Copper


Around the World In 80 Lathes, Part 30

Issue 180Revolutions Per Minute

Having pretty much completed our journey around the world in 80 lathes (or perhaps a bit more than 80, but anyway), today we will be visiting The Netherlands, not to...

Capital Audiofest 2022: Up Close and Personal, ...

Issue 180Show Report

My wife, Nancy Burlan, editor and reporter for Mac Edition Radio, asked me: “should we attend the Capital Audiofest this year.?” That was back in July 2022. It seemed like...

Jeff Beck: In Memoriam

Issue 180Twisted Systems

No, there is no cute way to begin this one. There is no “another one bites the dust.” Not even a “somewhere over the rainbow.” I just don’t have it...

Stephen Stills’ Manassas: An Album, A Band, A W...

Issue 180Wayne's Words

I came to praise Manassas, or Manassas, but now I’m not so sure. It seemed like a good idea a few weeks ago, when a streaming link to this Stephen...

Octave Records Debuts The Art of Hi-Fi Series w...

Issue 180Octave Pitch

PS Audio’s Octave Records’ has introduced an all-new series called The Art of Hi-Fi. Each recording in the ongoing series will showcase a different aspect of high-quality audio reproduction, beginning...

Goodbye to Jeff

Issue 180Opening Salvo

Sadly, we’ve lost a lot of great artists, but this one hit particularly hard for a lot of us: Jeff Beck passed away on January 10, 2023 at the age...

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Checking Out xDuoo's Affordable MT-604 Headphon...

Issue 180From the Listening Chair

Earlier this year, I received a sample of xDuoo’s MT-604 fully-balanced tube headphone amplifier from online retailer Apos Audio. At an asking price of $169, it offers more sexiness per...

Celebrating the Linn Sondek LP12 Turntable, Par...

Issue 180Natural Born Kessler

Ken Kessler recounts anecdotes from the LP12’s heyday to create an impressionistic picture of the scene in the 1980s. For those who “weren’t there” – that is, living in the...

Back to Analog – Academy Award-Winning Songwrit...

Issue 180The Copper Interview

“(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” was the Billboard Number 1 Hot 100 hit single from the 1987 Dirty Dancing soundtrack album, one of the biggest selling (over 32...

Ryan Hamilton: A Wicked Cool Rocker

Issue 180Disciples of Sound

When Huey Lewis and The News sang “the heart of rock n roll is still beating” back in 1984, rock was arguably in its strongest position ever. FM rock radio...

Lounging with In-Ear Monitors, Part One

Issue 180From the Sweet Spot

If one of the greatest limitations to getting good stereo sound is the dominating effect of your room’s sonic and tonal personality, then what might be a better way of...

Home Entertainment Formats Over the Past 50 Yea...

Issue 180Featured

Technological advances in the 1970s brought unprecedented conveniences for consumer home entertainment that continues a half century later in the digital age. Further examination of the machinations that ultimately gave...

Dig This: Philadelphia’s Vibrant Vinyl Scene

Issue 180Featured

I spent a lot of time in Philadelphia when I was a graduate student at Rutgers University. It was an easy trip from New Brunswick, New Jersey to central Philly...

Talking With Producer/Musician Butch Vig of Gar...

Issue 180Idle Chatter

It's safe to say that the landscape of alternative music would be wildly different without the efforts of producer, engineer, and drummer Butch Vig. In the 1980s, Vig positioned himself...

Miles and Miles, Part Two

Issue 180True-Life Rock Tales

My thinking was that since I made it from NY to Chicago on Wednesday then I could make it to Denver on Thursday. Only a thousand or so miles, slightly...

Daft Punk: They Were the Robots

Issue 180Off the Charts

When Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo were in high school in Paris in 1992, they started a band called Darlin’. It was a guitar-based indie trio with a friend...

Exploring CTI Records, Part 2: The Subsidiaries

Issue 180Featured

CTI Records had been an independent label for only a year when Creed Taylor began creating subsidiary labels. While a couple of these subsidiaries were very limited, the Kudu label...

Bach’s St. Matthew Passion: New Interpretations...

Issue 180Something Old / Something New

There have been some great creative duos in music history. The pairing of Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte justifiably gets a lot of attention – they wrote Don Giovanni,...

Highway 61 Revisited — And a New Beginning In t...

Issue 180To Be Determined

I have a long history with the Charleston, South Carolina area, beginning when my high school best friend Steve’s dad bought a fixer-upper 35-foot sailboat and had it towed to...

Lord Knows I Try

Issue 180Parting Shot

Photographed in Manhattan on 15th Street between Second and Third Avenue.

Issue 179

Issue 179Opening Salvo

Our B. Jan Montana concluded his epic Pilgrimage to Sturgis saga in Issue 178. A number of readers and this editor were sad (and some quite emotional) to see it...

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Celebrating the Linn Sondek LP12 Turntable, Par...

Issue 179Natural Born Kessler

It was the turntable that rattled cages around the world in the 1980s and 1990s – Ken Kessler, with jaundiced eye, recalls the power of the Linn Sondek LP12. It’s...

The Doppler Effect

Issue 179Audio Anthropology

Object of desire: a Bang & Olufsen Beogram 1800 turntable. This sleek, fully-automatic turntable looks dazzling in person. The Beogram 1800 was simplicity itself to operate and changing cartridges was...

