Copper


Issue 41

Issue 41Opening Salvo

Welcome to Copper #41! The title isn't to announce a James Taylor retrospective---sorry to crush your hopes--- but is just what I see in today's weather reports. The Pacific Northwest, where I'm...

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Conrad-Johnson Sold

Issue 41INDUSTRY NEWS

Bill Conrad and Lew Johnson were government economists who happened to be dedicated audiophiles—dedicated enough to build their own gear. In 1977 the pair introduced a vacuum tube preamplifier whose...

LP Playback: Is It Really Reference-Quality?

Issue 41FEATURED

Is it truly superior if it has not one, but two iterations of eq; an extra gain stage; a signal-to-noise ratio that is definitely not so superior; inner-groove distortion; variable performance; and...

Show on Show on Show

Issue 41THE AUDIO CYNIC

The title is of course an allusion to “In the Bleak Midwinter”.  Make of that what you will; it just came to mind, unbidden, while thinking yet again about audio...

Anohni

Issue 41... AND INDIE FOR ALL

British singer-songwriter Antony Hegarty now uses a “spirit name,” Anohni. She also now prefers female pronouns, although she has always considered her gender to be fluid. As she told the Guardian,...

Bang & Olufsen, Part 2

Issue 41VINTAGE WHINE

Continuing from Part 1 , we’ll look at more legacy Bang & Olufsen products in the city museum of Struer, Denmark, B&O’s home for nearly a century. In the last issue, we...

Right on the Edge of Disaster

Issue 41HOBGOBLIN

Here’s a simple question: which is more fun to drive down a winding country road at 30 miles an hour? A new Bentley or a 1969 Jaguar? Most car fans...

The Beauty of Song Part 1

Issue 41FEATURED

The magic of classical song springs from the fact that it requires a singer and accompanist to construct an entire emotional universe in a very short amount of time. You...

Welcome to the Smoke on the Water Jungle Sweet ...

Issue 41FEATURED

Imagine John Cleese with a red dot on his forehead, wearing a lungi and sitting on stage, playing Indian classical music on an alto saxophone. Carnatic musician Kadri Goplanath looks so much like the...

Art

Issue 41MUSIC'AL NOTES

“Hello, this is Robert Rauschenberg’s personal secretary. Mr. Rauschenberg wants to know if you would like to swap art for a pair of speakers?” In 1981 I opened a factory...

What Is a Symphony?

Issue 41QUIBBLES AND BITS

Most of you who do not make a habit of listening to classical music will have heard of a Symphony, and know that it is some sort of portentous orchestral...

Meetings With Remarkable Men, Part 2

AND OTHER ILLNESSESAUDIOIssue 41MUSIC

I wasn’t much of a Grateful Dead fan at first. A neighbor said I should come to his house to hear Workingman’s Dead, and I thought it was OK. The next...