Copper

Where Are They Now?
For anyone who has been around audio for any length of time, the parallels to spectator sports are obvious. As with sports, conversations about the biz often revolve around the moves of significant players (“Who’re they with now? Really? What happened to —-?”). The movements of superstar designers or creation of new start-ups by industry vets often put companies on the audiophiles’ radar. For example, few designers can match Richard Vandersteen’s four decades of designing speakers for his own company;  most careers resemble that of Andrew Jones (except for the... Read more...
Swing, Swing, Swing
I was about 15 and home sick for the day. Today that kid could convince his mom he’s sick and she’ll go off to work after checking his pulse. But in 1969 nobody’s mom worked. She was there for the duration, your personal physician and guard. I had faked sick about two weeks earlier, so Mom had her suspicions. Luckily after puking on her slippers I was good to go. Even I couldn’t fake that shit. In those days until 6AM there was nothing on the tube but a test... Read more...
The Tuesday Night Music Club
Sometime during the summer of 1992 I got a call from Bill Bottrell. It had been a few months since we had talked, during which time he’d been working on finishing up Triage, mostly on his own. He called to say that he and David Baerwald  had decided to continue, doing… whatever. And to do it on Tuesday nights: thus, the Tuesday Night Music Club. It was sort of my ideal. It combined what I’d been doing for more than a decade, collaborating in improvising songs or pieces of music with a... Read more...
What's New?
In Copper #`13 we announced a contest, offering a PS Audio LANRover for the best answer to the question, “What is there in audio that’s really new?” Several technologies mentioned in responses  may have been new a few years ago, but to me that’s not NEW new (that may be arbitrary, but I’m calling the shots). We received a wide range of responses, some provocative, some amusing…but all were interesting. We print them here in their entirety, along with a few comments from me in bold italics. We hope you’ll enjoy reading them. —Editor.So do... Read more...
Wes Phillips: RIP
This has been a terrible year for musicians— we all know that. We’ve lost Bowie, Kantner, Martin, Prince, and I don’t know how many more. Is there something about an election year that affects the will to live?  Sorry. Sick joke. It’s been a bad year for audio, as well—and on a personal level, for me. Richard Beers of THE Show passed away some months ago, and I recently learned of the passing of Wes Phillips. Wes is best known for his longtime association with Stereophile magazine—as Deputy Editor from 1995 to... Read more...
Sigma–Delta Modulators - Part I
I have mentioned Sigma–Delta Modulators (SDMs) in this column before.  These are, in effect, complex filter structures and they are used to produce DSD and other bitstreams.  I know I talk about DSD a lot, and I also know that digital audio is more about PCM that it ever is – or ever will be – about DSD.  But SDMs are widely used today to make both ADCs and DACs, and so cannot be ignored by anybody who really wants to understand digital audio.  So I thought I would devote... Read more...
Who Are The Modern Audiophiles?
I recently read this piece on industry website Dealerscope Magazine, and felt that Gary Yacoubian very clearly stated  the rite of passage that appears to be taking place. I’ve struggled in the past with how to convey this idea: audiophiles aren’t dying off as a breed, they’re just changing somewhat. Adapt, or die—right?Thanks to the kind folks at Dealerscope.com for their permission to reprint this piece. —Ed.One of the oldest lessons I learned in retail was – find out what stimulates a customer’s passion and present options based on what appeals to... Read more...
A tall screen, and a wireless keyboard
Some history. Actually a lot of history. I came late to paying attention to audio reproduction. I always loved and collected the music, especially from the era in which I grew up as a teenager, the early and mid 70s, with massive retroactive appreciation of the simply extraordinary second half of the 60s. Jazz and classical came to me much later. But it was almost a matter of macho self image that the means of playing the music should be perversely disregarded. It was only when I was living in... Read more...
The Fine Print
They used to be called liner notes. Nowadays, since there’s not always a “liner,” we call them CD booklets, or text inserts, or . . . liner notes. Downloads offer them too: “digital program booklets.” Notes are important to classical fans. If there’s a song or an opera in a foreign language (which, in the case of sopranos, includes English!) then we may want a translation. If it’s something new to us—Beethoven, Busoni, doesn’t matter—we’ll also want background, context, anecdotes. Performers may want to add personal thoughts. Exhaustive personnel lists (e.g.,... Read more...
Ireland
Ireland
Along the Irish coast. Canon 5D Read more...
How to Make a $50 High-End XLR Interconnect
From enthusiasts who deny their contribution to those who spend thousands on them, cables are one of the more highly debated topics in audio. While building a system, this widespread skepticism and polarization can leave an audiophile scratching his or her head about how much they should spend. My opinion is that there are falsities on both extremes of the spectrum. In order to get the maximum performance out of your system, good quality cables are a must; yet, they don’t need to break the bank. The most economical way... Read more...
What is a CD player?
We all understand what a CD player is; a box we insert CDs and play them. But, not so fast. What’s going on inside? What are the basic elements of a CD player and why do Audiophiles not use them very often, preferring instead CD transports and DACs? Back to the beginning On October 1, 1982, Sony placed the first nail in the LP’s coffin with its release of the world’s first commercial compact disc player, the CDP-101, in Japan. The launch signaled a new audio medium that promised to... Read more...
Issue 15
Issue 15
Welcome to Copper # 15! Our contest in issue #13 produced dozens of interesting submissions in response to the question, “What’s really new in audio?” Those entries are featured in Incoming Letters, along... Read more...