Copper


Octave Records Releases the Newest in The Art o...

Issue 206Octave Pitch

There’s something elemental and captivating about the sound of stringed instruments, and The Art of Hi-Fi Volume 04: Strings from PS Audio’s Octave Records showcases them to spellbinding effect, in...

AXPONA 2024: A Really Big (Audio) Show, Part One

Issue 206Show Report

AXPONA (Audio Expo North America) has become the biggest audio show in the United States. The 2024 show featured more than 200 exhibit rooms with over 600 exhibitors and brands....

One Size Doesn’t Fit All, Part Two: Microphones...

Issue 206Paul's Place

After our brief examination in Issue 205 of the recording chain front end – the microphone – it's good not to forget what follows the microphone. In the same way...

Making Speakers Smaller and Better With MEMS Te...

Issue 206Speaker Builder

Sonic Edge is a company that specializes in MEMS miniature speaker technology. MEMS (for micro-electromechanical systems) speakers employ drivers that are fabricated on silicon chips, which can be made to...

CanJam NYC 2024, Part Two: A Harvest of High-Pe...

Issue 206Show Report

In Part One of our CanJam NYC 2024 report (Issue 205), I noted that the show was vibrant and upbeat, and more diverse than ever both in terms of the...

Little Feat Keeps On Rolling With Their Upcomin...

Issue 206Disciples of Sound

Little Feat has always been a “musicians’ musicians” band. Across a more than 50-year history, they have mixed masterful musicianship with a blend of music that is impossible to define....

The Music of Multitudes: Some Favorite Performa...

Issue 206Wayne's Words

Part One of this two-part series, "Folk Music Really is International," appeared in Issue 205.   With 162 official showcase performances and 639 different private showcase artists at Folk Alliance Interational...

Remembering Audio Retailing Legend Andrew Singer

Issue 206Frankly Speaking

The audio world has lost a giant with the passing of Andrew Singer at age 73. Andy was the founder of New York retailer Sound by Singer, a larger-than-life figure...

The Other Folk Singers, Part One

Issue 206Featured

I belong to a listening group that gets together to socialize and listen to music. We meet in each of our homes on a rotating basis. The host provides the...

IsoTek’s V5 Elektra Power Conditioner Cleans Up...

Issue 206From The Listening Chair

My current photography subject is IsoTek’s V5 Elektra power cleaning component ($1,995), which is also known as the V5. Despite my many years of auditing audio gear, my experience with...

PS Audio in the News

Issue 206News and Reviews

The PS Audio AXPONA 2024 exhibit was featured in their YouTube coverage, including these behind-the-scenes setup videos: PS Audio at AXPONA 1 PS Audio at AXPONA 2 Here’s a video...

Singer/Songwriter Mat Kearney: Everything Left ...

Issue 206Disciples of Sound

18 years ago, the world was introduced to Mat Kearney through his breakthrough single “Nothing Left To Lose.” It was a song so perfectly written and performed that it almost...

Treasures from the Vinyl Vault, Part Four

Issue 206Featured

Copper has an exchange program with selected magazines, where we share articles, including this one, between publications. This one's from PMA Magazine: the Power of Music and Audio.   Welcome to my series Treasures from the Vinyl...

Understanding the Analog Obsession

Issue 206Copper Classics / Featured

“I don’t need no machine that don’t need me!” Harley Mike proclaimed. He was responding to a question asking why he prefers a motorcycle that is so problem-prone and maintenance-intensive....

Test Records and Demo Discs, Part Two

Issue 206Audio Anthropology

In the days before digital music, the primary medium for sound reproduction was vinyl records. Sure, there were some who preferred reel-to-reel tapes, but they were in the minority. The...

A Visit to Italy's Gold Note Factory

Issue 206Featured

Copper has an exchange program with FIDELITY magazine (and others), where we share articles, including this one, between publications. Based in the Florence area, Gold Note is generally perceived as a young company....

Making the Grade

Issue 206Audio Anthropology

  We thought it was a tube tester at first...but no, it's an electronic egg grader!     The ventilation grille alone is enough to make us want this 1960s Fisher...

Remember the Dreaming

Issue 206Parting Shot

Maybe instead of always forging ahead, some of us should step back into our childhood mindset once in a while. That was the time when relaxation and play came naturally,...

One Size Doesn’t Fit All: Paul McGowan’s Favori...

Issue 205Paul's Place

When it comes to high-end audio, we can all agree that there's a huge obsession with which pieces of gear sound the way we hope for. Some of us prefer the...

Impex Reissues the Bossa Nova Jazz Classic Getz...

Issue 205Frankly Speaking

Getz/Gilberto is one of the most well-known and well-loved jazz records of all time. Rightfully so: the 1964 Verve release by Stan Getz and João Gilberto is one of the...

Behind the Scenes at Florida International Audi...

Issue 205Frankly Speaking

How do you cover a show that you weren’t able to go to? There are a few options: contact the manufacturers who were there and find out what they were...

Jazz Trumpeter Gabriel Mervine Releases Two New...

Issue 205Octave Pitch

Jazz trumpet virtuoso Gabriel Mervine has released two new albums for Octave Records: See Somethin’ and I Wish You Love, both recorded using Octave’s Pure DSD 256 recording system. See...

CanJam 2024, Part One: Diversity in All Things ...

Issue 205Show Report

CanJam is an audio show dedicated to headphones and their associated components: headphone amps, DACs, cables and accessories. It’s the premier show of its kind, with events in New York,...

