Copper


Station Break

Issue 107

Toward the end of my tenure in radio, which happened around 2004, automation came into widespread use – and helped ruin radio. Originally the idea behind using automation was called...

Silent Partner

Issue 107

This guy likes to relax while listening. From Audio, November 1958. Man, this guy really likes to relax while listening. From Audio, October 1958. You can MacKit if you try!...

Complete Recovery: Unusual Takes on Others' Songs

Issue 107

Sometimes an artist is so taken with another artist’s song that they just have to do their own performance of it. These cover versions can range from faithful portrayal of...

He Sang It His Way: Frank Sinatra

Issue 107

In Hoboken, New Jersey, in the year 1915, two Italian immigrants welcomed a baby boy who would grow up to be one of the best-selling and most recognized artists of...

The Kinks: Well Respected Men

Issue 107

In suburban North London circa 1960, two talented brothers, Ray and Dave Davies, taught themselves guitar so they could play skiffle and rock and roll. In high school they formed...

A New American Oratorio

Issue 107

It’s been a while since we featured any oratorios in this column. Maybe the last time was 2016, when the subject was Craig Hella Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepard (Harmonia Mundi...

Three Winners and One Clear Loser

Issue 107

Brandy Clark - Your Life is a Record Brandy Clark may not be a household name to many other than country music fans, but she’s one of Nashville’s elite songwriters....

Issue 107

Issue 107Opening Salvo

Cover: violinist Jascha Heifetz (1901 - 1987). Many consider him to be the greatest violinist ever. He was one of the most influential performing artists of all time and in his later...

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Desolate Landscape, Storybook Bliss

Issue 106

Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park, California.

Haunted: Confessions of a Setup Man, Part Three

Issue 106

When I was Harry Pearson’s setup man at The Absolute Sound, equipment would break down all the time. I’m not talking about a tube going bad every once in a...

The Digital Sound of Vinyl

Issue 106

In a recent video in his “Ask Paul” online video series, PS Audio’s Paul McGowan offers his theory of why new vinyl LPs sound more “digital” and less “analog” (“Why...

The Changing Audio Consumer and the Future of A...

Issue 106

While many of us focus on high-performance two-channel audio systems, which are more or less the result of decades of development and art, we’re not typical consumers. A lot has,...

The Last Station

Issue 106

Finding myself in Syracuse, New York and out of work once again, I sent resumes out and networked very seriously. I did get a bite via a friend in Minneapolis....

Are Audio Dealers in Trouble? Readers Respond

Issue 106

In Issue 105 we featured an Industry Viewpoint column from Magnepan marketing manager Wendell Diller. He asked: are audio dealers in trouble? Where can a consumer go to listen to...

Linearity in Audio, Part One

Issue 106

In my previous article on vacuum tubes in Issue 103, I talked about linearity. One of our readers requested a more thorough explanation of how linearity relates to audio and...

Kiss and Tell

Issue 106

It's the morning after the July 11, 1976 concert in Hyannis Port's Cape Cod Coliseum. Once again the limousine doesn’t show. Annoyingly, this has become a regular theme on the...

Not Fade Away

Issue 106

This issue's cover: conductor Leopold Stokowski (1882 - 1977). One of the greatest conductors of all time, Stokowski helmed the Philadelphia Orchestra, the NBC Symphony Orchestra and other top musical...

John Dowland: Renaissance Composer, Lutenist an...

Issue 106

If you’ve ever strummed a guitar while singing, you can thank English composer John Dowland (1563-1626) for helping to popularize the accompaniment of voice with a fretted string instrument. His...

A Taste of Bread

Issue 106

Although Bread was a Los Angeles band, its roots stretched over the state line into Oklahoma. In the vibrant Tulsa music scene of the 1950s, singer and guitarist David Gates...

Bear: The Owsley Stanley Story, Part Four

Issue 106

In 1976 Steely Dan released The Royal Scam, their fifth album. One of my all-time favorite songs, “Kid Charlemagne,” is on this disc. Donald Fagen would describe the lyrics as...

CanJam NYC 2020 Show Report, Part One

Issue 106

Ever since the Sony Walkman became a private music listening platform sensation in the late 1970s, headphone design and specs have continued to improve, with the consumer, professional and audiophile...

Four New Records of Introspection...and a Littl...

Issue 106

All the albums I’m reviewing this time express in some way qualities of introspection, melancholy, despair, and disillusionment; there’s no intended theme here, it just worked out this way! It...

Casual Listening

Issue 106

We can never be this cool. From Audio, September 1966. One wipe preserves high-fidelity! Author's collection. Wonder if Brian Wilson owned one? From Audio, October 1958.

