Copper
What’s the Warmth in Tube Amps?
Why are we, as audiophiles, entranced by the reproduction of music using vacuum tubes? As it turns out, noise is traditionally thought of as something to be minimized in all...
Damaged Bug/Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Album: Bunker Funk Artist: Damaged Bug Release: Castle Face Records, March, 2017 As the needle drops, Bunker Funk oozes through the speakers and brings me back right where Damaged Bug’s 2016 album Cold Hot Plumbs had left...
Johnny B. Goode: Johnny Winter
The car went over a heave in the road and the radio came on. There was something wrong with the wiring in your dad’s ’28 Studebaker, it didn’t like East...
Brendan Maclean
In Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 movie The Great Gatsby, the small role of party-crasher Ewing Klipspringer was played by singer-songwriter and fellow Australian Brendan Maclean. Although it was not a singing part,...
The Mother Of All Speakers (MOAS)
I had begun writing a piece about the history of horn loudspeakers (still to come, don’t panic) when MOAB—the Mother Of All Bombs—appeared in the news. That triggered a memory...
Doh! A Deer!
When I was a kid, growing up in a rough area of Glasgow, we were all taught music at elementary school. I have a memory going back to about age...
Whatever Happened to Tone?
During the way-too-many years that I’ve been involved with audio, a number of terms that were first used by JGH, HP, JA , and other initialed Editors, have risen to...
The Minimalist Groove of Nik Bärtsch
I first heard of composer Nik Bärtsch from director Robert Harmon around the time of Bärtsch’s earliest ECM releases. A little while after that, my friend Pete Devine started raving...
Schiit Goes B & M; RIAA Releases Music Sales St...
Schiit Reimagines the Company Store (Seriously) [Schiit is a love-it-or-hate-it force in the audio world. Mike Moffat and Jason Stoddard have been around the audio world for a good long while (especially Mike, who’s older than dirt),...
The San Diego Music and Audio Guild San Diego C...
The San Diego Music and Audio Guild is the largest and most active audio club in San Diego County. The 200+ member San Diego Music and Audio Guild is titled the...
Chant: Sacred and Profane
Scholars help us understand what chant is. That’s been true for a long time. As musical tastes changed starting in the Renaissance, the old chant melodies were “corrected” by well-meaning...
Bebop Deluxe
Mankind astounds with creativity, stupidity, ingenuity, and levity. The same species that invented the super-collider will drink beer with buddies in his garage and drop a frozen turkey into a...
Anaïs Mitchell
If you were to judge purely by her quiet, breathy voice and earnestly clipped diction, you might think Anaïs Mitchell was just another mousy folk singer. You would be wrong....
Kits!
It’s often said that we don’t build anything in America anymore. That’s clearly bunk; we just build different things than we used to. The same could be said of Americans:...
The Final Frontier
Consider for a moment the Fourier Transform, which I discussed back in Copper # 18. Hands up if you think they’re tough to understand! I want to open your eyes to the...
Bad Sound
…is in the ears of the beholder. I chose the image above because for me, the worst kind of bad sound is that which has a massive amount of harmonic...
Ducks In a Row
For about six months of my life, around the time of my 18th birthday, I played in a cover band—six sets a night, and finished at 2 AM. The band’s “home...
When Pop Music Meets Politics...
..things may not go as planned. The recent presidential elections highlighted the use of pop music by candidates, and the controversy that the use of the music caused. This article...
Professor Schenbeck Goes to a Show
Last month I was in Montréal for a professional meeting when Bill Leebens texted me: “Larry. Listen: there’s a hell of a good audio universe next door!” He was right,...
Simple Acoustics, Complicated Spouses
When I was a teenager, I told a girl that I loved her so much that I would die for her. She replied that if I died, she’d no longer find...
Chasing the Dragon
How owning an audio system is like “Chasing the Dragon” A old friend of mine became a gambling addict. His thing was Off Track Betting. He is extremely intelligent and...
David Chesky
[David Chesky is a co-founder of audiophile label Chesky Records and download site HD Tracks. He’s established an impressive list of credits as a classical composer, jazz pianist, and producer, and is well-known as an...
Schoenberg After Pierrot
I haven’t said much so far about Arnold Schoenberg’s craft, i.e., how he pulled the notes out of his hat. You’ll get some of that this time. It matters to musicians, who...
River City Audio Society San Antonio, Texas
The March meeting of the River City Audio Society in San Antonio, Texas took place at longtime dealer, Bjorn’s. The system this month included a Threshold Stasis amplifier, Audible Illusions preamp, Sony SACD player,...
Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free Akron/Family
Album: Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free Artist: Akron/Family Release: Deep Oceans Records, May, 2009 One minute into the six minute long, psychedelic-face-melting opener, “Everyone Is Guilty”, I was hooked. Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em...
Four Ways, No Waiting
I’d prefer not to dwell too much on the name brands of electronics (of the front end, but sure, as they pertain to the speakers) at this time, but rather...
Who's Minding the Store?
Much has been made of the decline in number of independent audio retailers; blame for the phenomenon generally falls upon Amazon and big box stores like Best Buy. We commented upon the phenomenon...
The Answer Man Part 2
Your Questions – My Answers, continued Continuing our look at some of the most discussed topics/questions at my audio seminars – (Example – RMAF 2010 – relevant topics begin at...
James Cotton: Mr. Superharp!
We lost James Cotton on Thursday, March 16, 81 years old. The last breath of a monster harp player with the power of an airplane engine was taken by pneumonia....
