Copper
More People Who Make Audio Happen: T.H.E. Show ...
This year's West Coast T.H.E. Show SoCal 2025 took place in June in Costa Mesa, California. Issue 220 (last issue) has B. Jan Montana's show report, and we continue our...
Inner Sleeves (And What You Can Learn From Them)
In the days before digital music, the primary medium for sound reproduction was the vinyl record. Sure, there were some who went with reel-to-reel tapes, but they were in the...
Peter Asher's Life, in Concert
Songs and Stories, at My Father's Place in Roslyn, NY, June 29, 2025 It's not often that you see a show by an 81-year-old musician, who could have been...
Maria Stader: Opera's Other Maria
Copper has an exchange program with selected magazines, where we share articles, including this one, between publications. This one's from Switzerland's AAA Magazine. Together with the tenor Ernst Haefliger,...
Quantum Technology and the Future of Music and ...
2001: A Space Odyssey is a film which greatly influenced my future. The movie's HAL 9000 computer may or may not have been thinly veiled as a fictional IBM creation...
From The Audiophile's Guide: More About Optimiz...
This article is part of a series of excerpts from The Audiophile's Guide, a 10-volume set that offers guidance and knowledge about all aspects of audio reproduction and system setup. Previous...
The Vinyl Beat In a 12-inch Singles World
Many collectors take 12-inch singles for granted. The format had various promotional/test pressing uses over a couple of decades prior to the mid 1970s. One of the first available for...
The People Who Make Audio Happen: Rock’N’R’Oliv...
As noted in the last issue, NAMM is the world's biggest music industry trade show, filled with instruments, artists, concerts, parties, and people. It’s a big event, ranging from the...
PS Audio in the News
The Absolute Sound included the Stellar DAC in its listings of best DACs under $5,000, with a YouTube video review. TAS noted, “In the ever evolving landscape of digital audio...
Back to My Reel-to-Reel Roots, Part 20
At the risk of courting lawsuits from retired octogenarians, I find myself unable to resist attacking the easiest of targets: record labels. To be more precise, the major labels circa...
Radiotrician to the Rescue!
We haven't seen many Marantz receivers with this interesting black and silver color combination. This one's an MR215, made from 1978 to 1980. It delivered a modest 18 watts...
Harmonious Path
Baby it’s cold up here, especially in the summertime when no-one gears up for this type of weather. This photo was taken at Sonora Pass, California. "Sonora" comes from...
How to Post Comments on Copper
We get queries on how to post comments at the end of Copper articles. Here's how to get set up to leave comments: To comment at the end of an article, you...
Table of Contents – Issue 220
“And when he feels the world is closing in/he turns his stereo way up high” – The Kinks, “A Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy” In this summer issue: I review the...
On the Scene at T.H.E. Show 2025
On Friday, June 6th and Saturday the 7th, I attended T.H.E Show in Costa Mesa, California with my friend, Jim Carry. This year, T.H.E. Show included a car audio...
They Say It’s Wonderful: Octave Records Present...
Brian Nova is a world-class jazz guitar virtuoso and vocalist, and on Octave Records’ latest, They Say It’s Wonderful, he takes listeners on a nostalgic musical journey through a varied...
Orchestra in the Age of Algorithms: A Reflectio...
In a world shaped by TikTok – a world that scrolls by in seconds and speaks in soundbites – where does an orchestra belong? What becomes of nuance in an...
The Kinks – The Journey, Part 3, and an Intervi...
About a year ago, the Kinks released The Journey, Part 1, the first of three double-album retrospectives commemorating the band’s 60th anniversary. The Journey, Part 2 followed at the end...
Blues History By Way of Classic Rock Part 2: T...
Introduction I decided to construct a playlist of music from the 1930s for my own listening enjoyment. In doing research of leading artists from that decade, I discovered some household...
Buzz Me In: Inside the Record Plant Studios, a ...
The former Record Plant studios in New York and California are the stuff of music legend, places where a mind-blowing number of hit albums and singles were recorded, and mind-bending...
Laura Nyro's Final on Vinyl
Angel in the Dark: a Last Look Back When I spoke to Laura Nyro in 1993, she had released what was then her last studio album, Walk the Dog and...
Quick Takes: Stjernebru, Ola Onabulé and Nicola...
Stjernebru (2L Records) Stjernebru is a new release from Morten Lindberg’s 2L Records, which, as the Norwegian company states, specializes in making recordings in spacious acoustic venues: large concert halls,...
From The Audiophile's Guide: More About Room Tr...
This article is part of a series of excerpts from The Audiophile's Guide, a 10-volume set that offers guidance and knowledge about all aspects of audio reproduction and system setup. Previous...
Confessions of a Setup Man: An Unexpected Audio...
It’s well-known among audiophiles that our systems can sound better or worse from day to day. Sometimes, the better the system, the more inconsistent it can sound. Over the past...
