Copper


Table of Contents – Issue 209

Issue 209Opening Salvo

“I see music as fluid architecture.” – Joni Mitchell In this issue: Paul McGowan begins a series on the 50th anniversary of PS Audio. Octave Records releases one of its...

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The Other Folk Singers, Part Three

Issue 209Featured

I belong to a listening group that gets together to socialize and listen to music. We meet in each of our homes on a rotating basis. The host provides the...

PS Audio Celebrates 50 Years

Issue 209Paul's Place

Over the next couple of issues or so, Copper will feature reminiscences by Paul McGowan, co-founder and CEO of PS Audio and Octave Records, which look back on the history...

Leveraging Karma for Fun and Profit

Issue 209Featured

My mother was disgusted. “How can he exploit a young girl like that?" she exclaimed as she passed the newspaper. The headline read: "82-Year-Old Millionaire to Wed 22-Year-Old Model." It was accompanied...

Pianist Tom Amend Plays Jazz Classics: 1950s on...

Issue 209Octave Pitch

Audiophiles and music lovers alike have a special place in their hearts for classic jazz and standards, and Octave Records’ latest, Jazz Classics: 1950s from pianist/organist Tom Amend will be...

My Experience With Commercial Four-Track Reel-t...

Issue 209Featured

Just as I was running out of things to write about for Copper, a mysterious gift landed on my doorstep. One day, someone left a large bag at the reception...

How to Play In a Rock Band 2: Why Would You Wan...

Issue 209Frankly Speaking

In Part One (Issue 208), I noted the fact that I’ve had more than 50 years of playing in rock bands, and during that time I’ve seen people make every...

Singer/Songwriter JD Souther and the Return of ...

Issue 209Disciples of Sound

There were a lot of secret musical weapons in the 1970s to help make that Southern California sound so special. Some of these artists weren’t always the headliners, weren’t always...

Test Records and Demo Discs, Part Five

Issue 209Audio Anthropology

In the days before digital music, the primary medium for sound reproduction was vinyl records. Sure, there were some who preferred reel-to-reel tapes, but they were in the minority. The...

Two Mendelssohn Symphonies: the "Italian" and t...

Issue 209Featured

Copper has an exchange program with AAA (Analogue Audio Association) magazine of Switzerland (and other publications), where we share articles, including this one. The Swiss author Ernst Müller is a...

John Lennon’s Mind Games – The Ultimate Collection

Issue 209Disciples of Sound

It’s almost impossible to fathom that when John Lennon set out to make his fourth solo record in 1973 he was only 33 years old. When you consider how much...

The Vinyl Beat

Issue 209The Vinyl Beat

INXS: Kick Analogue Productions, Atlantic 75 series Hot off the Analogue Productions presses, the popular 1980s album Kick by INXS is one of the latest titles in the Atlantic 75...

The Many Faces of NAMM 2024, Part Two

Issue 209Show Report

At NAMM 2024, Harris Fogel took a lot of photos. Well, he is a photographer after all. Part One of this picture-packed photo essay ran in Issue 208. Here are...

Zach Bryan, Bars and Stars

Issue 209Wayne's Words

Even the armed forces news is amazed at the speed with which Navy veteran Zach Bryan became a music star. He was still on active duty in 2020 when he...

The Business of Why Vinyl Has Survived: Talking...

Issue 209The Copper Interview

Rene Wiedner is an organizational sociologist at Warwick Business School, which is part of Warwick University in Coventry, England. He studies change processes in organizations and industries and the relations...

PS Audio In the News

Issue 209PS Audio In the News

Tech publication Gear Patrol featured the aspen FR5 loudspeaker with the headline, “This Hi-Fi Speaker Offers $30,000 Specs for a Tenth of the Price.” The article noted, “The American hi-fi...

Attention Shoppers!

Issue 209Audio Anthropology

  Scene from a Japanese audio store in 2006. We wonder what those prices would be like today! Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Tomer Gabel.     Here's one of the many...

Application Error

Issue 209Copper Classics / The Run-Out Groove

 This cartoon originally appeared in Issue 157.

Back to My Reel-to-Reel Roots, Part Eight: More...

Issue 209Copper Classics / Natural Born Kessler

It goes without saying that tape deck maintenance – such as cleaning the heads and pinch rollers, periodic demagnetizing, etc. – are essential practices which (circa-2022) only come naturally to...

Architectural Textures

Issue 209Issue 209

Detail of a wall in Mission San Xavier del Bac near Tucson, Arizona, painted in the late 1700s. San Xavier Mission was founded in 1692. It's the oldest intact European...