Copper


Welcome to the lucky thirteenth edition of Copper!

Issue 13Opening Salvo

As is probably clear by now, we’ve decided to shake things up a bit. Our new format is designed to be more readable and more manageable. It will also allow...

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Vine and Window

Issue 13PARTING SHOT

Terri and I were vacationing in France a few years ago and had stopped at a roadside vineyard for lunch. I spied this great art of old vines creeping up...

Stan White: An Overlooked Visionary/Part 2

Issue 13VINTAGE WHINE

A fundamental principle of scientific enquiry was stated most famously by Carl Sagan: “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” And no, he wasn’t talking about the O.J. Simpson...

Points Of Pickup

Issue 13FEATURED

The point of contact between the cartridge’s generator system and the actual moving vinyl record is of course the stylus, mounted on to the cantilever. The stylus has to cope...

Diving into Opera, and Surfacing with Joy (Part I)

Issue 13MY TURN

Perhaps I am one of those increasingly rare birds who never had to learn to love opera. When I was all of 11, my father brought home a deluxe, faux...

Jerry Garcia

Issue 13MUSIC TO MY EARS

If you were born on August 9, 1995, you’re turning 21 today. You have earned the right to go out and get fractured with all the same friends you’ve been...

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Issue 13FEATURED

I freely admit that I am a nerd. Aside from music and audio, I omnivorously absorb architecture, antiquarian books, cars, and all manner of mechanical devices. When traveling alone, I...

Flutes

Issue 13TOO MUCH TCHAIKOVSKY

It’s not that complicated. Lauren Bacall said it best, in To Have and Have Not: “You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together . . ....

The Mystery Of The Making

Issue 13MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

I never think about how mysterious the process of contemporary record making is, or was, to the people who buy those records. Which, when you think about it, is really...

Letting Facts Get in the Way of a Good Story

Issue 13THE AUDIO CYNIC

If the internet is good for nothing else, it’s great at destroying a good story by providing factual evidence to the contrary. The flip side is that by widely and...

Conversion Conversation

Issue 13QUIBBLES AND BITS

Today’s DACs, with a few very rare (and expensive) exceptions, all use a process called Sigma Delta Modulation (SDM, sometimes also written DSM) to generate their output signal.  A simplistic...