Copper

Welcome to Copper #37! As temperatures topped triple digits in much of the US, I flashed back to the days when I kept physical media in my car. In the cassette era,... Read more...

The Castle on the Coast

An ancient castle still stands guard on the coast of Ireland. Read more...

McIntosh Group Adds Co-CEO

[As discussed in Industry News in issues #25 and #26 . there have been a number of changes recently at McIntosh Group, the umbrella group for McIntosh Laboratory, Audio Research, Sonus faber, Sumiko, Wadia, and Pryma. The latest change is addition of an industry vet as co-CEO to longtime McIntosh president Charlie Randall. It appears McIntosh will be entering the OEM car audio market—a logical area of growth for the brand. It’ll be interesting to see how well they fare against the monolithic market share of Harman, whose OEM car audio brands include Becker, B&O, JBL,... Read more...

Interpreting Purcell

Henry Purcell (1659-1695) lived at an expansive time in British music history, when artistic freedom had been restored after a generation of repressive Puritan control. Somehow this allowed Purcell to tap into timeless universals of human existence. Not only is his music still performed often, but it gets reconceived for new eras more than most composers’ work does. On the CD Purcell : Britten – Purcell Songs Realised by Britten (Champs Hill Records), six singers perform Benjamin Britten’s arrangements of one of his favorite composers – and this was a man deeply... Read more...

Controversy Corner ?

Part One: Past 50? Is your hearing still good enough to worry about your system’s sound quality? I’ll never forget these intertwined events. It was in the early 1980s. I was recording the Alabama Symphony for the Birmingham National Public Radio affiliate. Several leading union musicians (from the Symphony tape committee) and the conductor would visit my shop one night each month. I’d play back the master recordings that I had recently made of concerts that were to be broadcast. Their job was to pick the best performance. Then I... Read more...

Has Music All Been Downhill Since 1969?

Some 30 years ago, I was involved in a debate with a younger co-worker on another magazine – let’s call him “Martin T”– about something I had posited, and with which he violently disagreed: that hi-fi sales followed directly the quality of the music of the day. Sales were beginning the decline that today has high-end audio with the entire industry enjoying a global turnover of less than what Apple does in a day. [Okay—we’re talking under $600M. I think the audio world is a tad bigger than that, Ken—Ed.]... Read more...

Hey! Hey! It’s the Monkees!

In 1966 I was 12 and the world was 9. I had no truck with those so-called rockers The Beatles from England with cute voices only partly because the girls my age were freaking nuts about those guys. Mostly I was very upset about the existential probability that a large portion of the female population in my particular age group were exhibiting disturbing mental lapses in judgement and might volunteer themselves as slaves to four guys with weird accents. Luckily, I was 12, it was the summer of 1966, and the benchmark... Read more...

Adrian Crowley

Adrian Crowley might as well be the love child of Lou Reed and Leonard Cohen. The Dublin-based songwriter has the intense introspection, cracking baritone voice, and distaste for sentimentality that both of those masters of originality were known for. A few months ago, I heard Crowley perform live in a rare U.S. appearance, thanks to the New York Irish Art Center’s SongLives indie series. Crowley’s self-effacing presence and the powerful emotional sophistication of his poetry intrigued me, so I was eager to explore his many recordings. He’s been at this... Read more...

Ephemera

Back in the ’70’s, Ron Gilbrech, then a salesman at Opus 2 in Memphis, said to me, “y’know, as much as you’ve spent on magazines, you could’ve bought a killer system by... Read more...

The Wong Way

“Dear Roy, Thank you for email. Our guy would like meet you 30 minutes before boat time. The meeting place in selling tickets place in CHINA Ferry Terminal 2f. The person pick you up in CHINA Ferry Terminal would be Samson. Mr. Wong will wait you on the Lien-Hua-Sun Port directly.” I was excited. Mr. Wong was legendary in the hi-fi business. He made cabinets for some of the best speaker manufacturers in Europe and I was invited to meet him and tour his new factory somewhere in Guangdong province.... Read more...

Happiness is a Warm Bun

At least it can be, when that bun is freshly baked and straight from the oven. And, happily for me, my wife bakes a pretty mean bun! But can you... Read more...

Multiple Personality Disorder

A few years ago I spotted a bizarre trend in popular music. I’m not sure if it’s “blue car syndrome”—how if you talk about blue cars, suddenly it seems as though they’re freaking everywhere— or if it really is spreading like a virulent bug at CES. On second thought, I think it’s spreading. And I’m a little scared. Not to get all new-agey think-globally yadda yadda, but the modern world has issues with boundaries. Not just geographic ones: I’m talking about the respect of interpersonal boundaries. More accurately, the lack of respect of... Read more...

Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality – the Why, but mostly the Why Not Today, July 12th, I’ve received a dozen emails with subject lines like “Today we save the internet”, and “One Day to save the internet”. And they’re still coming in: “The free and open internet is under attack.” I assume we all know why a neutral internet is important — among other issues, we don’t want to be charged more if we choose to use one provider’s software over another. That’s straightforward. Groups like the Electronic Freedom Foundation have long argued... Read more...

Fireworks and Fizz Water

Hey there, classical fans. Let’s talk shallow pleasures! Excuse me? Didn’t we do “fun” last month? Look, it’s midsummer. Temperatures in the 90s. No shade anywhere. We had a Glorious Fourth: hot dogs, cold beer, kids blowing their fingers off. Who wants to read about Wagner and Brahms? I concede your point. Nevertheless, please make your trifling remarks worth my time. Why? You know you’re going to spend the rest of the day listening to old Fleetwood Mac records and messing with your preamp. Or wishing you could get out... Read more...

Steve Hoffman, Part 2

[In the first part of this interview, Steve and John Seetoo discussed Steve’s beginnings in the mastering world, his mentors, and some of his favorite projects. Thanks to Steve for taking the time to talk with John for Copper! —-Ed.]J.S.: You’re almost as well known for your forum as for your mastering work. How did that community develop? S.H.: (laughs) There was a forum that my old company DCC Classics, began, basically to answer questions about our releases. That had 700 to 800 hardcore audiophile members. They would ask the questions and they’d... Read more...

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