Copper
Talking With Larry Jaffee of Making Vinyl, Part...
Copper contributor Larry Jaffee is the co-founder of Making Vinyl, an industry organization dedicated to fostering cooperation among those in the record-manufacturing industry. Larry is also the author of Record Store Day: The Most...
150 Favorite Rock Albums: More Mini-Reviews
In Issue 150 I listed my 150 desert island favorite rock albums, and offered a first batch of mini-reviews in Issue 151. I got a range of comments and e-mails, from complements to derision...
How AXPONA Got Its Groove Back, Part Three
Part One and Part Two of this report appeared in Issue 162 and Issue 163. Once again, I’ll note my usual show report qualifiers: it was impossible to cover everything even in three days,...
How AXPONA Got Its Groove Back, Part Two
Part One of this report appeared in Issue 162. To recap my usual caveats: it was impossible to cover everything even in three days. I never make definitive judgments about sound...
How AXPONA Got Its Groove Back, Part One
One man. More than 150 rooms and 200 exhibitors. 25 seminars. 22 hours. AXPONA 2022. There’s a reason why audio-show coverage is almost always incomplete: no one person can cover...
Copper and PS Audio's WL "Woody" Woodward: In M...
It was the kind of message you never want to get. On March 16, 2022, Paul McGowan informed me that Copper writer and PS Audio director of operations WL “Woody” Woodward had...
Confessions of a Setup Man, Part 14: The Reluct...
I don’t think I really have the temperament to be an audio product reviewer. That’s because I don’t like saying bad things about products or people. Even if they deserve...
The Spreckels Organ: A Historic Musical Treasur...
In Part One (Issue 154) we looked at the history and the technology behind the remarkable Spreckels Organ, the world’s largest pipe organ in an outdoor venue. It was built...
The Spreckels Organ: A Historic Musical Treasur...
The Spreckels Organ is a remarkable musical instrument: it is the world’s largest pipe organ in an outdoor venue. It was built in 1914 in Balboa Park, San Diego, California, commissioned by...
Who Decides What’s Good or Bad? And, Some Mini-...
In the process of putting together a list of 150 favorite albums for Issue 150, the thought struck me yet again: what determines whether music is good or bad, anyway? I think...
From Rock to Schlock: 150 Desert Island Albums
Most “desert island” record articles make the assumption that you can only take a handful of discs with you that you can’t live without. Well, since the concept of being...
Jazz Lives: Saxophonist Frank Catalano Ascends
Last summer I had the honor of playing on a bill with tenor saxophonist Frank Catalano and his quartet, at the Port Palooza festival in Port Jefferson, New York. I’d...
Confessions of a Setup Man, Part 13: Engineerin...
I’m not a degreed engineer. True, I understand and can write about complex concepts. In fact, I’ve edited and rewritten articles by engineers, some of whom are way better at...
Twisted Business: Jay Jay French’s Lessons Lear...
Jay Jay French was the lead guitarist and is the business maven behind Twisted Sister, one of the world’s most successful rock bands with more than 20 million records sold....
Seeking Clarity About Transparency
Back in the 1980s or maybe earlier, “transparency” became the buzzword in high-end audio. Harry Pearson of The Absolute Sound was a big proponent of the term, and soon many reviewers and sycophants jumped...
Confessions of a Record Collector, Part One
I wonder if a lot of Copper readers are record collectors. Well, I suppose that’s like asking if dogs like bones. Record collecting can be fun or frustrating, cheap or expensive. Finding...
Copper Listens to Copper: Stockfisch Records’ D...
Stockfisch Records is an audiophile label established in Germany in 1974 by owner/producer/engineer/Günter Pauler. The label has been releasing recordings on vinyl, DSD, SACD, Blu-ray and other formats and their artist...
Cliff Chenfeld: From Razor & Tie to Kidz Bop an...
We are proud to have Cliff Chenfeld as a Copper contributor. You may not know that along with Craig Balsam, he was the co-founder of indie label/music publishing company Razor...
Art Dudley: A Tribute
On July 11, 2021 at Brown’s Brewing Company in Troy, New York, a memorial event was held to celebrate the life of Art Dudley, who passed away on April 14,...
Confessions of a Record Collector, Part Two
In Part One (Issue 137) I noted that many of us have made the transition from mere purchasers of record albums to hopelessly hooked vinyl collectors. For example, my friend Alex, who...
Living With Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity: D...
Electromagnetic fields (EMF) are all around us. We’re constantly bombarded by low-level EMF from computer screens, Wi-Fi, cell phones and other devices. However, since EMF is invisible, most of us...
Confessions of a Setup Man Part 12: Failed Expe...
Many audiophiles are tinkerers. We’re constantly striving to squeeze the last iota of performance out of our audio systems, or we just like to putz with stuff, or we’re obsessive-compulsive....
Talking With Andrew Hoffman of Audiophile Archi...
Audiophile Archive and Grading Services (AAGS) is a vinyl record-grading and archiving company. They clean, inspect and grade records, certify their grading and record a high-resolution digital audio backup, among other...
Will A Perfect Audio System Ever Exist?
As a hard-core audiophile, I’ve spent the better part of my life working on improving my audio systems. I’ll admit – mostly because of selfishness. I want to hear music...
