Clickbait has become pervasive. It’s not hard to see why, especially if you’re a media insider – editors, publishers, websites, forums, cable news stations et al are all are under some degree of pressure (like, say, 2,000 atmospheres for some outlets) to draw eyeballs. Sensationalistic and curiosity-piquing clickbait is really effective at doing that. Once upon a time in screenland, there were three US TV networks and they were regulated by the FCC. Along came the internet, and Pandora’s Box opened.
We won’t use clickbait here. Sure, Copper aims to be entertaining, informative and thought-provoking and I love a good pun, especially when it comes to headlines. And we do want you to read our articles! But I’m here to tell you (as my friend from Texas likes to say) that personally, clickbait is far more distasteful than amusing to me, and in worst cases it's misleading, irresponsible and/or flat-out malicious. (Data mining, anyone?) We don’t and never will stoop to using clickbait as a way to get attention. We’re good enough to be above that.
We’re proud to announce our new contributor, Russ Welton. He’s an international music journalist, former editor of UK Acoustic magazine and was in musical instrument retailing. He’s also an English teacher, qualified assessor, photographer and a quintessential audio dweller.
In this issue: Anne E. Johnson covers the musical heights of Kate Bush and Johann Christian Bach. Octave Records announces a new reference audio test disc and system setup book. John Seetoo incorporates the tale of Koss Corporation. Adrian Wu goes deeply into tube testing, and Galen Gareis of ICONOCLAST and Belden goes really deep into an important yet overlooked aspect of audio cable design. Russ Welton gives some tips on speaker setup. J.I. Agnew gets his dream piano playing!
WL Woodward gets the blues with John Mayall. Tom Gibbs reviews new releases from Death Cab for Cutie, Steve Earle and the Dukes and the enigmatic jazz singer Judy Stuart. We have part two of my interview EveAnna Manley of Manley Laboratories. Ken Sander meets Grace Slick, Jefferson Airplane and other characters. B. Jan Montana gets an education, and Stuart Marvin schools us on the economics of streaming. Ray Chelstowski has fond memories of French Kiss. We round out the issue with James Whitworth feeling lost in translation, Peter Xeni finding the third time’s the charm, having our buttons pushed and going back down where cool water flows.
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