Copper


Tom Fine: New Mercury Living Presence Analog Re...

Issue 74THE COPPER INTERVIEW

[Tom Fine is a second-generation audio engineer, specializing in mastering and analog-to-digital transfers. The son of audiophile pioneers C. Robert and Wilma Cozart Fine, he grew up steeped in music...

Gibson to Close Memphis Factory

Issue 74INDUSTRY NEWS

Regular readers of Copper, and especially of Industry News, have no doubt noticed that Ye Increasingly-Olde Editor has an obsessive streak big enough to be seen from space. I credit this to three things: growing up...

Val and Ed…and Amy

Issue 74FEATURED

How would you react if you were suddenly face-to-face with one of your idols? I hope you’d be more prepared than I was on that day in 1984. I remember...

François Couperin

Issue 74SOMETHING OLD / SOMETHING NEW

The Year of Couperin is drawing to a close. What, you haven’t celebrated François Couperin’s 350th birthday yet? There’s still time, and I’ve even got a playlist of new recordings for...

Christmas and Us

Issue 74MUSIC TO MY EARS

When I was a kid, on Christmas Eve I heard my parents taking presents from an unused room next to the bedroom I shared with my younger brother. The full...

Killing In The Name

Issue 74HAND PICKED

At this point, you might be forgiven for thinking that I am picking bands for my piece JUST to piss off our Editor. Nothing could be further from the truth, it just...

The Police

Issue 74OFF THE CHARTS

For some reason, The Police are best known today for two particularly creepy songs: “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” in which ex-teacher Sting references Nabokov’s Lolita while describing a female student’s...

50 Ways to Read a Record Part 9

Issue 74VINTAGE WHINE

In Copper #73 we discussed an interesting but purely theoretical  method of scanning phonograph records with a laser. We’re about to look at a real-world product—more or less— which plays records using a...

Trade Shows

Issue 74MUSIC'AL NOTES

Politics. “Roy, I need you to be on your best behavior,” said my friend Tony who worked for Epos Acoustics, an English loudspeaker company. “I’m going to bring Margaret Beckett...

Keith Richards Will Still Be Here When You Are ...

Issue 74TWISTED SYSTEMS

This article is about preservation. No one exemplifies this more than the legendary Rolling Stones guitarist, Keith Richards. Oh, sure, his survival despite years of damage from drug and alcohol...

Beethoven’s Last Christmas

Issue 74QUIBBLES AND BITS

In 1825 and 1826, Ludwig van Beethoven was nearing the end of his life. He had fallen ill, was bedridden for over a month, and clearly felt his end was...

All I Want For Christmas…

Issue 74THE AUDIO CYNIC

…is Peace. And no, I don’t even mean the large-scale, unobtainable kind of peace involved in the World Order. I just mean, can we kindly for once remember that the whole deal...

Messiah

AND OTHER ILLNESSESAUDIOIssue 74MUSIC

On Sunday, December 9th, my family and I went to Los Angeles’s Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, to hear the Dream Orchestra and the Opera Chorus of Los Angeles doing...

Stocking Stuffers 2018

Issue 74TOO MUCH TCHAIKOVSKY

It’s that time of year again; maybe you’re still in need of a few things. And so I’m offering this simple phrase (no, sorry!) uh, these can’t-miss gift suggestions, a mix of the...

5400 Hours of Fun, Part 3

Issue 74IN MY ROOM

[We previously featured Ken Fritz’s amazing speaker and listening room project in Copper #72 and #73. We’ll wrap up now with some of the details. I hope you’ll find this inspirational— although I doubt...