Radio Shack Declares Bankruptcy (Again); Sonos ...
General Wireless Operations Inc. Commences Voluntary Chapter 11 Proceeding [As you can imagine, it’s not good when a press-release reads like a legal document. Radio Shack came out of bankruptcy...
Terry Riley
Which Terry Riley? I first heard A Rainbow in Curved Air before I heard Steve Reich, but I didn’t identify the album as being a part of anything, except the great exploratory...
The Old Ways
There is a certain pleasure to be found in driving a vintage car. Many have a purity of purpose and directness of response that are absent in the overweight, safety-cage...
The Audio Tourist
[ To get perfectly nerdy: if you drew a Venn diagram showing the overlap between metal fans and audiophiles, the union indicating common members would probably be tiny. And that’s...
Bridges and Boundaries
Can we put Arnold S. on hold for a bit? I need to growl and shake my old chew toy, style. For the style-obsessed, composers seem to come in two flavors: Style Aggregators...
Humble but Beautiful
My current system has evolved during the past year and although a humble vintage set up, I’m rapt with its performance. The one constant has been my Philips HS 510Q...
Breaking Glass
To pick up the story: Shortly after I first heard Steve Reich, I heard Philip Glass, maybe the same week — again, on Diaspar, the brilliant show on WXPN. What I heard was a...
The Answer Man
Your questions – My answers Following up from Copper # 26, where readers were asked to pick from a list of popular topics, we will start off with our reply...
Murders and Acquisitions
As a callow child waaay back in the early ’60’s, I became obsessed with two closely-related themes: seeing the unseen, and buried treasure. The first part may have had its...
The Final Frontier
Consider for a moment the Fourier Transform, which I discussed back in Copper # 18. Hands up if you think they’re tough to understand! I want to open your eyes...
Did Fred Flintstone Have Digital Audio?
I am listening to one of the earliest high-resolution digital recordings ever made. It is an emotionally powerful recording, if not quite in the way you might be interpreting that...
Schenna
I took the attached photograph in the town in Sudtirolean Italy where my mother was born. Because of the bright sunlight bleaching out the display on the back of my...
Sound United Acquires D+M; Control 4 Acquires T...
Sound United Announces Acquisition of D+M Group [Who are the heavy hitters in the audio biz today? It could be argued that they’re the PE groups—private equity. We’ve seen McIntosh...
Issue 29
The bizarre year proceeds apace as here in Boulder, we've had an uncommonly dry winter---as shown by the wildfires west of town, just before the last day of winter. The area would...
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Issue 29
The bizarre year proceeds apace as here in Boulder, we've had an uncommonly dry winter---as shown by the wildfires west of town, just before the last day of winter. The area would normally either be snow-covered or well-irrigated by snowmelt; this year it was dry as tinder. Meanwhile, major chunks of the rest of the country have been hammered with massive snowfall. Go figger!
I'm happy to introduce another new contributor, one you might not expect to be associated with the world of high-end audio. Jay Jay French was lead guitarist for Twisted Sister for many years, and all during that time, was combing the world for esoteric audio gear. These days, Jay Jay is a manager and entrepreneur, writes a column for Inc. magazine---and now will be writing about his audio adventures for Copper, under the heading of Twisted Systems. I hope you'll make him feel welcome here.
I'm also happy to introduce two new departments: High Society will feature news from audio societies, including info on upcoming meetings and reports of recent meetings. This issue features the River City Audio Society of San Antonio, and we invite audio societies worldwide to send us their announcements and news. Something Old/Something New will feature record reviews from a number of contributors, starting this issue with something old from PSer Dan McCauley. Readers are invited to take a crack at reviews of new releases and interesting old records, 400-600 words, please!
Our usual columns open with Industry News regarding familiar names Radio Shack, Sonos, and Denon; Dan Schwartz writes about musician/mystic Terry Riley; Professor Schenbeck gets back to the subject of musical style; Richard Murison goes back to the stone age of digital sound; Duncan Taylor gets all moony about a new transport and the band Gipsy Moon; Woody Woodward looks back at the work of James Cotton; and I question who's minding the store?--- and look back at the old ways.
Jim Smith continues with reader-chosen questions in The Answer Man; we have an elaborate, mostly home-built system in In My Room; and we close with another Parting Shot from Publisher Paul McGowan.
See you next issue!
Cheers, Leebs.
Five Uneasy Pieces
It is not pretty, any of it. But its maker, Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951), found its making necessary. By reinventing the language of Western music, he hoped to extend the heritage...
Columbine
PS Audio is nestled up against the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. The state flower is the Columbine, which come in many colors and styles. The classic is...
Spica, Part 3
[We started our look back at speaker manufacturer Spica in Copper #26, with an overview of the company’s products. In Copper #27 we began our talk with John Bau, founder and designer at Spica. In this installment, we...
Sardinia
We travel the world for PS Audio because there are Audiophiles in every corner of the globe. But sometimes we can take a break and enjoy life without visiting dealers...
Spica, Part 2
In the last issue of Copper we briefly looked at loudspeaker manufacturer Spica, the company’s founder John Bau, and the company’s speakers, which are still used and revered by many, decades after the company’s demise. Luckily,...
Persistence of Memory
Uncle Jim was a chemist who worked for General Mills for over forty years, developing food products (I know, I know—the organic-eating Coloradan in me shudders a bit at that...