Copper


Issue 153

Issue 153Opening Salvo

Happy New Year! I have a perhaps selfish New Year’s wish – that 2022 will be an easier year. The Grammy Awards are coming up on January 31, 2022. But if it wasn't for...

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The Audiophile’s Cat

Issue 153Featured

A few days ago, Hobbes, our creamsicle-colored fur-ball of 12 years was eaten by a hungry coyote. I’m trying my best not to be angry at the coyote (bastard!) that...

Elvin Jones: Hall of Fame Drummer

Issue 153Trading Eights

There must have been some great music at home when drummer Elvin Jones was growing up in Pontiac, Michigan. He and his brothers, trumpeter Thad and pianist Hank, all turned...

A Tale of Two Different Systems

Issue 153Featured

I was recently asked by two friends (independently of one another) to help them build their new audio systems. Other than replacing my phono cartridge with another of the same...

Fun With YouTube

Issue 153Featured

YouTube is an amazing place. You can see stuff there that you never imagined. You can also spend the rest of your life chasing videos that come up as suggestions...

Bobbie Gentry: Enjoying Fame…and Solitude

Issue 153Off the Charts

Born in 1942 as Roberta Streeter, country singer Bobbie Gentry was raised by her father and grandparents in rural Mississippi. She wrote her first song, about the family dog, when...

Pilgrimage to Sturgis. Part 11

Issue 153New Vistas

Melody was at my cabin door at 7 am just like the morning before. We enjoyed another great breakfast with her parents and their guests at the trout fishing lodge....

Choosing New Speakers: Power-Handling Considera...

Issue 153Speaker Stories

In Part Two of this series (Issue 149), we examined the reality that accurate speaker sensitivity ratings have a direct bearing on how suitable the ratings may be when considering varying room...

Reeling 'Em In

Issue 153Audio Anthropology

Simple design, good sound: A Dynaco Mark III mono power amplifier, in Dynakit kit version. Introduced in 1957, Dynaco was known to some as the "poor man's Mcintosh." Rear and...

Vinyls

Issue 153Featured

To the tune of “Royals” by Lorde I’ve never seen a diamond except on a stylusI cut my teeth on Discwasher and ZerostatAnd I’m not proud of my streaming DACIn...

Octave Records Releases The Moon Leans In by S...

Issue 153Octave Pitch

Octave Records’ newest release is The Moon Leans In by singer/songwriter/guitarist Thom LaFond. The album offers a broad range of moods and styles, from stripped-down acoustic instrument-based songs to upbeat,...

Around the World in 80 Lathes, Part Three

Issue 153Revolutions Per Minute

In previous installments (Issue 151 and Issue 152), J.I. Agnew presented a historical overview of record-cutting lathes, and looked at some models from Neumann.)   The suspension unit of the...

AES Show Fall 2021 Highlights, Part Three

Issue 153Show Report

In the fourth quarter of 2021, the Audio Engineering Society (AES) held its annual fall show online in October, because of the pandemic still being in effect. The show seminars...

Back to My Reel-to-Reel Roots, Part Six: Rock O...

Issue 153Natural Born Kessler

After the last issue’s epic coverage of the Beatles’ Get Back film, and my diatribe about the British mono open-reel tapes, you may have overdosed on the Fab Four. Please allow me...

Welcome to the Pleasure Dome

Issue 153Parting Shot

This streamlined dome lounge car was built for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. They were known as "Pleasure Domes," named for the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem "Kubla Khan."...

Marshall Crenshaw: Songwriting Mastery Revisite...

Issue 153Disciples of Sound

Marshall Crenshaw’s career began in perhaps the most poetic of fashion – he played John Lennon in the Broadway musical Beatlemania. From there his career was propelled with a steady stream of...

Improving Digital Streaming with a Gigabit Ethe...

Issue 153To Be Determined

I’ve been involved in digital music streaming for around eight or nine years now, but have only truly taken a really deep dive in the last few years. Recently, I’ve...

Burt Bacharach: The Post-Hal David Years

Issue 153FROM THE SWEET SPOT

The Burt Bacharach and Hal David songwriting team was one for history! However, they had a falling out in the mid-1970s, and then Bacharach worked with other lyricists. While his...

Top Tracks of 2021

Issue 153Be Here Now

It’s been a wonderful year for new music, and my favorites of 2021 are listed below. You can find them all on my Spotify playlist Be Here Now, which I regularly update with...

The Dirty Weekend is Over

Issue 153Speaker Stories

I never considered it my place to push or review products. Any component I’ve ever talked about has been in the vein of, “Hey, it works for me; maybe you’ll...