Copper


Issue 102

It's 102 – I got a fever and the only cure is more music! Announcing a new contributor: Wayne Robins. Wayne is a veteran music critic and journalist, former editor...

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BandLab: Reviving Iconic Brands for Musicians

When Gibson Guitars was descending into its eventual Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of October, 2017, one of the most demoralizing warning shots was the announcement months earlier that technical support...

Missing the Pazz and Jop Critics Poll

What’s Happening to Best Album of the Year Lists For many pop music critics, December was once the most joyous month, and it had nothing to do with holidays. Immediately...

An Ode to Cassette Tape: Part Two

When thinking of the ultimate cassette deck, many people think of Nakamichi. The company made some of the most impressive cassette decks ever. They were used by audiophiles and professionals,...

Zaida

The headline in the local Jewish newspaper read, “Orthodox Man Accuses Delicatessen Owner of Cutting Meat With a Knife Used for Cheese.” This heresy of mixing meat with milk was...

CHAM Session

CHAM, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. My next radio station move was a big one – to another country! A program director I had worked for at WAMS in Wilmington, Delaware was...

Steve Waksman, Rock Musicologist

(Author’s note: Last November at a meeting of the American Musicological Society, Professor Steve Waksman, who holds joint appointments in American Studies and Music at Smith College, gave a fascinating keynote paper, “A...

A Journey Through The Absolute Sound

I discovered high-end audio in 1978. But I always seemed to have a natural inclination towards high quality experience. My father was a largely self-trained EE, who was hired at...

Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice

Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787), today a largely under-appreciated composer, was an important influence on Mozart, primarily because of his approach to writing operas. Happily, some of his works do get...

Patsy Cline: Country Music Groundbreaker

Country music groundbreaker Patsy Cline was born in Winchester, Virginia, in 1932. In fact, her first name was Virginia; family and friends called her Ginny. She was not, however, born...

The Truth Isn't Out There

It plays records as intended…always a good thing. From Audio Engineering, May 1953. I actually wore this badge at CES 1995. I wonder if any aliens got into the show?  ...

Some Winners, and a Complete Snooze

Miles Davis Quintet – The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions Miles Davis had been laboring for a number of years in the early fifties, hamstrung under an exclusive contract to Prestige Records. Who...

My Life with Harry Pearson

I worked for Harry Pearson full-time for many years in the late 1980s through early 1990s as technical director, managing editor and pop music reviewer and wrote for The Absolute Sound from...