Copper

Public Access TV, Part Two: Ken Gets Pranked

As time progressed, I added two more public access television shows to my resume. (See my previous article, “Public Access TV: A Perfect Soapbox” in Issue 160.) My newest show, Speak Out launched in...

Octave Records Releases The Audiophile Referenc...

PS Audio’s Octave Records has released two more titles on vinyl LPs: The Audiophile Reference Disc, created to help listeners get the best out of their stereo systems by providing reference-quality music and test...

Across the Great Divide

Monarch Pass, near the United States Continental Divide, Colorado.

Live Versus Recorded Music

I went to a rock concert a couple of weeks ago. This was only my second such show since the pandemic began (not counting a few bar gigs involving local...

Cathal Coughlan: From Microdisney to Telefís, A...

Acclaimed Irish singer-songwriter Cathal Coughlan, formerly of Irish rock bands Microdisney, The Fatima Mansions, and others, is always progressing, with an eye on setting trends, not following them. If ever-interesting,...

The Big Bang Theory

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...

The Everly Brothers: In and Out of Harmony

With their boyish good looks, energetic and hummable tunes, and perfectly-matched voices, the Everly Brothers enraptured the American public and the world. While they were at it, they turned the...

James Reese Europe: Jazz Rhythm in Army Boots

There are great bandleaders, great composers, and great organizers, inventors, and advocates. And then there was James Reese Europe (1881 – 1919), who excelled in every one of those endeavors....

Gazing Back Into the Abyss

This past May 2 marked the ninth anniversary of thrash metal guitarist Jeff Hanneman’s (1964 – 2013) passing at age 49. He was a founding member of Slayer, which formed...

Pilgrimage to Sturgis, Part 21

There’s something about a garage that makes guys feel comfortable. Perhaps, deep down in our primordial brains, it reminds us of the protection and safety of caves. All the light...

We All Belong...

Thanks, mom. For everything. “La, la la la, la la la, la la la,Sing a simple song,We all belong,Only to Time…” – Jim Dawson, “City Song/Simple Song" (click below to...

Running Hot and Cold

95 Tears

I cried a little bit when Jerry Garcia died. I saw the Grateful Dead for the first time in 1967 and was in awe. I became a Deadhead and saw...

In Search of the Real Nick Drake

Who exactly was Nick Drake? Nicholas Rodney Drake was born June 19, 1948, in Rangoon, Burma, where his father Rodney served as an engineer with the Bombay Burma Trading Company....

A Pre-Entry-Level Analog MP3 Killer

This is the first in a series of semi-serious reviews – unabashedly replete with unsubstantiated speculations, hyperbole, unverified assumptions, conjectures and barely logical conclusions. But first, a story: In the...

Beethoven Trios: Beyond Archduke

One of Ludwig van Beethoven’s most beloved works of chamber music is the so-called Archduke Trio, named after the Austrian nobleman it was dedicated to. But the Archduke is only one of over 20 pieces...

Warren Zevon: Exceptional Boy

Warren Zevon could never have been a standard, mainstream rock star. His life started out with too many extraordinary elements to allow him to be mainstream. He was fated to...

The Joys of Monophonic Recordings, Part One

The development of modern stereophonic recording technique is generally credited to British engineer Alan Blumlein, who started experimenting with it during the first half of the 1930s, even though some...

How AXPONA Got Its Groove Back, Part One

One man. More than 150 rooms and 200 exhibitors. 25 seminars. 22 hours. AXPONA 2022. There’s a reason why audio-show coverage is almost always incomplete: no one person can cover...

Crowning Achievements

A Fisher 440-T receiver circa 1964. By this time, transistors were starting to supersede tubes, and this 40 watt-per-channel model is the first Fisher transistor receiver. It’s known for having...

Pristine Classical: Preserving Priceless Histor...

Historical performances don’t get a lot of love from audiophiles. And let’s face it: many historical performances were recorded using primitive equipment, under less-than-ideal conditions. To modern ears, accustomed to...

Mickey Finn of Jetboy: Glam Metal Lives!

The 1980s glam metal scene is retrospectively revered by some and derided by others. While it ultimately may be diplomatically viewed as a mixed bag, one thing is certain –...

Hearing Loss - Now It’s Getting Personal

After recently interviewing Scott Newnam of Audio Advice (Issue 161 and Issue 160), I reflected on the answers to one of the questions I had asked him: What question do audiophiles very...

Tiny Dancer

This dashboard hula dancer is a traveling good spirit.

Showgazing

As you might have seen or heard, AXPONA 2022, Audio Expo North America, was a big success. Literally, with more than 7,500 attendees visiting more than 150 rooms. It felt good to...