EveAnna Dauray Manley of Manley Labs, Part Two
In Part One (Issue 129), EveAnna talked about her early musical influences and career, the origin of Manley Laboratories and Vacuum Tube Logic (VTL), and she how she came to...
EveAnna Dauray Manley of Manley Labs, Part One
EveAnna Dauray Manley is the president of Manley Laboratories, Inc., makers of high-end consumer and professional vacuum tube audio equipment. The company’s audiophile products include the Steelhead RC and Chinook...
Hanging With Les Paul
Les Paul was a tremendous influence not only on guitar players but anyone who’s ever listened to music recorded after around the late 1940s. Aside from being a dazzling guitarist...
Confessions of a Setup Man 11: Can A System Be ...
As audiophiles, we are on what can sometimes seem a never-ending quest for better sound from our systems. After all, the better the sound, the closer we are to the...
Steve Guttenberg: the Audiophiliac, Part One
Steve Guttenberg is the host of The Audiophiliac Daily Show, a popular YouTube channel with more than 157,000 subscribers. Steve has written for numerous audio and mainstream publications and websites including CNET, The...
Steve Guttenberg: the Audiophiliac, Part Two
In Part One of this interview (Issue 125) we talked about Steve’s first memory of listening to music, his careers as a projectionist and an audio salesperson, and how he...
Confessions of a Setup Man, Part 10: No Directi...
I was a shy kid. The fact that I was skinny, had big ears, a big nose and big teeth, developed psoriasis when I was 13 and probably wouldn’t have...
Hearing Loss and the Need for High-End Audio
Many of us have hearing loss. I do. I used to be able to hear the 15.7 kHz whine that a flyback transformer would make in old CRT (cathode ray-tube)...
Gayle Sanders of Eikon and MartinLogan, Part Two
In Part One, Gayle talked about his formative years in audio and the founding of electrostatic loudspeaker company MartinLogan...and left us with a cliffhanger as all of the company’s CLS...
Talking With Gayle Sanders of Eikon Audio and M...
Gayle Martin Sanders was one of the co-founders of electrostatic loudspeaker manufacturer MartinLogan, along with Ronald Logan Sutherland. (They combined their middle names to name the company.) The company first...
Confessions of a Setup Man, Part Nine: Inconsis...
Many of us know that the sound of our stereo changes from day to day or even hour to hour. Very often the better (or more sensitive, or finicky) the...
Confessions of a Setup Man, Part Eight: Too Hot...
When I was working at The Absolute Sound as Harry Pearson’s set up man in the mid 1980s through early 1990s, Goldmund was a name at the top of the high-end pantheon....
A Visit to Audio Classics: Vintage Vibe, Modern...
Founded in 1979, Audio Classics, located in Vestal, New York, is one of the world’s foremost dealers of vintage, used and new audio equipment. They specialize in classic McIntosh components and are...
Rumer: Nashville Tears
Rumer has one of the most beautiful and captivating voices I’ve ever heard, a sublime mix of purity and expression. Her 2010 debut album, Seasons of My Soul, went platinum in the...
Talking with Carl Marchisotto of NOLA Loudspeakers
Carl Marchisotto is the president of Holbrook, NY-based Accent Speaker Technology, manufacturers of NOLA loudspeakers. Before then, Marilyn and Carl owned Acarian Systems, makers of Alon speakers, and Carl worked...
Confessions of a Setup Man, Part Seven: You Can...
When I was a few years out of college I had put together a pretty respectable stereo system, in large part thanks to the advice of my friend and The...
Confessions of a Setup Man, Part Six: Sinister ...
What Goes Up, Must Come Down When I worked at The Absolute Sound as Harry Pearson’s setup man he had a strict rule: no shoes could be worn in his house. I...
Introducing Octave Records: Audiophile Sound, B...
Hope you don’t mind if I put on my proud-family-member hat here, to announce that PS Audio has just launched a new record label, Octave Records. As you might expect, Octave...
How I Met Buck Dharma of Blue Öyster Cult
When I was a teenager I wanted to be a rock star. Every month, the magazines Creem and Circus came out and I devoured them, windows into that mythical rock and roll world I...
The Incalculable Influence of Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk’s influence on today’s pop music is so pervasive, the band is so historically important, and so much has been written about them already that doing an introduction here almost...
Getting It Wrong: Confessions of a Setup Man, P...
Audio system setup is, I feel, as much an art as a science. I suppose one school of thought would insist that there’s only one way to get it “right,”...
In Memoriam: Art Dudley
The audio industry lost one of its greatest with the passing of Stereophile Deputy Editor Art Dudley on April 14, 2020 from metastatic cancer. I’m having a tough time writing this because...
You’re Grounded! Confessions of a Setup Man, Pa...
Hum has no place in an audio system. It’s often caused by improper grounding. When I worked at The Absolute Sound from around the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, eliminating unwanted hum was a...
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...
James Lee Stanley: Musical Survivor
Every now and then I’m going to write about artists who deserve wider recognition. I can think of no one more deserving than James Lee Stanley. Since 1972 the singer-songwriter-producer-recording-engineer-actor...