Copper

Head Land

This photo is called Head Land because of the dreamlike cloud formation and its heady feel. Taken at Gara Point, South Devon, UK, at the mouth of the Yealm estuary,...

Something for Everyone

Make that more than 100 years. 1975 ad for the imaginatively-named Garrard Zero Tracking Error Tonearm. When it comes to vinyl playback, everyone’s got an angle.   Ken Kessler: in...

Clarinetist Don Byron: You Can't Pin Him Down

Some things in this world are impossible to pin down. Clarinetist Don Byron’s favorite genre seems to be one of them. Jazz? Yes, but jazz is a whole universe of...

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...

The Mystery of the New York Acoustics Nova 1 Lo...

Roy Brunjes was a petroleum engineering graduate of Penn State University, and worked for thirty years with Texaco, including a ten-year stint in England as part of the North Sea...

Impatient Audiophile

Everything but the Girl: British Sophisti-Pop

On Beverly Road in Hull, England, there used to be an old furniture shop called Turner’s. Its slogan was painted across the front awning: “Everything but the girl.” Two young...

Kevin Whelan of the Wrens and Aeon Station

Kevin Whelan is an indie-rock veteran who had long been on the scene with his band, the Wrens. The group, dating back to 1989, has been beloved by fans and...

Jim Anderson and Ulrike Schwarz: Immersive Audi...

With multiple Grammy Award wins and nominations to their credit, as well as European awards such as the Echo Klassik and Le Diamant d’Opera, Jim Anderson and Ulrike Schwarz have...

The Florida Audio Expo 2022 – A Bold Step Towar...

My second trip to the Florida Audio Expo (FAE) in Tampa was one that was marked with a certain amount of uncertainty and anxiety on my part. Initially, I was...

Three Days with Frank Sinatra, Part One

Bill and Judy Green hosted parties for the Who’s Who of the day’s society pages. I recognized most of the people who regularly attended, not only from TV and movies...

Around the World In 80 Lathes, Part Eight

Introduced in 1970, the Neumann VMS-70 was the result of the continued evolution of the company’s AM 31 (introduced in 1931 as the first Neumann disk recording lathe), keeping the...

Nero Fiddles While Rome…

Sorry folks but I’m having a hard time thinking about the state of my current audio system or writing about music. The Russian attack on Ukraine has just about eaten...

Sometimes I Sit and Listen to Courtney Barnett

Courtney Barnett had me the first time I heard “Pedestrian at Best,” from her 2015 debut album, Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit, which, if you spend any time...

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 Ups and Downs of Touring

As the spring of 1971 turned into summer we continued along with Superstar’s bus and truck tour. (see “Calling the Lubbock Lights” in Issue 156 for the previous installment about the Superstar, The Original Touring...

How Do You Q? Adjusting A Speaker’s Frequency R...

Do you want to make adjustments to your speaker’s in-room frequency response and quell those unwanted pesky peaks and dips? Do you understand how equalization (EQ) works but have always...

Ann Wilson: From Heart to Fierce Bliss

It is sometimes rare to find established artists who have something new to say, something new to prove, or some new creative impulse they simply have to share. Ann Wilson...

Springtime Solace

For me, music always has been, is, and will be, solace. Even during, and perhaps because of, the toughest times. In this issue: Wayne Robins sometimes sits and listens to Courtney...

Stairway to Fremer

(To the tune of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven") There's a lady who's sure all that glitters are tubes And her name sounds just like EveAnna Manley,” When she gets...

Pilgrimage to Sturgis, Part 16

That evening, I related to Melody’s family the story of the interesting dialogue I’d heard from the senior citizens on the beach. Melody’s brother started laughing. “You don’t think they’re...

Back to My Reel-to Reel-Roots, Part 10

In which Ken Kessler makes a discovery linked to his dad. Only the churlish would deny that there’s an element of nostalgia in the Reel-to-Reel Revival, however much the inescapably...

Spring Is in the Airwaves

A pair of ultra-rare circa 1970s KA/Kustom Acoustics loudspeakers, model number unknown, spotted at Angry Mom Records in Ithaca, NY. KA was based in Chicago and is not to be...

Disconnect

Speak, Friend, and Enter

A church entrance in Stow-on-the-Wold, England, that our guide said was the inspiration for the entrance to the Mines of Moria from The Lord of the Rings. We were told that J.R.R....