Beethoven (and Other) Landscapes

Issue 106

I’m pretty sure I discovered Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony as a sixth grader. There it was, an LP in a hardware-store rack in my little town, and I bought...

Issue 106

Issue 106Opening Salvo

This issue's cover: conductor Leopold Stokowski (1882 - 1977). One of the greatest conductors of all time, Stokowski helmed the Philadelphia Orchestra, the NBC Symphony Orchestra and other top musical...

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Issue 105

Issue 105Opening Salvo

(With a tip of the hat to the Hank Stone Band’s song of the same name.) The world of audio is diverse – we can choose from analog, digital, tubes, transistors,...

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Building Community

Issue 105

(With a tip of the hat to the Hank Stone Band’s song of the same name.) The world of audio is diverse – we can choose from analog, digital, tubes,...

Key West

Issue 105MUSIC'AL NOTES

“Go immediately to the emergency room. I can’t help you here,” said the doctor in Urgent Care. It was my first day of vacation in Key West (about a week...

Industry Viewpoint: Are Audio Dealers in Trouble?

Issue 105

Introduction by Paul McGowan, PS Audio: Magnepan and its loudspeakers are legends in our industry. It was a pair of Maggies that Stan Warren and I used as a reference...

A Classic Turntable's Forgotten Roots: the AR XA

Issue 105

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 Ecstatic Music Of Alice Coltrane Turiyasang...

Issue 105

I can’t remember exactly when I first heard of Alice Coltrane, but it’s over 45 years ago. But I do remember the first album I got - her collaboration with...

It Came from LA...

Issue 105

Moderate size and cost" must have meant something different at the end of the 1950s. From Audio, December 1958. Anyone remember these? Guess their moment has come and gone. From...

Secrets of the Phono Cartridge, Part Two

Issue 105

At the heart of all phono cartridges we will find a transducer that translates mechanical motion – the movement of the stylus and cantilever as the stylus traces the record...

Bear: The Owsley Stanley Story, Part Three

Issue 105

By accounts, in early 1967 Owsley “Bear” Stanley (click on the links for Part One and Part Two of this series) had stashed away $225,000 in a safe deposit box...

The Tice Clock and the Endless Search for the H...

Issue 105

Back in the good old high-end audio days of around 1968 – 1971, things used to be a lot simpler. I would walk into one of my local haunts in...

Joshua Redman’s Sun on Sand

Issue 105

We’re taking a break from Beethoven Plus One in order to address a more urgent concern: How’re ya fixed for Happy Dances? Do you even have one? Of course you...

Bang, Zoom! Confessions of a Setup Man, Part Two

Issue 105

The higher the resolution of an audio system, the more that attention to detail matters. Nowhere was this more evident than in the main audio system at The Absolute Sound....

We're an American (Prog) Band

Issue 105

There are many more American progressive rock bands than you might think – and a surprising number are from the Midwest. The biggest, in terms of commercial success and recognition,...

The Lowdown

Issue 105

Chris Crepps backing up country singer Dale Watson.

Alison Krauss: Reinventing Bluegrass, Reanimati...

Issue 105

For many people, the soundtrack for the Coen Brothers movie O Brother, Where Art Thou in 2000 served as an introduction to the multitalented Alison Krauss. Her singing of “Down...

Gene Krupa: Drummin' Man

Issue 105

Not every great musician gets to reinvent his instrument the way Gene Krupa did. Under his sticks, a drum set became both more powerful and more integral to the music...

Issue 104

Issue 104Opening Salvo

Copper has been moving to increase its audio-related articles. We intend to bring you more about audio tech, interviews and company profiles, show reports and other audio subjects. That said, our...

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Ohm Acoustics, Part Two: An Inside Look

Issue 104

The Columbia Street Waterfront District of Brooklyn is technically in Cobble Hill, but it is partially separated from the rest of the neighborhood by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Access can be...

Border Crossings and Power Plays

Issue 104

WKBW Buffalo Out of radio station CHAM and still living in Canada, I snagged a part-time on-air job for my former program director from Pittsburgh who had moved to Buffalo,...

Secrets of the Phono Cartridge, Part One

Issue 104

Phonograph disc reproduction cartridges (phono cartridges as they’re known to you and me) all contain transducers consisting of coils of wire, iron and permanent magnets. They can be divided into...

Expanding Horizons

Issue 104

Copper has been moving to increase its audio-related articles. We intend to bring you more about audio tech, interviews and company profiles, show reports and other audio subjects. That said,...

Confessions of a Setup Man, Part One

Issue 104

This is the first in a new series about my misadventures in setting up audio systems. I’ve been an audiophile since the 1970s and have done uncountable setups for myself,...