Allnic Audio's Striking H-5500 Phono Stage

Issue 179From the Listening Chair

Founded by Kang Su (“KS”) Park, Allnic Audio is based Sungnam City, South Korea. In the early 1990s, Park started Silvaweld, known mostly in Asia and Europe for its single-ended...

Lucky Men

Issue 179Parting Shot

Here's another in a series of street scenes from Silver City, a small town in New Mexico with a population of 9,578 as of 2021.

Around the World In 80 Lathes, Part 29

Issue 179Revolutions Per Minute

The Cost of Everything and the Value of Nothing During the period from 1992 until 2002, Peter Copeland, employed by the British Library, wrote the Manual of Analogue Sound Restoration...

The Many Sides of David Chesky

Issue 179From the Sweet Spot

Located in the former Time Warner Building, now The Deutsche Bank Center, is Dizzy’s Club. Along with Rose Hall and The Appel Room, the three venues comprise Jazz at Lincoln...

In the Room With Miles

Issue 179True-Life Rock Tales

In the early ’70s I was doing a stint at Elektra Records when Jac Holzman, the president, asked me to accompany him to a small event for Miles Davis. This...

Tim Riley’s Best Albums of 2022

Issue 179Featured

Country-pop surges, even as Shania Twain and Margo Price stare January down. And as beleaguered as culture feels for the Next Great Consensus, the variety feathering so many different year-end...

The Life and Times of a Sony Audio Engineer: Ta...

Issue 179Featured

I first had the pleasure of becoming recently acquainted with Aston Sharman, when I stumbled upon his intriguing boutique, Vintage Technology Workshop, tucked away in the UK’s historic Barbican area...

The Cowsills: The Family That Plays Together, S...

Issue 179Disciples of Sound

Few bands became part of the fabric of American music more quickly than The Cowsills. Discovered in their home town of Newport, Rhode Island in 1967 by a producer for...

Borrowing (Stealing?) from the Classics

Issue 179Complete Recovery

Cov•er•ing: in music, performing a song that has been written or recorded by the original artist Bor•row•ing: obtaining or receiving something with the understanding that it will be returned (or,...

Nearly $400 Poorer, Here Are My 2022 Black Frid...

Issue 179Featured

File under, “inside the head of a Record Store Day consumer.” Since 2014, it’s been like clockwork. Twice a year I download the Record Store Day (RSD) upcoming titles list...

Confessions of a Record Collector, Part Three

Issue 179Frankly Speaking

We record collectors are a compulsive bunch. I talked about some of the not-quite-rational lengths to which we will go in order to acquire vinyl in Issue 137 and Issue...

Exploring CTI Records, Part One: 1969 – 1971

Issue 179Featured

At the end of the A&M 60th anniversary series in Copper (in Issue 176)I featured recordings released as a collaboration between A&M Records and Creed Taylor’s CTI imprint. This CTI...

Why I'll Stick with FM Radio and Won't be Strea...

Issue 179Sitting In

Over the past year or so I’ve noticed an increasing use of streaming services to supply the music at audio shows and other audiophile events. This article explains why I...

Hear, There, Everywhere: Part One

Issue 179The Mindful Melophile

One of the many wonderful things about music is its ability to help us discover and appreciate musical styles from around the world. Some composers and performers assimilate styles from...

Andrew Daly's 15 Best Rock Albums of 2022

Issue 179Idle Chatter

In the early wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the music business was left in shambles. The outlook on touring seemed bleak, and artists’ ability to sustain themselves through new albums...

Chet Baker: A Rough Life Full of Smooth Trumpet...

Issue 179Trading Eights

Chet Baker’s life was as rough as his vocal and trumpet sounds were smooth. His vibe is unmistakable and had a big influence on some of the biggest stars in...

Dwight Yoakam: Country Music, His Way

Issue 179Off the Charts

Dwight Yoakam fans are mad. Not at him, of course. They’re frustrated that, five decades into his career, Yoakam has still not been inducted into the Country Music Hall of...

An Interview With Mobile Recording Innovator Da...

Issue 179The Copper Interview

We began our interview with mobile recording pioneer David W. Hewitt in Issue 178. Hewitt and his mobile trucks recorded thousands of concerts from hundreds of artists across the United...

Audio Up Close: the Magico A3 Loudspeaker

Issue 178From the Listening Chair

“From the Listening Chair” is a new column that will focus on picturing current audio components and loudspeakers, as opposed to the vintage photography that Howard contributes to “Audio Anthropology.”...

Sincere Flattery

Issue 178Opening Salvo

As a fortune cookie connoisseur, I may have found the best one yet: “Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery.” Especially when it comes to audio gear!...

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Holiday Warmth

Issue 178Audio Anthropology

Some serious “wow” factor here – a 1950s McIntosh C-104 mono tube preamplifier. It used three 5751 tubes and could accommodate five (mono) audio sources.   Detail shot of the...

An Interview With Mobile Recording Innovator Da...

Issue 178The Copper Interview

David W. Hewitt is one of the pioneers in designing remote multitrack recording studios. He and his mobile trucks recorded thousands of concerts from hundreds of artists across the United...

Around the World In 80 Lathes, Part 28

Issue 178Revolutions Per Minute

Having visited the Great British disk recording industry in our last episode (Issue 177), it is now time to ask where it all began. How did they start eating beans...