Copper


Dr. Fang Bian of HIFIMAN

Issue 137THE COPPER INTERVIEW

HIFIMAN manufactures high-end headphones, headphone amps, portable music players, headphone cables, and other products. The company was founded in by Dr. Fang Bian in 2007 in China and, two years later, introduced...

Strategy

Issue 137FEATURED

Despite no record of accidents ever, or tickets for the last 25 years, the state recently demanded I renew my motorcycle license. That included a written test. The California DMV...

Confessions of a Record Collector, Part One

Issue 137FRANKLY SPEAKING

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...

Superstar: The Long Tour

Issue 137TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

Beginning in 1972, I was involved in the production of Superstar, The Original American Touring Company (OATC). It was a touring version of the hit album Jesus Christ Superstar (see my article in Issue 118). Superstar was...

Sub Missive

Issue 137SPEAKER STORIES

Optimizing the bass response of an audio system is well worth the effort, as most audiophiles will attest to. It requires an initial investment of a little time and effort,...

C.J. Vanston – Producer, Film Composer, Musicia...

Issue 137THE COPPER INTERVIEW

Record producer to the stars and Hollywood film composer C.J. Vanston has more talents than seems humanly possible. Not only is he a go-to record producer and first-call film composer,...

Dr. Patrick Gleeson: The Interview, Part Three

Issue 137THE COPPER INTERVIEW

Musician, engineer, producer,  professor of 18th Century English literature?! You may not be familiar with the name Patrick Gleeson, but he has quite a résumé. He ditched a career as a...

Vertical Integration

101613Issue 137AUDIO ANTHROPOLOGY

Courtesy of Paul's Posts reader Joseph Pickel: “My grandmother worked for Victor Talking Machines in Camden, New Jersey. Throughout the years, she had saved a few ads and I thought...

The Giants of Tape, Part Four

Issue 137REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE

This time we’re going to have a look at another Ampex tape machine, an ATR-104 with plenty of extras! It lives at Airshow Mastering in Boulder, Colorado (not too far from PS...

Reflectivity

Issue 137PARTING SHOT

Photo shot at Peña Blanca Lake, Coronado National Forest, Arizona.

Accountability

Issue 137Opening Salvo

When you’ve been paying your dues, after a while you want to start drawing on your account! ****** We warmly welcome our newest staff member, Tim Riley. He’s an NPR...

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The Jazz Side of Henry Mancini, Part Three

Issue 137FEATURED

In our last installment (Issue 136; Part One appeared in Issue 135), we left you at the Banzai Pipeline, surfing your way to one of Henry Mancini’s greatest big band tunes....

The Doobie Brothers: Long, Slow Burn

Issue 137OFF THE CHARTS

Sometimes a goofy gag turns out to be a brilliant idea. The name “The Doobie Brothers” was supposed to be a puerile reference to the amount of pot the band...

Illinois Jacquet: Reed Man

Issue 137TRADING EIGHTS

Sometimes a career is all about meeting the right people at the right time. That was the case when teenaged alto saxophonist Jean-Baptiste Illinois Jacquet got to play for Nat...

Marc Ribler: Musical Director and Solo Artist E...

Issue 136DISCIPLES OF SOUND

The late Joe Guercio was the musical director and conductor for Elvis Presley from the summer of 1970 until the summer of 1977 when Elvis made his last concert appearance....

Copper Listens to Copper: Stockfisch Records’ D...

Issue 135FRANKLY SPEAKING

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...

Van Morrison’s Latest Record Project, Volume 1

Issue 136WAYNE'S WORDS

Van Morrison’s new album is Latest Record Project, Volume 1 (LRPVI). That sounds generic, sure, but after 41 other albums, I guess one might run out of titles. The music is plentiful...

Octave Records Releases Audiophile Masters, Vol...

Issue 136OCTAVE PITCH

Octave Records has just released its first compilation album, Audiophile Masters, Volume 1. The hybrid stereo SACD disc features 10 new and previously-released tracks by a variety of Octave Records and other artists...

A Perspective on Streaming Services

Issue 136STREAMING SESSIONS

If you use the Internet to listen to music and you are, or aspire to be an audio enthusiast, you probably know about music streaming services like TIDAL, Qobuz, Spotify,...

Engineer/Producer Tom Newman: From Virgin Recor...

Issue 136THE COPPER INTERVIEW

The birth of Virgin Records, the recording of Mike Oldfield’s landmark Tubular Bells, and a whole new approach to granting recording artists time out of the city to compose with creative...

Dreaming...of Effortless DSD Streaming!

Issue 136TO BE DETERMINED

Last issue I wrote about finally figuring out how to break through the seemingly impenetrable barriers of the SACD format in order to rip the DSD layer, to enable relatively...

The Newport / JVC Jazz Festival and “Technomania”

Issue 136TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

It was 1996 when Bob Guccione was watching The Cable Doctor Show when he purportedly said, “I like that guy; let’s hire him to do tech stuff for Penthouse.” Penthouse editor Peter Block...

