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A Visit to Loudspeaker Maker Pure Emotion Audio...
Copper has an exchange program with FIDELITY magazine (and others), where we share articles, including this one, between publications. Curiously enough, SPL is rarely considered a criterion when defining what characterizes an exquisite,...
Vampire Hunting, Part Two: What Is Running Up O...
In Issue 203, I provided an introduction to the “vampires” that live in our home, electronic devices that are consuming power while plugged in and idle or on standby. Today,...
In Praise of Live Music
Perhaps that’s an odd title for a magazine that caters primarily to an audience of audiophiles and music collectors. So let me offer a bit of background. I fell in...
Capturing Jazz Lightning In a Bottle: Recording...
As one of the first musical art forms created in the US to attain worldwide acclaim and acceptance, jazz straddles the line between the challengingly cerebral harmonic complexity found in...
Vampire Hunting: What Is Running Up Our Energy ...
The cost of energy is something we consider at least once a month when the utility bill arrives. Like most anyone else reading this, I have seen our household electricity...
2023: My Year in Music
Looking back at 2023, I realized it was a fairly good year for me musically. I don’t buy many new recordings, but I caught up on some reissues from the...
The waVox Museum – A Monument to Willi Studer a...
Copper has an exchange program with AAA (Analogue Audio Association) magazine of Switzerland (and other publications), where we share articles, including this one. Willi Studer. Willi Studer's life's work...
Treasures from the Vinyl Vault, Part Two
Copper has an exchange program with selected magazines, where we share articles, including this one, between publications. This one's from PMA Magazine: the Power of Music and Audio. Welcome to my series, Treasures from the Vinyl...
Long Island’s Audio Den Opens a New Listening Room
The Audio Den has been one of the New York Metro area’s top dealers since 1976. Like so many other retailers, they expanded into home theater and custom installation in...
Tokyo Jazz Joints: Immersion in a Parallel Univ...
Copper has an exchange program with FIDELITY magazine (and others), where we share articles, including this one, between publications. That smell! Nothing compares! Old record sleeves, the dust of decades past. ...
Treasures from the Vinyl Vault, Part One
Copper has an exchange program with selected magazines, where we share articles, including this one, between publications. This one's from PMA Magazine: the Power of Music and Audio. Welcome to the first installment of Treasures from...
Sound Waves and the Roaring Twenties: The Legac...
Copper has an exchange program with selected magazines, where we share articles, including this one, between publications. This one's from PMA Magazine: the Power of Music and Audio. In the early 20th century, particularly the...
A Classic Turntable's Forgotten Roots: the AR XA
When the AR XA turntable came out in 1961, it was an instant classic – almost immune to external shocks and vibrations, low in rumble, and priced at a shockingly...
The Audio Butterfly Effect
The best-fitting suit is a well-tailored one. You likely would never expect to try on a garment in a store and have it fit perfectly, if taken randomly from just...
The Next Voice You Hear
So you had better do as you are told/you better listen to the radio.” (Elvis Costello, “Radio Radio”) Sanyo catalogued the MR2810 2-Band Radio Cassette Recorder in 1982. I received...
A Visit to Piega Loudspeakers
Copper has an exchange program with FIDELITY magazine (and others), where we share articles, including this one, between publications. Every reason to be in a good mood: The two managing directors, Manuel...
Two Hands Clapping
It was a lot of money, even with the student discount. He had never been to the symphony, let alone invested in an eighth row center orchestra seat. He wasn’t...
More Scenes From the Los Angeles and Orange Cou...
In Issue 196, Harris Fogel attended meetings of the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society (LAOCAS), which included visits to AudioQuest in Irvine, California, and area dealers The Source...
Some Old Jazz Guy: Exploring Michael Franks, Pa...
Part One of our Michael Franks series (Issue 191) covered his first four albums. With this installment, we’ll continue with the next batch of albums. Released in 1979, Tiger in...
How to Improve Your Sound System With Your Mind...
Copper has an exchange program with selected magazines, where we share articles, including this one, between publications. This one's from PMA Magazine: the Power of Music and Audio. In Part One (Issue 196), I mentioned the phenomenon...
In Praise of Domestic Venues
Some of the lads looked disappointed, others seemed disgusted. You’d think I had just recommended Jack Daniels over Woodford Reserve. The ambience in the room went flat like Sunday morning champagne. Maybe...
The Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society...
The Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society (LAOCAS) is one of the largest audio clubs in the country. Its membership spans the greater Los Angeles and Orange County areas,...
Thorens' 140-Year Anniversary: Navigating Vinyl...
Copper has an exchange program with FIDELITY magazine (and others), where we share articles, including this one, between publications. It’s hard to imagine the record player world without Thorens – and yet...
How to Improve Your Sound With Your Mind, Part One
Copper has an exchange program with selected magazines, where we share articles, including this one, between publications. This one's from PMA Magazine: the Power of Music and Audio. Your audio system was supposed to...
Zen and the Art of Sound Reproduction
Most of us squander far too much of our time engaged in “self-talk.” Our minds are continually preoccupied with “what if” scenarios and how to resolve them, even though these...