Primal Music

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

Many listeners avoid 20th-century classical music: they associate it with compositions that are aggressive, clamorous, dissonant and, in general, irritating. They don’t like the atonal or 12-tone (dodecaphonic) music that...

Francisco Guerrero: Catching On Again, Five Cen...

The Spanish composer Francisco Guerrero (1528 – 1599) might be nearly unknown outside of early-music and choral circles, but his name keeps popping up on albums over the past couple...

Yusuf/Cat Stevens: Soundtrack of the Seventies,...

His folky, insightful songs, brimming with humor and pathos, helped create the soundtrack to the 1970s. And then Cat Stevens left the field, changing his name and devoting himself to...

My First Speakers

As promised back in my article, “Shop Class” (Issue 151), it was time to build some speakers. I had already built a preamp from a Popular Electronics article, but had no way to really...

John Klemmer, Part Two: The Saxophone Touch

Part One (Issue 157) covered John Klemmer’s early recordings from 1967 – 1970. With five albums at the Cadet and Cadet Concept labels behind him, Klemmer made a move to Impulse!...

Choosing New Speakers: Not Left on the Shelf

I have recently written a pair of articles about the value of Spinorama speaker measurement data (Issue 156 and Issue 155). Spinorama produces a set of data derived from measuring a speaker’s...

The Two Sides of Billy Preston

Old-school 45-rpm records have an A- and B-side. The A-side is the featured song an artist or producer believes has “hit” potential. The B-side is considered less promising, though occasionally...

Jim Anderson and Ulrike Schwarz: Immersive Audi...

Jim Anderson and Ulrike Schwarz have multiple Grammy Award wins and nominations to their credit, as well as European awards such as the Echo Klassik and Le Diamant d’Opera. The...

Timeless Elegance

A stunning Philips GA 312 turntable, circa late 1970s. People were wowed by its touch-sensitive illuminated controls. Close up of the GA 312. The light-up controls are the three buttons...

Michael Jackson and MJ: The Musical

As Seen Through a Woke Prism As Copper is and should always be about the music, I want to say this up front. Looking at his career purely as a...

CES 2022, Part Three

On to the Show Floor! After seeing the offerings from Cambridge Audio and Meze Audio at the Bellagio hotel (see my coverage in Issue 154 and Issue 155), I headed...

McGowan Park

Based on “MacArthur Park” by Jimmy Webb, as recorded by Richard Harris The Linn was never waiting for us, Frank, It ran one step ahead As we followed in this...

Pilgrimage to Sturgis, Part 15: Dockside Chatter

As Melody’s dad was delivering the tractor to his son, I wandered over to the trout pond. Some of the senior citizens from Rapid City were fishing on the pier....

The Audiophile’s Brain (Or, Why We Do This)

Most audiophiles, at one point or another, encounter a skeptic – someone who righteously opines that what we do in this hobby (like spending more on high-end gear than on...

Fazed

Back to My Reel-to-Reel Roots, Part Nine: Who K...

KK finds out that embracing a dormant format is full of surprises. Audiophiles come in many flavors, and I am not even remotely bothered by those who are, say, equipment...

The Beatles and India: the Documentary

This year The Beatles: Get Back documentary caught the eye of even casual fans. Over last year’s holiday break I found myself interrupting so many people who were watching it...

Love Sculpture

Created by artist Laura Kimpton as part of her Monumental Word Series, the 36-foot-wide LOVE sculpture resides at The Venetian in Las Vegas. Nancy Burlan of Mac Edition Radio poses...

Control Freak Out

John Wasserman, Critic, Part Two

In Part One (Issue 155), we were introduced to the work of the late San Francisco Chronicle entertainment critic, John Wasserman. In this installment, I’ll tell you more about his...

Around the World in 80 Lathes, Part Seven

The last episode in this series (in Issue 156) discussed the technological and aesthetic shifts in the record cutting lathe manufacturing industry that began in the late 1970s and concluded...

Greg Tate, In Memoriam

In December of 2021, we lost the effervescent, warrior soul who was Greg Tate. Some know Greg Tate as the chest-beating activist, who solemnly swore to fight for equal rights,...

John Klemmer, Part One: Saxophone Gold

Many years ago, more than I care to admit, my woodwind instructor recommended a handful of records to me as an inspiration for the type of tone he was looking...

Regina Carter: A New Take on Jazz Violin

Regina Carter grew up playing classical music: first piano, then violin, and even a bit of oboe. But while studying at New England Conservatory, she realized she had the jazz...