The Audio Cynic

    The Audio CynicIssue 63

    In Search of Meaning, Where There Is None

    First off, don’t look at the title and image above…
    The Audio CynicIssue 73

    Immaterial Science

    Back in Copper #66, I wrote a Cynic column entitled…
    The Audio CynicIssue 72

    Music in the Air

    Somewhere over Brazil, 11/10/18: When we write about listening to…
    The Audio CynicIssue 71

    Liminal Messages

    I rarely notice ads, other than to be irritated by…
    The Audio CynicIssue 70

    Glossolalia

    If you don’t know the meaning of the babbling brook…
    The Audio CynicIssue 69

    Humility and Hubris

    As a kid in Minnesota during the early to mid-’60s,…
    The Audio CynicIssue 68

    When Sharing Isn’t Caring

    It is probably evident at this stage of our relationship—and…
    The Audio CynicIssue 67

    Welcome to the Machine

    Pop music has always had machines: groups of people who…
    The Audio CynicIssue 66

    Nothing New Under the Sun?

    Having entered my allegedly-golden years, I have little tolerance for…
    The Audio CynicIssue 65

    What’s In the Box?

    There is no mystery in the world today. –That’s not…
    The Audio CynicIssue 64

    “It’s All About the Music”

    When I encounter an audiophile or a show-exhibitor with a…
    The Audio CynicIssue 74

    All I Want For Christmas…

    …is Peace. And no, I don’t even mean the large-scale,…
    The Audio CynicIssue 62

    Diminishing Returns (Or: The Clock Radio Dilemma)

    While at the Munich High End Show last month, I…
    The Audio CynicIssue 60

    David Wilson: RIP

    The first 60 issues of Copper have featured 6 Audio…
    The Audio CynicIssue 59

    “The Price is the Product”

    Way back in 1999, the late Brian Cheney of VMPS…
    The Audio CynicIssue 58

    A Tale of Two Shows

    It was the best of times… Scrap that. I’ve written…
    The Audio CynicIssue 61

    Anti-social Media

    Despite appearances—and perhaps despite my self-description as a cynic—I try…
    The Audio CynicIssue 57

    Made By Hand

    As a late Boomer (as well as a late bloomer)…
    The Audio CynicIssue 56

    Ergonomics and Other Gooey Messes

    In my teen years, my reading was wide-ranging and varied,…
    The Audio CynicIssue 55

    How Do You Know When To Quit?

    No, don’t worry—I’m not planning on retiring any time soon.…
    The Audio CynicIssue 54

    This… Is Not That

    There’s a term that both guides and haunts any human…
    The Audio CynicIssue 52

    What the Hell is Going On?

    Back in my school-days, I found the subject of history…
    The Audio CynicIssue 84

    Is There a Right Size?

    Second-guessing is at the heart of online forum behavior, and…
    The Audio CynicIssue 96

    So Long to the Cynic

    Over the last 95 issues of Copper, it’s been mentioned…
    The Audio CynicIssue 95

    Getting to the Bottom of Things

    I recently had the opportunity to spend an afternoon listening…
    The Audio CynicIssue 94

    Inevitability

    I recently had an interesting conversation with a Very Famous…
    The Audio CynicIssue 92

    Back to Basics

    I had a minor-league epiphany, courtesy of Waylon Jennings and…
    The Audio CynicIssue 91

    The Long Goodbye

    Over the last few years of writing this column, I’ve…
    The Audio CynicIssue 89

    Been Down So Long, It Seems Like Up To Me

    As a parent, I’m used to my references being met…
    The Audio CynicIssue 88

    Is Audio Seasonal?

    I’ve been a salesman or worked with salespeople most of…
    The Audio CynicIssue 87

    Objective/Subjective: Here We Go Again

    “Seeing as ‘objective review’ is an oxymoron, ‘subjective review’ is…
    The Audio CynicIssue 86

    The Madness of Crowds, the Wisdom of T-shirts

    It has probably become evident after 85 (!!) of these…
    The Audio CynicIssue 85

    Consolidation

    Is there such a thing as economy of scale? If…
    The Audio CynicIssue 51

    In the Land of the Surreal, Is Realism Relevant?

    I despise dogma—especially when it comes from me. So when…
    The Audio CynicIssue 83

    Schrödinger’s Show

    To an exhibitor at an audio show, the show simultaneously…
    The Audio CynicIssue 82

    A Familiar Story

    This story has nothing to do with audio. It does,…
    The Audio CynicIssue 81

    Credit? What’s Next—Money??

    Last issue’s Audio Cynic discussed the ongoing battle to gain…
    The Audio CynicIssue 80

    Who Are the Real Cynics?

    In the three years I’ve written this column, there have…
    The Audio CynicIssue 79

    Did the Grammys Ever Matter?

    Somewhere in the hazy past, I wrote that nostalgia ain’t…
    The Audio CynicIssue 78

    Music is the Space Between the Notes

    Depending upon whom you believe, that statement was made by…
    The Audio CynicIssue 77

    Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

    There are days for haute cuisine, hipster toy food, meals…
    The Audio CynicIssue 76

    No CES For You!