Simple Acoustics, Complicated Spouses
When I was a teenager, I told my girlfriend that I loved her so much that I would die for her. She replied that if I died, her life would...
The Musical Instrument Museum: A World of Music...
The Musical Instrument Museum (MIM), located in Phoenix, Arizona, possesses 14,000 instruments and other artifacts that are housed in a state-of-the-art 200,000 square foot structure containing 350 exhibits. It is...
Dreamin’ Wild: The Movie and the Music
Actress Lana Turner was discovered while drinking a milkshake at Schwab’s pharmacy. Pam Anderson was at a football game when her picture suddenly flashed across the Jumbotron. Justin Bieber’s journey...
Who Would Believe That I Now Like My Parents’ M...
A recent TV commercial plugging some insurance company’s homeowner's policies suggested that it’s really hard not to become your parents. Lately, my music tastes sometimes reflect theirs, something I could...
Desert Island Discs? Pfft! Here’s a Real Challe...
I have to think that most our readers are familiar with the concept of “Desert Island Discs.” The premise is to make a list of albums (usually 10) that one...
Which Audio System is Best?
As I mentioned in my review of T.H.E. Show SoCal 2023 in Orange County, California (Issue 191), after every show I cover, some of my fellow San Diego Music and...
A Visit to Audeze, Maker of High-End Headphones
If popularity is a sign of importance, one peek around the show floor at a CanJam, Capital Audiofest, or NAMM show makes clear how important headphones manufacturer Audeze has become....
How Do You Listen to Music?
Many years ago, when I was just 19, I started taking guitar lessons from a great friend of mine, to whom I am eternally grateful for his influence and input...
Some Old Jazz Guy: Exploring Michael Franks, Pa...
“A few years ago we were playing the House of Blues in New Orleans (a perennial stop for us). I left after the sound check to hunt down some vegan...
Loudspeaker Phenomena – The Result: A Gap
Copper has an exchange program with FIDELITY magazine (and others), where we share articles, including this one, between publications. A good hi-fi system reproduces an incredible amount of detail: a...
Reconsidering Conductor James Levine
Great artists and thinkers are no stranger to controversy. Richard Wagner, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot and Roald Dahl were all rabid anti-Semites. Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Norman Mailer – among others...
Engaging and Enthralling Music for All: Talking...
Dr. Sean Olive is a Senior Fellow, Acoustic Research, at Harman International. He has extensive expertise related to perception and measurement of sound quality, and oversees Harman’s corporate R&D acoustics...
A Road Rally for Lemons: the 2023 Rocky Mountai...
“Don’t die.” “Lemons Rally is not a race!” “Obey all traffic laws.” The rules of a Lemons Rally, a spinoff of the 24 Hours of Lemons racing series, are fairly...
Desert Island Discs? Pfft! Here’s a Real Challe...
I have to think that most our readers are familiar with the concept of “Desert Island Discs.” The premise is to make a list of albums (usually 10) that one...
The Return of Tower Records: Welcome Back, You’...
At a time when institutions and entities we cherish might disappear, the rebirth of the Tower Records brand is especially welcome. Since the company’s Chapter 7 liquidation in 2006, I...
You Don’t Know What You’ve Got ’Till It’s Gone:...
It seems to me that in recent years the lyrics to Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” have never been more relevant when looking through the lens of musical instrument shop...
Beyond Face Value: The True Cost of Ticket Pricing
Not so long ago, businesses lived and died by the price tag, that sticker affixed to an item served as a contract between the customer and purveyor. But what if...
CTI Records, Part Six: The Keys to CTI
Keys – keyboards, and their players – play a big part in CTI’s many recordings, both as sidemen and as musicians featured on their own CTI or Kudu albums. Here,...
Confessions of a Tube Collector, Part Two
In Part One of this series (Issue 183), I discussed the history of the of the vacuum tube. Since it all started with the development of the diode, we might...
Remembering Producer Phil Ramone, 10 Years Later
The 10th anniversary of the passing of Phil Ramone at the age of 79 is upon us. A giant of the music industry, he was at the helm for a...
Eccentric Records (and How to Fix Them)
We are talking here about physical, not psychological or emotional, eccentricity (that could be a whole ‘nother article). In Issue 184, fellow writer (and parts fabricator extraordinaire) J.I. Agnew wrote...
Last of the Free Birds
Lynyrd Skynyrd began in 1960s Jacksonville, Florida. For those unfamiliar with Florida, Jacksonville is about 20 miles from the Georgia border, a few hours’ drive from Alabama, and a quick...
Confessions of a Tube Collector, Part One
The vacuum tube (or thermionic valve in British usage) is probably the greatest invention of the 20th century. It heralded the beginning of the information age, an event as significant...
Desert Island Discs? Pfft! Here’s a Real Challenge
I have to think that most our readers are familiar with the concept of “Desert Island Discs.” The premise is to make a list of albums (usually 10) that one...
Don Leslie’s Whirling Dervish Speaker Contraption
There are a few gentlemen in particular who deserve strong recognition for the development and evolution of several modern-day musical instruments. Included in this distinguished group of instrument makers are...