The Jimi Hendrix Experience: The Other Two Guys

Issue 136SITTING IN

The rock music biz has had its fair share of power trios, mostly consisting of a front man on lead guitar and vocals, accompanied by a bass guitarist and drummer....

Cliff Chenfeld: From Razor & Tie to Kidz Bop an...

Issue 136FRANKLY SPEAKING

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...

With Age Comes Wisdom

Issue 136Opening Salvo

I was hanging at the assisted living facility and an elderly Puerto Rican woman came up to me and said, “wisdom is wasted on the old!” In this issue: Anne...

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An Appreciation of the Move

Issue 136TWISTED SYSTEMS

As the COVID epidemic winds down (hopefully soon) this time period will go down as one in which home entertainment (via Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO, Disney etc. as well as...

Tone Tasting

Issue 136TAKES ON TECH

Previously we have briefly considered just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to examining the factors which influence what audio equipment you may decide to buy. For me,...

The Giants of Tape, Part Three

Issue 136REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE

In Part One (Issue 134), J.I. Agnew profiled the legendary Studer A80 open reel deck. Part Two (Issue 135) covered the equally-storied Ampex ATR-100 Series tape machines. In Part Three,...

The Jazz Side of Henry Mancini, Part Two

Issue 136FEATURED

We left off our last survey of the jazz side of Henry Mancini (Issue 135) in New York City, fresh off the Breakfast at Tiffany’s soundtrack. That album was recorded...

The Dawn of Digital and Film Sound Sync: Tales ...

Issue 136DEEP DIVE

In Part One (Issue 135), we reviewed the history of the affordable digital sound production technology that emerged in the 1980s and how some semi-pro and consumer equipment was used to create...

The Nice Price

Issue 136AUDIO ANTHROPOLOGY

The McIntosh CR 4 Satellite System Control. Per Steve Rowell of Audio Classics: no fumbling for the volume buttons; just feel for the knob and turn it! No lost remotes;...

Arrangements of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons

Issue 136SOMETHING OLD / SOMETHING NEW

The Four Seasons is one of the most-recorded works in all of classical music. A quick search of Spotify yielded over 500 versions, and the results hadn’t even finished loading. With...

Sam Cooke: Legendary Soul

Issue 136OFF THE CHARTS

Sam Cooke was only two years old in 1933 when his family moved from Mississippi to Chicago. Lucky for us that they did, since it gave young Sam plenty of...

The Virtual Audio Dealer

Issue 136INDUSTRY NEWS

Wendell Diller is the marketing manager for Magnepan. Located in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, Magnepan is the manufacturer of Magneplanar loudspeakers. In the 1970s and 1980s, if you bought a...

Point Taken

Issue 136PARTING SHOT

I met and fell in love with this succulent at the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum and Botanic Garden. He's gorgeous, sturdy and logical, but just a little prickly.

Our Staff

Issue 136MASTHEAD

Staff Writers:J.I. Agnew, Ray Chelstowski, Cliff Chenfeld, Jay Jay French, Tom Gibbs, Roy Hall, Rich Isaacs, Anne E. Johnson, Don Kaplan, Don Lindich, Tom Methans, B. Jan Montana, Rudy Radelic,...

On or Off?

Issue 136MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

Should you leave your hi-fi gear on or turn it off? Everybody knows, of course: if it’s solid-state, leave it on. If it’s tube, shut it off. A couple weeks...

Guy Michelmore: Film and TV Composer and Educat...

Issue 141THE COPPER INTERVIEW

In Part One (Issue 140), Guy Michelmore revealed many insights into what it takes to be a successful composer for TV and for film. Here he tells us more about what contributes...

AES Show Spring 2021, Part Three: Recreating Au...

Issue 141INDUSTRY NEWS

As a result of COVID-19, AES (Audio Engineering Society) Show Spring 2021, named “Global Resonance,” was conducted online from Europe. This afforded me the rare opportunity to view a number...

Streaming Digital Audio Via the I²S Connection

Issue 141TO BE DETERMINED

I’ve talked a lot in recent articles about ditching the digital disc playback model and moving towards a strictly streaming-based setup for all my digital playback. I haven’t gotten rid...

Taking Control: A Personal Journey

Issue 141FEATURED

In issue 140, I told the story of Carter, a Texan who seems to have beat cancer by means of changing his environment. The reason it had such an impact on me is...

I Hear Music…

Issue 141FEATURED

This is an attempt to describe how I experience one of life’s greatest sensory pleasures – music. I don’t listen to songs. By that, I mean I don’t really give...

Art Farmer: A Trumpeter for Every Style

Issue 141TRADING EIGHTS

Art Farmer was unusual for his time for loving swing and bebop equally. His work as a small-group innovator – in particular, with his Jazztet – was no less important...