How to Play in a Rock Band, 13: Adventures at t...
While I usually play an average of a gig or so a month, once a year our band gets the opportunity to play multiple gigs in a single three-day stretch...
What’s the Story with Meters in Home Audio Play...
Analog VU meters with bouncing needle displays have long been present on audiophile components, particularly amplifiers and tape decks. Think of the 1970s and 1980s vintage gear made by...
Robin Trower’s Classic For Earth Below Album Ri...
Robin Trower has never sat still. His tenure with the band Procol Harum from 1967 to 1971 was cut short because he simply kept coming up with musical ideas that...
The People Who Make Audio Happen: Adventures at...
NAMM is the world's biggest music industry trade show, filled with instruments, artists, concerts, parties, and people. It’s a complex event, ranging from the trade show, to NAMM U for...
The Vinyl Beat: New Grooves and Old Favorites
New Grooves: Here are some recent new additions to the collection. The Blackbyrds: City Life (Jazz Dispensary/Craft Recordings) Back in the early 1970s, Donald Byrd departed from his hard bop...
Back to My Reel-to-Reel Roots, Part 19: Reports...
(Please note that this installment relates directly to the previous column, published in Issue 219.) Having established that my comparison between the Tuchel and the four-banana-sockets line-level outputs on the...
PS Audio in the News
The Audiophiliac aka Steve Guttenberg called the Aspen FR5 loudspeaker “PS Audio’s heavyweight champion,” noting that it “filled the room in a way that few small speakers can do.” He...
Shades of Summer
Those of us of a certain age remember seeing countless tube components that looked like this 1950s Bell Model 2200C integrated amplifier. This one's missing its bloated-looking tube cage. Courtesy...
Uplifting
This dad repeatedly picked up his little girl in response to her endless requests. The picture was taken on Fletcher Cove in Solana Beach, California.
How to Post Comments on Copper
We get queries on how to post comments at the end of Copper articles. Here's how to get set up to leave comments: To comment at the end of an article, you...
Table of Contents – Issue 219
“And for everyone who thinks that life is just a game/do you like the part you’re playing?” – Love, “You Set the Scene” In this issue: Jeff Weiner looks at...
Narada — The Other New Age Label, Part One
Quite possibly the most-maligned genre of music in the last 60 years (aside from progressive rock, which I also enjoy), new age had its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s....
The Wood Brothers Celebrate Their 20th Annivers...
Next year The Wood Brothers celebrate their 20th anniversary as a band, and in advance of that milestone they are about to release their ninth studio album, Puff of Smoke...
Bruckner for a Desert Island: Ambling in Realms...
Translation by Stéphane Treyvaud Copper has an exchange program with selected magazines, where we share articles, including this one, between publications. This one's from Germany's FIDELITY magazine. Anton Bruckner (1824 – 1896),...
Another Bucket List Event: the 19th Annual La J...
On Sunday, April 27, 2025, the 19th Annual La Jolla Concours d’Elegance rolled unto the Pacific coastline for a celebration of style, elegance, and engineering. What began as a modest...
The Vinyl Beat: The Cat’s in the Bag?
With AXPONA 2025 safely in the past, it’s time to hop back into the listening room with some records. I didn’t spend a penny on vinyl at the show (too...
From The Audiophile's Guide: Room Treatment and...
The previous installment on room treatment appeared in Issue 218. If you’ve already set up your system using the guidelines in The Audiophile’s Guide: The Stereo or The Loudspeaker,...
Talking With Yair Raz of Speaker Maker Innovo A...
Innovo Audio Designs is a relatively new company that makes active loudspeakers, with a unique take on built-in amplification and design. Their very distinctive Luxe T1 first caught my attention...
Suzanne Vega Paints Her Masterpiece Flying with...
I've known Suzanne Vega since 1983, when she was a receptionist at a publishing company and sent some lyrics to me at the New York office of Newsday. The words...
Blues History By Way of Classic Rock, Part One:...
Introduction I decided to construct a playlist of music from the 1930s for my own listening enjoyment. In doing research of leading artists from that decade, I discovered some household...
How to Play in a Rock Band, Part 12: Eating and...
Timing is everything – especially when it comes to eating and drinking before, during and after gigs. You want to be at your best when performing, and this requires giving...
Living Dangerously with Adona Corporation’s Zer...
Not to be confused with an insect, a Black Widow spider is a type of poisonous arachnid, which means that, among other things, it has its skeleton outside of its...
Octave Records Presents Singer/Songwriter Clay ...
Few albums convey the raw emotional intensity of an artist like Octave Records’ latest release, Clay Rose Live at Dharma Barn. It’s a stark, unvarnished presentation of a man and...
Hear the Quality!
Let's face it, not many audio components are as iconic as a McIntosh MC275 vacuum-tube power amplifier. This all-time classic was made from 1961 to circa 1970 and was reissued...