Table of Contents – Issue 205

Issue 205Opening Salvo

“I kicked off my shoes and felt the good earth under my feet/I loosened my tie and felt what it feels like to breathe” – the Association, “Time for Livin’”...

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A Visit to Loudspeaker Maker Pure Emotion Audio...

Issue 205Featured

Copper has an exchange program with FIDELITY magazine (and others), where we share articles, including this one, between publications. Curiously enough, SPL is rarely considered a criterion when defining what characterizes an exquisite,...

Folk Alliance Really Is International

Issue 205Wayne's Words

Five Days and Nights of Intimate Global Music, Part One One afternoon last weekend during the Folk Alliance International (FAI) 36th annual conference in Kansas City, Missouri, one of the...

A Magnificent WAVAC Audio Lab Amplifier, and Vi...

Issue 205From The Listening Chair

I have noted before that I do not have the benefit of having a photography studio to work from. Still, I almost always prefer to photograph gear in my home...

Vampire Hunting, Part Two: What Is Running Up O...

Issue 205Featured

In Issue 203, I provided an introduction to the “vampires” that live in our home, electronic devices that are consuming power while plugged in and idle or on standby. Today,...

The Inveniem Company: Dedicated to Preserving a...

Issue 205Disciples of Sound

On his recent appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Bruce Springsteen commented on how difficult it would be for him to launch his career today; that the structure of the...

Test Records and Demo Discs, Part One

Issue 205Audio Anthropology

In the days before digital music, the primary medium for sound reproduction was records. Sure, there were some who preferred reel-to-reel tapes, but they were in the minority. The turntable...

Motorola Madness

Issue 205Audio Anthropology

Above: a Radio News 1925 artist's conception of what Nikola Tesla's wireless power transmission system might have looked like in the future. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Frank R. Paul/public domain.  ...

Walk This Way

Issue 205Parting Shot

A contrast in semi-parallel lines in Warren, Arizona.

Treasures From the Vinyl Vault, Part Three

FeaturedIssue 205

Copper has an exchange program with selected magazines, where we share articles, including this one, between publications. This one's from PMA Magazine: the Power of Music and Audio.   Welcome to my series Treasures from the Vinyl...

The Big Bang Theory

Issue 205Copper Classics / The Mindful Melophile

As I’ve mentioned before in this column, when I was very young and first started listening to music I was initially fascinated by “big” music – stereo recordings of large...

PS Audio in the News

Issue 205News and Reviews

The Absolute Sound posted a video review of the StellarGold DAC. Click on this link to check out Adrian Alexander’s coverage. He noted, “the soundstage was huge…it brought out sounds...

In Memory of Tony Cordesman

Issue 204Frankly Speaking

Tony Cordesman was a friend to me, and to so many in the industry. He wasn’t just one of the finest audio reviewers ever; I think he’s one of the...

Table of Contents – Issue 204

Issue 204Opening Salvo

“Just because I wrote the song doesn’t mean I know what it means.” – Lou Reed In this issue: I talk with Steve Morris of Streamline HiFi, who hand builds...

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Erik Deutsch, Theo Bleckmann and Sly5thAve Delv...

Issue 204Octave Pitch

Reason by Erik Deutsch, Theo Bleckmann and Sly5thAve makes jazz, pop and avant-garde flavors into a compelling musical adventure. Recorded live at Dazzle, one of Boulder, Colorado’s premier performance venues,...

A Visit to the Warsaw Audio Video Show

Issue 204Natural Born Kessler

While Munich’s High-End Show still dominates the European hi-fi show circuit, the Audio Video Show in Warsaw, which took place from October 27th to 29th, 2023, is a serious rival....

Revisiting The Youngbloods' Elephant Mountain

Issue 204Twisted Systems

The Youngbloods – Elephant Mountain (RCA IMP6051) Released April 1969 by RCA RecordsRe-mastered 2023 by Kevin Gray at Cohearent AudioSourced from original master tapesPressed on 180-gram vinyl at Record Technology,...

Steve Conte and The Concrete Jangle: The Sound ...

Issue 204Disciples of Sound

There are certain artists who just define what a New York City rock song should sound like. These songs have attitude and grit, but find a way to sparkle and...

Making Time for Music

Issue 204Paul's Posts

In our fast-paced world, the simple act of taking some quality time to immerse oneself in music has increasingly become a rare luxury. Yet, it is within this very act...

Hitchhiking With Alice Cooper

Issue 204Copper Classics: True-Life Rock Tales

It was late 1968 when my friend, the late Barry Byrens, said to me, “Linc,” (he loved calling me that, because I looked like Linc in the TV show The Mod...

Behind the Scenes at Music’s Biggest Night: The...

Issue 204Show Report

The Crypto.com Arena (or the Staples Center, if you’re old school in downtown Los Angeles), is an imposing structure, appearing even more starkly colossal when devoid of Lakers, Clippers, or...

From Raffi to Dylan With My Grandson

Issue 204Wayne's Words

Steely Dan is Served with Mushed Yams For the last seven months I've been scheming how to shape my grandson Ezra's musical tastes. First, I'd like to say, when people...

The 2024 NAMM Show: A Very Big Event for Music ...

Issue 204Show Report

Last January 25-28, the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) gathered all types of music makers together for the 2024 NAMM Show at the Anaheim Convention Center in California. It featured all...

Streamline HiFi’s Steve Morris: Bringing Audio ...

Issue 204Frankly Speaking

For many of us, our first exposure to hi-fi was via our parents’ music systems, more often than not one of those big consoles that had a tuner, turntable, speakers...