal Elex Schiit Fulla & Hell 2E Dragonfly Red USB DAC KEF LSX (they died) Roon Mac Studio HomePod & HomePod Mini Bourbons/Wines Redwood Empire Emerald Giant CS Redwood Empire Lost Monarch CS

[ MSRP $149 , purchased at full price in October on Amazon, price matched down to $80 in November when they went on Black Friday Sale. Currently $99.99 at most retailers ). [ Tl;dr: Great true wireless earbuds at the $99 price point, only okay at MSRP. Pretty good sound isolation, reasonable ( but non-defeatable ) active noise cancelation and passie noise isolation. Like most Beats products, the bass is a little boosted but not distractingly so, and it plays pretty well in the Apple ecosystem. These live in my gym bag and I use them in environments where I would worry about using my AirPods Pro 2 . They’re great for that.] Scores: Cost-agnostic: 5 out of 10 Denalis Cost-sensitive: 8 out of 10 Denalis (at $99.99, 5 out of 10 Denalis at MSRP) Intro.  Quick , short review because I just realized that I never actually reviewed them in the fall. Good, solid headphones with good, solid sound and decent active noise canceling. Perfect for the gym or other loud environments where you don’...

[ December 2025 Pricing: $139 with updated Magsafe Case at Costco . May be cheaper elsewhere; I'm a little skeptical of some posted prices actually being the 3rd Gen and not the second.] [December 2025 update: I won a pair of these as a door prize at a conference, and I’ve been using them pretty regularly while walking Denali a couple of times a day since September. I was perhaps … uncharitable in my original review.  I stand by most of the specifics in my review, but they do sort of hit the sweet spot for listening to podcasts or NPR in an environment where you want to hear the world around you. For me, I find that walking Denali with ANC on can result in me not nearing or seeing people or dogs walking around, and that can give some folks a bit of a fright (weirdly enough, not everyone wants to be accosted by a 65-lb golden lovebug when they’re not expecting it. I mean, they’re wrong, but they are allowed to be).  As I noted in the original review, the mid-range is where th...