    Yes, it’s that time again. Time for Leebs’ annual rant…
    The Audio CynicIssue 75

    2018 Was Really Something

    Over more decades in audio than I care to dwell…
    The Audio CynicIssue 20

    Black Friday

    I wondered when the term “Black Friday” came to mean…
    The Audio CynicIssue 30

    Bad Sound

    …is in the ears of the beholder. I chose the…
    The Audio CynicIssue 29

    Who’s Minding the Store?

    Much has been made of the decline in number of…
    The Audio CynicIssue 28

    Murders and Acquisitions

    As a callow child waaay back in the early ’60’s,…
    The Audio CynicIssue 27

    Persistence of Memory

    Uncle Jim was a chemist who worked for General Mills…
    The Audio CynicIssue 26

    The IoT is Not For Me

    I’ve worked in tech fields most of my life: high-performance…
    The Audio CynicIssue 25

    Leaving Las Vegas

    Here’s Leebens’ Law of Life: Things Change. Period. THAT’S IT. You…
    The Audio CynicIssue 23

    Ken Furst: RIP

    It’s no secret that 2016 sucked. I’ve already written about…
    The Audio CynicIssue 24

    Creation and Recreation

    After writing this column for issue #22, which pondered why…
    The Audio CynicIssue 22

    Why Do We Do What We Do?

    Aside from the fact that it sounds like the chorus…
    The Audio CynicIssue 21

    “Snakebit”

    A few decades ago I went through the rough patch…
    The Audio CynicIssue 31

    Whatever Happened to Tone?

    During  the way-too-many years that I’ve been involved with audio,…
    The Audio CynicIssue 19

    Where Will We Go?

    Gentrification. Some view it as imperialism incarnate, a way for…
    The Audio CynicIssue 18

    RMAF: Lucky 13

    I promise to step away from the topic of audio…
    The Audio CynicIssue 17

    RMAF Past, RMAF Present, RMAF Yet to Come

    In years past I looked forward to RMAF as an…
    The Audio CynicIssue 16

    That’s Show Biz!

    In Copper #7, I wrote about the passing of Richard…
    The Audio CynicIssue 15

    Wes Phillips: RIP

    This has been a terrible year for musicians— we all…
    The Audio CynicIssue 14

    It’s the (Crappy) Music, Stupid

    As may be obvious after 13 of these columns, I…
    The Audio CynicIssue 13

    Letting Facts Get in the Way of a Good Story

    If the internet is good for nothing else, it’s great…
    The Audio CynicIssue 1

    I am So Over CES

    I remember the first time I was called a cynic.…
    The Audio CynicIssue 11

    It’s No Contest

    The long-running television show American Idol was often accused of…
    The Audio CynicIssue 40

    Intelligence Inside

    Way back in Copper #26 I wrote “The IoT is…
    The Audio CynicIssue 49

    What Will Be New, in the New Year?

    It’s been 141 years since Bell’s first call over the…
    The Audio CynicIssue 48

    An Embarrassment of Riches

    Leave it to an indy hipster musician with several different…
    The Audio CynicIssue 48

    Charley Hansen: RIP

    Ayre Acoustics posted the following on the company Facebook page…
    The Audio CynicIssue 47

    Arnie Nudell: RIP

    At the very beginning of 2017, I  wrote about the…
    The Audio CynicIssue 46

    Who Sampled Whom?

    Back in Copper #3, I asked the question, “When is…
    The Audio CynicIssue 45

    Geezerpalooza

    Back at the dawn of the grunge era in 1991,…
    The Audio CynicIssue 44

    Dangerous Work

    If 2016 was Snakebit, in terms of the number of…
    The Audio CynicIssue 43

    Plus Ça Change….

    The full expression is of course, plus ça change, plus c’est…
    The Audio CynicIssue 41

    Show on Show on Show

    The title is of course an allusion to “In the…
    The Audio CynicIssue 42

    Immersion

    You’ve probably already figured this out, but I am innately…
    The Audio CynicIssue 12

    Is It Worth It To You?

    During election season, we hear a lot of talk about…
    The Audio CynicIssue 39

    Everything Matters; Nothing Matters

    Audio is art and science. It is art. It is…
    The Audio CynicIssue 38

    Is It Worth It?

    I want to consider a topic seriously, minus my usual…
    The Audio CynicIssue 37

    Multiple Personality Disorder

    A few years ago I spotted a bizarre trend in…
    The Audio CynicIssue 36

    They Have to Hear It to Want It

    Following last issue’s column on audio evangelism,  I’ve spent a…
    The Audio CynicIssue 35

    Believing Our Ears

    There are times when I regret having named this column…
    The Audio CynicIssue 34

    Shhhh….

    What was that movie— where if you fell asleep, you…
    The Audio CynicIssue 53

    Are We Having Fun Yet?

    A newbie wandering onto almost any audio website or forum…
    The Audio CynicIssue 33

    Why Do We Even CARE??

    After a zillion years in this business, you’d think I’d…
    The Audio CynicIssue 32

    Cynically Yours

    I won’t beat around the bush: putting Copper together is…
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    4865 Sterling Dr.
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    1-800-PSAUDIO

    1-800-PSAUDIO

    Join the hi-fi family

    Stop by for a tour:
    4865 Sterling Dr.
    Boulder, CO 80301

    1-800-PSAUDIO

    Join the hi-fi family

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