The A&M Records Story, Part Three

Our last installment (Issue 161) found A&M in transition, moving away from the vocal and instrumental pop and vocal sounds into some British rock and domestic rock and folk acts, as well...

Back to My Reel-to-Reel Roots, Part 14: Origina...

Like vintage watches, pre-owned tapes are best appreciated with mint, original packaging. Ken Kessler finds they often disappoint. It was our friend Jeff Dorgay at TONEAudio who first identified me as an...

Paying the Price

Separation Anxiety

Phil Ramone: Making Records: The Scenes Behind ...

I’ve been reviewing the autobiographies of many of the producer/engineers who are responsible for a great many of the records that Copper readers and music fans around the globe have loved for...

Around the World In 80 Lathes, Part 12

In our previous episode (Issue 161), we discussed the “lightweight” category of monophonic cutter heads made from the 1930s through the 1960s. These moving-iron record-cutting heads, manufactured by RCA, Presto, Rek-O-Kut, Fairchild,...

Jack Tempchin: Songwriter to the Stars

There are a thousand reasons why Jack Tempchin is in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Of course, some of these reasons are tied to the timeless tunes he has written...

Pilgrimage to Sturgis, Part 20

  The early morning sun blasted through the shade of my window like a World War II searchlight mounted on the neighbor’s roof. I tried to avoid it by turning...

The A&M Records Story, Part Two

In our last article (Issue 160), I presented some of A&M Records’ earliest recordings beginning in 1962, featuring the breezy California pop and instrumental music styles they ultimately became associated with. (A&M...

The Year Was 1977

In 1976, I began using an engagement calendar as a sort of shorthand diary to keep track of the things I’d done and people I’d met and been with –...

The Global Supply of Vacuum Tubes: What Happens...

Several weeks back, Jay Jay French discussed in his article, “Nero Fiddles while Rome…” (Issue 158), that the atrocities still taking place in Ukraine make our pastime of audio seem frivolous in...

Lester Young: President of Jazz

In 1909, a jazz master was born, one whose legacy should get more attention than it does. Maybe it’s because Lester Young played with Count Basie for so long that...

Pilgrimage to Sturgis, Part 19

  Chip’s 2-1/2-car garage was a corrugated steel building facing the alley, and was insulated with orange, expanded foam spray. The place was lit up like a gymnasium with two...

Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Lucky Men

It was called progressive rock, but when Emerson, Lake & Palmer played this genre, it looked as much back into music history as it did forward into the newest reaches...

Fest for Beatles Fans Gets Back

I recently attended my first Fest for Beatles Fans in 20 years. I needed to recharge my Beatles batteries, which I did on April 4 and 5 at the New...

From Small Things, Big Things One Day Come

No, this is not a review of the great Springsteen-penned and Dave Edmunds-performed tune, although perhaps I will do an article on Dave Edmunds in the future as I just...

Still Singing! A Bit of Talking! A Little More ...

This month’s article, Part Two of “All Singing! Some Talking! A Little Dancing!” (Part One appeared in Issue 156), includes additional choral music selections in a variety of forms – and...

Back to My Reel-to-Reel Roots, Part 13: Re-Educ...

After the last two issues’ litanies of sins, by both the tape manufacturers and the end users (but not the vendors), I tried to place myself back in the 1950s...

Geoff Emerick’s Here, There and Everywhere: Rec...

Artistic geniuses at a young age are not entirely uncommon, as prodigies from Mozart to Derek Trucks bear witness. When the Beatles broke out with their first record in 1962,...

Like a Picasso: Bonnie Pointer’s Lost Album, Re...

The Pointer Sisters were a musical force of nature. Across 20 years beginning in the 1970s they released fifteen albums, delivered 13 top twenty hits, and won three Grammys. Songs...

Grazing in the Grass

This was an amazing moment. We had just arrived at this New Zealand farm/hotel/sheep ranch with only six guest rooms and their own restaurant. Terri and I unpacked and walked...

Take Me to the Pilot

Look at this beauty! Toshiba AM radio, 1955. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Masaki Ikeda (talk).   A late 1950s or early 1960s Pilot Radio Corp. SA-232 stereo amplifier. These were high-quality amps...

Chris Haddox: A Decades-in-the-Making Debut

Chris Haddox’s journey through music is like no other. Having dropped out of college at the age of 21, Chris Haddox moved to Nashville to stake his claim amongst an...

Outstanding Digital Downloads, Recently Added t...

This issue, I’m taking a listen to some digital downloads I’ve recently acquired. These include some interesting catalog albums that I’ve either never had on compact disc or any digital...

More Speaker Setup Tips From Audio Advice's Sco...

In Issue 160 we covered the useful Home Theater Designer loudspeaker setup software developed by Audio Advice, an audio/video retailer and systems integrator with showrooms in Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina. This free online interactive utility...